MY ADVICE TO EVERY WOMEN OUT THERE BY KENNETH E HAGIN
I agree with Rev. O. B. Braune, now gone to be with the Lord, who was for more than 40 years pastor of the Rosen Heights Assembly of God Church in Fort Worth. He said, “I teach the women to dress up and look nice for themselves and for their husbands. I say to them, ‘You had to look nice to get him, and you’d better look nice if you want to keep him.’ “Peter wasn’t saying DON’T. Because if he said, “DON’T plait your hair,” and if he said, “DON’T wear gold,” then he also said, “DON’T put on clothes.”
For he said, “Whose adorning let it not be that out- ward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.. .. ” (v. 3). And of course we know he didn’t tell them not to wear apparel, or clothes.
Because of the temptation to women in this area, he is saying, “Don’t spend all your time on your hair. Don’t spend all your time on fixing up. Don’t spend all your time on dresses and clothes.” (If some Christian women spent half as much time praying, fasting, and seeking God as they do on their hair and clothes, they’d be spiritual giants!) Peter is trying to strike a balance here.
We need balance. The Church has a tendency to get into a ditch on one side of the road or the other. We don’t need to go to the extreme either way — we need to go down the middle of the road.
Peter’s point is: Don’t spend all your time on the out- ward man. But see to it, first of all, that the inward man is adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. If you will tend to the man on the inside first, you won’t have to worry so much about the fellow on the outside.
When I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1937 and came among Pentecostal people, the Full Gospel churches were more strict than they are now. Almost all the women, because they were taught to do so, had long hair.
One woman evangelist caused an uproar when she cut her hair, or “bobbed” it, as they called it then. Some may not understand this terminology, but Texans and Oklahomans will get the picture when I say the people threw conniption fits.
The woman minister said, “God told me to do it.” “But the Bible says right here,” they’d confront her, “for a woman to have long hair.”
“You see, though,” she said, “there are other Scriptures. (Scripture must be interpreted in the light of other Scripture.) I saw that Peter said, ‘Don’t spend all your time on your outward man — on your hair — but see to it first of all that the inward man is adorned with a quiet and meek spirit.’ It dawned on me that I was spending too much time on my long hair, trying to keep it looking nice.
Since I’ve cut my hair, I just run a comb through it, and I’m finished. I can spend my time with my Bible and in prayer. Really, I’m more spiritual and have a closer walk with God than before. I was spending too much time with the out- ward man.”
There is a balance to be struck here. I would say this, that those women who preach the Gospel should be especially careful to avoid even the appearance of evil or immodesty. (It might be wise for those who take some place of leadership to lean a little to the conservative side in dress and deportment.)
Paul counsels women, in lieu of going to excess about these things, to have good works. You can readily see that if a woman spent too much time in some of these areas, she wouldn’t have time for good works. Peter counsels adorning of the inward man. It takes time to adorn the inward man. It comes down to the battle within all of us between the flesh and the spirit.
I don’t think we need to lay down ironclad rules and a list of dos and don’ts. Nor do we have the right to force our opinions and ideas on others.
I was always very conservative. It took my wife the first ten years of our marriage to talk me into the notion of wearing a wedding band. I just didn’t care for rings. But I didn’t have any convictions about others wearing them — it wasn’t any of my business. I’m not to regulateyour conscience; you are.
That’s between you and God. Let every man work out his own salvation. Oretha finally talked me into wearing a simple gold band, and at Christmas she gave me one. I started wearing it — and I grew to like it. It wasn’t long before I said, “I’d like to have another one.”
And she got me another one. (Some- times we’re a little prejudiced about something, and then we find out it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought.)
I never did care for the earrings ladies wear. I wasn’t mean about it; I expressed my desire in as loving a way as I could, and my wife didn’t wear earrings for the first 25 years of our married life. But I finally told her to do what she wanted, and wear them if she wanted. You see, that just amounted to my likes and dislikes.
I didn’t see that God particularly cared. After all, I saw that God saved people in Africa and baptized them with the Holy Spirit while they were wearing rings in their noses!
– 📕THE WOMAN QUESTION ( Kenneth E Hagin)
CREDIT:JESUS SAVES TV
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