Making Up

Why do we make up stories and call cosmetics make-up? Both are superficial, a covering that disguises something or someone to appear more appealing or attractive than they are. Most likely, we all have exaggerated facts to make a better-sounding story and often wear make-up (even men) to enhance our appearance. We all want to look our best, don’t we? But to what extent?

“For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.” 2 Peter 2:19b–21 NLT

Although they had turned from their sinful ways, followers of the apostles’ teachings who knew only about Jesus and religious doctrines but had never committed their lives to Him were easy prey to the false teachers. They looked and acted like Christians but weren’t. “Cleaning up their house” was not enough—they didn’t turn to Jesus to cleanse, save, and fill them with His Spirit. Peter said it would have been better for them had they not known the truth; by rejecting it, they would be worse off than before after falling back into sin’s entrapments and bondage.

You can take a pig out of the pigpen, bathe it, and even put lipstick on it. But the pig will return to its mud hole because that’s its nature (v. 22). Applying cosmetics to improve our appearance is acceptable but prettying up sin is not. Spinning tales, pretending to be someone you aren’t—cover-ups—do not negate a matter’s truth or change a person’s nature. When only outward appearances change without internal change—surrender of self to Christ’s rule—a person will eventually return to their former ways. And the state of that person without Christ, entangled in and bound by sin again, is worse than before.