The
Hidden Man
1 Peter 3:3 “Whose adorning let it not be
that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of
wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
4 But let it be the hidden man of
the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in
the sight of God of great price.”
1. The Outside Woman
2. The Inside
Woman
1. The Outside Woman
Verse three: “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;”
This is where the vast majority of the people of this world live.
They live FOR the outside ... for the LOOKS!
This is because … they are dead on the inside of themselves.
They live their lives … seeing the outside.
It is all about EXTERNALS.
Their eye gate is where they take “inside” the “outside” of things ... the outward appearance of things.
What they see … is of the primary importance to them.
This is why “plaiting the hair” [known as a hairdo] takes such a prominent place in a woman’s life.
This is why there is so much emphasis on the “apparel” [or clothes] of a woman. It is for SHOW!
This is also, true for men. Men [primarily] judge other men based on what they see on the outside of a man. This is where all the emphasis is for “natural man” … the OUTSIDE of things.
Now, why is this so?
This is so because the inner man is dead to the things that are spiritual in nature. Do you have a problem believing this? Would God’s word change your mind?
Then let me quote the Spirit of God in First Corinthians chapter two verse fourteen to you. Listen to me. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” [1 Corinthians 2:14]
We do not comprehend spiritual things … in our natural state. This is our lot, my dear friend. We have all come into the world CARNAL [“natural man”] with the inner man DEAD to the spiritual things. SIN has done a “hammer job” on us all.
Here is the summation of what I am saying.
The lost people of this world are “wrapped up” [so busy] with the carnal things of this life … consumed with eating and drinking and making a living … just as the BOOK says in Isaiah chapter twenty-two verse thirteen. “And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.” [Isaiah 22:13]
Is not this thing so? “We the people” [CARNAL man] say it this way: “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.”
Has not God and the word of God “nailed it on the head” … concerning us?
Now, there are carnal things, and there are spiritual things.
Read with me in Romans fifteen, verse twenty-seven: “It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.” [Romans 15:27] “Spiritual things” and “carnal things” are in the same verse. God is making a distinction.
Let me repeat this.
There are carnal things, and there are spiritual things.
Read with me now in First Corinthians chapter nine, verse eleven: “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” [1 Corinthians 9:11]
“Spiritual things” and “carnal things” are in the same verse. God makes a distinction.
Well, my friend, we all put the emphasis … on the wrong things, the carnal things … to our own hurt.
The OUTSIDE WOMAN is for SHOW!
2. The Inside Woman
Verse four: “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
We need to put the emphasis on the inner man.
Verse four here in First Peter calls it “the hidden man of the heart”.
If we would only “line out” with the BOOK of God, and so-to-speak “put the horse before the cart”, then we will see the importance of having “the inner man” being made alive [or quickened] to the “spiritual things” of God … by being BORN AGAIN. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” [1 Peter 1:23]
When a man or woman gets “saved by the blood” of Jesus Christ … “the hidden man” inside … becomes a new man [a new creature as it says in Second Corinthians 5:17]. The new man is a spiritual man. The spiritual man [“the hidden man of the heart”] will see beyond the outside of things. He or she will see beyond the mere physical … beyond the outward appearance.
You say, “Brother St.James, where are you going with this?”
I will tell you where, my friend.
The believer in Jesus Christ [a woman in this verse], is to exhibit “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit” … to all those who are in the world … to a lost and dying world.
Remember, those who are in this old world … can only see the outward … the outside of things [the visible things] of this life.
They cannot see the invisible things.
The true Christian woman shows “the inside” [her “hidden man of the heart”] on “the outside” … through her “apparel” by what she wears.
This is what the Spirit of God is saying here.
The spiritual woman testifies to GOD and to MAN … by her clothes and … how she adorns herself [by her hair, by her wearing of gold, and by the putting on of her apparel [clothes].
But there is something else here for us to see.
How a woman adorns herself … forms part of her worship to God [as the Holy Spirit confirms to us in First Timothy chapter two, verse nine].
Let’s read from there. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” [1 Timothy 2:9-10]
Look at the context is here [note how the women are to worship God. They are … in like manner as the men … to worship [in verses one thru eight]. A true Christian woman’s “modest apparel” is part of her worship to God.
The bottom-line … the women’s adornment comes forth from the “hidden man of the heart” and is modest and gender distinctive.
Search the Scripture, my friend.
In Titus 2:10, the Bible shows us that we as believers need to adorn the doctrine of God in all things.
All true believers in Christ Jesus [as a group] are identified as the body of Christ, which is called the church. [Colossians 1:24]
The church is always identified as a bride. The word “adorn” is always used in the Bible to refer to a female activity: i.e., “as a bride adorned for her husband” and “as a bride adorneth herself”.
In Jeremiah 31:4, it’s: “O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned …”, and again it’s a female activity. [Israel is a type of a woman.]
Men deck themselves [“decketh” as in Isaiah 61:10], and women “adorn” themselves according to the pure words of God.
[The exception to this is located in Jeremiah 4:30. In this instance “deckest” is in regard to backslidden Israel.]
Search the Scripture, my friend.
Furthermore, for the woman, her apparel is to be orderly or showing order.
The design of women’s apparel should be “modest” showing the creation order by their adorning “themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands.” “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman for the man.” [I Corinthians 11:8]
God created the man first, then, he created the woman second.
Her apparel will be modest if it reflects the order found in the creation as recorded in Genesis.
Her apparel will be modest if it shows her worship to God as we found earlier in I Timothy 1:9.
Her apparel will be modest if it maintains the gender distinction as commanded to Israel in Deuteronomy 22:5. “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.”
Search the Scripture my friend.
There are only five recorded instances of breeches [also known as pants or trousers] being worn in the Bible, and all five times men are wearing them.
[See God’s instructions concerning “breeches” in Exodus 28:42, 39:28, Leviticus 6:10, 16:4 and Ezekiel 44:18.]
Never in the pure words of God are breeches or pants shown to be a woman’s garment.
In review: the true Christian woman shows “the inside” … by her “hidden man of the heart” … on “the outside” … through her “apparel” by what she wears.
The spiritual woman testifies to GOD and MAN … by her clothes and … by how she adorns herself.
The INSIDE WOMAN is an ornament of great price to God.