Ugliness

             Hello, and welcome to this week’s devotional. We’re going to be talking about biblical ugliness, and how that takes away from our ability to live godly lives.

            Last week, we explored biblical beauty, and what that looks like. We can safely say that God’s love is the standard of biblical beauty. Therefore, biblical ugliness can be best defined as the opposite of what love is.

            1 Corinthians 13:5 explains this completely! It says, “It [love] does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

            Paul is writing a letter to the Church of Corinth when he says this. The Corinthians were prone to judging others often and struggling to follow what Jesus had taught all of us. Because of this, Paul writes to them explaining what love is, and what it isn’t.

            In this way, Paul can constructively tell the Corinthians, and later us, what beauty and ugliness look like in the church.

            If love is beauty, then the absence of love is ugliness. As such, if someone is dishonoring someone else, or self-seeking, or easily angered, or keeps records of wrong, then that is ugliness. Ugliness is not how someone looks on the outside, but rather what lurks on our souls. Ugliness is what appears when someone shows a lack of love.

            Here’s something important to know about ugliness though: we all have some on our souls. However, because we are forgiven through the love of God, we can still be beautiful. We have to take time and effort to not be ugly in that way and instead try to live as God calls us to. Even the most faithful people can be ugly at times, but God is always ready to restore us.

            This week let’s find a way that we have been ugly, or a habit of ours that isn’t beautiful, and pray about it. We don’t have to immediately try to resolve it, but try to find why we are that way, and then we can work through it.

            I hope that you have a wonderful week, and please remember to like, follow, or subscribe. If you have any questions, comments, or prayer requests, you can always reach me at the website linked on my profile. Again, have a wonderful week, and God bless!