Cosmetic Surgery and What The Bible Says About It

In 2008 alone, 7,362,368 men and women underwent major cosmetic surgeries. In the same year, just over 13 billion dollars was spent on cosmetic surgery alone. What causes people to alter his or her appearance? Is it possible to have a cosmetic surgery done and still be a Christian? What does the Bible say about having cosmetic surgery? Well first, I should tell my opinion. I believe that cosmetic surgery is the same as getting a tattoo, but there must be a point in which to draw the line. With cosmetic surgery and tattooing, both are physical conditions done to the human body, both are looked upon as 'cool', both are widely being done by many people all over the world. So is this wrong?

Well, what does the Bible have to say about this controversial topic of cosmetic surgery? There is no where in the Bible where it says do not have it done, but there are also no places where it says cosmetic surgery is acceptable. We have always heard the verses of I Corinthians 6:19-20 which says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Yeah yeah, so our body is the temple of God. What does that mean? That, in short, means that wherever you go, whoever you meet and whatever you do, you are carrying the temple of the Lord around each and every day, so glorify it. Another verse to point out is Genesis 1:27 which says “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” So human beings 1. are made after God in his own image and 2. have the responsibility of carrying God's temple around with them every day.

But what about cosmetic surgery? What does that have to do with these verses? First, let's examine cosmetic surgery and tattooing to see what parallels we can draw between the two. As I stated above, they are very similar in the ways of changing the human outward appearance. In the Bible, God clearly and specifically states in Leviticus 19:28 NIV to “not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves...” Well there it is in plane clear writing, God telling his followers not to get tattoos or to cut our bodies for the dead. I am not saying cosmetic surgery is a “cutting for the dead”, I am just saying tattooing and cosmetic surgery are very similar. If God told us not to get tattoos, then should he want us to be getting cosmetic surgery? Just a thought.

Also, we must look at the side effects and change brought upon by cosmetic surgery. The Bible states that we are clearly made in God's own image, so doesn't that mean we look just perfect? If God is perfect and we are made after him, aren't we made perfect physically? Although I have seen several people who have clearly overdone themselves on the Twinkies, I do believe that it is God's intention to draw attention to the beauty of the inside of the human being and not the outside. I Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” That verse pretty much sums it all up right there for me. It doesn't matter what the outward appearance looks like, it doesn't matter what kind of clothes you wear, it doesn't matter what kind of tattoos you pierce yourself with, it doesn't matter how many cosmetic surgeries you can get; the only thing that matters in this earthly life is glorifying God with all that we have. Another verse to take into consideration is I Timothy 2:9-10 which says, “I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” This verse goes side by side with the verse proclaiming that our bodies are the temple of God. God commands us, in the First Timothy verse, to dress moderate and portray ourselves not with worldly expenses, but of the Word of God so that we can glorify him. One last verse that could refer back to cosmetic surgery is the verse of I Peter 3:4 which says, “Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is great worth in God's sight.” You see, it's not that God doesn't care about how you look, because he clearly cares about all of our problems, as seen in I Peter 5:7. Your problems matter to God, but God cares more about how one looks on the inside.

In my opinion, cosmetic surgery can be seen as a bad thing because it changes the way God shaped us as humans. If a lady goes out and completely revamps her face because SHE thinks she looks bad, that is completely altering her God given face. What she needs to recognize is that what the world sees is different compared to what our Savior sees. Way too many appearances are being altering and way too much money is being spent on something completely of the world and useless. Why don't people, following the idea of lint, give their money to a church instead of a Cosmetologist and give their time to a church instead of the time they would use getting useless procedures done?

In conclusion, I believe that cosmetic surgery is just like getting a tattoo, which God condemns in Leviticus. Instead, let us focus on what God thinks and not what others around us think. In the end, it's not what our environment thinks, it's what our Savior thinks!

JohnB0127

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Twitter: @JIBurg4