150. Образ живописный портится

If the image was painted well by a certain artist, but another unskilled artist was found and repurposed the image according to his own wishes, everyone would laugh at this crazy thing, and the painter who painted the image would be greatly offended and annoyed. This is what those shameless wives do, who smear their faces and decorate them with whitewash and paints. Our God and Creator, like a wise painter, gave the entire composition of the body and soul to every person, and gives the image of a face to everyone. But when people anoint and adorn their faces, the work of His saints is remade and spoiled, and just as they cause offense and annoyance to God Himself, their Creator, so they give themselves over to reasonable people for ridicule, or better yet, for regret, and for young hearts to be tempted. This is where smearing and beautifying women's faces leads! The work of God, no matter how well done - which is scary to think and say - the work of God is remade by such shameless people. In young hearts, the flesh, kindled by passionate lust, is more inflamed. This is done by those who confess Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified and died for our sins!.. Oh, charm, oh, the devil’s cunning! Oh, how the evil spirit was able to deceive! The great weapon of the devil is such an adornment of faces. He catches human hearts in nothing more than with his net; He fights Christians with nothing more than with this weapon. And without arson, the flesh burns, especially that of a young person; but now the shameless people are starting the fire. Woe to them, for they add fire to fire! How shameful is it not for such shameless women to go out into the public eye! Tell me, tell me, please, why are you going out in public with such a face? Show off? You truly show yourself, and show what is hidden in your heart. People also see, but others turn away from you as from a monster; others turn their eyes to you, and conceive disease, and give birth to iniquity (See Ps. 8:15). They do such bad things, both to themselves and to their neighbors, to the great detriment of coming to dinners and other meetings like this; but they do much worse and greater harm to themselves, that with such ugliness, even in holy churches, where the word of God is preached, and the holy name of God is glorified, and the common prayer of the faithful is offered to God, and the Holy and Terrible Mysteries are performed, and God Himself is especially present, I say, the saints dare to enter the churches. If someone asked such a woman: “Why did you come here, to this holy and sacred place,” - if she answered: “To pray to God,” then she should be told in reproof: “Do they come to prayer with these decorations? We approach God in prayer, we stand before God, we talk and ask Him for mercy: are these the colors and the kind of decoration required here? Your word, your dress and adornment are different. You came to pray to God, but your adornment means something else. A decent decoration for prayer is sighing, tears, crying, kneeling, beating the chest, and not decoration of the body and face. If you sigh and cry, your attire will expose you and show your hypocrisy. You come in such attire to show yourself, not to pray. Look around why and to what place you are coming with such decoration, so that you do not leave with the gravest sin. This place is holy and terrible, for it is the house of God (Gen. 28:17). Beware of having a heart filled with uncleanness in a holy and terrible place and tempting others to do so, and making the church of God a dishonorable place, so that you do not experience God’s judgment on yourself. If you look around, then later you will repent and regret that you decorated yourself with such colors, and that you went out not only to holy churches, but also to other places, which is what I sincerely wish for you.” Let your (wives') adornment be not the outward braiding of your hair, not gold jewelry or finery in clothing, but the hidden person of your heart in the imperishable beauty of a meek and silent spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. Thus, once upon a time, holy women who trusted in God adorned themselves, obeying their husbands. So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him master (1 Peter 3:3-6), and so on. So that wives, too, in decent attire, with modesty and chastity, adorn themselves, not with braided hair, not with gold, not with pearls, not with costly clothing, but with good works, as becomes women devoting themselves to godliness (1 Tim. 2:9-10). You might be interested in: