What Does the Bible Say About Wearing a Cross Necklace?

Ornamented clothing, makeup, and jewelry have been used in the enhancement of appearance. This has been exercised since ancient times by both women and men. If you examine the ancient art on the building of many kingdoms and tombs, you will notice that the use of paint and gold was common, especially in Egypt. Every ornament has a symbol behind it, and it might be a symbol of favor, wealth, and amulets, the pagans.

Furthermore, wearing jewelry is excellently acceptable in the Bible since there are many references in the Bible about God’s people wearing the jewelry. If you are unsure what the Bible says about the jewelry, worry no more because this comprehensive post will make you more informed. Here is an overview of several scriptures on what the Bible says about jewelry.

Ezekiel 16:11-13

The Bible indicates how the prophet Ezekiel through inspiration, wrote allegorically about how God rescued Israel’s children from Egypt, and the nation became its wife via the old covenant. This Scripture goes ahead to explain how he perfectly adored his bride using magnificent jewelry. In verse 14, the Lord continues to say that he imparted his wife such beauty via what he offers her. Moreover, other nations also recognized that it was outstanding.

Exodus 28

You must know that there are multiple examples of God validating the use of many materials for you to beautify something and boost its entire appearance. For instance, God ordered the high priest to wear unique garments with ornate, especially when conducting their duties.

This type of garment is termed the ephod, and it is from purple among other fine threads, gold, and ephod. Besides, this is also inserted in the 12 dazzling gemstones, such as sapphire and emerald.

Isaiah 3:16-21

During Isaiah’s time, the Lord became displeased with His people’s pride and how they wore the jewelry. This is because Zion’s daughters are haughty. And the Lord tinkling bravery of their ornaments about their cauls as well as feet. He will also take away their mufflers, bracelets, leg ornaments, earrings, nose jewels, rings, tablets, and headbands.

Exodus 33:4-6

In this Scripture, the Bible talks about Israelites removing their jewelry before they appear to the Lord. When this bad news reached the people, everyone took off their ornament and mourned bitterly. The Lord commanded them to do so because they were tough-headed people, and He had the anger that if He could come down, He would consume all of them.

He said that if they were removed, he would know what to do with them. Therefore, they eliminated all their ornament at Mount Horeb.

Ezekiel 38:12-13

When the Lord created Lucifer, He offered him an excellent appearance and impression. The exceptional beauty was achieved through the nine precious stones, which are popularly used to make jewelry. Bear in mind that this is emphasized in Job 38: 4-7 where the Scripture indicates that the angels were created before the physical world.

Moreover, Lucifer gets honor through decoration with the precious stones of the spiritual version before commencing to exist in the physical realm.

Roman 12:2

This verse says that you should not copy the customs and the world’s behavior but allow God to transform you into a magnificent person by changing how you think. The Scripture goes ahead to encourage you that through this, you will be able to understand what God needs you to do. Furthermore, you will understand how pleasing, perfect and good His will is.

You need to categorize jewelry, tattoos, and piercing under the behavior and the custom of the world that Christians should not follow. Instead of spending a lot of your capital on expensive things, you should use that money to help the needy. When you do this, you would have avoided implementing the customs and the behavior of the world, hence following the right direction.

It would be better if we gave God a chance to transform us into the best version of Him. If you are interested in talking willingly to those who want jewelry, pray together to God to help and truly transform you into people He desires you to be.

Isaiah 61:10

The Scripture runs a comparison between the bridegroom and the bride since they decorate themselves with jewelry. However, it is not logical that Isaiah such a sinful activity to the righteousness, glory, and salvation of God.

1Peter 3:1 – 4 & 1st Timothy 2:9 -10

It says that the wives should subject themselves to their husbands so that even if some fail to obey the word but see their wives’ pure and respectful conduct, they may be won with no word.  Moreover, it goes ahead to say that you should not allow your adorning to be external.

Put on the gold jewelry and braid your hair, but ensure that your adorning is that of a hidden heart person, with a quiet spirit and a gentle imperishable beauty, which in the sight of the Lord is too precious. Besides, this is how the holy women who had hope in Christ adorned themselves via being submissive to their husbands.

You must know that the Bible does not condemn you for using the jewelry, but it emphasizes balancing it since you need a godly perspective when utilizing it. Thus in the new testament, women and other Christians are usually taught that they should modestly dress and set high priorities on pursuing excellent work and godly character traits.

Exodus 3:21 – 22

This Scripture is emphasized in Exodus 11: 2 as well as 12: 35. It repeats to command the Israelites to ensure they take Jewelry from Egypt before departing. These treasures include trinkets, finger rings, nose, earrings as well as chains. When leaving, they should put on these pieces of jewelry for their entire children and themselves.

Genesis 35: 1-4

God commanded Jacob to go back to Bethel and reside there as he builds the altar to God, who had revealed Himself to him when he was escaping from His brother Esau. In verses 2 and 3, Jacob asks all his family to get rid of the alien gods they have, take a shower, wear clean clothes, and then move to Bethel.

He told them he would build for God an altar since God answered him when he was troubled, and he has stuck with Him everywhere.

They obeyed Jacob and turned the entire alien gods they had been worshiping together with all their charm earrings. Jacob, in turn, buried them in Shechem under the oak tree. After this, they took off, and the surrounding villages experienced a paralyzing fear since they did not manage to convince the sons of Jacob.

1 John 2: 15-6

The Bible says you should not love the world, and this also applies to worldly things. Anyone who loves the world lacks the love of his or her heavenly father. Furthermore, all worldly things entail the lust of your eyes as well as the flesh. All worldly things are not associated with God.

Malachi 3:17

This chapter translates jewels as possessions that are treasured. Therefore, God has individuals whom He considered unique, and He treasures them 100%. You might be wondering who are these valued ones. You do not need to worry anymore; if you are born again, you are a treasure of God, and you are also His precious jewelry.

1 Peter 1:18-19

Just like jewelry, you are also more than precious because of your value. Most jewelries are worth an investment, but ensure that you think about the redemption cost. Bear in mind that no amount of money can redeem you. However, the precious blood of Christ makes you so much precious.

Ephesians 2:10

In this Scripture, you are compared with jewels that come in different ways, such as texture, color, shape, and size. This also applies to Christians since some Christians are like pearls, others are like emeralds, some sapphires, and others are diamonds. This means you are not alike with others since you are made from the same laboratory but express your divine life in varying ways.

Isaiah 49:18

It says that you lift up your eyes and see the surrounding since they will gather and come to you. And the Lord says that as long as He lives, Isaiah shall put them all like an ornament and blind them as the bride does.

Genesis 24:47–48

The Scripture says he asked her whose daughter she was, and she answered that she was the daughter to Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to. He then placed a bracelet on her arms and a ring on her nose.  After that, he bowed his head down as he blessed the Lord and worshiped Him. This is because of the God of His Master Abraham, who had guided Him the appropriate way to win the Master’s kinsman daughter for his only son.

In this chapter and that particular verse, you will see that God filled Joseph with excellent blessings because he was a faithful man. Moreover, Joseph accepts jewelry from Pharaoh. Suppose God had forbidden jewelry; Joseph would have rejected the gift because he was a faithful man to God.

Ezekiel 16:15–19

It says that they believed in their beauty and engaged in playing the whore, and because of their renown, they lavished their whoring on any given passerby. Additionally, their beauty became His. They took some garments and made themselves colorful shrines and proceeded to play the whore on them like it has never been or shall ever be.

This Scripture emphasizes how they also used the beautiful jewels of his silver and gold and manufactured images of men and continued to play the whore. They also took the embroidery garments to engulf them and set his incense and oil before them. On the other hand, the Lord God declares that they set the bread, honey, and oil before these images to give them a sweet aroma.

Here, God explains how people managed to abuse his blessings. If you do not read this Scripture well, you are likely to think that God is unhappy with these individuals for wearing jewelry, but this does not seem to be the case. These jewelry are blessings from God, and He has decided to take them with Him because people’s hearts seem sinful.

Exodus 35: 4

The Israelites give their precious assets as well as jewelry to assist them in building the tabernacle. Moses spoke to the entire community of Israelites and commanded them that from what they had taken as offering to the Lord. Each one that is willing to bring the Lord the offering of bronze, silver, and gold; scarlet, purple, and blue yarn; sea cowhides, and seven ram skin dyed red, and acacia wood, among many more offerings.

Moreover, he goes ahead to say that all those who are skilled should accomplish all that the Lord had commanded. After saying all these, the Israelites withdrew from Moses, and everyone that found God’s command efficient and was willing and moved by heart gave the offering to the Lord for commencing the workload ahead. Both women and men offered jewelry of every kind, such as ornaments, rings, earrings, and brooches. This was considered as a wave of gold offering to the Lord.

Similarly, all those who had sea cowhides, or the ram skin dyed red, goat hair, scarlet, purple, or blue yarn, brought them all as the Lord’s offering. People tried their level to bring each and everything that would help build a tabernacle for the Lord. Furthermore, the leaders brought many gems, such as the onyx stones, which would be mounted on the breastpiece and ephods.

In addition, they also brought olive oil and spices for fragment incense, anointing oil, and light. Therefore, all Israelites, men, and women willing brought the Lord freewill offering for all the work that God had commanded Moses to finish.

Exodus 39:8

The Israelites fashioned their breastpiece as well as the duty of the skilled craftsman. Additionally, they made it similar to the ephod of finely twisted linen; scarlet, purple yarn. It was squarely built since it incorporated a span wide and long and it was double folded. After that, they mounted at least four rows of precious stones on it. The first row holds Beryl, topaz, and ruby.

On the other hand, the second row had emerald, a sapphire, and a turquoise. The third row had amethyst, agate, and a jacinth, and the last row featured jasper, onyx, and chrysolite. All these were mounted in gold filigree settings. They were 12 stones standing for 12 tribes of Israel. However, for the breastpiece, they made a pure gold braided chain, such as the rope.

1 Kings 10:1

The Bible said when Sheba’s queen heard about Solomon’s fame and his relationship with the Lord, she visited him and examined him with a tough question. She arrived in Jerusalem with a huge caravan plus camels carrying large quantities of precious stones, gold, and spices. She ensured that she talked to Solomon about everything that came to His mind.

The queen acknowledged how happy Solomon’s men and the official must be since he is filled with wisdom. She praised Solomon’s Lord, who found delight in him and gave him a throne in Israel.

She went ahead to say that because of God’s eternal love for entire Israel, He has made him the king to maintain righteousness as well as justice. Moreover, the queen gave the king precious stones, large spices quantities, and 120 gold talents.  King Solomon had never received a good amount of spices as those the queen of Sheba offered him.

Takeaway

With all these scriptures, you now clearly understand what the Bible says about jewelry. The Bible does not say that you should not wear jewelry, or wear nice clothes, or even make your hair. If you go deeper in these scriptures, you will find that God is against the church whose women have let vanity control their lives. They have concentrated on worldly material, which has no value, instead of concentrating on God, the maker of the universe.

In the current world and more so in churches, most Christians showcase how much they have and want they can afford, and it has become a church of competition. Peter and Paul emphasize that Christians should not concentrate on this beauty but be concerned more about the inner beauty.

However, this does not mean that you should not look impressive, but you should ensure that you watch out for your heart not to misuse the blessings that God has offered you and show off what you have in vanity. Ensure that you do everything in moderation.

Gene Botkin

Gene is the director of the Theosis Christian Project. He studied physics and military science before founding the Project. Gene is currently pursuing his doctorate in systems engineering at an engineering college in the Ozarks. The Theosis Christian Project is his attempt to expand Holy Orthodoxy in America.

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