How does God feel about plastic surgery? Does it
change the way he sees us?
This is an interesting question. Our society today is very
focused on personal appearance. We often go to extremes to improve our looks. Does this
change the way God sees us?
How does God see us?
God sees the inner person. He is no respecter of persons. He
doesn't care if we are tall, short, thin, fat, dark, light, ugly or beautiful. He knows
that we are more than our outer shell of flesh. Flesh dies and rots. We live on. God
created us as eternal beings. The container we are in means nothing. Someday, He will give
each of His children an incorruptible, perfect body.
In the meantime, God is more interested in how we treat
others, in our relationship to Him, in the way we use the time and talents He has given
us, in how we spend the time we have, in whether or not we receive His Son, confess our
sins and give our lives to Him. The bottom line is: while God loves each one of us, He
also sees the sin in our lives and hates the sin. The most important thing we can do to
improve how God sees us, is to get right with Him. He cares nothing about how we look.
So, does that mean a Christian shouldn't have plastic
surgery? I would say a Christian should carefully consider the motives for the surgery. Is
it to correct a physical defect or scarring of some sort? (for example: extremely large
breasts can be very uncomfortable, or a malformed feature can disfiguring and if these can
be corrected through surgery, why not?)
Is it to glorify the body, make it more sexy and appealing?
Is it to satisfy a desire for perfection? Think again.
Many times individuals see themselves with a super critical
eye, or have accepted current ideas of what a person should look like, or they want a
'perfect' body. In our society, especially, much value is placed on being 'sexy' and this
is defined as having certain physical attributes. But people are not intended to be sex
objects, and relationships based on sex-appeal are usually very shallow.
I think some plastic surgery is okay. The rest may be the
result of envy, selfishness, lack of self-confidence, etc. Remember, God loves each of us
just as we are. We are very special to Him. That should make anyone who thinks a nose is
too long or short, hips too thick or breasts too small, feel wonderful, just as they are.
Best Wishes
