Standards in Light of the Cross

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put [it] on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on [his] feet: Luke 15:20-22

In this touching story of the prodigal son many people point out that jewelry can not be wrong to wear since the father in the story gives his son a ring. Others wonder why jewelry is not appropriate for Christian adornment, when Jesus Himself will give us a crown of jewels. The fact of the matter is that God Loves jewelry! Much of the confusion as to why it is inappropriate for us to wear now is because we look at jewelry as a “Jezebel issue” instead of the sanctuary issue that it really is.

In the sanctuary service the priests wore jewels on their uniforms “ for glory and for beauty“ Exodus 28:2. In the Bible we read again and again that all glory belongs to God for glory is His character. So the priests officiating in the sanctuary wore jewelry because they had attained by God’s grace a position where they were to represent God’s character to the people. The jewelry represented God’s glory and character which is perfection. We have not reached perfection of character, (or at least I haven’t!) therefore we are not worthy to wear the jewels. However, just like the prodigal son, when we go home with Jesus, He will give us the jewels to wear, (James 1:12, Revelation 2:10) Just as the prodigal son did not place the jewelry on himself but let his father do it, likewise we are not to place the jewels on ourselves, but when we get home and our characters have been perfected our Father will give us the jewelry to wear. And even then we will cast our crowns of jewels at His feet because we will feel unworthy to wear them! If we will feel unworthy to wear jewelry in heaven after our characters have been perfected, how dare we wear it now in our sinful condition!

Until our Heavenly Father gives us the jewels to wear as He did the priests and as he did represented by the father in the parable of the prodigal son, let us carefully consider these words of inspiration. “All who assume the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will appear in the shame of their own nakedness.” {5T 81.1}