Thoughts on the Wedding Ring

So today I found my self looking at a very bad quality video of my friend proposing to his girlfriend. As I watched his cheesy proposal (I guess most proposal are) he finally bowed on one knee and asked the all-important question. While he was doing this I wondered if he was going to bust out with an engagement ring, and sure enough he did. All of the sudden I caught my self thinking, “Why am I focused on such a trivial thing? Your friend is getting married for goodness sake!”

All my life I have been told that wearing jewelry is evil; that you are worldly if you wear it. People have preached about all these weird theories on the origin of the wedding ring. Growing up my parents have never worn, up to this day, a wedding ring. Yet, as times have changed and as I have grown older I had a curiosity about the weeding ring.

Now, I do not want to get into a theological debate about this but I quickly want to share what I have learned. The bible clearly makes a distinction between jewelry as adornment and “jewelry” that has meaning. Kings wore crowns, people of stature wore rings with their crest, the priest wore a breastplate covered in precious stones, the woman in Revelation 12 has a crown of stars and there are many more examples that I can point out. Yet, in all of the ones that I have pointed out, and the ones I didn’t, every single one of them had a use, purpose or meaning. Jewelry for the sake of adornment according to the bible is against God’s will. Through out the whole bible simplicity is preached. Paul asks for simplicity even in dress. You see the thing is to keep people focused on God not on your bling.

I’ve searched and I’ve studied and have found nothing to say that wearing a wedding ring is a sin. Yet I have learned that being vain is. It is when this object, and also other objects take our focus away from God and it becomes one of our gods that it is wrong. That’s why jewelry for adornment is wrong, the adornment is meant to place the focus on us and not on our Saviour.

Now, I’m not asking you to think like me. This is merely my opinion. I’m not saying that as long as you say it has meaning it’s ok to wear jewelry. (Oh… btw, piercings and tattoos are the topic of future blog. For now, not a good idea.) Think about this, is your desire to wear jewelry going to honor God and bring people to a deeper understanding of his love?

So what to do if you decide to go and get a wedding ring. My advice is keep it simple! People will know what it is. In the end it is not what you are wearing but if you are completely committed to what it represents.

Oh yeah… Congratulations to Javi and Rosily! May God continue to bless y’all as you start this new chapter of life together.

"Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck."

-Proverbs 1:8, 9-