When Jesus comes into our lives, everything changes.
Some users on TikTok boast that this inner transformation impacts the outside too; they call it the Jesus Glow. These videos will start with text on the screen, usually with a response to a fictional dispute1, “The Jesus glow isn’t real” overlaid on a “before” image, with a “I have to disagree” or “that’s not true” and an image of their after. The after usually includes better lighting, more traditionally feminine clothing/makeup.
My most charitable take on this trend is this: people are longing to express that their life looks different now that Jesus is in it—this is a good, true and biblical perspective.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. —2 Cor 5:17
But the implications of this trend are concerning. I will explore 3 of them with you today, but I could probably list off 12 more (see footnotes for more extensive thoughts).
The “Jesus Glow” is a reward that women should anticipate as a reward at conversion and/or sanctification.
Conversion and/or sanctification produce a particular kind of “Christian” aesthetic.
Conforming and encouraging others to adhere to worldly beauty standards is normal.
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The Jesus Glow is something that women should anticipate as a reward at conversion and/or sanctification.
The Jesus Glow, as I am defining it in today’s post, is a change in one’s outer appearance after cultivating intimacy with Jesus—which often looks like losing weight, having longer or naturally colored hair, glowing skin, wearing minimal makeup and dressing traditionally feminine—either at conversion, or in a season of being closer to God2.
Kelsey Kramer McGinnis covered this trend at Christianity Today in September in her piece, “Are Christians Hotter?” where she suggests—as I will today—that the Jesus glow is simply another prosperity gospel.
It’s easy to dismiss this trend as unserious. Perhaps in a vacuum it’s harmless. But the “Jesus glow-up” is also a symptom of something endemic and pernicious. Eagerness to claim the blessing of heightened physical beauty, bestowed from on high, is just another indication of our appearance-obsessed worldview.
She addresses that many folks will comment that the change is “in the eyes” and the rest of the change of appearance is not relevant to the transformation, but this fails to address that the medium is the message.
But on social media, a share-worthy glow-up has to be visual, and the photographic lexicon of platforms like Instagram doesn’t showcase the spiritual. It can’t differentiate between normative physical attractiveness and some deeper, virtuous, more transcendent type of beauty.
I have seen my fair share of comments from girls praising other girls with bright, bubbly personalities as ones with the glow. I have even been told I possess the glow!
This transcendent beauty they are seeking to articulate seems to be clouded by temperament too, which leaves out women who are more stoic or less outgoing as if the Spirit of God doesn’t dwell richly with the quieter girlies too.
The whole trend of the Jesus glow concerns me because there I don’t see any fruit of the Spirit or any biblical backing. Where is the love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? All I am looking at is you looking bloated one day and looking thinner and more neatly posed in the next?
What is a good Christian woman? I can almost hear the girls in the questions muttering amongst themselves, perhaps longing for this kind of spiritual beauty to be in reach.
By Christian influencers creating this form of content, they are communicating to their audience that you should anticipate a change when you take your faith seriously. True! But they are including a physical element into that change—not true!
For the most part, I don’t think that these women have bad intentions with posting their transformations. But that does not mean that they may not be negatively impacting women, particularly those who may not know their Bible well or have a community to grab them by the shoulders and tell them that this is straight up not how spiritual growth works.
God is not concerned with simply making your life easier or making you prettier. He is interested in moving into your soul and starting construction. Your sanctification is not simply an upward trajectory toward holiness where your desires suddenly align themselves with those of the Spirit. It is a lifelong process, marked by certain events that expedite our growth, but it is mostly just a process. And for many folks, that initial event of giving their life to Jesus impacted their appearance. Maybe their whole attitude and countenance changed, or maybe they stopped drinking every day, so their face looked less puffy, or they started wearing more modest clothing, so their vibe changed. I have no doubt that for many, their transformation photos are meant to reflect this. But I worry about what we are implicitly communicating to women when we show a visual change that includes more than just those lifestyle differences.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. —Romans 12:2
What does this mean for the young Christian girl, for the woman struggling with health issues that make her weight fluctuate? Or maybe somebody just decided to get bangs and they won’t look their best for the next 6 months…has Jesus left them?
When does the Jesus glow end? Does this spiritual sexiness permeate through the Christians whole life and they radiate until they are in the ground? Does it ebb and flow based on whether you go to church or read your Bible enough? How does it work?
If a good Christian is pretty, what does that mean about aging? Obviously, the Jesus glow has something to do with the individuals’ beauty treatments and routines, otherwise women just wouldn’t age…right? We aren’t just put in an anti-aging cryochamber after we memorize enough of Paul’s epistles.
I could write—and have written—about the strangeness that is Christian women who get plastic surgery. I find it so un-Christian that a woman would literally play god by trying to Benjamin Button themselves in hopes of maintaining a youthful glow.
But I also don’t blame her, because a woman’s existence in this world is marked by being told that 1. We are pretty and we need to maintain it, or 2. We aren’t pretty (or could be prettier) and we need to do X or buy X so we can be. Then you’ll be happy—yay!
This trend makes me so angry because it is even more sinister. Of course, the world is being the world. But seeing Christians prove their spiritual transformation by posting pictures to prove that Jesus made them hot is even worse. It doesn’t tell women they have to look a particular way; it tells them something more sinister—that they should look a particular way. And saying it with spiritual authority. No, no, no.
Conversion and/or sanctification produce a particular kind of “Christian” aesthetic
Kelsey also points out that this trend leaves out the Christian women who don’t fit the popular aesthetic at the time.
Many Jesus-glow posts use “before” pictures in which the user is wearing a lot of heavy makeup; the “after” images show a more on-trend, “clean girl” look. The unspoken subtext: “Followers of Jesus don’t look like that; they look like this.
A secular article critiqued the trend, saying that this trend exposes the emptiness of social media religion. I wanted to stand up and clap at their title. It is so disappointing how Christians often fail to observe our prosperity gospel of choice, but secular folks see right through it.
The writer, Amanda Marcotte, calls the trend “profoundly silly,” something I am tempted to agree with. Although inflammatory and decidedly anti-Christian, the article points out something Christians online have failed at doing—the superficiality of the Jesus glow. She goes on to say that these beauty standards are connected to white supremacy and MAGA Christians. On the other hand, many Christian women online wholeheartedly embrace it, seeing it as a natural fruit of their sanctification.
Neither extreme is helpful.
We are made anew when we are saved by Jesus. Because of Him, we are saved from the consequences of our sin, and the Holy Spirit begins its slow, steady and lifelong work to transform us into Christlikeness.
Connecting our salvation and sanctification with a physical transformation might be some of our experiences, but the Christian life does not include a progression into outer beauty. It is a progression into looking more like Jesus.
Christian women’s transformation in Christ will certainly result in a change in their countenance, but a Holy Spirit divine makeover isn’t one of God’s top priorities for his daughters. He wants us not to conform to the patterns of this world, but to be renewed by the transforming of our minds. Notice here that Paul says our mind. God is in the business of inner transformation.
For those who experienced a complete lifestyle shift after getting saved, there are some caveats here. If you abused drugs or alcohol and stopped doing that after meeting the Lord, of course, you may experience a positive physical change. Some of the Jesus glow videos I have seen show a girl in a club, partying in immodest clothing to demonstrate their “before.” Since this goes against the biblical command to not be drunk or immodest, it of course makes sense why this would be the “before.”
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. —Colossians 1:27
But, I have seen a lot of Jesus glow videos that are simply girls in poor lighting, looking sad, lying in bed and then pivoting to them posed, with weight loss or clearer skin, beaming ear to ear. Or they go from having dyed, colored hair, piercings to dressing more traditionally feminine with their natural hair color.
When Jesus comes into our lives, our aesthetic should change if it is sinful, but if we label any kind of self-expression as wrong, that makes us the judge on something God just frankly is not that concerned about. Scripture tells us there is a cost to that kind of judgment.
For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. —Matthew 7:2
I have no doubt that a lot of the girls making these videos were genuinely depressed or struggling mentally at the time and that reflected in their appearance. They desire to show how Jesus gave them their “spark” back. But it is damaging and unhelpful to look at the outside as an indicator of the inside. And because of the limitations and nature of social media, this trend does that, even if that is not the user’s intention.
Wearing “no makeup” makeup looks and wearing linen skirts is not the mark of a faithful Christian woman. It is one who is following the current trends of the world, and that is ok. “Natural beauty” (I put this in quotes because it is usually accompanied by a lot of beauty treatments or plastic surgery) is in right now. And it makes sense why a lot of Christian women—including myself—gravitate toward it. It feels good to be stripped down and natural, and who doesn’t want skin that doesn’t require foundation or concealer?
You are allowed to wear Brandy Melville tops and do a blowout, but it doesn’t make the girls who choose to follow other aesthetics less “Christian” than you. It just makes you more judgmental.
This creates categories of Christian women where there does not need to be. It puts things like the length of one’s hair or their weight as indicators of their faithfulness, things that have more variables than you might think. If you think looking beautiful is a fruit of the Spirit, then what does that mean for your friend who got diagnosed with PCOS and just gained 30 pounds this year? Or your friend who is dealing with perioral dermatitis because of her stressful job? It makes you sound like the disciple who asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Paul tells us that as believers, there are to be no distinctions,
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. –Galatians 3:28
Conforming and encouraging others to adhere to worldly beauty standards is normal.
A maturing Christian is one who is continually shedding their conformity to the world. Aligning with beauty standards is such an important value of the world, and yet it is one that means nothing to God.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” –1 Samuel 16:7
And this is one area I rarely hear women of any age, and especially women in their mid-twenties (my age), talking about. It is insane to me how blind we have become to this idol. Not only our own desire for beauty, but also for others to behold it.
You are beautiful because Christ is in you. You are beautiful because you are fearfully and wonderfully made, just like every other image bearer. Your beauty will shine through in a particular way when you are abiding with God. You will be gentle, kind, and loving. This will probably end up making you look like a more attractive person, because you will be warm and inviting. If you live according to the wisdom of scripture and the laws of nature God has set, you will probably age well and live a long, healthy life. But none of this matters, because your life—which includes your body—is meant to be a windowpane for His glory to shine through, not to gaze at for itself.
You are beautiful because you are in Christ, and He is the most beautiful person who has ever lived. Not because you have or don’t have certain desirable traits.
I don’t want to minimize you and your unique body and appearance—that was made intentionally by God. But I do want to minimize the way that relates to being desired and important to others.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Psalm 139:14-17
One reason I am confident this is so unbiblical is that beauty standards are fleeting.
One culture glorifies paleness while another avoids it. Long hair for these women is everything; short hair is bad. Bigger bodies are better during one historical period, while another worships smaller bodies.
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. —Proverbs 31:30
This trend is at best superficial and at worst sinister. But it, just like these fleeting beauty standards, will wither away.
As Christian women, we need to be the ones shouting the loudest about how beautiful every woman is, and how that is the least important thing about her. We need to be defining beauty as self-sacrifice instead of skinniness, love as the chief aim of our lives instead of being desired by others, and grace as foundational instead of the perfect skincare routine.
My invitation to you over the next week is to try to memorize this verse:
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. —Proverbs 31:30
Put it on your mirror, make it your lock-screen on your phone, write it on your hand, do whatever you gotta do. Then, when you see a video showing a glow-up or promoting a product that promises to take away that one insecurity, I want you to close your eyes, recite that verse and open yourself to God. Tell him that you can see the desire in your heart to be beautiful. You can see that you want to look a certain way. Tell him, be honest with Him. Don’t try to pretend you don’t feel that way. But say the verse over yourself again, and then go on with the rest of your day.
We can’t change the way we relate to ourselves overnight. Especially in a world that tells us—both Christians and non-Christians—that the way that we look is important, when it isn’t.
It is so convicting to think about the hours I have spent comparing myself to other women, or wishing I looked a different way, or trying on 10 different outfits, or doing weird beauty treatments that promised me fulfillment and how I could have spent those gazing at God instead of myself. I could have spent that time letting the Perfector love me and accept me as I am, letting the transformation of my soul take precedence over the transformation of my body.
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Your friend,
I have literally never seen an atheist or Christian or anyone else try to disprove the Jesus glow so this defense being the foundation for the trend is so odd!
I am 10000000% on board for the biblical truth that our entire selves will change when Jesus moves in! Yes! You are a new creation! Today I am speaking specifically on the implicit messaging that our inward transformation will be reflected on the outside through alignment with fleeting, primarily Western, beauty standards as communicated through this Jesus glow-up trend.
I thought I would have more footnotes but oh well hope you enjoyed those 2 <3
Dang, I thought following Jesus just meant we all got to be rich and hot.
:( lol.
This was great. Thanks for taking the time to write and address this topic!
wowow! So good Jenna!!!
This topic has come up quite often in prayer as someone who struggles with insecurity and not fitting the typical “Christian aesthetic”. I have also been meditating on Isaiah 53 “that He had no beauty that we should behold him” and it’s been quite freeing! Our lens of beauty has been skewed from the beginning. If we couldnt see beauty in a perfect man, why am I always expecting to be beautiful in the eyes of man?!!? Anywayssss so good! LOVED everything about this!