Ezekiel 16:14
And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
The verse pictures divine love under the figure of marriage, in which the Lord joined His people to Himself by solemn covenant and made them His own. That marriage portrays the sacred and enduring union between Christ and His church.
Israel's beauty was perfect and complete entirely through the comeliness God Himself had put upon her, not from herself. Her renown went forth among the heathen nations for that beauty, and came from that gift, so her excellence was wholly due to His favor. God Himself had made her exceedingly beautiful and prosperous into a kingdom and had given her honor, so that her fame for beauty spread among the nations.
Israel despised that honor when she trusted in her own beauty and departed from the Lord. She violated the marriage vow like a treacherous wife leaving her husband for strangers, turning confidence and affection from God to worldly things. She thereby rejected the very gift that had made her renowned.
The verse applies to the Protestant churches at their rise, when they took a noble stand for God and the truth. God's blessing accompanied them, bringing good and beneficial results from accepting gospel principles. Even unbelievers and the unbelieving world recognized those results.
God desires His people and His true, faithful workers to reflect that gift, so that His own beauty and light may shine through their lives to the world. Christ desires to speak of His people in the same way, showing that their spiritual beauty and honor come from Him.