Among conservative apostolics in the United States this has been a major issue since the 60's. Friendships have been broken, fellowships have been divided, sinners have been turned away, new converts have been offended and salvation of fellow believers has been questioned. All of this over a contemporary issue that is purely a response to a cultural issue. All of this over facial hair which scripture universally approves of.
DID JESUS HAVE FACIAL HAIR?
I will answer this question and give the reasons why I think that the answer is yes. However, this is an unnecessary though important question. Even if Jesus did not wear a beard, it is evident in scripture that Godly men did and it is never condemned by scripture. The more relevant question is do the scriptures condemn facial hair? "For where there is no law there is no transgression of the law" (Romans 4:14).
I believe that Jesus had facial hair because he fulfilled the law perfectly (Matthew 5:17), and the law forbade the shaving of the corners of the beard (Leviticus 19:27). Some would argue that this only applies IF you have a beard. This misses the point as it is not a matter of if a man has a beard; all men baring some sort of birth or health defect has a beard. Even when he shaves the beard is still there. All shaving does is shorten the beard it does not get rid of it. Every man has a beard, it is only a matter of how long it is. So in essence Leviticus 19:27 prohibits shaving and is therefore a command to have a beard. To the Jew facial hair was/is a matter of creational holiness. To the Jew facial hair is God reflecting in the man his own masculine image. So since Jesus fulfilled the law, and the law prohibited shaving the corners of the beard, then Jesus must have had a beard.
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
A Christian is certainly at liberty to wear facial hair because the scriptures do not forbid it. At this point in American culture, I do not think it is even unwise to have facial hair. What may be unwise it a particular style of facial hair. Facial hair, like head hair, can reflect certain worldly agendas within our culture and those styles should be avoided. Just because certain styles of head hair can reflect a worldly image does not mean that we demand men to shave their head hair off.
Two examples that prove that a man can wear facial hair in such away that it does not reflect a worldly cultural agenda are the Jews and the Amish. Both of these religious groups continued to wear their beards throughout the cultural revolution of the 60's and never got confused with the hippies. The reason they were not is three-fold: 1. They had different style beards than the hippies. 2. They had different style dress than the hippies. 3. They had a drastically different lifestyle than the hippies. These three distinctions allowed them to have facial hair and not be confused with the cultural repugnance of the hippie, free love movement.
With what the no facial hair doctrine has become, and looking back in retrospect, it was a bad decision to ever start preaching against facial hair in the first place. Someone along the line it shifted from a response to a temporary and contemporary issue to an issue of justification. This is what is so dangerous about starting to preach and command things that scripture does not command.
