Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of both of
them were opened, and they knew that they were naked…”
Genesis 9:22 “And Ham, the father of
Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.”
This is a day of increased nudity or to use
the biblical term nakedness. With so
much blatant nakedness about us numerous questions arise:
·
How much, if any, nakedness is tolerable or
acceptable for the child of God to be a part of?
·
Are two piece swimwear garments appropriate
for the Christian?
·
What about pasties and thongs?
·
What about going topless?
·
What about shear or ultra shear outer
garments which reveal undergarments or the lack thereof—are they acceptable?
·
Is it appropriate for Christians to belong to
nudist camps? How about their children?
·
Some may argue that in times past, perhaps
even now, there are those who enjoy bathing publicly exposing their breasts and
genitals with pleasure and without remorse or guilt. But is that acceptable to
God?
On and on Christians are hard pressed on the issue of nakedness.
What does Scripture have to say on the subject? What is God’s Moral Code for
Nakedness/Nudity?
True
enough, past generations, of most religions, including Christians, have
zealously imposed strict guidelines for the wearing of apparel; thereby asserting
that the human body is something to be shunned, ashamed of, and abhorred. But
isn’t God’s view of the human body different than that? Because God made them
coats of skins to cover the shame of their nakedness does not in any way vilify
or slander the human body. Their shame became a curse not for being naked, but
for sinning in disobedience. From that day forward human nature is bent on removing
the curse of shame in one form or another. Many attempt to change public
opinion many change laws to “prevent” discrimination. All methods are merely
attempts to remove the curse of guilt all the while maintaining their sinful
lifestyle. However, Scripture’s plan is forgiveness through confession and
repentance. By the way- the term coats of
skins literally means a shirt and implies a covering extending from the
shoulders to below the loins, thus covering the genitals of both male and female. Whereas Adam and Eve
produced fig leaves as an ineffective
manner of removing their guilt. Ever since, people have gone about concocting their own schemes
to alleviate the guilt.
Back to the beginning: in their innocence Adam
and Eve enjoyed the freedom of being naked without the guilt and shame. We
don’t know for how long they enjoyed their freedom, for the Scripture is silent
on the subject. What we do know is that as soon as they disobeyed God, their eyes were opened and they knew that they
were naked, both of them. They had no clothes. Here nakedness is not as
much a sin as it is a divine statement and reminder of their sin of
disobedience. In other words, their nakedness was not the sin—their
disobedience was the sin. From henceforth, nakedness became a reminder of
sin—original sin. The inherent sin nature each of us has abiding within. The
covering of skin is become a picture of God’s grace and love upon all humanity,
and a picture of the coming Christ Messiah to be the covering for our sin to
all who believe.
When God clothed Adam and
Eve, He did not just clothe two individuals, He clothed all of humanity from
that day forward.
In
Noah’s account, Gen. 9:22-24, his nakedness was seen or discovered, by his son Ham. There are those that would imply
that some sort of same sex activity had occurred, the text is not crystal
clear; however, the text strongly suggests the idea in verse 24, Noah, knew what his younger son had done unto him. The term discovered and phrase knew what his younger son had done unto him strongly suggests a
violent and forceful behavior of the sexual nature. The point of the text, many
years before the Law of Moses was introduced, public nakedness is wrong and was
wrong and to discover another’s nakedness is wrong. Once again, the term discover strongly implies wrongful
sexual behavior. Not only that, but Ham boasted to his brothers about seeing
their father’s nakedness.
Every
parent, after a while, knows their children, inside and out. They know,
instinctively, when the child is lying, what their personality is like and will
be in the future. They know if their child is strong willed or stubborn, has
anger issues or any sort of tendencies toward evil or wrongful behavior. They
just know, it’s a God given instinct.
Noah is
no different. He knew his sons, inside and out. Noah observed Ham, his youngest
son, all his life, so he knew Ham’s tendency toward same sex relations. All he
needed was to catch him. And he did. Noah knew
what his younger son had done unto him. Gen.9:24
Now we have:
·
The sin of discovering his father’s nakedness
·
Boasting to his brethren about his deed
·
Incest committed toward his father
·
Plus a same sex act; today we call homosexual
or gay
·
By extending it further, Ham also discovered
his mother’s nakedness by his act upon his father. See 1Cor. 5:1, when the man
was reported as having his father’s wife,
it was the same as discovering his father’s nakedness. Num.20:11-17
How you say, can it be
considered wrongful when it occurred before the Law of Moses? Simply because
immediately after the sin of disobedience man lost his innocence and has now entered into a new state called the age of conscience. Now they had been
enlightened to sin and had knowledge of it. Their conscience therefore served
as law, and guide just as murder, theft, and so on. That’s why God told Cain
Gen.4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Cain
knew the difference between right and wrong. His conscience told him—he simply
ignored his conscience and sinned by slaying his brother Abel.
Response to an online discussion: Will we ever be satisfied with our bodies? Our bodies were designed
by our Creator to be loved and cared for. Unfortunately many of us get caught
up in the vanity thing and are never satisfied, Botox etc. We need to pray for
contentment where needed and lose or gain appropriate weight as applicable.
True body image begins with the heart, not outward fashion, though clothing and
personal hygiene speak volumes about our inner self. Hollywood and media hype
often set unrealistic trends which may cause inner battles and struggles with
our self image. Pasties, thongs, going topless etc. are also an expression of
our inner self. In this scenario it is usually an inner negative self image
seeking outward approval from others; wrong track to be on.
As a result of the above mentioned answer I was
criticized for mentioning certain “garments”, if you will, deemed inappropriate
for a man of God to be speaking or writing about. Further I was informed that I
was not a psychologist and therefore not qualified to give certain types of
advice, or counsel.
My reply is:
1. The
Bible is replete with all sorts of stories of a violent nature, evil behavior
by both God’s children as well as those outside of God’s family. in short the
Bible records events or rape, incest, murder, conspiracy, neglect and a host of
other pungent atrocities; it is in fact a history book filled with adult only
material. It is thus incumbent upon the Christian writer or preacher to [with
due diligence and proper etiquette] present the whole of Scripture without
reservation, and not to gloss over or omit certain portions because of popular
belief, or because of opposition. The truth must be shared. Prayerfully, I
write under the inspiration of the Spirit. Each lesson takes approximately 16
to 20 hours, many times it takes more, to research and prepare.
2. The
study of Scripture gives one a certain insight into human behavior, and the
Spirit gives discernment into various situations of which the counsel may be
similar to those with suitable qualified training.
3. I
have never, and never shall, portray myself to be a qualified counselor of any
sort.
4.
In short, I do not take the study of
God’s word lightly; to the contrary, if I sense something amiss I will even
more carefully research the subject. Heb. 13:17…for they watch for your souls, as they must give account, that they may
do it with joy, and not with grief: Here Paul admonishes all ministers to be
careful what they teach as they will be held accountable for their words and
deeds. 2Tim.2:15 Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. I learned a long time ago that senior ministers most
likely knew the Word better than I, therefore I learned to hold my peace until
I had all my facts straight. Quite often I was wrong!
Christian
vs. Unbeliever/Unsaved
Romans 8:7-8 “Because the carnal mind is
enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Paul is
writing to the church at Rome admonishing them to forsake their sinful
lifestyles and submit them to God’s Spirit. Therefore the passage is primarily
for the Church, however it is used frequently for those who are yet
unbelievers, to which I agree, as it is not our task to get anyone to stop
sinning; that is the job of the Spirit. Ours is to present to gospel and pray
for their conversion, to “lead them to Christ”, but they need to “drink on
their own”.
In
short, just as Israel was given the Law, to govern them, thus showing the rest
of the world God’s blessings were upon them if they obeyed, so also the
Christian is to live by God’s higher law of love, thus showing the rest of the
world God’s blessings upon them. Conversely, if the church shows itself no
different than the rest of the world, where then is the testimony of God’s
grace? That likewise applies to public nakedness.
At the
outset of this study we discovered numerous questions the topic of nakedness imposes upon us. Let me be
clear, the nakedness spoken of here pertains to public nakedness. From what
I’ve gleaned from Scripture, nudity or nakedness is not forbidden within the
privacy of your own home. Heb.13:4 Marriage
is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God
will judge. Infants and children are exempted as is health care providers,
so long as it is appropriate behavior.
The rules of nakedness do apply in regards to sexual
immorality, between same sex relations, bestiality, incest, or between the
spouse of another. See Lev.20:10-21. In
Dt. 27:9-26, The Lord God, through Moses, imposes certain curses upon
the children of Israel for the committal of certain sin or sins, to which they
replied in agreement, Amen. In other words the Israelites were agreeing with
what curses should be imposed upon them by the Lord God; they were not curses
the children of Israel were to impose upon one another, rather it was a clear
declaration of God’s standards for such heinous behavior. The curses clearly
demonstrated God’s abhorrence to sin. Conversely the New Testament always
implored people to instill mercy, love and compassion upon such violators,
considering themselves, to avoid judging each other. The classic example is
when Jesus was confronted with the woman caught in adultery. His declaration to
her accusers, “He who hath no sin, cast the first stone”. Thus today, we are to
have the same compassion, love and mercy upon those deemed worthy of the curse
of nakedness. “God is no respecter of persons”. By administering love,
compassion, and mercy we are in fact fulfilling the law of God—“Love the Lord
the God with all thine heart and to love thy neighbor as thyself”.
In short
the curse was an imposition, by God, upon the heart and conscience of the
violator; drawing them to repentance, thus demonstrating His love for His
children. In 1Cor.5:1-5 Paul instructed the church at Corinth to sever
fellowship with a fellow believer for sexual immorality with his stepmother;
being in adherence with Dt.27: 9-26. 1 Cor. 5:5 5 shows God’s love in saving
the spirit from Satan and the fires of hell.
Exodus 28:42 And
the priests shall make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the
loins even to the thighs they shall reach:
So Moses had the priests
cover their nakedness with linen breeches, what web my call underwear today.
Yes, the sons of Aaron wore them when ministering in the tabernacle, but today
you and I are priests of God ministering daily before the people [whether male
or female] so we ought to make ourselves presentable before the people to whom
we minister. We are to be ministers of God everywhere we are. That ought to
pretty much cover the whole garment issue. In short it is a shame to publically
expose the genitals, male or female.
When all
is said and done, public nakedness/nudity is prohibited whereas it is not in
the privacy of your own home, with your spouse. Obviously, the exceptions are
the medical profession and caring of children, who are unable to care for
themselves. Children ought never to see or discover the nakedness of their
parents.
Recently
I said that at the pace society is changing so quickly that it won’t be very
long until complete public nudity will be the norm. Consider a new TV reality
show to be aired soon by the Discovery Channel entitled Naked and Afraid, in which a
man and woman, both naked, will be filmed 24 hours a day for 21 days while
practicing survival skills. Just a foretaste of that which is coming, it serves
to desensitize the human heart a little at a time, until before you/we know
it—it’s full blown! The so-called “gay” community explosion began with subtle
comedy to desensitize the morality of the people—and now its “almost” considered
“normal”.
It has been said that
everything has its price. I wonder at what price the participants are willing
to shed their morality. I wonder how many Christians will blatantly view the
series for the temporary thrill of viewing or discovering the nakedness of
total strangers.
It has also been said that
the increase in sexual deviance has been the downfall of numerous
civilizations.
Ephesians 5:11-12 “And have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame to
even speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”
There
are those who claim Christians are practicing “hate’ and guilty of
discrimination against various sexually orientated groups; however that is not
the case. Christians are merely responding in a loving manner of God’s view of
certain behavior .be it murder, extortion, theft, rape or whatever Christians
must not tolerate it amongst us. Paul admonished the church at Corinth to
excommunicate a brother for illicit sexual behavior, 1Cor.5:15-5, and later had
the church restore him after he repented, 2Cor. 2:6-11.
I leave
all the questions in regards to swimwear and such to my readers. You have the
Spirit dwelling within, so I surely don’t need to cover it.
Faith
Building Practice and Review
1. What
is God’s moral code of nakedness?
2. What
is a curse?
3. Why
is God so opposed to discovering another’s nakedness?
4. What
bearing does Eph. 5:11-12 have on the subject?
5. Do
you see the downward spiral of sexual perverseness in the country today?
6. Do
you agree that this is a very sensitive topic, but well needed to cover?
7. Do
you see God’s love exhibited in His abhorrence to nakedness?
8. What
other attributes of His persona do you see?
9. Some
would label God as a killjoy. How do you see it?
10. Some
have been taught that the human body is something to be ashamed of. In light of
God’s word, what do you think of the human body?
11. I
believe it was created by God as a beautiful and holy thing to be nurtured and
nourished, something to be proud of. What do you think?
12. I don’t
believe the human body is to be exhibited as a circus sideshow. What do you
believe?
13. Do
you see God’s love, grace, mercy, righteousness, compassion, and forgiveness
exhibited in 1Cor.5:1-4 and 2Cor.2:6-11?
Knowing
God
A brief [not complete, add
to the list] synopsis of the persona of God:
·
Love
·
Gracious
·
Merciful
·
Righteous
·
Longsuffering
·
Gentle
·
Faithful
·
Compassionate
·
Forgiving
·
Friend
The ultimate goal of Bible study is to
know God, not simply memorize Bible trivia. As you study, identify the attributes
of God. For instance: make a note when you read of God extending His
forgiveness or compassion, and remember how He has done the same for you.
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