Troublesome Topic: NAKEDNESS TODAY
We all need to realize and acknowledge our sinful condition, but we don’t need to flaunt it. I guess the people who invented the bikini and the speedo were not aware that when people expose that much of their skin to others they are exposing their shame, highlighting to others the sinful condition they inherited from Adam and Eve. We now live in a culture that glorifies nakedness, placing it in a great number of movies, and making it readily available on the internet and in magazines. This reminds me of something Paul wrote about the enemies of Christ, “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame” (Phil 3:18).
The biggest cause for concern is not that our culture has taken a moral nose-dive, but that the church of Christ has followed along. We have not served as a brake pedal to slow the downward spiral. Now so-called believers look just like the world in so many ways there is little difference between them and others except for the fact that they “go to church.” Many who claim to follow Christ dress the way others do, and watch the same movies and TV shows that others do. We have missed the fact that God sees it as a big deal if we look at someone else’s nakedness.
What’s more, the church is using the world’s definition of nakedness rather than God’s definition. I can hear some what some of you are thinking right now – “God’s definition is ridiculously strict.” To that I reply that God is God and we are not. If His definition of something seems wrong to us we should not look for an alternate definition, we should seek to bring our thinking in line with God’s thinking. In doing so we will learn that God knew what He was doing after all. It always turns out that way.
But that is not all, it gets worse the more we consider this problem. As a man I wish to make clear to my sisters in the Lord that there are two things that catch a man’s attention: skin and shape. Some women think that if they are not showing lots of cleavage they are not showing too much of themselves. However, they may be wearing a very form-fitting top and thus showing much of themselves without showing skin. Something similar can be said of the tights or leggings or whatever they are called. They leave nothing to the imagination because they show the exact shape of the legs, the caboose, and the front parts as well. The male desire for stimuli would like to see both shape and skin, but shape does attract just like skin does. Ask yourself this question: If Jesus were here in human form, would He approve of form-fitting clothes for women? Would He follow the Old Testament definition of nakedness or the modern American definition? Would He define nakedness as showing the shape of key body parts as well as the skin? God’s definition of nakedness has not changed; we are guilty of moving the goal posts.
When the phrase “moved the goal posts” is used, the mental image usually involves some guys picking up the goal by hand and moving it a few feet or a few yards. It is still on the field, just in a different place. But regarding the issue of showing our nakedness, we have loaded the goal posts onto a truck, driven the truck till it ran out of gas, then we offloaded the goal to the ditch beside the road! Then we get all upset when someone points in the general direction of the field and mentions how far we moved the goal. Many who claim to follow Christ say, “How dare he tell me how I should dress.”
Since nakedness is the symbol of shame, a woman that shows an attention-getting amount of shapeliness is flaunting her nakedness, and parading her shame for all to see. A man who studies a woman who is showing off her shapeliness is participating in her shame. Elsewhere I have written about the covenant conditions regarding the pure and the impure.
The impure contaminates us by association, holiness is imparted within us by a Holy God. You cannot become holy by associating with a church, but you can become contaminated by associating with the world. Looking at a woman’s shame is participating with her in it. It is association. It is contamination. It is bringing her shame upon myself.
God gave severe punishment to men who looked at someone else’s nakedness, be that of a woman or another man. Noah’s son should have honored his father by covering his shame, not joking about it to his brothers. God punished him severely for what he did, God cursed him and his descendants.
Modesty for women and self-control for men are not optional. Remember, nakedness is the symbol of our shame and is therefore associated with the curse of sin. Jesus graciously, and sacrificially provided us with the remedy for sin, breaking the power of the curse. Having been forgiven from our sins through faith in what Jesus did, why would we want to take upon ourselves more shame, more of the curse? Is being well-accepted in our culture worth that?
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (II Cor 5:1-5).
In this passage we notice, first of all, that Paul is using two sets of imagery simultaneously, and he is mixing the two together. Having a building, an eternal dwelling, is equated to being clothed. In fact at one point he says we are “longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling.” That reminds us of the times Paul says things like “put on love.” The idea of putting something on is that these things should characterize us. But the concept of being clothed instead of being naked refers back to the concept of the shame that comes from the curse. When we read in the passage quoted above, “Because when we are clothed we will not be found naked,” substitute the word “ashamed” for “naked” and you have the meaning that Paul was striving to communicate. The people of his day understood this very well. The imagery of a house speaks to the issues of stability and protection, in this case primarily protection. Notice the passage above speaks about the destruction of our “tent,” our body. The dwelling God is preparing for us will not suffer damage or destruction, bearing out the image of protection. However, being ashamed (naked) is the opposite of being protected. The shame that comes from the curse works against the spiritual protection that God has in mind for us. So why would someone want to flaunt their shame, their nakedness?
The church has followed the world to such a degree that most women in our churches today dress just like the world and think nothing of it. Their sense of what is appropriate is shaped by culture, not by a clear understanding of God’s word.
Does taking on shame and the curse jeopardize our salvation?
No, not initially. It can eventually because it draws us into a life lived for self not for God; it is part of living like the world instead of living like one who is set apart. We do many things that do not please God, we fall short of His high standards in many ways. God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt in a few short weeks, but it took at least 40 years to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. God is gracious and kind, He works with us where we are, He understands our weaknesses. But He never lets down His standard of Holiness.
The point is that following the world in this issue of nakedness and shame is taking us in the wrong direction and the consequences are much greater than we realized.
Another way I know that the issue of shame as it relates to nakedness does not, by itself, jeopardize our salvation is this: When He came to live among us for 30 years, Jesus wore clothes. He looked just like the rest of us who try to cover our shame with clothing, even though He had no shame to cover. In that way He shared our shame-filled condition without having any shame.
Let’s go back to the garden of Eden for a moment. Adam and Eve sinned, after which they immediately felt shame. The nakedness which had been so natural and right before now felt wrong. They tried to cover their “special” parts with leaves. Before sending them out of the garden God gave them a more proper covering. It was important to God to help them out by covering their shame. They would still be aware of their shame, but at least others would not see it and magnify it by gazing upon it. But for God to cover their shame properly a sacrifice was required. Blood was shed. A life was taken. We need to do our best to grasp how big an issue shame was for God, for Adam and Eve, and for the people of Biblical times. And, rather than seeing people of those days as unintelligent and out of touch with reality, we should see ourselves as lacking in wisdom and out of touch with God’s reality.
I want to call all of my brothers and sisters in the Lord to ignore culture and study God’s word, to stay as far away from the shame of sin’s curse as possible, and to live in a way that pleases God rather than self.