The Worldly View of the Body
It’s all about sex! Everything you see in this world anymore is about sex. Everything from vehicle sales advertisements to children’s clothing lines is about sex. We are dressing our kids to look like little prostitutes from the earliest ages. Proverbs 7:10 says “And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot…” there is a look that God is not happy with, surprisingly it’s not nudity. I’d even go so far as to say it’s more of a behavior that God is not happy with and the look that goes along with that behavior. You see, God is for marital purity due to the fact that the relationship of a husband and a wife is representative of the relationship of a believer and The Savior and He is always true to us.
The worldly or sexual view of the body could also be called the pornographic view of the body. This viewpoint calls a person’s naked body indecent or lustful if seen by anyone but his or her spouse and is an entirely man-made notion, not one that came from our Creator. God did not create the idea that the body was only to be naked in order to have sex. Otherwise there would have been no naked in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:25 says “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” I do not believe that Adam and Eve were spending every minute of every day in the Garden having sex, do you? God tells us that He put Adam and Eve in the Garden “to dress it and to keep it.” He was gardening in the Garden and he was doing so in the naked and unashamed condition that he was created in. So, God’s view of the naked body has absolutely nothing to do with sex, yet our society sees the naked body only as a sexual thing. So, if the world sees the body one way and God sees the body another way...one of them is wrong. God saw Adam and Eve in the Garden, naked and unashamed and what did He say about it…“that it was good.”
Something else to consider is that Jesus Himself while walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve was probably naked as well. So many well-meaning Christians right now just gasped I’m sure. Think about it, if Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden and Christ was clothed wouldn’t it have been rather obvious? Adam and Eve weren’t stupid, they weren’t cave men…they were a special creation of God, had the best DNA the world has ever known. They walked with God and talked with God, they spent time together in sweet fellowship (which is why we were created in the first place). Adam named the animals (who were all also naked) so he was a highly intelligent guy. Now if Adam was naked and Eve was naked and every animal in the Garden was naked, but Jesus walked around clothed wouldn’t something have seemed amiss? God tells us that He created Adam in His image…“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” Years ago, my wife and I went to see the creation story at the Sight & Sound theatre in Strasburg, Pennsylvania while we were in Pennsylvania on vacation. It was an incredible production, but one of the things that stood out to us most was that after Adam was created Jesus walked him over to a pool of water and had him look down into it, and upon viewing his own reflection Christ asked him what he saw. Adam’s response was that he saw Christ. It was a very powerful dramatization of what it meant that we were created in the very image of God. Not quite what the world has taught you about the naked body. My personal opinion is that well-meaning Christians have taught that nudity is wrong with the intention of teaching them that sexual impurity is wrong, just as some well-meaning Christians have taught their children that sex is bad, rather than teaching them the Truth which is that sex outside of marriage is bad. Please dear Christian, do not add to or take away from the Word of God. Sex outside of marriage IS bad, but sex is not bad.
Hebrews 13:4 teaches that “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.” Sex outside of marriage IS bad, but the naked body…according to The Word of God IS good. God says the naked body is good, so ask yourself…does my view match God’s view?
Now about this time someone has already said in their minds if not out loud, but God clothed them after they sinned…yes, He did and we will deal with that in a moment, but let’s not skip right past the point that the pornographic and worldly view that the naked body is only a sexual thing is not God’s teaching but rather a man made creation. God’s teaching according to THE WORD of GOD is that man and woman were created naked, unashamed and that their nudity was non-sexual! So, if your view of the naked body is that it needs covered up, something to be ashamed of and a sexual thing…ask yourself, am I in direct opposition to the Word of God.
Now, let’s deal with the question of the covering…God clothed Adam and Eve after the fall so, aren’t we supposed to cover then. God clothed Adam and Eve as a symbolic covering for their sin. God shed the blood of an innocent animal (the one who was slain had done nothing wrong and yet was slain in order to symbolically cover the sin of the one who had) in order to show that there was a cost for our bad behavior. Hebrews 9:22 says “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” Christ shed innocent blood that day to show the cost for sin and then clothed them with the coats of those very animals as a reminder…their clothing was symbolic of the covering for their sin. It was meant to be a deterrent, but nowhere in this historical account does Christ then instruct Adam and Eve to now wear clothes at all times. If that is the lesson that you got out of this account then you’ve missed the point entirely! The point was that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! If God wanted us clothed at this point and forever more throughout history do you not think that this would have been the perfect time to say so? If now, all of the sudden that His creation, the creation that was made in His very image should now be ashamed of that image and should hide it don’t you think that would have been important enough to tell us or them or somebody? What has happened instead is that well-meaning Christians have taken this account that is so important to our understanding of sin and the price for it and forgiveness and have used it to teach what they want to about covering up God’s beautiful creation. It’s because of a distorted view of the naked body…it’s because Satan has changed the meaning of the naked body from something beautiful and representing God’s very image to something sexual and now you hide it. Let’s see, God wanted to display His creation made after His image and instead we shamefully hide it. I wonder who is happy about that, God or Satan?
The other thing to keep in mind here is that if God wanted us clothed forevermore from that time forward then husbands and wives would also not be allowed to see each other naked. The reality is that Adam and Eve were the only two people on the entire planet at the time. So, if God clothed them because now seeing someone naked was a sin, then they were not allowed to see each other as there just wasn’t anyone else there. Well, we know that’s not true so how is it that we have made that it doesn’t apply to them even though they are the only people on the planet, but it does apply to everyone else even though there was no one else? If you are going to say that because God clothed Adam and Eve that seeing someone naked is now a sin, then in order to stay consistent in your doctrine you must conclude that seeing your husband or wife naked is also a sin. Now, does anyone actually believe that…of course not! I'd say that it does not look good for that doctrinal position.
The worldly or sexual view of the body could also be called the pornographic view of the body. This viewpoint calls a person’s naked body indecent or lustful if seen by anyone but his or her spouse and is an entirely man-made notion, not one that came from our Creator. God did not create the idea that the body was only to be naked in order to have sex. Otherwise there would have been no naked in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:25 says “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” I do not believe that Adam and Eve were spending every minute of every day in the Garden having sex, do you? God tells us that He put Adam and Eve in the Garden “to dress it and to keep it.” He was gardening in the Garden and he was doing so in the naked and unashamed condition that he was created in. So, God’s view of the naked body has absolutely nothing to do with sex, yet our society sees the naked body only as a sexual thing. So, if the world sees the body one way and God sees the body another way...one of them is wrong. God saw Adam and Eve in the Garden, naked and unashamed and what did He say about it…“that it was good.”
Something else to consider is that Jesus Himself while walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve was probably naked as well. So many well-meaning Christians right now just gasped I’m sure. Think about it, if Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden and Christ was clothed wouldn’t it have been rather obvious? Adam and Eve weren’t stupid, they weren’t cave men…they were a special creation of God, had the best DNA the world has ever known. They walked with God and talked with God, they spent time together in sweet fellowship (which is why we were created in the first place). Adam named the animals (who were all also naked) so he was a highly intelligent guy. Now if Adam was naked and Eve was naked and every animal in the Garden was naked, but Jesus walked around clothed wouldn’t something have seemed amiss? God tells us that He created Adam in His image…“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” Years ago, my wife and I went to see the creation story at the Sight & Sound theatre in Strasburg, Pennsylvania while we were in Pennsylvania on vacation. It was an incredible production, but one of the things that stood out to us most was that after Adam was created Jesus walked him over to a pool of water and had him look down into it, and upon viewing his own reflection Christ asked him what he saw. Adam’s response was that he saw Christ. It was a very powerful dramatization of what it meant that we were created in the very image of God. Not quite what the world has taught you about the naked body. My personal opinion is that well-meaning Christians have taught that nudity is wrong with the intention of teaching them that sexual impurity is wrong, just as some well-meaning Christians have taught their children that sex is bad, rather than teaching them the Truth which is that sex outside of marriage is bad. Please dear Christian, do not add to or take away from the Word of God. Sex outside of marriage IS bad, but sex is not bad.
Hebrews 13:4 teaches that “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.” Sex outside of marriage IS bad, but the naked body…according to The Word of God IS good. God says the naked body is good, so ask yourself…does my view match God’s view?
Now about this time someone has already said in their minds if not out loud, but God clothed them after they sinned…yes, He did and we will deal with that in a moment, but let’s not skip right past the point that the pornographic and worldly view that the naked body is only a sexual thing is not God’s teaching but rather a man made creation. God’s teaching according to THE WORD of GOD is that man and woman were created naked, unashamed and that their nudity was non-sexual! So, if your view of the naked body is that it needs covered up, something to be ashamed of and a sexual thing…ask yourself, am I in direct opposition to the Word of God.
Now, let’s deal with the question of the covering…God clothed Adam and Eve after the fall so, aren’t we supposed to cover then. God clothed Adam and Eve as a symbolic covering for their sin. God shed the blood of an innocent animal (the one who was slain had done nothing wrong and yet was slain in order to symbolically cover the sin of the one who had) in order to show that there was a cost for our bad behavior. Hebrews 9:22 says “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” Christ shed innocent blood that day to show the cost for sin and then clothed them with the coats of those very animals as a reminder…their clothing was symbolic of the covering for their sin. It was meant to be a deterrent, but nowhere in this historical account does Christ then instruct Adam and Eve to now wear clothes at all times. If that is the lesson that you got out of this account then you’ve missed the point entirely! The point was that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! If God wanted us clothed at this point and forever more throughout history do you not think that this would have been the perfect time to say so? If now, all of the sudden that His creation, the creation that was made in His very image should now be ashamed of that image and should hide it don’t you think that would have been important enough to tell us or them or somebody? What has happened instead is that well-meaning Christians have taken this account that is so important to our understanding of sin and the price for it and forgiveness and have used it to teach what they want to about covering up God’s beautiful creation. It’s because of a distorted view of the naked body…it’s because Satan has changed the meaning of the naked body from something beautiful and representing God’s very image to something sexual and now you hide it. Let’s see, God wanted to display His creation made after His image and instead we shamefully hide it. I wonder who is happy about that, God or Satan?
The other thing to keep in mind here is that if God wanted us clothed forevermore from that time forward then husbands and wives would also not be allowed to see each other naked. The reality is that Adam and Eve were the only two people on the entire planet at the time. So, if God clothed them because now seeing someone naked was a sin, then they were not allowed to see each other as there just wasn’t anyone else there. Well, we know that’s not true so how is it that we have made that it doesn’t apply to them even though they are the only people on the planet, but it does apply to everyone else even though there was no one else? If you are going to say that because God clothed Adam and Eve that seeing someone naked is now a sin, then in order to stay consistent in your doctrine you must conclude that seeing your husband or wife naked is also a sin. Now, does anyone actually believe that…of course not! I'd say that it does not look good for that doctrinal position.
