As God Intended?

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Published on Monday, 13 June 2011 11:11

As God Intended?

 

Those who support the Naked Bike Ride insist that nakedness is “as God Intended” as an argument to Christians who oppose the event. If you are a Christian it’s important to understand why nudity in public is not Biblical. Please remember that the naked body in itself is not ‘indecent’ or ‘offensive’, however the context is important.

Although the world’s standards may permit or even encourage nudity, the Bible has a different perspective. It is true that the first humans were created unclothed by God (Genesis 2:25). Adam and Eve were innocent in their nakedness, but after the fall everything changed. When they sinned, “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). Never before had they realized they were unclothed—the concepts of “clothed” and “unclothed” were meaningless to them. Sin affected their hearts and minds, creating vulnerability, guilt, and shame, and these things produced fear (verse 10). In their attempt to cover their spiritual shame, Adam and Eve intuitively covered their bodies. We should note that, when God took away their fig leaves—a sadly inadequate covering—He replaced them with something more permanent—animal skins (verse 21). Thus, God regarded clothing as appropriate and necessary in a fallen world.

Nudity now has implications of sinfulness attached to it. With few exceptions, the Bible presents nakedness as shameful and degrading (Genesis 9:21; Exodus 20:26; 32:25; 2 Chronicles 28:19; Isaiah 47:3; Ezekiel 16:35-36; Luke 8:27; Revelation 3:17; 16:15; 17:16). The only passages in which nudity is free of shame are those that describe Eden’s idyllic setting or that deal with marital relations (Proverbs 5:18-19; Song of Solomon 4).

We still live in a fallen world, surrounded by lust, immorality, and perversion. The innocence of Eden is gone and naturist philosophy ignores the results of the fall. Even in “asexual” contexts, public displays of nudity dishonour God by pretending an innocence which no longer exists.

2 Peter 1:5-9 begins “Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence”. Christians should always seek to follow God’s laws, (the writer of Psalm 119 is not looking for reasons to compromise God’s commandments), and shouldn’t be afraid to teach God’s ways to people who have not yet become Christians. John the Baptist prepared the way for people to receive Jesus, by making their paths straight (Luke 1:16-17, John 1:23), he was not afraid to draw people’s attention to moral issues for their own benefit. Christians be encouraged to stand up for what is moral, as they are called to be a light to the world (Matthew 5:16, Philippians 2:15).