Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Can Christians Get Tattoos? | Questions You're Asking | Romans 14.5-8

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

Tattoos seem to be increasingly popular now, among Christians and non-Christians. What does the Bible say about them? Listen to https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Pastor Keith Simon) as he delves into several verses from both the Old and New Testament to continue our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/questions-youre-asking/ (Questions You're Asking). Interested in more content like this? Check out https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/pot-dinosaurs-cults-cain-works-based-salvation-and-was-teenage-jesus-omniscient/ (Pot, Dinosaurs, Cults, Cain, Works-Based-Salvation, and Was Teenage Jesus Omniscient?) from earlier in this series. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're answering questions that you're asking. A lot of these are coming from our Facebook page. So if you follow 10-minute Bible Talks on Facebook, you can ask questions that you want us to answer or vote on questions that other people are asking. Noah Mulvaney went to our Facebook page, and he asked the question, can Christians get to have to ask. tattoos. And I tell you that's what Noah did, just so you'll know that if you want, you can go to our

Facebook page and ask a question, and maybe we'll be able to devote an episode to answering your question. You can see why Noah asked this question. Tattoos have been on the rise for quite a few years now. All kinds of people have them. Young and old, people of all races, people of all economic backgrounds, men and women. Some people have one tattoo, some people have many. Some people, you can see their tattoo immediately. Some are hidden. Some tattoos are of Bible verses or of pictures that are important to people. Some just look to me at least like pretty cool designs.

Now, why are tattoos so popular? I'm probably not the person to try to answer that question. I mean, in one sense, why is anything in our culture popular? It seems that celebrities start something trending, and then tattoos you can see appeal to. to a certain kind of individualism that you can mark your body in a way that is distinct from anyone else. Now, my guess is that tattoos are just like everything else. They will come and go. They will be like any other fad. They will have their season in the sun, and then they will begin to

dissipate. If I had extra money, I might invest in tattoo removal. But Noah asked the question, can Christians get tattoos? Is there anything in the Bible that suggests that Christians, shouldn't get tattoos. Now, when people ask that question, it's usually in reference to Leviticus 1928. Here's what it says. Do not cut your bodies for the dead and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord. Now, what's meant by a tattoo in Leviticus 1928? And is that the same thing we think of when we use the word tattoo? Well, Leviticus 1928 literally translates this way. and to cutting for the dead you will not make in your flesh and writing marks you will not make on you I am the Lord now that word for writing marks is only used here in the Bible and so we're not

completely certain on what that word means but it is important to keep in mind that the English word tattoo did not come into our vocabulary until the late 1700s so there is grounds to be skeptical that our word tattoo is what is being referred to in Leviticus 19. Now let's go to the background of this command that we read in Leviticus 19. You might remember that Israel was rescued from slavery in Egypt and then spent time on the way to Canaan, the promised land. And so if you look at the archaeological evidence, what you'll find is that in Egypt they did use tattoos, although it was primarily women who got them, and it was almost always in connection to fertility.

Then in Canaan, the promised land, or what would have become the promised land, archaeological evidence shows that there was a lot of marking the body with ink, or even more extreme measures, like scarring yourself or branding, slashing. And you see some of that playing out in the pages of the Bible. For example, First Kings 1828, the Canaanites are cutting themselves for ritualistic purposes, mourning their dead, honoring their gods. So in light of how cutting yourself was used in Egypt and in Canaan, it seems like what God might be saying is to not scar yourself, to not cut yourself, to not slash yourself in connection with worshiping gods. There's always this danger that we'll take a definition of a modern word like tattoo.

and then when we see it in the Bible, impose on the Bible our modern definition. But I think if we do that in this case, we will misunderstand what the Bible is teaching us. Now, it's interesting that there are a couple passages in the Bible. It seems to indicate that God gets tattoos, or at least something similar to what we think of when we use that word. Revelation 1916, speaking of Jesus, he had on his garment and all. his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So was King of King's Lord of Lords? Was that title, a tattoo that Jesus had on his thigh? Well, I don't think that's how you should take the book of Revelation, but it is an image that the Bible is using. Or in Isaiah 49, God says, behold, I have

engraved you on the palm of my hands. So is that saying that God has our name tattooed on his body? Well, God is spirit. God does not have a body. I think the Bible is speaking anthropomorphically here to communicate an important truth, that God cares deeply about us. And in fact, by saying that our name is engraved on the palm of his hands, it might even be a reference to the crucifixion of Christ who had nails put through his hands for our sake, on our behalf. If you look at Leviticus 1928 and then cross-reference to some of the other places that your Bible says this theme is developed, you'll see that there are plenty of examples of pagan nations cutting themselves as part of their worship. And so you begin to fill out this picture that what Leviticus 19 is really doing is forbidding God's people from cutting themselves as worship to God. He's saying that you worship me differently than the pagans worship their gods. Bottom line, I don't think Leviticus 1928 is going to help us answer Noah's question about whether Christians can get tattoos. In fact, I think that question, should Christians get tattoos, is not answered anywhere in the Bible.

I think it's going to fall into this area of what you might call gray area, something that the Bible does not speak directly about. In Romans 14, it says that our conscience needs to be our guide in these gray areas. Now, of course, that means a sanctified conscience, a conscience that is walking with God, that knows the Bible, that knows our own heart. For example, you might want to ask yourself, what's my motive for getting a tattoo? Is it for God's glory or my glory? Now, you could ask that same question about, why do I go on this particular vacation? Why did I buy this particular house? So I don't want to set up a standard for getting a tattoo that is different than the standard we have of making decisions about lots of things in our life.

We should always be evaluating our choices and saying, why am I doing this? Is it for my glory or gods? Is this going to promote my kingdom or God's kingdom? If you're going to get a tattoo, you want to be careful that what you are getting put on your body is something that won't cause other people to stumble. It won't cause other people to sin. You might want to think long and hard about how others will interpret that tattoo.

But here's the bottom line. The Bible does not forbid tattoos. That is up to each individual's conscience to do as they see fit. But like everything else in our life, we will give an account for every word spoken and every tattoo we get. Thanks, Noah. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily.

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