Nudity Excuses

I have always had a hard time believing that there are people yet so untouched by civilisation that they still go naked. But I was totally stunned when I heard about the nudists, a sect of people, who resides or vacates in a particular place where they can go totally nude.

The craze to get nude is on a high, it’s been a long time since Eden when our nakedness was most paramount on our minds to conceal; in this age, nakedness is what we most seek to reveal. Could this be because we have gotten so used to our birthday suit that we are no longer self conscious about having more than a fair portion of it out? Or rather is it that we have lost respect for our bodies, and thus merely perceive it as an object to be put on display and purred over?

Except for the extreme case of the nudists, the nudity that has wormed its way into society is often not so blatant, it is subtle, suggestive, provocative- a slit there, a low-cut here, some flimsiness here, some see-through there. It’s all so subtle and alluring. It’s slowly crept in and gained our approval, even the ‘body’ of Christ has found a way to excuse it; you know the excuses- ‘nothing is really showing’, ‘it’s just a little bit of cleavage showing’, ‘the slit is just a inch higher than usual’, ‘besides the dress is more gorgeous this way and I look more attractive’…

Nudity has become a gray area for most Christians, it has become increasingly more difficult to decide where modesty ends and nudity starts. The acceptable and unacceptable has become controversial, modesty and nudity implies different things to different people; modesty’s lengths and cuts vary amongst people and school of thoughts.

It’s not my aim here to give specific lengths, cuts, styles and fabrics for modesty or to draw the line between modesty and nudity. Rather it’s my aim to help check our ‘acceptables’ and ‘unacceptables’, to determine their rightness. And it’s as simple as this question I came across a while ago- Imagine you are on a physical date with God, would you wear what you are wearing, would you BOLDLY AND CONFIDENTLY wear it on a date with God, with no reservations, doubts or self-consciousness? If yes, then go ahead and wear whatever it is you’re wearing. If no, then you should be disposing such an outfit. 

Yes, the above scenario is imaginary, but it is also realistic and what’s actually obtainable. We as Christians are Christ’s bride, our daily activities and even the minutest detail of our life should please Him, and this includes our dressing. All we do should be for Him, as a wife whose desire is it to please her husband. More so, our bodies are not ours, it is God’s, His temple where He dwells. And God’s temple is not meant to be drooled over or to pass snide comments on; neither is it meant to stir lust or unholy thoughts and desires. It is holy unto God, treat it so.

If we’ll be truthful with ourselves we usually know when we overstep the bounds of modesty, but the problem is, we try to reason it out, we give reasons, compare and contrast and at the end of the day decides against our better judgment. But this as to stop, if we want to restore morality to our society and cease the onslaught of lust and immorality; for if the church is going to be distracted by the same vice that destroys the society then who is going to fight the battle to preserve the values of God on earth.

Selah! And decide to make a change.