God's Love for Our Nakedness

Your body belongs to God. He made it, He formed it, He loves it, He cares for it. The Bible is clear that what we do with our bodies sexually can be either beneficial or tremendously harmful. The laws of Leviticus 20 outline this reality with a repeated word, "nakedness."

Leviticus 20:17–21 (ESV) “If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. 18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. 19 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked one’s relative; they shall bear their iniquity. 20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. 21 If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

The most used word in Leviticus 20 is "nakedness". There's a sacredness to our nakedness.

We want to think our bodies are ours. They are not. Think of how using our body for sexual sin affects more than us. That's the theme of these regulations here in Leviticus 20. God does not just say these things are wrong. He keeps referring to the fact that these sins involve other people's privacy and sacredness. We don't just "do the deed" as the world likes to say, we harm each other and destroy relationships and rob people of what is most private and sacred about them before the community. 

Think of the destruction of our culture with pornography. We uncover someone's sacredness in the pursuit of our own pleasure and leave empty. Think of the destructive nature of adultery. A betrayed wife/husband is enraged because someone experienced what only he/she should. There is a sacred place on our bodies that should be limited to those we are united with in marriage. No one else should be there.

God is teaching us about our bodies here in much the same way as He teaches about the Tabernacle. Just as in the Tabernacle there were places for the regular worshippers, places for the priests and then one place for only the High Priest, so too our bodies reflect segregated areas for those we are acquainted with, those we are related to, and those we are married to. We do not show everyone everything. When we do, we violate our very being. 

Just as the Temple is sacred for meeting only with God in person, the body is sacred for intimately knowing Him.

If you turn to the New Testament, Paul picks up on these themes here in Leviticus 16-20 in 1 Corinthians 6. Leviticus 16 speaks of the day of Atonement and then Leviticus turns to sexual sins and the holiness code for God's chosen people in chapters 17-20. Now check out Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 6. 

1 Corinthians 6:13–20 (ESV) The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Incredible parallelism here between an ancient and somewhat confusing holiness code in Leviticus and Paul's Biblical instruction to Gentiles about their bodies in 1 Corinthians. The common theme is this: You are not your own and God considers your body a sacred place. 

We do not misuse our sexuality because God wants to keep us away from all the "fun". We do so because God is there with us, intimately communing with us. We RUN from sexual immorality because our bodies are sacred places for God. What a privilege and beauty to our nakedness.