ReNude Life Publishing

Objection 1:
Modesty requires women to cover up.

People often read 1 Timothy 2:9 as “Women must dress modestly…” and they stop there, assuming they know the meaning.

They ignore the rest of the verse and believe it to be an instruction for women to cover up their bodies, instilling arbitrary rules and ignoring the historical context.

Does modesty mean cover up your body?

In Greco-Roman times, it was common for women to climb the social ladder by out-dressing everyone in the room. Whoever had the tallest hairstyle and the most expensive jewelry won!

Context is key when we read the rest of what Paul writes:

I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

1 Timothy 2:9

This text is not about exposing too much skin. It’s about church being a place for common ground and harmony, not a fashion show.

The word “modesty” originally had nothing to do with clothes or covering up. As late as 1828, Webster’s Dictionary continued to define modesty without mentioning clothing.

Modesty died when false modesty was born.

Mark Twain

Eugene Peterson’s The Message got Paul’s idea across when he wrote that modesty is, “not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions, but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.”

Christian naturists believe that it is possible to be modest while one is completely nude, just as it is possible to be immodest while fully clothed. Naturist or not, modesty doesn’t require clothing. It only requires a heart that is humble before the King.

MIND RENUDE:
Modesty is an attitude, not a dress code.

Objection 2:
We are commanded not to see other people’s nakedness.

In the 18th and 20th chapters of Leviticus, we are repeatedly instructed NOT to “uncover the nakedness of…” a long list of specific individuals.

It seems like a clear and simple prohibition against seeing other people naked. Perhaps it also means that we cannot be seen either?

We can determine the true meaning by agreeing to interpret Scripture carefully, with historical and grammatical context.

It Means Something Else

Bible scholars agree that uncovering nakedness is a Hebrew idiom. An idiom is something used in place of something else, such as “raining cats and dogs.” 

Evidently, scholars tell us that “uncover nakedness” always means “to participate in sexual intercourse.” Sometimes, it can also be a means of challenging rulership.

When you hear someone say, “I’m sleeping with so and so,” your cultural knowledge will tell you that they aren’t really sleeping. It’s a modern euphemism for sex.

Idioms and euphemisms often change across cultures and over time, so we should tread carefully when we discover one.

Going Modern

So, take a moment to pick up a modern translation of Scripture and flip to the verses in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20. Translators have updated them to read “Do not have sexual relations with….”

If you turn over to Leviticus 20:11, you get a double euphemism, but at least the modern writing is more clear!

The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Leviticus 20:11

In reality, non-sexual nudity was commonplace in Bible times. Public nudity was normal. People bathed, worked, exercised, and played while naked. 

God made us with these “skin suits” and they are perfect, just as they are. 

In conclusion, simple nakedness is simply not prohibited.

MIND RENUDE:
A prohibition against illicit sexual activity is not a prohibition against simple nudity.

Objection 3: If the priests had to wear underwear, we do too.

In the Book of Exodus, we read a curious set of instructions that God gave to the nation of Israel: priests could not climb stairs or ladders to get to the burning altar:

And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it. ‭

Exodus‬ ‭20:26‬

Later, this requirement was changed, so that priests on duty were required to wear underwear:

You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs.

Exodus‬ ‭28:42‬

Why did Israel’s priests wear underwear?

Biblical scholars agree that garments worn by everyone in those days were incredibly loose and easily blown aside. In order to set them apart for service, special undergarments were appointed during this time of worship. The people, of course, would still wear none.

But why such oddly specific requirements?

The answer is that God’s priests were required to be different from the pagan cultures around them. Those false religions included (and often required) sexual displays or intercourse as a key component of god or goddess worship. Not so, for Israel.

Was it the nudity… or the sex?

Given that priests were required to wear underwear while on duty, we may conclude that they did not do so while off duty. In fact, they might wear nothing.

Adjusting our lenses for historical norms reminds us that simple nudity was commonplace and underwear was novel.

In fact, during a public ceremony before the men became priests, they appeared fully nude and unashamed before the entire nation of Israel. This fact runs in “stark” contrast to the idea that their nudity was offensive to God!

In Leviticus chapter eight, Moses gathers all of Israel together to introduce the newly designed priestly garments. As part of the public ceremony, he bathes the priests with water, one by one.

Their bodies having been purified, Moses then dresses them in their full uniforms, including the undergarments. Finally, he anoints them with oil.

It can also be inferred that those priestly garments are a metaphor prophesying Jesus, our High Priest. 

As you were baptized into Christ, [you] have put on Christ.

Galatians 3:27

In Colossians, Paul reminds us that we

have put off the old self with its practices, and we have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Colossians 3:9-10

Now that we have “put on” the Lord Jesus, we are fully clothed at all times in His Righteousness. Under the law, Israel’s priests had to wear underwear, but Jesus has fulfilled the law.

Our earthly garments? Completely decorative!

MIND RENUDE:

Garments made for a specific time and task do not extend out a requirement for all times and peoples.

Objection 4:
If God covered Adam and Eve after the Fall, this sets a pattern we should follow.

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 

Genesis 3:21

It seems like common sense that God would condone Adam and Eve’s sinful decision to cover themselves by replacing their fig leaves with animal skins. 

It’s also commonly believed that since God clothed Adam and Eve, He also put in place a commandment for people to always be clothed. 

Not so. When God hand-sculpted Adam and Eve nude, He “saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” 

The goodness of God’s creation did not change.

Two Important Facts Stand Out

First, when God clothed Adam and Eve, there was no one on Earth from whom to hide their nudity. Otherwise, we would logically determine that married couples must never be nude in front of each other!

Second, there is no Scriptural support for the assertion that the garments God gave them were designed to correct a moral problem. God covered Adam and Eve out of His providence.

Rather, Scripture shows that clothing was provided to protect their vulnerable bodies from the new and hostile environment outside the Garden.  With its cold and thorny terrain, the skins God provided demonstrated His great kindness.

Up until modern times, clothing was understood to be used ornamentally and situationally. Our ancestors realized this.

We can also know that through the redemption of Jesus Christ, we are invited “back to the Garden” — into God’s presence — where we can again be “naked and unashamed.” 

The only “pattern” God made was that clothing is a gift – a tool to be used when it is needed. It is not, however, a requirement.

MIND RENUDE:
From His love and providence, God gave them clothing for the harsh new environment.

Objection 5:

Men have uncontrollable lust
at the sight of a nude woman.

Late one afternoon King David saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful…. So, David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.

2 Samuel 11:2,4

Many Christians believe that men have uncontrollable lust at the sight of a nude woman. Therefore, they reason, women should always cover themselves, so as not to cause a person to sin.

They believe that Bathsheba tempted David to sin when she bathed in public. Following this logic — and had Bathsheba kept her clothes on — David supposedly would not have broken the commandments against coveting, adultery and murder.

The same Christians would be shocked to know that until the 4th century, believer’s baptisms were conducted in public — very much in the nude.

Hippolytus of Rome, one of the most important second-third century Christian theologians, chronicled the common instructions for water baptism in 215 AD:

When they come to the water, [it] shall be pure and flowing... 
Then they shall take off all their clothes. 
The children shall be baptized first. ... 
After this, the men will be baptized. 
Finally, the women, after they have unbound their hair and removed their jewelry. 
No one shall take any foreign object with themselves down into the water…. 
Then, after these things, the bishop passes each of them on nude to the elder who stands at the water. 
They shall stand in the water naked. 
A deacon, likewise, will go down with them into the water.

After being immersed three separate times, 

When they have come up out of the water, they shall be anointed by the elder with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying, ‘I anoint you with holy oil in the name of Jesus Christ.’ 

If it were true that the mere sight of a nude woman would cause a man to sin, surely early Christians would have conducted themselves differently! Perhaps it is we, the modern believers, who have seen sin where there is no sin!

Bathsheba’s bath was perfectly innocent. In fact, when Nathan reprimands David for HIS sin, he represents Bathsheba as an innocent lamb. 

Our Lord Jesus says:

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Matthew 15:19

Sin’s root is in the heart — not another person’s flesh.

MIND RENUDE:

A nude person is not the cause of another’s sin. It is the person’s own heart that needs to be cleansed.

Objection 6:

We should never be seen without our clothes.

Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his tunic with him, that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.

Jesus, Revelation 16:15

It sure seems like this is an open and shut condemnation of shameful public nudity here, doesn’t it? After all, it says the words naked and shameful in the same verse! 

Modern Christians tend to immediately (and mistakenly) agree that nakedness automatically equals shamefulness.

But what is this verse really talking about?

Biblical scholar FF Bruce explains what readers would have once understood:

The captain of the temple in Jerusalem made his rounds of the precincts by night, and if a member of the temple police was caught asleep at his post, his clothes were confiscated and burned, and he was sent away naked in disgrace.

The symbolic picture here is that of being vigilant! It reminds us of how the Israelites were instructed in Egypt to eat the Passover:

With your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand…

Exodus 12:11

There was no time to undress for sleep that night! Instead of knee-jerk reactions, biblical interpretation requires more than one verse.

Sleeping naked was, and still is, a normal nightly state and this makes perfect sense.

If you’re a firefighter or a policeman, however, you have to be ready at a moment’s notice. We should likewise be ready – spiritually awake!

The book of Job tells us that humanity can be clothed with either “righteousness and justice” or with “shame.” 

Which would you rather wear? 

MIND RENUDE:

Symbolism is found throughout the Scriptures. God calls us to be “clothed with righteousness.” That kind of garment is not sold in any store!

Objection 7:

Seeing a person’s nudity forces the viewer to stumble into sin.

Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 

Romans 14:13

Somehow, over the passage of time, this verse has morphed from being an instruction about unity and mutual upbuilding into an excuse to shame women for allowing their outer beauty to be seen or admired by others. 

Even though Paul instructs us in the preceding verses, “Do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil,” people continue to regard female bodies as though dangerous and expect women to hide their shapeliness. 

While this passage is actually about the freedom to eat food sacrificed to idols, let’s work with the interpretation that a person’s body could be a stumbling block to “weaker” brethren. 

If you find someone attractive or notice their outer beauty, have you already committed adultery in your heart? Does the ability to curb lustful thinking really depend on another person’s wardrobe?

A Body is Not a Stumbling Block

Keep reading. Paul is trying to instruct us that liberty welcomes growth. He says,

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Romans 14:1

And to the weaker person, he asks:

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Romans 14:3

Shaming our bodies leads to self-devaluation, depression, and dysfunction.

Shame creates distance in relationships (including with God).

Shame steals intimacy and prevents us from experientially knowing and loving others deeply.

These verses should never be used to uphold weakness as though it were righteous. 

Hebrews 5 and 6 teach us that as Christians, we are to move on from childish milk and grow to eat meat in maturity — not to stay stuck in childish, weak ways forever. 

 Isn’t it time to grow up?

MIND RENUDE:

Weakness is not righteousness.
Liberty welcomes growth.

Objection 8:

Seeing a nude person directly activates lust.

…Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:28

It has been extracted from this verse that nakedness (full or partial) is the direct cause of grave sins. Our question, then, is this: when does nudity equal lust?

Following this idea, Christians have sought to keep women under wraps, lest others fall helplessly into the pit.

Whole industries have grown up around “lust prevention” techniques. Books have been written. Sermons have been preached. Software has been coded.

And, yet…

Does what one chooses to wear or not wear cause another to lust or covet?

Using this same logic, we would be forced to conceal cupcakes to prevent gluttony and abolish money to thwart greed.  

But this is absurd. We cannot reasonably ban nudity simply because an individual might be tempted to lust. There must be another way!

Admiration of the beauty of a member of the other sex, nude or otherwise, cannot be automatically equated with lust.

Only if wrongful desire is added does appreciation become lust, and therefore sin. Even then, it is the one who lusts – not the object of lust – who has sinned. 

There are circumstances in which nakedness is not immodest. If someone takes advantage of such an occasion to treat the person as an object . . . it is only he who is guilty of shamelessness . . . not the other.

Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body

And James 1: 14 says “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Lust, then, like all sin, originates in the heart. 

Yet, we are not without hope! Since the beginning, when God specially crafted human beauty and strength, we were always intended to be seen. 

Just as we admire the canyons, waterfalls and sunsets created by the Master’s Hand, our natural human bodies — the pinnacle of His Creation — deserve that same renewed view!

James 1:17 concludes: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights….”

MIND RENUDE:

Lust is born in the heart. It is a choice, not an automatic response.