Bible Discussion Thread

Our Body is a Temple for the Holy Spirit, if people mark up their bodies with peircing's and tattoo's is this something God looks at as sin?

Barbara, the only clear reference we have on this issue, is found in Leviticus 19:28: "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." And this was one of the many commands the Lord gave to Israel for living a proper, God-fearing life.

Some would use that verse against those today who have taken up the 'fashion' of tattooing & piercings, though it wasn't the intention of that command from God as in those days it would have been done for recognition of "the dead" & other occultic purposes (verses 26 & 31). So, whether God looks at the present day markings as sin, only God can declare that.

However, other issues come into play here for the Christian: as you said, we are no longer our own but now the purchased of God & Temples of the Holy Spirit. As well, whenever we do things, such as these, the clothes we wear, the places we visit, the people we associate with, what we fill our minds with & many more, are matters that every child of God has to seriously consider as we live on this Earth & bear witness to His Name. If the believer is walking in the Spirit, he/she would soon know in his/her spirit, how he/she should live before God & others. Personally, I find it difficult to believe that a Christian could honestly justify tattoos & piercings as of little godly consequence & consider it a thing of beauty before the Lord. It smacks of vanity & desiring to be identified with the crowd. We are to identify ourselves with our Saviour & to walk carefully & humbly before our God ( Ephesians 4:17).