Because i have been asked a few times about my tattoos, i am doing this study. The first verse I looked at is the one in Leviticus.
Lev 19:28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD."
this verse is the only one that I know of that says anything about making marks on your flesh, of course you can never make a doctrine from one verse but single commands I think can stand. This verse though, is often used as a proof of God's anti tattooing command that does not exist. Let’s see what it says. Do not cut your flesh for the dead. This was a time when that was something that people (believe it or not) did. As a loved one died they would in the memory of this person makes cuts in their flesh. This was not ok for the Hebrew people as it was a pagan practice. He goes on to expound even deeper by saying "nor print any marks" but again this is in the context of marks for the dead. The "nor" in the statement is a conjunction joining the first statement to the last. This would in turn completely wipe out any usage of this text against tattooing. Unless of course it is a tattoo for the dead you might say. (Which I happen to have) but again we look at the context and this law was given to the Jews and all of the commandments before and after this one would in no way ever be followed by Christians. Exc...
Lev 19:26 “Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times."
Lev 19:27 “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard."
There is good advice is these words (Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment ) and I think we can see what pleases God by his mosaic law. But it was not given to us.
So again I draw the conclusion that this verse can not be used to oppose tattooing.
We must look else where to see if the bible has anything to say about this topic.
1Co 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."
We have the freedom in Christ that the Jew did not enjoy. We have been set free from the law as it is only a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. Paul will not be brought under the power of anything, this I feel would apply to drugs, food, smoking, and so on, all though, tattooing can be addictive, so this would apply there.
Like the verse before it, Paul says all things are lawful unto him, BUT!! Not all things edify. So the things we do should edify one another.
Does a tattoo edify?
I don't see how, if anything it stumbles people.
1Co 3:17 “If any man defile the
Here we have to settle the fact of whether a tattoo is defiling or not.
Im willing to bet that they are. God made us with this skin not full of
Ink, and so to put ink into it would be a defilement. That makes sense right? Hmm... now this is getting somewhere. Let’s be sure to always use the text of the bible in its context. I hear so many messages where verses like our first one here are used for something it was never meant to be used for. And as you can see it's not even necessary. Taking the whole counsel of God is all that is needed.
1Co 6:19 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
Ye are not your own. That’s a strong statement, and holds much to this point. The context of the verse is talking about sexual sin. Still it conveys a truth we must look at again. Our body is Gods temple, bought with the blood of Gods son, he purchased us, gave a down payment (the Holy Spirit) until Jesus comes for the redemption of the purchased possession. In light of this, we do not have the right to do anything with this body that God may not approve of.
we now can see that tattoos have the potential to bring us under their power, we know they are not edifying, there is a very very strong case that they are defiling and our bodies are not our own but have been purchased with the holy blood of Christ Jesus.
With all this in mind I strongly suggest Christians take these things into consideration before getting a tattoo.
oh and cuz they do not wash off!!!
