LEVITICUS 19:28

 

Lesson Scope: God’s view on self-expression with a focus on tattoos and various alterations to the body.

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God wants all humans to be happy from day to day.

Encouraging us to find something to be positive about each day within the small moments and events we experience each day (1 Peter 3:10-11). Overall, God wants his children to have joy forever. Happiness and Joy are great as a combination. However, happiness may not find us every single moment, because happiness is relative to the current experiences we are having from moment to moment. Happiness is an emotion that can come and go as events change from second to second, just like sadness and anger.

Joy, though, is an ever-active attitude and understanding that is rooted with purpose and direction. So, no matter how happy you may feel from moment to moment, joy is an attitude that preservers through all events or moments.

Your happiness, or many other emotions, will naturally provoke an urge to express yourself outwardly, publicly, or even privately. God encourages self-expression that is clean, wholesome, and evoked by virtue.

1. Genesis 1:26-31 – God tells humankind that He has given everything to us to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish and subdue (achieve greatness).
2. 2 Tim 1:7 – God has instilled in us the full capability of powerful expression of love, along with mental stability. When psychological strength is rooted in love, the results lead to joy. Joy is a wholesome, natural, spiritual expression.
3. Psalm 35:27 – God wants us to be positive and express ourselves the right way. This right way is in doing what is right. When we do what is right, God wants us to see the fruit of this beautiful way of living.
4. Ecclesiastes 2:26 – God has purposed himself to give men good days and joy. These good days, and joy are tied to our desire for wisdom and knowledge.

 

Now, we see in God’s word that He has purposed us to have a way to express ourselves. This purpose is for righteousness and virtue. Righteousness is achievable through our desire to learn and understand what God wants us to do.

 

So, this brings us to the question of what we can actually do to express ourselves in every emotion, not just the joy God wants us to have. This is complex, but comprehendible.

The expressions for all emotions first must be rooted in our desire to understand and learn what, specifically, God allows by principle. Principle meaning, of love and truth. Love and Truth is what controls our whole existence, so everything about our existence must be validated by those two principles.

The Active Principles of All Existence.

• The Love Principle – guarantees that everything is done to safely, actively benefit everything that exists by interactions of purity.
• The Truth Principle - guarantees that everything is done by a specific, correct order (construct) to benefit everything in existence.

 

 

SELF-EXPRESSION

TATTOOS (BRANDING)

Gaining control over expression:

1. We begin our Christian journey with these two principles, love and truth, being reprogrammed back into our spirit and souls (1Peter1:22).
2. We are commanded to operate by these two principles for righteous validation (1John 3:18).

Operating by these two foundational principles will produce correct self-expression.

 

Lesson Focus: Is Tattooing a Valid Self-Expression?

Leviticus 19:28

First, we must stick to the basics, that God has placed humans in a structured existence. This entire event is governed by the two principles of love and truth.

So, we must critique each desire to express ourselves from the fidelity and authority of each principle. A question about tattoos is a conversation about self-expression.

If I want to get a tattoo to commemorate a person, for fun, for meaning, for show, or for creative purposes; will God accept this expression that involves altering my physical body to achieve the internal and external affirmation?

Short answer: No, God does not give us permission to get tattoos, cuttings, cosmetic surgeries, or add any type of branding to our existence. There are no other owners to be identified by, only God. Therefore, we cannot create any new identifying mark or brand.

*** Remember, your urge to express by any physical action begins with an emotional provocation. So, the genesis begins with the emotion, not the decision to get the tattoo. Actions of behavior are never fully instantaneous (or anomalous). They are produced by psychological events, conditions, and/or stimulations. So, getting a tattoo is the result of your desire to act on a feeling or emotion you had about something, an event, or someone else. Not specifically, the tattoo itself as the genesis. Because tattoos represent what we feel about ourselves, experiences, or events.

God in Leviticus 19:28  says to His people that He does not want them to cut themselves (damage or engrave) to express themselves, nor does he want them to mark up (tattoo) their bodies to express themselves. (Excluding medical needs)

He also says do not go to others to find external divinations or occult like sources for expression about our concerns or curiosities, also Lev 19:31; Deut 18:9-14; Eph 5:20 (witchcraft). He decrees this very proclamation by the purity and authority of HIS existence.

Again, by Himself does God command it not to be done, because of WHO GOD IS.

Therefore, when we look at the context, it reveals that our relationships or urges to express our internal vices are not enough to alter our physical bodies; Nor, attach ourselves to cultural ideas, notion, trends, fears, curiosities, philosophies, or standards.

So, even our minds (our souls) can be tattooed by using these concepts to express ourselves. So, we must avoid the temptation to change/alter our bodies or minds in that manner.

What should you do to express yourself? Philippians 4:4-9

Personal Reflection: Is it possible to express yourself righteously without altering anything?

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