We are reminded in scripture not to defile the Temple of God and we are also reminded that as Christians our bodies are the Temple of the Lord.
Pasting permanent graffiti on the Temple of the Lord is a defilement of that Temple in a much more permanent and obvious way that eating a bacon cheeseburger. This is not a “dietary” prohibition or a ceremonial prohibition such as the prohibition against cutting your hair one way or the other or occasionally pigging out on pig meat.
When you get a tattoo you are in effect saying to the world that your body is your own and not God's and that you are free to permanently defile it in any way you want.
When you combine the new testament verses which proclaim that your body is not yours to defile (that it was bought with a price by Christ) and that your body is now the Temple of the Lord, then pasting graffiti all over your body is certainly not something to shout from the rooftops as if God himself has approved your graffiti on his Temple. It basically says to the world either that you are proud of something other than the body God gave you as a Temple to him or you are just plain stupid and you don't care.
Right now getting a Tattoo is a worldly fad. But we are told that while we are “in” the world, we are not to be “of” the world. Nothing says you are “of” the world more than pasting permanent graffiti all over your body to say to the world “Hey, look at ME!”
Very well put. Thanks.
w, ping....
I can’t argue with that. Why tamper with perfection?