A. God Himself says through Moses: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:28). This verse is sometimes quoted as proof that twenty-first century Christians are sinning if they get tattoos (or piercings.) On the other hand, Moses declared another law we also have the verse in which says: "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life" (Exodus 21:6). So in one Bible verse God forbids piercings and tattoos, and in another the Lord Himself commands the piercing of a body part.

God is not contradicting Himself here. These Bible verses are no different from any others. They must be understood in the full context in which God gave them to us. The Leviticus verse quoted above comes from a section of Scripture in which God gives a wide variety of laws and instructions for His people. Some of those laws and instructions governed sexual behavior, some were dietary, and some might have been given in view of the religious superstitions of the people in countries neighboring Israel. (This might well be the case with these commands about tattoos and cutting or piercing the skin.) But regardless of the particular area of instruction, the overall point of every one of those laws was to keep the Israelites as a separate people, set aside by God to be His holy people from whom the Savior would be born. If the Israelites did all the same things their unbelieving neighbors did they would much more easily mingle with and become part of those unbelieving peoples. That, in turn, could interfere with the fulfillment of the promises regarding the coming of the Savior.

Since God both commands and forbids the piercing of our bodies in the two verses from Exodus and Leviticus, it is clearly the circumstances and reasons for the piercing (or tattooing) rather than the act, itself, which might be sinful. Consider how Ephesians 5:3 might have a bearing on getting a piercing or tattoo. "Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity" (Ephesians 5:3). The location or style of a piercing, or the picture or words in a tattoo might be sexually suggestive. ANY "hint of sexual immorality" would certainly be improper and sinful since Christians are to "glorify God in your own body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20). But not all tattoos carry suggestive words or pictures. Our society does not consider pierced ears to be suggestive of immoral behavior any more than people would consider it suggestive or immoral to wear clip-on ear rings.

Many Christians aged fifty or older-including this writer-might not feel comfortable with other people's body piercings, or maybe even with tattoos. But when that's the case, we have to be careful that we don't forbid or condemn as "sinful" behaviors which in and of themselves have not been forbidden by God.

Paul Zager is pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Lombard, Illinois and a member of the ELS Doctrine Committee.