For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews...
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. - 1 Corinthians 12:12-14
I never expected to witness the deliberate quest for personal expression that I have seen in the last sixty-years. Sure, it all started innocently enough with the delusional basket-weaving, incense burning, flower children. ‘Flower power’ was their chant. Turn quickly to the dizzying present and what started innocently enough has now become a Frankenstein-like monster with snake tattoos and self-mutilation that was once confined to Canaanites, Philistines, and savages. For the vast majority, these cases are merely the outward manifestation of trending fads. But for those spiritually void individuals, it is what devils are made of.
Radical self expression has become an idol to the unbelievers. Scarification and tattooing are but two of the ways modern people idolize their own flesh. Multiple piercings serve the same purpose for many. And while these practices are not sinful in themselves (though of dubious benefit) they become sinful when they are done to enhance what God has created, as though God somehow failed to meet a human standard. If these same individuals were conspicuously ‘marked’ against their will, they would scream to high heaven and hate the stigmas and what they represented. Ask any Holocaust survivor.
These individuals yearn to be noticed for their looks rather than for their good works or accomplishments. It is indeed about pride and belonging to a particular group that shares the same notion of individuality, presenting themselves and their body enhancements as though it raised them above the conventional crowd somehow. This conduct does not differ from bejeweled plumage, gaudy facial makeup, body sculpting, gender surgery, cosmetic surgery, or body-building for self-esteem rather than for health purposes. “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” - 2 Timothy 3. All these things exist because they don’t feel they are complete without this nonsense. Pride and covetous are the benchmarks of their sins. Is it not clear that we show what we treasure in how we adorn ourselves?
I speak not of pierced ears or a tattoo ... or two. I speak of those who have so encrusted themselves in their vainglory that they have become indistinguishable from the crowd of the like-minded. They speak of group identity as though they can only find self-value in a community of people like themselves. They seek company among others who share their penchant for self aggrandizement and are seldom seen or associated with those who choose not to transform themselves in such a vulgar and ostentatious way.
If what we seek is personal transformation, God is ready and willing to provide the means for it. But He will not make it His goal to transform the outer garment of mortality. In fact, He decries the very notion. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.” - Matthew 23:27. Human flesh remains human flesh, regardless of how we present it. True transformation can only occur within the body, in heart, mind, and soul. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2.
If we're going to be seen as a member of a group, shouldn't we be recognized by what Christ has done in us, rather than what we have done to ourselves? Then we can truly glory in our transformed identity, bestowed upon us by the grace of God!
