Being “Rude” with our Bodies

“Love is not rude.” (I Corinthians 13:5)

Rude behavior certainly may include breaches of etiquette, the way kids negatively talk back to their parents, or the way highway drivers misuse their fingers and lanes with each other, but for the Apostle Paul, to be “rude” (ESV) is particularly to step out of bounds bodily with another person; it is to misuse the skin or nakedness of a neighbor (or our own). Notice how Paul uses this greek word. (askimwn)

I Corinthians 7:36, Of heterosexual bodily temptation, Paul says, “if anyone thinks he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, . . .”

I Corinthians 12:23, When using a metaphor to suggest that all of us in Jesus belong to one another and have a role to play, he says, “our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty . . .” referring to those so called, “private parts” of our bodies that we cover with our clothes.

I Corinthians 13:5, “love is not rude.”

Romans 1:27, Now referring to homosexual bodily temptation, Paul describes, “men committing shameless acts with men . . .”

Revelation 16:15, Jesus uses a metaphor to describe our being ready for his sudden return. “Blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed.”

The english words, “not behaving properly,” “unpresentable parts,” “rude,” “shameless acts,” and being seen “exposed” in our nakedness each refer to the same greek word. Each use describes an exposed bodily or sexually “out of bounds” context. Paul says that our church can have great preaching, robust theology, massive faith and genuine sacrifice (13:1-3), but if we are a people without love; in this case, if we are a people who misuse or consume or get out of line with each other’s bodies, we are irrelevant and just making religious noise in our culture. No wonder the misuse of bodies by authorities with children or the affairs and sexual scandals of our churches, rouses the indignant of the watching world. Instinctively they know what Paul is saying. The church, the community of Jesus, is meant to be the one community in the world in which a woman or a man or a child can dwell safe and free from predatory touch, consuming eyes, or the loveless agreement two people make in a “hook up.” It is like both persons agree that what they are about to do has nothing of love in it. They agree to submit to being unloved for the promise of a trinket moment.

Love delivers us from such things. The grace of Jesus is recovering us from bodily misuse. Jesus has never been rude to you, never misused your body, and never affirmed your misuse of another’s body. Jesus never crosses bounds with our nakedness. By doing so, our bodies are safe in his presence. For the first time in our lives we begin to feel how true love treats our skin.

For more listen to “Love is not Rude” at www.riversidestl.org, click on “sermons.”

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