Naked and Not Ashamed

Sex! What a great subject! This is because God created it and gave it to us for a variety of reasons. However, this gift has been manipulated by our enemy to bring pain, devastation, tension, awkwardness, strife, lust and more. Because of this, we often are not free to discuss sex with confidence from a biblical context, which blocks the dialogue we need so bad.

If we look at the stats right now in marriages within the United States, the top two reasons for divorce are money and sex. This is a result a miscommunication, expectations not being met and holding onto grudges. When this happens, it’s a challenge to be, Naked and Not Ashamed.

But in reality, it’s with our spouse that God has set up the safety to be, Naked and Not Ashamed. In fact, we see with Adam and Eve, the first couple, this was God’s intent and design for sex.

Notice what Genesis 2:24-25 says,

24. This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

‭‭Genesis 2:24-25

The context of this verse is right after God gave Adam, Eve to be his helpmate and partner. After all, it was God who said, “it’s not good for man to be alone.” So after Adam named all the animals and had the leadership of the garden of eden, God saw that something was missing. It was Eve, a woman who would complete God’s creation and set in motion His plan for generations to come.

So, one of the first things the Bible says about this momentous event is, “they shall be one” and, “they were both naked and not ashamed.”

Notice, it wasn’t weird they were naked and there was no shame in it either. In fact, in verse 24 it says, “and the two are united as one” signifying consummating their relationship.

So we see sex was introduced right from the start because it’s from God and it’s good. Actually, it’s great when practiced the way God intended, and it brings so many blessings that were intended for us to have and experience.

In Genesis 2:24, we see God’s mind that, man shall leave his father and mother, to become one. One of the blessings and gifts of being together as a married couple is, sex! This has been given for us to enjoy, to practice and to develop throughout our married life. It’s something that’s private and sacred, giving us no shame in our nakedness because, it’s the flow of God’s intent. It is special to be naked with no shame!

I’m sure for most people, a nightmare would be, being naked in public for everyone to view. This would be humiliating because intuitively we know there is shame with being naked for others to see. This is from the fall because look what happened when the fall occurred.

Genesis 3:7 says,

7. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Genesis 3:7

Notice, when they sinned against God, the first thing they felt was shame from being naked. All of the sudden, this gift and freedom from God was now overcome with shame and embarrassment.

For us today, this is what the enemy wants to do. He wants to bring shame to our nakedness, even in our marriages. He wants to make sex unclean, awkward to talk about and acted out in ways that hurt ourselves and others. He wants to bring pain to people through lust, selfish acts that leave too many hollow, ashamed, hurt and unfulfilled. He wants to take what is good and a gift and make it bad and a weight in our lives. This unfortunately, is where so many are right now because I know, as I was once in this position myself.

But Jesus changed my life and with Him and the right people in my life, this cycle was broken and God made this part of my story, new!

And this is the good news for all of us!

In Jesus, sex can be made new in our lives. That’s right, we can have the real thing God intended in our marriages! This means having a safe, not ashamed, growing and vibrant sex life with our spouse. So, we when temptation comes in whatever form it is, we have even more strength to overcome because we can have the real thing. Which is, open, honest, loving, serving, giving, trusted, growing, fun sex life in God!

Who doesn’t want this? We all do!!

So no matter where you’re at in life right now, let Jesus heal you to be, Naked and Not Ashamed! And remember, His grace is sufficient to help us that are married, single, widowed, widower, younger, older and more. He understands ALL of us and He’s able to help all of us through the tension, temptation and process of being Naked and Nor Ashamed.

I encourage you to move forward in this area of your life! Let Jesus be real in it and let Him make it new. I also encourage you to be a part of our April series, “Naked and Not Ashamed” at City Church. It’s going to be great every week.

We love you and the best is yet to come!

PD