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...the Bible tells me so:
To Dance or Not To Dance:
A Question of Morality
Maybe back then teenagers only heard the preacher say, “Don’t dance.” Maybe they discovered that he did not say, “Don’t ‘park.’” Maybe the preacher did not give the Bible reason for “Don’t dance” at the very time that the teenagers were listening. Maybe he did, but they were not listening. Maybe teenagers were more interested in following the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the teaching. They, like so many of us, may have looked for loop-holes rather than loving in holiness.
Today, many ministers do not preach against dancing. Many elders will not stand against dancing. Have Christian leaders conceded the battle over the dance as no longer worth fighting? With rising losses in the number of our young people, with increased numbers of pregnancies, with divorce ravaging more Christian families, preachers can not afford to concede that battle to Satan. It is a war-ending loss!
It’s true! It’s
true! The Bible nowhere says, “Thou shalt not dance.” However, there were
occasions when dancing was proper and acceptable. Miriam led the daughters of
Why does the Bible not say, “Thou shalt not dance”? Maybe that would have been too easy for parents as they struggle with their children over proper entertainment. Maybe it is much easier to give in to the thinking, “Everybody’s doing it.” Maybe today’s Christian parents feel that “over-zealous” preachers and parents deprived them of legitimate pleasures. (How ironic! Christians converted out of the world recognize the dangers of dancing, yet those who have grown up “in the church” are blind to its deadly trap.)
The answer is found in the wisdom of God. God did not give instructions in the smallest detail on every aspect of life. However, He gave Christians many principles to live by. Concerning dancing, God teaches that Christians must remain sexually pure and abstain from sexual immorality. Such a principle promotes faithfulness in marriage, virginity as a single Christian, and morally pure thoughts. It forbids sexually suggestive pictures, speech, and music. Such teaching on purity forbids the dance as well as “parking” with the prolonged kissing, the caressing, and the sexual petting and rubbing. It also guides Christians in their choice of music, movies, games, clothing, conversations, jokes, and friends. Consequently, the specific verses address much more than the Christian’s opposition to the dance.
God ordained that sexual desires between a man and a woman be fulfilled in marriage. Moses wrote that a man “cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; RSV), and that Adam “knew” Eve, and she conceived and bore him a son (4:1, 25; such carnal knowledge). Solomon commanded, “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection [literally, ‘breasts’] fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love” (Proverbs 5:18-19). The writer of Hebrews said, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).
Never fulfill sexual desires apart from marriage. Solomon urged, “Keep your way far from her [the loose woman], and do not go near the door of her house; lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless” (Proverbs 5:8-9). Paul cried out, “Shun immorality,” but “glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18, 20). Then he followed with “It is well for a man not to touch a woman” (7:1). Paul’s solution to the problem of “touching” was: “But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband” (vv. 2-3).
The Bible uses keywords to define the issue of dancing and other expressions of immorality. Christians must stay away from lust/passion/sexual desires, fornication/sexual immorality/adultery, uncleanness/impurity, obscenity/coarse joking, carousing/reveling/wild partying, and sexual license/lasciviousness/debauchery.
For example, the Greek word aselgia (“sexual license”) is rich in meaning. J.H. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon defines it as, “unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence” (page 79). Aselgia in the plural means “wanton (acts or) manners, as filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females, etc” (pages 79-80). Is it necessary to describe in detail the groping, the touching, and the shaking? Of course not!
Also, an individual dominated by such license to sin looses all sense of decency and “does not care what people say or think so long as he can gratify his evil desire. He is the man who is lost to shame” (William Barclay, New Testament Words, pages 60-61). How many illegitimate children will be born or aborted? How many marriages will be broken? How many families will be destroyed? How many teenagers will feel no guilt for what they did the night before? Such shamelessness!
However, Christians have a higher calling. Christians must exemplify self-control, purity, holiness, godliness, goodness, righteousness, virtue, sound judgment, clear thinking and sober-mindedness. Philippians 4:8 is the pinnacle of Christian virtue: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
How can Christians recognize the true nature of dancing?
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· Does it involve prolonged touching and rhythmic embracing of the opposite sex? (See 1 Corinthians 7:1-4) |
· Does it involve couples not married to each other in prolonged touching and rhythmic embracing? |
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· Would such touching and embracing be proper, if the lights were on and the music was off? |
· Would such touching and embracing be proper, if your husband or wife were dancing with someone else? |
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· Does it involve sensual music? (See Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 12:34-35) |
· Does it involve looking lustfully? (See Matthew 5:27-32) |
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· Does it increase temptation and strain self-control? (See Matthew 6:13) |
· Does alcohol flow on such occasions? (See Ephesians 5:18) |
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· Does it involve clothing designed to reveal no matter how much or little is covered? (See 1 Timothy 2:9-10) |
· “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” (Proverbs 5:27) |
What our brothers and sisters in Christ need, what our teenage boys and girls need is a strong sense of devotion to Jesus. Paul wrote “Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1). The goal of every Christian must be to please Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:9). Let us please Jesus with purity, godliness, self-control, goodness, virtue and holiness in all that we do. Let us continue to sing that great children’s song:
Be careful little eyes, what you see,...
Be careful little ears, what you hear,...
Be careful little mouth, what you say,...
Be careful little hands, what you do,...
Be careful little feet, where you go,...
For the Lord, up above, is looking down in love,
Be careful little eyes, what you see.
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