Being Naked
There is a level of intimacy that words can not express. This connection of intimacy between two persons that allows one to know the other in an infinite way. When we fall in love, we desire this intimacy, and the truth is that we have not come to know this relational connection by healthy models. Men and women have not been examples of relationship with ourselves, with the neighbor, with God. That is what I want to talk about: it is needed to bet naked. What am I talking about? Do not get confused, dive in the Word with me and let us understand this.
When God created Adam and Eve, He put them in the garden (Genesis 1 and 2). They were naked, without clothes. God had created one for the other. They had become one flesh. That was the Father’s plan. And then you know the story, Adam and Eve eat of the fruit they were instructed not to eat, and they immediately realize they are naked (Genesis 3:7). So they seek something that would cover them. As we read through these scriptures for times we miss these details, and we do not understand why they were naked, or why immediately after they covered themselves. There is a strong reason of being naked or not. Adam and Eve were exposed to a new idea they did not know yet: integrity.
They were made relational beings, and they were nude, and they were not ashamed. Why? Because they had the understanding that they were one. During Eve’s creation, He said to the couple: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother… and they shall become one flesh”. This statement is not just a beautiful poem, it is a strong sentence about God’s nature. The word found in the original manuscript for this text for “one” is Echad. Echad is used other times in the Old Testament; when the Lord says “Israel has one God” the word is Echad. And in many other times Echad means the one of God. That is, Adam and Eve in their union reflected the oneness and image of God. It is here that everything gets deeper, marriage is the reflex of God. It was not for poetic purpose that Jesus taught about the Kingdom as a wedding feast, or when Paul refers to Christ as the groom and the church as the bride. Echad reflects who we are, it reflects who God is.
Though the modern and corrupted system of the world has been replicated in all society, including within the church this false reality of unity. People sleep together but they have no responsibility with each other. People become objects of lust, and they are treated as objects in sensual and erotic magazines and videos, taking away the humanity of the people God created. That is why the girl that slept last night with the guy she had just met wants to call him the next morning, she wants to know the future of their relationship. She wants to get naked, she wants to know the infinite being in this man. That is God’s sexuality inside of each one of us looking for Echad. And as we know, people have sex and they do not get naked. Children that have no father, divorced parents is acceptable and normal. As human beings created at God’s image, we have devalued what God has made so valuable.
This devalue exists because we do not know who we are, we do not know who we are because we do not know who He is, and not knowing who He is we can not know who people are, and Echad is only a beautiful poetry, it is no longer taught or inspired, for we do not get naked.
We are not naked before ourselves, we lie and deceiving ourselves.
We are not naked before others, we use masks, we are not real.
We are not naked before God, we do not even know Him.
Being naked is to have intimacy, i.e., it is the exact connection of outside with inside. That is extremely dangerous, we become vulnerable, we become real. We will never be able to truly know Christ unless we get naked, exposing every area of our lives. Here is where we do not conform with the world, but we are transformed in the renewal of our mind. We need to repent for covering ourselves avoiding the mind of Christ.
Integrity is to be in the outside exactly how you are in the inside, yes, I am talking about having integrity and intimacy with God, with yourself, and with your neighbor. Does it not sound like the model of Jesus? Every day I find out more in this walk how I need so much more of this transformation, I need it more than anyone else. We need to be naked, live in transparency, it is time to be real. And you? Do you think it is also for you?
By Jonathan Costa, Vice President of Shores of Grace