I know this is controversial topic but I would like to know what anyone else thinks on this topic. Personally I think men should have beards. According:

Lev 19:27: You shall not round off the corner of your head, and you shall not destroy the edge of your beard.

Any other scriptures that confirm or change this?

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esvl

"Any other scriptures that confirm or change this?"

yep........

"Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus , so that they might bring us into slavery—"

Galatians 2:4

Paul continues

"But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew , live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."

Galatians 2:14-16


amen an amen. wanna grow a beard? perfectly fine.

wanna hit the ole Barbasol an a razor?

its fine with Messiah Jesus.

This was a requirement of the old covenant, the law. Paul and the writer of Hebrews are very plain about how we should treat the carnal ordinances of the old covenant. (I say carnal in that it was up to us to keep them in our flesh. This was the weakness of the law. See Rom. 7)

Col 2:14-17
(14) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
(15) And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
(16) Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
(17) Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The ordinances of the law, be it the ten commandments (2 Cor. 3:7) or the other various ordinances (Col. 2:14-18) were only shadows of that which is to come. If you really study Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews we find plainly stated in no uncertain terms that we are no longer bound by the old covenant to keep the laws and ordinances of that covenant.

So, if you accept that you must not shave your beard, then you must also accept that you must keep ALL of the ordinances of the law. Did you offer sacrifices at the last new moon? Are you wearing clothing that is a blend of fabrics? Do you eat of anything unclean? Did you perform the required purification rituals the last time you attended a funeral or disposed of your dead goldfish? Are you keeping the true sabbath day? Are you keeping all of the sabbath feasts and festivals? Did you let your land lay fallow the seventh year? James 2:10.

I have only worn a beard once in my life. It was so itchy and irritating that I wonder why anyone would want to wear that ball of hair around on his face continually. :-)

I think that hair on your face is not at all relevant to salvation or to relationship with God. God is pleased with you through your faith in what Jesus did, hair or no hair.

Edit: By the way, no controversy here. If you want to have a beard, go for it. But if the beard is grown in an effort to please God by keeping law, Paul says you are bewitched and have believed a lie. He says to return to law from grace is to fall from grace. I guess it all has to do with your motivation. According to Paul in Colossians, if you desire to wear a beard (or keep feasts and sabbaths) simply out of your own will to worship God, then that is great. Under the new covenant, if I think keeping the law is my way to relationship with God, I am into legalism and am not in grace. If I want to keep a law simply because I love God and desire to separate myself in some way, that is fine and I should not let anyone condemn me for this voluntary act of will worship.

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Travis

Only if you're Amish!!

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Martin G. Smith

If you want to obey that command as a personal thing for yourself, by all means. But if you push it upon others, your treading on areas that provoke God to anger.

Thanks.

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esvl

I still think men should have beards. It makes them look manly.

It is true that Leviticus is part of the law. I still wonder what the reason behind this law was though.

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esvl

Pagan's of the time had shaved faces and so to sperate God's peope from the Pagan world it was set up as a social law. Or at least that is what I was told when I asked this question :)

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Matthew Guldner