 Some people say it's a sin for a man to shave, shave his face and shave his head. Is that true? Lord, I hope not. This is a picture of me in 1978. As you can tell, I was a pretty dapper young fella. Adorable. Problem was, I had hair. And as I grew up, obviously I shed some of the hair. Not necessarily my doing. God did that for me, but I want to give God thank you for that because why? Because I think I am now more aerodynamic. I'm more sleek. I think I show off the more positive parts of me, my head and my face. But some people say that that's wrong. Now, I personally think that having hair on your head is a bit of a drag. It slows you down. Remember, not every man can wear a bald head. Anybody can wear hair on their head. And I think that if we happen to see a picture of saying it would be a man with hair, long hair probably. But it brings up the question, is it a sin biblically for a man to shave his face or to shave his hair? Well, let's go to the Bible and let's see what the Bible has to say about it. There are several passages in the Bible that actually deal with having a bald head or shaving your face. And so let's look at a few of them and see if we can kind of get some context and then see what the Bible says we should or should not do. In Leviticus 19, we'll see verse 27. It says that you shall not round the side growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. In this instance, remember God is warning Israel to be holy, to be separate from the world. And when I say holy, not mean in a perfect sense, but the word holy is connoting separation. In other words, be different. You should not look like these people. It was stated to them by God that they should not be like them. As a matter of fact, even when you look at the dietary laws, God never even said that the food they should not eat is unclean. What did he say? He said it is unclean to you why to keep a distance or to keep separation between those who are Israel and those who are pagan. And this rounding of the head and so forth, the shaving, it may have had something to do with the fact that there were pagan cultures who would have these markings, these shavings in their head and certain parts of their head to kind of give homage to their idols or to their gods would have you. Not totally sure on that issue with regards to paganism, but here he's giving a declaration for the men not to do so and they're a little bit of ambiguity about that. Now I want to look at another passage also regarding someone shaving their head and you'll see that this does not apply to others as well. In Leviticus 21.5 he says that they shall not make any baldness on their heads nor shape off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. Well this past speaking specifically of the priests, the priests were not to do so. Well if it's stating so about the priest, does that kind of indicate that maybe those who are not priests could? Well getting that in just a second, but clearly this passage also would not apply to us. And I don't think the other one applied to us as well for a big important reason. I'll cover that in a second, but I want to also deal with another passage that also speaks about cutting one's hair. In number 618 it says the Nazarite shall then shave his dedicated hair of hair at the doorway of the Ten of Meetings and take the dedicated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. This is also after Nazarites take a vow not to put a razor to their head, but then we see that they're also told at some point in time to shave their head. And so what needs to be understood is that when these, when to shave and when not to shave has to do with either a vow or to make a demarcation or a clear difference between them and the rest of the pagan world, that was for Israel and that was for certain groups, Nazarites or as we saw earlier for priests. But does any of that apply to us? As a matter of fact, did it apply totally to all of Israel? So let's look at some people before the cross who also had bald heads who also shaved. In Job 120 says that then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. So this was after he gets the news about his family and so what does he do? He shaves. Why is that? Well the Bible doesn't say specifically why but we see that Job does so. So that could not mean that it was a sin for all to do so. Now granted this was before the law so some might say that Job did so then but now under the law, after the law, men or Israel, Israelite men were not allowed to do so. The only problem with that is we find a man who under the law has a bald head. You all know the story about Elijah in 2 Kings 2 23 says he went up from there to Bethel and while he was going up on the way some small boys or some young men came out of the city and jeered at him saying go up you bald head, go up you bald head. And he turned around and when he saw them he cursed them in the name of the Lord and two she-bearers came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys. Well one clearly there was a lot of these boys 42 of them were torn by these bears. These were men who had young men who had hair. These were young men who did not understand that having hair was not better than not having hair. Clearly a granted there might have been a little bit of jealousy there the fact that I'm pretty sure that Elijah was a dapper looking adorable man with his bald head and they were clearly jealous and so what do they do? They jeered him and God defended the bald head by sending bears. Remember just because you have to have hair in your head it's not a bad thing some people just have to live with that burden some people are not blessed to have a bald head. And as we go to the New Testament we'll see someone else who you all think highly of who also shaved his head. In Acts 18-18 Paul having remained many days longer took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria and with him were Priscilla and Aquila in century of he had his hair cut for he was keeping a vow. Now the Bible doesn't say what this vow was but not totally sure what it was but Paul shaved his head. Good look Paul I'm pretty sure Paul may have looked in the mirror and thought that himself you know what even with this vow whatever the vow was I look better and Paul I'm pretty sure you did. Again let's not be jealous and be hateful and spiteful towards men who have the ability who have been blessed to not have to wear head. Remember Jesus had hair his earthly body he had hair but the Bible is clear that he came down in a form lower than angels in the form of men. Men with hair looking like sinful men now he himself wasn't sinful but looked like them with hair he had to come to be like his brethren to save them I get it but that doesn't mean we have to have hair with all the upkeep and so forth that you guys have to do with the hair and so forth. Listen me I woke up like this you guys you got to spend time in the mirror brushing it or combing it and putting all sorts of gook and mess on your hair this right here wash and wear nothing to it no but in all seriousness folks it doesn't matter if a person is bald or not as a matter of fact like I said in my case I had I had no say in the matter God decided that he wanted me to have no hair on the top of my head is that a sin well if you want to go back and try to maintain certain elements that you think the law is prescribing and by the way I don't think the law is prescribing Jewish men to have hair but if you think so we won't argue that point because it's a moot point because if you're trying to keep that portion of the law well then you are entitled you are commanded to keep the entirety of the law and if you want to do that then guess what you will be judged by you will be judged by the law there are people that are constantly saying core you are in sin for having a shaved head or for shaving your face and I asked him one simple question pointed to me where I should do so in the Bible specifically point to me where God tells us where Jesus tells us where the apostles tells us tell the men especially the New Testament that we should not shave our head especially when we see Paul does so we see other men of God in the Bible who do so and so again I'm just having a little bit of fun here but there clearly is no mandate for men to not shave their heads or their face amen