Is Dancing for Christians?
Thomas A. Roach
Table of Contents
Is Dancing for Christians?
Young believers sometimes ask, "What is wrong with dancing?" We could vary that question by asking, "What is wrong with alcohol? or drugs? or gambling? or card playing?' etc.
If you are surprised to see such things listed on an equality with things you want to do, remember that they are all the desires of the old nature which is fallen in sin. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," John 3:6. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God," Rom. 8:8.
Christians are not under law as the Jews were, or else we might have a verse that says, "Thou shalt not dance." But though we are not under law and have liberty, we are told not to use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, 1 Peter 2:16, "and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof," Rom. 13:14. "And he died for all that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but to him who has died for them and has been raised," 2 Cor. 5:15. This is Christian liberty.
However, we are not left without divine guidance, for in 2 Tim. 2:22 we are taught to "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Would you be likely to find "them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" in a dance hall? It has been said that a dancing foot and a praying knee do not grow on the same limb. Dancing arouses lust (evil desire). How could a dancer obey 1 Cor. 7:1, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman"?
The music and atmosphere at a dance hall is not of the Father but of the world. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world... is not of the Father, but is of the world," 1 John 2:15, 16.
Further, we are warned, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," 2 Cor. 6:14. "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God," James 4:4. Whose company do we Christians want? In Acts 4:23 the apostles "being let go... went to their own company." Who is your "own company when you are free from school or work? If you, a Christian, never go around with unbelievers, you will never be joined together in marriage with an unbeliever.
A dance brings together many undesirable and wicked elements. There many young people are introduced to liquor, tobacco, drugs and fornication. Again the Scriptures warn, “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall'' (Prov. 4:14-16).
If you don't want to fall, stay away from places, people, and things that could cause you to fall. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ should want to please Him. He is "able to keep you from falling", Jude 24. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed", James 1:13, 14.
Maybe you are thinking that by going to the dance you could influence others for good or that you could speak to someone of Christ. This is a clever trick of Satan, the master deceiver. How could you help someone get out of quicksand by getting into the quicksand with him? Since the Bible is the guide of the Christian, let's turn to 2 Tim. 2:19-21. Here we are told that the one who will be useful to the Master (the Lord Jesus) is the one who has separated from the mixture of good and evil. See also 2 Cor. 6:17.
Finally, Col. 3:17 is a verse by which we can test anything and everything we do, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.