Remember that having sexually explicit pictures, including underwear shots, of anyone less than 18 years (this includes images of yourself or your girlfriend/boyfriend) on your phone is illegal (in the UK), and could lead to a caution or conviction, which could then have damaging implications for your future.
Why is asking for or sending sexy text messages and ‘nudes’ wrong and dangerous?
1. A lack of respect and genuine affection.
Asking someone for a sexual picture indicates a lack of respect and genuine affection for that person. It is not about love, it is selfish on the part of the person asking for the picture, and indicates a lack of care that they are asking someone to commit a criminal offence. If you are asked for this sort of picture, it indicates less interest in you as a person, but more in you as a sexual object. Someone who truly loved you would want to respect and protect you.
Love is not rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1 Corinthians 13:5
2. You’re letting go of your dignity and privacy.
It is letting go of your dignity and privacy to send something so private to someone who has not publicly committed to a lasting relationship with you by marriage. The Bible teaches about the importance of covering (not exposing) those parts of our bodies that are private (1 Corinthians 12:23. Genesis 9:23 [1]).
…those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
1 Corinthians 12:23
3. You don’t know where the images will end up.
Understand that pictures that have been sent to one person may be passed to other people, put up on the internet and even spread round out of revenge (which is illegal) should a relationship break down.
4. Lasting relationships are helped by mutual respect and sacrificial love.
Remember that though physical attraction is important in a relationship, it is the sacrificial love for each other, the mutual respect and genuine friendship which help a relationship thrive and last. As we get older even though physical beauty may be less, the ongoing love and commitment to each other maintains companionship and gives children and grandchildren greater security.
You are valuable and your sexuality is valuable and holy. Keep it for the person you may later marry and then in the context of that lifelong commitment you can know real and special intimacy.
- Genesis 9:23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
