One of the things I admire most about my brethren in the churches of Christ is that for every action – be it in worship or manner of Christian life – someone has asked, “is this acceptable to God?” If everyone who claimed to be Christians would ask that question (and appeal to the scriptures for their answer), much of the divisions we see today would not exist.

When the question is posed, “is it acceptable for the Christian to dance”, there are differing points of view. In the camp of those who believe it to be wrong I see two types of people; those who by looking at scripture feel there is some precedent that leads them to believe it to be wrong, and the old “kill-joy” types. By that I mean that there are always some who seek to take any activity that people enjoy (reading fiction, playing cards, watching television) and seek out reasons to denounce that activity. Both types may come to the same conclusion on dancing, but out of very different motives.

My little sister-in-law asked me whether I think dancing is wrong. Since I know she looks up to me and respects my views on the Bible I took my answer very seriously. I want to explain why I gave her the answer I did. This is a subject that many conscientious Christians, especially young ones, want an answer to. I can’t give my opinion on a Biblical matter without first appealing to the Bible itself. I will begin with dancing in the Old Testament.

Many times in the Old Testament we read of dancing. The only time I see it as a command would be in Psalms 150, where David is telling the people ways to praise the Lord. Many of those times the dancing was done by the people when God had provided some form of victory for them. Some chapters where this takes place include 1 Samuel 21, 29 and 30, Jeremiah 31, and Judges 11. The people danced in joy because of the goodness of God to them. What was this dancing like? That is hard to say. I can be confident that is wasn’t the bump-and-grind form of dancing that is so popular today.

In 2 Samuel 6:14 we see David “dancing before the Lord with all of his might”. The Ark of the Covenant had been returned from the household of Obed-edom, and having the presence of the Ark filled David with great joy. I note that David danced “before the Lord”. This was not a dance with another person, but he alone moved his body before the Lord to show his joy. The fact that it was done “before the Lord” shows me that he was directing this dance to the Lord, that God might see his appreciation and happiness. Again, this is very different from the types of dance that are prevalent today.

When Solomon wrote there is a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:4) I would have to conclude that the type of dancing he referred to are the types we’ve already looked at – natural outpourings of joy and thanks to the Lord.

Speaking of things that are natural, I need to interject here that dancing is just that – natural. The smallest child when hearing music will move their bodies to the beat. My son Eli loves to dance and he is only 18 months old. Every commercial with a catchy beat will send him wiggling and swaying to the music. This is not to say that simply because something is natural that it is good, but to show where dancing comes from. The desire to dance seems to me inherent.

Looking at the examples of dancing in the Old Testament is profitable, but isn’t our authority. The New Testament, the law of Christ, is our authority. Unlike the Old Testament there are few mentions of dancing in the New Testament.

The best positive example of dancing in the New Testament I can find is in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:25). This is where the older son hears music and dancing as he approached the house where his wayward brother had returned. While I don’t think we can read too much into this, Jesus was acknowledging that dancing was a form of celebration. This doesn’t mean He sanctioned it, but simply that He recognized it to be a form of celebration.

The biggest mention of dancing in the New Testament is overwhelmingly negative. It is found in Matthew 14 and Mark 6. It is where the daughter of Herodias danced before Herod on his birthday causing him to get so excited he made a vow that cost John the Baptist his life. Obviously this was a different type of dancing. It appears to have been done in a sensual way, to arouse the men who viewed it. Clearly it was successful in doing so.

I think that many of the types of dancing that are common today are more closely related to the dance of Herodias’ daughter than David’s dance before the Lord. However, I think it is wrong to lump every type of dancing into the same category as her sensual performance. I have seen many a bluegrass band perform and many of the people there dance. They shuffle their feet, slap their legs and clap their hands. They don’t touch anyone else, they don’t move in ways to arouse others. There is clogging, line dancing, ballet, and simply dancing by ourselves – none of those things are done in lascivious ways, little if any physical contact is made, and I don’t think they can be thrown in with the various forms of “dirty dancing”.

My answer to my sister-in-law was to compare dancing to speech. Look at James 3:1-12. James tells us how destructive our speech can be, and we all know this to be true. Since our speech can be destructive should we never speak? Should we remain silent at all times so that we never have opportunity to speak evil? Of course not. There are evil forms of speech, just as there are evil forms of dancing. To say that one should never speak or never dance because some forms of both are wicked is to go to an extreme that I am not willing to go to.

When the Christian views dancing they should look to 1 Thessalonians 5: 21-22:

But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.

We need to recognize that some forms of dancing are evil and we are to abstain from them. We need to realize that pressing up against someone and swaying or grinding may provoke lust and that would be wrong. Just because we don’t lust doesn’t mean we couldn’t cause our dance partner to lust and stumble. We should also realize that many, if not most, places where people dance are not places the Christian should be – bars and even some high school dances that aren’t properly chaperoned come to mind. However, if I were to dance with my wife in our home what could be wrong with that? If you dance alone for fun or exercise, where is the sin? If you tap your toes and shuffle to a good song, what wickedness results? I can see none.

In the end, this truly is a matter of personal interpretation, unlike so many other religious issues. Shall we, as Christians, dance? If we are careful in the manner in which it is done, then I can see nothing wrong with it.