Bethel Worship Leader Says Men Should Paint Nails?

Hey guys, welcome back to Fight for Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. In today's video, we're going to be talking about Corey Asbury. Now Corey has been involved with Bethel worship for quite some time.

He's best known for his immensely popular song, Reckless Love. Recently, people have seen photos posted by another popular Bethel worship leader, Brandon Lake, with his nails painted. And of course, Corey Asbury has been seen with his nails painted as well.

Well, this has caused quite a stir. For those who don't know, this is a very popular trend now, for young men to paint their nails. The controversy comes because, well, it's been firmly rooted in our culture for decades now that women paint their nails and men do not.

Many Christians are not okay with the idea of men painting their nails because they consider it feminine, and dishonoring to God by not recognizing his distinct gender roles for men and women. But in response to all of this, Bethel worship leader and Reckless Love author Corey Asbury has a few arguments in favor of the practice of men painting their nails.

Corey Asbury’s Public Defense of Men Painting Nails

Watch this first clip.

Hi, Corey Asbury here. It is remarkable to me how many times I get asked this question. Number one, I have three daughters. It's one of their favorite things to do, paint daddy's nails. They love it. They think it's amazing.

They think it's incredible. And you know the funny thing is, this is a segue into number two.

So in the first part of Corey's response, he makes the case that his three daughters are actually the ones doing the painting of his nails. And more than this, it's one of their favorite things to do, apparently, with their dad.

This would be a good point in the video to establish our major goal here. On this channel, we try our very best to focus on public false teaching. We try to only talk about teachings that have been offered in the public square.

It's not the goal of this channel at all to participate in gossip about people's private personal lives. And due to this, I normally wouldn't think that it's necessary to talk about what Corey Asbury does with his own family.

But in this case, Corey is publicly telling his audience of thousands of Christians that men painting their nails is perfectly fine. And this happens to be one of his public arguments in favor of that.

My response to his perspective then would be this. Whether or not his children are the ones painting his nails has really nothing to do with the question of whether or not his nails should be painted in the first place.

This is a subjective argument, a red herring, meant to distract you emotionally from the actual issue at hand. How could you be upset when he's talking about his daughters doing cute things? The question, though, is about if it is biblical for Christian men to paint their nails.

And that question has absolutely nothing to do with who is doing the painting, children or not. So with that, let's move on to the next argument. Watch this. They love it.

They think it's amazing. They think it's incredible. And you know the funny thing is, this is a segue into number two, they have never once thought to themselves, it's weird that daddy paints his nails.

You know why? Because that is a societal construct. That is a social norm that we have accepted that men don't paint their nails. That is cultural. It has zero to do with the Bible, Jesus, Christianity.

So in that clip, Corey made the case that not only do his daughters paint his nails, but they actually have no problem doing so. They don't feel convicted in their hearts at all about doing this. And according to Corey, this is evidence that the standard of only men painting their nails must be a societal construct.

You see, young children have not yet been brainwashed by our society and our gender norms like the rest of us have. You see, we are told arbitrarily that we aren't supposed to paint our nails as men, but that standard has been concocted by the culture.

The evidence for this is the fact that little girls don't mind painting their father's nails. There are a few issues with this view though. First, we should be deeply skeptical at the idea of developing our worldview on the basis of what little children think is okay.

If most kids had their way, they would be eating Halloween candy for every meal, dropping out of grade school, and riding their bikes through the road without looking both ways. Obviously, none of those things is a good idea.

Proverbs 22 15 says, quote, folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. Yes, having children is a serious blessing, but because of the fall, they are still born sinful and foolish.

Thus, the fact that your small child thinks it's okay to paint a man's nails is not evidence that it's actually okay. And the second issue here is that you could use this exact same argument to defend something worse, such as a man wearing a dress or high heels and lipstick when he goes to work.

According to the very same reasoning that Corey Asbury uses here, that too is a societal construct. But this focus on societal constructs has been popularized by postmodern philosophy, and this has obviously been seeping into the Church for years now.

The video you just saw is just one symptom of the larger problem. This postmodern worldview wants to make everything subjective and cultural. Why can't boys play with Barbie dolls, and why can't men paint their nails?

This eventually turns into, why can't men remove their body parts and insist that they are now a woman? These things are not nearly as severe, but they are both coming from the same worldview. And that is very, very dangerous.

We must learn to recognize it. And with that, let's turn to the third argument. Watch this.

The Problem With Treating Gender Norms as Purely Cultural

Men don't paint their nails. That is cultural. It has zero to do with the Bible, Jesus, Christianity, moral code at all. Just in general, it doesn't make any sense to question the idea, unless you've grown up in a culture that says it's not okay to do something.

Jesus could care less what color your frickin' nails are. Because the truth is, as he says about King David in the Old Testament, I'm not concerned with the outward appearance. Man looks at the outward appearance.

God looks at the heart.

And my heart's definitely painted. So here, Corey says that Jesus doesn't care what you wear on the outside. He doesn't care at all if your nails are painted. After all, man looks at the outside, but only God sees the heart.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the inevitable outcome of you-can't-see-my-heart Christianity. In this brand of modern Christian teaching, there is an overemphasis, an unbiblical over-focus on what the Bible says about the heart over and against what the Bible says about virtue and virtually everything else.

Make no mistake about it, the heart is of central importance to Christianity, just not in the way many Christians think. Let's take a look at a few passages. First, the one that Corey himself quoted. In 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Lord says this, quote,.

For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. In this passage, God tells Samuel that he will pick the king for Israel as he pleases, and God chose to anoint the young man David.

Most people, you see, would not have chosen a king unless he was tall, strong, who had an instantly commanding presence. But the Lord chose the very youngest of all the brothers, the smallest of the sons of Jesse.

This passage is about the fact that God is sovereign. His ways are higher than our ways. We do not get to question His authority. But this is not a passage about whether or not you can break gender roles in how you dress.

It simply has nothing to do with that. Deuteronomy 22, 5, it says this, quote,. A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

And this is not just an Old Testament reality. First Corinthians 11, 14 -15 says, quote,. Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him? But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory.

Now bringing this down to a practical level. Does this mean that it's a sin, for instance, for a man in Scotland to wear a kilt? No. But does this mean that a man who wears a shiny pink dress and lipstick and high heels is sinning?

Yes. Well, why is there a difference? The difference lies in the fact that it is not considered feminine in Scotland to wear a kilt, whereas it would be undeniably feminine for a man in virtually any Western culture to wear a pink dress, high heels, and lipstick.

In summary, the Lord made men and women differently. We know this. And this manifests in virtually every culture in the way people dress. In this case, the Bible tells us to obey and recognize prevailing cultural gender norms with regard to our clothing.

If men and women have been dressing in particular ways in your culture throughout all of its history, it is unbiblical for you to break those norms in a way that makes your masculinity or femininity ambiguous or unclear.

The Bible obviously talks about these things. So back to Corey Asbury's fundamental question, then. Does Jesus care about what color your nails are? Yes, He most definitely does. That's why He commands us through His Word to dress like a man if you're a man.

This perspective, then, coming from Corey Asbury, is very popular in modern professing Christian churches. God doesn't care what I wear, they say, as long as my heart is in the right place. But as we've already demonstrated, God cares about your heart and He also cares about what you wear.

Because what you wear, to a certain extent, comes from what's in your heart. If God didn't care about this, He wouldn't have commanded you to dress in a certain way. This fallacious and unbiblical argument is being used all over the place to excuse immodesty, cross-dressing, and overt attempts to draw attention to oneself constantly through the clothes one wears.

All of these things are sinful, and Christians are called to avoid them. We cannot ignore God's Word using the excuse that God sees our heart. God calls us to recognize His Word in our hearts. That's the big difference here.

Contrary to Corey Asbury's advice here, the Bible simply says that you can't dress like a woman if you're a man, and you can't dress like a man if you're a woman. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique.

A Biblical Critique of Cross-Dressing and Immodesty

And let's pray for Corey Asbury and for all the others who agree with him here that they would stop this false teaching about gender roles and by God's grace turn to the truth of God's Word. Thank you so much for watching that video.

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