Leviticus 19:28

The law forbade this practice, and also forbade making any mark in the flesh. It was a common custom among the surrounding nations. They cut themselves for the dead and tattooed their bodies in honour of their gods. The Israelites belonged to Jehovah.

Notice how in this book, when the details of evil are judged, Jehovah puts Himself personally forward as the One whose character at once rejects these things and makes them impossible for His people — "I am the LORD." The people were in relationship with Him — He sanctified them.

The same authority of Jehovah which banned those heathen practices calls for honour to the grey head and the face of the old man, joining them with the fear of "your God." And in a way that strikingly cuts off in advance the narrow and base pride of later Jewish teaching, a stranger living in their land was not only to be left in peace but to be loved as one born among them.

It is God's right to declare how His children ought to behave. It is their high privilege and holy responsibility to seek His gracious approval in everything. "You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves." They were not their own; they belonged to Him, and so they had no right to cut themselves or disfigure their faces for the dead.

Verses 27-28 tell us that our bodies are not our own to do with as we please. That covers shaving for show, cutting the flesh, and tattooing (compare 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). All of these only satisfy a person's pride.

These poor, deluded Baal worshippers evidently did not notice Elijah's sarcasm. So they took his advice and cried out to Baal more loudly, cutting themselves with knives and lances. Idolaters really do injure the flesh. They think this is the self-denial that will influence their false god. How different is the true self-denial of a believer! True self-denial makes no show, but involves sober self-judgment in spiritual reality.

The godless nations cut themselves and shaved the front of the head. This was how they showed respect for people who had died. It was empty hypocrisy, a show of religion meant to draw attention to themselves... Cutting oneself, shaving the hair, weeping and wailing can do nothing for the person who has died... It is right to weep at the loss of a loved one. The Lord Jesus wept in sympathy with Mary and Martha (John 11:32-35). But to put on an outward show is repulsive.

Paul says, "From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." The word "marks" is really "stigma." It is a cut made on the body to show that a master owns the servant... He becomes the willing slave of Christ, given over completely to His interests, and content to bear His reproach in this world.