In Search Of Truth, Homosexuality And The Bible

Before we get into the rest of Romans chapter 1, I thought it would be good to pause here and take a look at the subject of homosexuality.


I think some of the best topics in life take a moment to bring up and much longer to even attempt answering. But here's my attempt anyway.


Homosexuality is probably one of the hardest topics to talk about today. The homosexual
community has come under so much attack from people calling themselves
"Christians" who want to make the Bible say or emphasize things that
it doesn't.


The best thing we can do when trying to see what the Christian response to homosexuality
should be, is to set aside what the "religious right" is saying, set
aside what the homosexual community is saying, and take a look, as best we can,
at what the Bible itself is saying.


In addition, we have to challenge ourselves to seek out what the truth really is,
not what we would like it to be. There's a lot of spiritual damage happening in
the world today because people are getting their entire view of the Bible from
a preacher that they like instead of looking at the text itself.


Some Bible passages I have quoted below, others I just gave the
"coordinates" for. If you don't have a Bible, a great place to look
up these verses is Blue Letter Bible.


Okay, so here are the questions I asked myself...


1. Is homosexuality a sin according to the Bible?


2. Did Jesus himself consider it a sin?


3. What does God think of homosexuals?


4. What should the Christian response to homosexuals be?



Here's what I could find on what the Bible says about Homosexuality-

Leviticus 18:22 Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their
women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the
same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in
their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and
receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.


These three passages are not the totality of what the Bible says on the subject, but
they were three that seemed to speak pretty clearly on it. From these three
passages, it seems clear that homosexual activity is wrong.


So did Jesus think it was a sin? This one takes a little more "processing".
Jesus never actually used the word "homosexual" in the Bible. So if
we want to know what he thought of the subject, we'll have to use some logical
deduction.

We know that Jesus was in absolute support of Old Testament Law.

Matthew 5:17(18-19) "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I did not come to abolish but to fulfill."

In fact, he even clarified the law and pointed to the heart of the matter in a few
examples. He established the concept that what you think in your mind can make
you just as guilty of sin as if you had actually carried it out with your
actions. (Matthew 5:21-28)

So based on Jesus' clear support of Old Testament commands, I think we can safely
conclude that Jesus also agreed that homosexual activity is wrong. It would
also make sense, given Jesus' statement about other sins like anger and lust,
that lustful homosexual thoughts would be wrong.

But here's what the Bible does NOT say. It does not say that homosexuals are more
evil or more sinful than other people. It does not say they are to be treated
like second class citizens. It does not say that Christians should grab megaphones
and crash gay and lesbian parades. These kinds of sentiments and activities are
usually caused by pride, something that God hates very much. (Proverbs 6:16-17,
Proverbs 16:18, Psalm 119:21, Mark 9:35)

In any case, Christians are not called to judge non-Christians.(1 Corinthians
5:11-13) (I say this assuming that the majority of homosexuals would not profess to be Christians, though some certainly do.) For some thoughts applicable to evangelism and homosexuals, see my post on Bible Thumpers.


If we look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 again, we can see that the Bible groups homosexual
acts in with any other sin. And like any other sin, it can be forgiven by
making the choice to trust in Christ.

I also believe that someone can be a genuine Christian and have homosexual tendencies.
I mean, why not? There are Christians everywhere that are especially(some even genetically) predisposed to the temptation of stealing, cheating on their wives, rape, pride, selfishness, the list goes on and on. It doesn't make them any less of a Christian. (Although the
legitimacy of their faith would be in doubt if they continually did these
things without any regret.) But it does mean they have some built in challenges
with their life, and that their relationship with God will involve a lot more
effort.

So what does God think of Homosexuals? Well, since homosexual activity is just like any
other sin, we should assume that God feels the same way about homosexuals as he
does about anyone else: He loves them. He sees that they are sinners, just like
Paeter Frandsen is. And just like he does with Paeter, God wants to have a
relationship with Homosexuals that lasts forever.

But since God is perfect, and it would be an injustice for him to allow imperfection to
exist for all eternity, God wants to re-make homosexuals, just like he will
eventually re-make the mess Paeter has made of his life. And afterward, he
wants to enjoy eternity with us in a perfect state. But he's not waiting for
Paeter to clean up his act to get the process started.

The apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians and said: (Ephesians 2:4-5) "But
God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were
dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.
It is only by God's special favor that you have been saved!" and (Romans
5:8) "But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us."

I tried to touch on the concept in a new way in "Spirit Blade", but as you've
no doubt read on a few flimsy pieces of tag board at football games or
flea-markets, (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal
life."

Although we can't understand exactly what it means for Jesus to be God's
"Son", we can imagine something of what it would be like to give over
one of our children to a brutal torturer and watch them suffer a slow agonizing
death. Although I doubt we can imagine letting this happen for the good of
someone that isn't even family.

So where am I going with all this? We know that God didn't just do this for "good churchy people", but for EVERYONE. "God so loved THE WORLD". So I think we can safely conclude
that God loves homosexuals with the same unfathomable passion with which he loves
each individual in history and desires for them to make the decision to
have a relationship with him, following him and obeying him.

Personally, I think this sin is a big social issue because unlike many others, it's out in
the open. For example, my wife is oblivious to the times when I'm acting nice
to her, but only so that she'll let us stay home instead of going to some
social activity I'd rather avoid. Nobody is aware of the times that I'm subtly
manipulating conversation so that it gives me the opportunity to showcase
myself. But if people were, they would be disgusted with me. They'd realize how
much more I care about myself than others.

Some "Christians" probably find it very easy to feel good about themselves
since all of their sins are kept nicely hidden, while the homosexual community
is an easy target for their self-righteous pride to be built on. It may even be
that some people try to cover up the guilt they are feeling in their own minds
over secret sins, by publicly condemning others.

As a side note, I studied classical voice in college. I knew several gay people. One of
my accompanists was gay, half the bass section in our choir was gay, one of my
choir directors was a lesbian. These were people that I really liked. (Well, a
couple made it tough, but it wasn't because they were gay.) These were
sensitive, skilled artists. Kind-hearted and giving people. These were friends
that I goofed off with and had fun being in classes with.

I'm not interested in making gay people straight. I'm interested in everyone, myself
included, growing in their understanding of who God is, and in building an
ongoing relationship with the God of the universe. Is homosexual activity a
sin? Yes. But all sins are symptoms of the natural human condition: Separation
from God. The bottom line for me is that I'd love for more people to be in a
real, deep relationship with God that will start now and last for all of
eternity.

And hopefully, I get better and better at genuinely loving other people in the
meantime. That's really hard. It doesn't come naturally to me. But I know that
the Bible teaches that it's the most important thing we can do in our
interactions with other people. (Mark 12:28-31, 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:3) That
doesn't mean we pretend sin isn't really sin. But it means we should be known a
WHOLE lot more for our love for God and for people then we are for anything
else.

So those are my thoughts on the subject. If I opened a few cans of worms along the way,
feel free to dump them out on the table and we can explore those, too.