Lgbtq

Love is Love?

I was inspired to write this sermon by Reverend Calvin Robinson’s rebuttal in debate at Oxford Union February 15, 2023. He spoke of LGBTQ and its conflict with Christianity in a powerful loving way. I will quote him in this work.

The subject today is LGBTQ. In case you were not sure: The L stands for Lesbian, the G for Gay, the B for Bisexual, the T for Transgender, and the Q for Queer. The LGBTQ community believes that human beings may practice sexual love in their different ways, that “Love is Love.” Is that true? American culture is thrusting worldly secularism upon us. From sex changes for children, to transgender participation in women’s sports, to drag queen shows for all ages, anything goes. “Love is Love” is the attitude that is driving our culture. We Christians are and always have been counter cultural. * In this case, should we be?

This sermon is as much a teaching as it is a preaching. Firstly, our New Testament was originally written in the first century in Latin (18%), Aramaic or Hebrew (12%) but mostly in Greek (70%) for Greek was the dominate language of the Eastern Mediterranean. Thus, Paul, Mark, John and the other authors wrote mostly in Greek. Our New Testament is a translation of the best available surviving (extant) copies of these authors’ works. Our English New Testament translators’ goal: Translate the best extant Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek texts into modern English accurately making it as easy to understand as possible–tell the readers what the author’s intended meaning was in plain English. You see, if you were to read these early texts translated word for word into English, they would be very difficult to understand. A balance between readers understanding ease and verbatim translation is always a translator’s goal.

So, what of our translations, in 1526, William Tyndale translated Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek texts into an Early Modern English Bible. In 1611, the King James Bible first appeared. I have a copy of that; its English is hard to read. In 1895, the English of that era became the Authorized King James Version. Many churches still use it. However, we now have many other good English translations: The New Revised Standard Version, The International Version, and The New Standard American Bible to list a few. These newer translations have the advantage of the additional extant texts earlier scholars did not have, and so we believe the newer translations are more accurate. However, some translation challenges still exist for some words and phrases do not have satisfactory English equivalents.

One of our Greek to English challenges is the word “love”. In English, I can say, “I love hot dogs.” or “I love my wife.” or “I love America.” “My neighbor loves automobiles.” Now loving hot dogs in nothing like loving my wife nor like loving America and certainly not like loving automobiles. Unlike our English, the Greek language recognizes that there are different kinds of love. Their language has six different words to describe what English translators often translated as “love”. In addition, other Greek word variants also relate to the meaning of love. So, how did translators go from Greek to English and convey as close as possible the original meaning of love in particular scriptures? Let us examine the different kinds of love in Greek and see if worldly secularists are correct in saying that “Love is Love.”

Agape is the ultimate type of love. The Greeks used agape to express feelings for a spouse. Greek speaking Christians also used agape to express the unconditional love of God for His children. That is to say, agape expresses love as charity and forgiveness. An example, we find an agape translation in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Agape is also the word translated love in Matthew 22:37, John 13:34 and I Corinthians chapter 13.

Erose is carnal desire. It conveys sexual passion. The Greeks used erose to refer to the initial love a person feels when they see a sexually attractive person; it is a love of youthful beauty that leads to erotic cravings. You will find eros translated in Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” The Greek eros expresses the uncontrolled sexual lust of “whoremongers and adulterers”. The writer is certainly not tying to communicate agape love. In 1 Corinthians 7:1, we find another example, “Now for the matters you wrote about: ‘It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.’” “Sexual relations” is expressed eros in the Greek, sexual passion. Paul was saying that the law permits sexual relation only with your wife. Sex with any other woman is immoral, unfaithfulness. Read 1 Corinthians 7:1-5.