Homosexuality
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 7/26/2015
On Friday, June 26 the Supreme Court of the United States legalized marriage for same sex couples all across the United States... and along with the decision came huge celebrations as well as thunderous condemnation.
In the days following the Supreme Court’s decision my Facebook newsfeed was littered with rainbow colored profile pictures, celebrating this victory for the gay community. Several of these rainbow-painted faces belonged to friends of my who are themselves gay, others were simply supporters, and—surprisingly—some even belonged to church-going Christians.
It’s been “interesting” over the past few weeks to see the reaction of the Christian community at large on this issue. There are some who say this is a sign of the “end times” and that God’s wrath is upon us. One popular Christian leader even proclaimed that lightning was probably going to strike the White House because it was lit up in rainbow colors on the evening the decision was finalized. I’ve even heard some pastors say if God doesn’t destroy America soon then He will have to apologize for destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
Others are saying it is time Christians get past their “old-fashioned” ideas and step into a culture that is way more “progressive” than Scripture allows. They say Scripture is outdated and that the Church needs to be more inclusive and tolerant and even embrace same-sex marriage with open arms; after all, if the Supreme Court, the most powerful court in the land, says it’s ok then everyone must agree.
And yet, many others are simply stunned and are left wondering how a Christian should respond. This morning I’d like you to join me in examining what the Bible says about this sensitive subject. While there are a variety of passages in the Bible that address the issue, I’d like to camp out primarily in 1 Corinthians 6 where Paul shares God’s Word with the church in Corinth concerning homosexuality. He writes:
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 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 and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 1:9-11 NIV)
This passage underscores three important points about homosexuality, including God’s restrictions against it, the homosexual’s redemption from it, and a Christian’s response to it. I think it’s important to begin with that first point—God restricts (forbids) homosexuality.
• RESTRICTIONS ON HOMOSEXUALITY
Back in 1994, syndicated columnist, Abigail Van Buren, received a letter which she printed in her column that week, titled “Sexual orientation is about doing what comes naturally.” Here is a portion of that letter:
Dear Abby:
I am a 25-year-old lesbian. Learning to accept my homosexuality was difficult, to say the least... I am one of three girls, raised in a loving family... There was no significant difference in the way my sisters and I were raised. Genetics, nature, or God’s will is the explanation for my orientation. My sisters and I are very much alike except for our sexual preference… A person’s sexual orientation, be it heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual, is a natural part of a person that can’t be changed. It is God-given. Since it is what nature intended, it should be celebrated. It can’t possibly be immoral.
When Dear Abby published this letter, the sentiments it expresses were pretty radical. The idea that God would create or condone same-sex attraction was shocking. Today, twenty years later, this is the view held by most media journalist, politicians, gay-rights activists and even many churches and Christians.
The Bible paints a very different picture, though.
Here in 1 Corinthians, Paul clearly identifies homosexuality as sinful. Another translation puts it this way: “Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 9:9-10 NLT).
This would not have been a surprise to the Christians in Corinth. God also forbade homosexuality in the Old Testament. Amongst a long list of forbidden sexual sins, God said, “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin” (Leviticus 18:22). Many pro-gay churches will point out that Christians are not expected to follow the Old Testament Law, which is true. But what we see here is continuity between the Old Testament and the New. In fact, the Bible speaks of homosexuality five times (twice in the Old Testament and three times in the New), and each time it is clearly categorized as sinful.
But there is a very important word in both of the passages we looked at—the word practice. You see the Bible makes a distinction between attraction and action. A person can be gay in the sense that they are attracted to people of the same sex and God doesn’t condemn that. This is an important distinction, because so many gay people feel as if their attraction to the same sex is natural—that they were just born that way.
You may not have a choice about your attractions, but you do choose your actions. God doesn’t judge us for how we feel, but for what we do. You can be attracted to people of the same sex, but by God’s grace, you can still follow Jesus and live a life of obedience to him. That brings us to our next point.
Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 6 underscores redemption from homosexuality.
• REDEMPTION FROM HOMOSEXUALITY
After clearly condemning the practice of homosexuality along with several other sins, Paul goes on to say, “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 and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV).
The city of Corinth was a perverse metropolis—the “sin city” of the ancient world. Prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality were widespread, and many of the Christians there had, themselves, indulged in those sins. The pews of that church were filled with “recovering sinners” of all stripes, including homosexuals.
Paul uses three powerful words to describe what happened when these sinners accepted Jesus as their Savior. First, they were washed. This means they were completely forgiven, given a clean slate—all their sins past, present and future were washed away by the blood of Jesus. Furthermore, they were justified. This means that through Jesus they were made right with God. Now they can enjoy a meaningful relationship with their Creator. Finally, they were sanctified. This means to be made holy. But unlike forgiveness and justification, sanctification isn’t immediate; rather it’s a lifelong process whereby the Holy Spirit gets into our hearts and lives and transforms us into the image of Jesus.
The truth of the matter is that your sexual orientation is not set in stone.
Dr. Neil Whitehead—who holds a PhD in biochemistry and statics and has worked for 40 years as a research scientist in New Zealand and around the world—has published multiple studies and books on homosexuality. He writes, “Neutral academic surveys show there is substantial change [in sexual orientation]. About half of the homosexual/bisexual population moves towards heterosexuality over a lifetime. About 3% of the present heterosexual population once firmly believed themselves to be homosexual or bisexual.”
Even more remarkable, most of the changes occur without counseling or therapy. Dr. Whitehead observes, “These changes are not therapeutically induced, but happen ‘naturally’ in life, some very quickly.” The number of people who have changed toward exclusive heterosexuality is greater than current numbers of bisexuals and homosexuals combined. In other words, ex-gays outnumber actual gays.
The fluidity is even more pronounced among adolescents, as another study demonstrated. “They found that from 16 to 17-years-old, if a person had a romantic attraction to the same sex, almost all had switched one year later.”
In other words, you are changeable. You’re tweakable. This is important.
For many homosexuals begin gay becomes their identity. When they say, “I’m gay,” in other words, they’re saying, “This is who I am. My sexuality is one of the most important things about me. It’s how I define myself. It’s my community. It’s the people I know and love and who I self-identify with.” I’m friends with a number of gay people, both on Facebook and in real life, so I understand that your sexuality is at core to who you are, but you need to know that it’s not the most important thing about who you are. The most important thing about you is not that you’re gay or straight or lesbian or bisexual or transgender. The most important thing about you is that you are made in the image of God and you are loved by the Creator who made you. He has a plan for your life and his Holy Spirit is at work inside of you. We don’t find our identity in the sins with which we struggle. We find our identity in the God who made us and loves us.
So first, this passage highlights God’s restrictions against practicing homosexuality. Furthermore, it underscores redemption from homosexuality. But finally, this passage helps Christians know how to respond to homosexuality.
• RESPONDING TO HOMOSEXUALITY
Like I said in the beginning, the Supreme Court ruling has left a lot of Christians wondering, “What do we do now.” I think Paul answers that question for us, but maybe not in the way you would think. Let’s take another look at the sins Paul listed: “Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NLT).
If it doesn’t bother you that adultery is legal, or that greed is legal, or that fornication is legal, or that getting drunk is legal, or other religions are legal, then it shouldn’t bother you that homosexuality or gay marriage is legal. It shouldn’t surprise us when the Supreme Court doesn’t legislate Biblical morality and it shouldn’t cause us to panic. It’s nothing new. The ethics and laws of nations change all the time, but God’s moral standards never waiver.
But more importantly, I think Christians ought to take a hard look as this list. Maybe you don’t wrestle with homosexuality, but there may be another sin on this list that you do wrestle with. And if there’s not, I’m sure we can find another list or two. The point is—homosexuality is no worse than any of the other sins identified here. And the fact of the matter is that we are all sinners. One of the reasons that Christians are often accused of being hypocrites is that we are. We’re sometimes very good at pointing out that faults and failures of other, while ignoring our own.
That’s the very reason Jesus said, “Don’t judge others, or you will be judged. You will be judged in the same way that you judge others…Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye? How can you say to your friend, ‘Let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye’? Look at yourself! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. You hypocrite! First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the dust out of your friend’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5 NCV).
Each one of us needs to own up to and deal with our own sin, rather than criticizing and condemning others for theirs. But also doesn’t mean we condone their sins. I think Jesus set the perfect example for us in responding to homosexuality. He never met a gay man (that we know of), but he did meet sinners with similar struggles.
In John 8, the religious leaders of Jerusalem catch a woman in the very act of adultery. Priests slammed open the bedroom door, threw back the widow curtains and pulled off the covers. She scarcely had time to cover her body before they marched her through the narrow streets. And as if the bedroom raid and the parade of shame were inadequate, these religious elite thrust her into the middle of the Temple Courtyard where Jesus was teaching and announced her sins to the whole congregation! They wanted Jesus to stone her—to punish her for her sexual sins. But to their surprise Jesus stood up for her and announced, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (John 8:7 NLT). Suddenly the once-clamoring accusers fell silent. Their scornful glances softened. Their snarling lips relaxed. And their grips loosened. The silence was broken by the dull thud of a dozen stones falling to the ground. Bullies are all alike regardless of what century you’re in. If you stand up to them, they typically back down. Then Jesus turned to woman with her dangling nighty and smeared lipstick, and asked, “Where are they? Has no one judged you guilty?” She answered, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “I also don’t judge you guilty. You may go now, but don’t sin anymore.” (John 8:11 NLT).
As Christians, our charge is to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. When others bullied and abused this nameless woman, Jesus stood up for her and defended her. He didn’t defend her actions. He called her sin a sin. But he showed her love, compassion, and acceptance regardless of her lifestyle.
Amy had a similar experience when she attended Gateway Church in Austin, TX with her girlfriend. She shared her story in an issue of Charisma Magazine. “Let’s just go for fun! We’ll see how much we can push their buttons,” Amy teased her girlfriend, who didn’t like the idea of hanging around a bunch of Christians. “Come on,” Amy insisted. “I hear their motto is ‘Come as you are.’ I just want to prove that they’re ‘come as you are ... unless you’re gay.’”
“I came on a mission to shock people,” Amy admits. “Rachel and I would hold hands in front of people, but instead of the disgusted looks of contempt we expected, people met eyes with us and treated us like real people. So we started coming to church weekly. We kept moving closer to the front each week, trying to get a reaction so that we’d be rejected sooner rather than later. When we couldn’t shock people, we stopped trying and started learning.”
“Not long after that, Rachel and I stopped seeing each other, but I kept coming to church because I was searching for something,” Amy admits. “I definitely wasn’t looking to change. It wasn’t my lesbian lifestyle that I was bringing to God, but I wondered if God had answers to my deeper longings.” Over time, Amy slowly opened her heart and struggles to Christ.
“It took several years, but as I moved closer and closer to Christ, He gently took me on a very surprising journey… As I continued to seek intimacy with Him, the lesbian struggles fell away. I’m not saying that’s how God works with everyone, but it’s how He’s healing me. The more I focus on God’s intimate love for me and try to see His masterpiece emerge, the less I want anything to get in the way of His work in me.”
Seven years later, Amy is now on staff at Gateway Church, helping people find healing and wholeness from all kinds of sexual and relational struggles. She’s helping others become God’s restored masterpiece.
Conclusion:
So what does the Bible say about homosexuality? It’s restricted and sinful. But it’s redeemable, God can save and change anyone. Finally, Christians need to respond by first recognizing our own sinfulness and then demonstrating love and compassion.
My heart breaks when I think of the men and women affected by homosexuality. It’s become so easy for us to reduce them to activists fighting against tradition and biblical morality. Our hearts have hardened toward them to the point that we fail to see them as more than the issues they represent.
The truth is—God is absolutely in love with all of us…period. Gay men and women are not excluded or exempt from His love, grace, salvation and healing. His passion should be our passion: that none should perish, but that all would have everlasting life!
My hope and prayer is that Blooming Grove would be a place where sinners of all sorts—whether fornicators, or liars, or adulterers, or prostitutes, drug addicts, or gossips, or thieves, or drunks, or greedy people, or homosexuals—could come and experience the life-changing love and grace of God.
Invitation:
As the worship team prepares to lead us in our next song, I’d like to invite you to pray with me. Would you do that?
Dear Gracious Lord,
Please open our hearts and eyes to those around us who need you. Haunt us with the realization that without us those you created might never know the joys of eternal life in your presence. Thank you for the example of Jesus. Let us model our life after his. Give us your boldness to stand on the truth of your word as we minister with compassionate hearts to those who are lost without you.
Amen.
