Christians are being accused of singling out the sin of homosexuality as being worse than other sins. Christians are accused of being intolerant, cruel, and judgmental when it comes to the subject of homosexuals and the homosexual lifestyle. Is this accusation accurate? Do Christians live as if they are choosing to persecute homosexuals with more zeal than those who commit sins of other kinds?
The Bible declares that living a homosexual lifestyle is sinful, and it is sin that separates us from God eternally. It would be unloving to not declare what God’s word says about this subject. It would be the same as seeing someone about to walk off the edge of a cliff but not warning them of the danger. It would be like a doctor finding out that someone has a deadly, but curable, disease but instead of informing the patient and starting a life saving treatment, the doctor falsely assures the patient that everything is just fine. Those are not acts of love. Hiding lifesaving truths from someone is not love. Especially if those truths have eternal consequences.
Are Christians on the attack against homosexuals?
Homosexuality is no more or less a sin than murder, adultery, stealing, lying, etc. All of these, and more, are contrary to how God has instructed us to behave (Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 21:8). However; there is not, as far as I know, a concerted effort to promote stealing, adultery, lying, cheating, etc. as normal moral lifestyles for our society. There are no “Thief-Straight Alliances” that I know of. There is no “Adultery Action Committees” seeking to convince society that cheating on your spouse should be sanctioned by laws passed by the government. Lying and stealing are not being promoted as normal moral behavior to our children in schools or to our culture at large. And we are not being asked, for the most part, to accept them as normal. However, we are being asked to accept homosexuality as normal and we are oftentimes accused of being intolerant for expressing the view that it is not. If there arose a public effort to legitimize adultery, theft, murder, or any of the other sins mentioned in the Bible, the Christian community would also be bound by conscience to speak out directly against these groups as well.
Is homosexuality sin?
Any honest evaluation of the Bible cannot help but lead one to the conclusion that the Bible sees homosexuality as sinful. The apostle Paul, speaking under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, says that people practicing such lifestyles will not enter the kingdom of God, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV).
“I’m going to do what I want, not what God wants me to do.”
God, in His Word (the Bible) declares that living a homosexual lifestyle is sinful, and it is sin that separates us from God eternally. All sinful acts stem from a rebellion against God’s will and ways. Sin manifests itself when we say, “I’m going to do what I want, not what God wants me to do.” It’s really as simple as that. People who continue to live in rebellion towards God will not be forgiven of their sins nor can they have a right relationship with the God who made them and loves them.
Jesus died for all sinners
However, Paul goes on to say that there is hope for anyone willing to trust in God’s goodness, “And such were some of you. 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 ESV). The very Christians Paul said had lived the same sinful lifestyles that bar a person from the Kingdom of God, he also said were no longer trapped in those lifestyles. They had been cleansed and freed by the power of Jesus Christ.
When we reject God’s lordship and make our own rules, we alienate ourselves from Him and should not expect that He will ignore our rebellion. God wants everyone to be saved and to have a relationship with Him (1 Timothy 2:3-6), but it must be on His terms not ours. We cannot make up our own rules and expect God to abide by them. He is the Creator of the universe and has the right to set the standard by which we must live.
God will forgive the homosexual, just the same as He forgives any other sinner, if he or she turns from his or her sin and turns to God. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that anyone who comes to Him on His terms will be cleansed of their sin and will be brought into a right relationship with God. Only then can a person live the full life that God wants His children to enjoy.
Conclusion
The Christian community does not speak out against homosexuality because we think that it is in some way a worse sin than others. Christians are simply responding to a public agenda that is promoting what God calls sin as something to be accepted as normal and good. The faith community wants people to know that the God of the universe sets the standards by which we are to live, and He considers homosexuality to be sin. We also want the homosexual to know that there is forgiveness for, and freedom from, all sin through faith in Jesus Christ.
God sent His Son to die on the cross so that we may be set free from our sins…all He asks us to do is believe, trust, and obey Him, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).
My prayer is that the homosexual will stop rejecting God’s rule in his or her life. Surrender to Him and His will, search the truth of His Word (the Bible), and gratefully serve Him with his or her life.
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Resources – The Holy Bible, English Standard Version “Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. YouTube “Jesus Friend of Sinners” by Casting Crowns.
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