Edited from the original post on May 10, 2012
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Our president supports gay marriage. A growing number of states approve gay marriage. And an increasing number of churches endorse it.
This issue is one of the most polarizing in our country and even among Christians. So where should the true Christ-follower stand?
We should stand with homosexuals, of course. Because Jesus does love gay people too!
We should be living in community together. We should be loving. I know that some people I love are gay. I know that some of them believe that it’s OK. I also know that some of them believe God’s OK with it.
Well, is he?
Let’s find out.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Tim.3:16
So what does the Scripture say about homosexuality?
Let’s read it. The Apostle Paul, also inspired by God, spoke directly about homosexuality in his letter to the church in Rome, a city with a substantial homosexual community.
…And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1
With that, to those I love, today I have to come out too. I feel like I have to come out with what I believe is truth. I feel I have to warn you about the spiritual danger that is imminent. Indulging the flesh in a homosexual lifestyle is spiritual suicide. It may be socially acceptable. It may be legal. Our president may think that it is just. Churches may give their thumbs up. But the Creator of earth and sky declared it wicked. And that terrifies me.
Now, to my straight friends, the way you have disregarded marriage started us down this path. You appeal to Eden. You like to remind the world that God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. You protest “One Man + One Woman= Marriage” but you engage in premarital sex, go through multiple partners and are OK with divorce after you finally do get married. That’s far from the ONE man/ONE woman standard God ordained in Eden. To you, the Word of God also says:
Give honor to marriage… Heb. 13:4
For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor. 1 Thes. 4:2-4
Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.” Mal. 2
God says:
- Honor Marriage
- Don’t divorce
- Don’t have sex with just anybody
- Don’t practice homosexuality
At this point I’m going to ask you to please spare me the name calling or accusations that I’m a bigoted homophobic hate monger. Let’s move past those tactics.
I’m not asking you to like this message or agree with it necessarily. It’s not about agreeing with me. I have nothing to do with the origin of truth. But the Most High God does. And his statutes are being disregarded like antiquated pieces of mythology.
In our era we feel like we have come so far past the dark ages when people actually believed that you had to practice heterosexual monogamy in a marriage for life. How archaic right?
Wrong, we were created in the image of God, male and female, to represent and bear the image of the Eternal (Genesis 1 &2). That is not archaic. That. Is. Divine.
The one who is eternal and divine gets to make the rules.
Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin…or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality…—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead…
Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
In our wisdom this seems crazy. I get it. It seems crazy that if two people love each other why would we restrict their love? When the world is so full of hatred why make this an issue? But this is so much bigger than legalizing gay marriage. This issue is about realizing we don’t know better than God. It is about glorifying God in our bodies as He dwells in us, His temple. This is about an eternity in which that same God hold’s our fate.
But it seems so mean. Jesus loves everyone right? John 3:16! Well, to be fair to Jesus, just a few sentences later he said:
Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment. John 3:36
God will judge us in anger because God hates sin. When we are covered in sin God hates us. Typing those words is difficult for me. I’m not comfortable with that concept at all. But if I am going to be fair to the gospel, that is also in the book.
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
No evil dwells with You.
The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity.
You destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. Psalm 5:4-6
Here’s the thing, if we don’t get that God is as much judgement as he is love, we miss the beauty of the cross. He hates sin vehemently. And he loves us dangerously.
It’s not just about judgement. It is about love too. That love hurled Jesus out of heaven to ransom us. That love is not a flimsy, earthly, romantic, gay or straight love. That love is a cosmic, supernatural, sacrificial, sacred love. Mankind must reciprocate that love to the Creator, the Messiah and the Holy Spirit in their love language- holiness.
Jesus declared his love for you and signed his name in blood. He sent the Spirit to be our guarantee that he is coming back for us. He is saying “Trust me. Come to me. If you give your life for me, I promise it will be worth it!”
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-pLRM0rgjE
