If you have not read the entirety of Romans 1, you should. It is below. For this issue vs 18ff is what pertains to the discussion.
The question is about homosexuality. And what does God’s Word actually say about it.
There’s a lot happening in Romans 1. Let’s summarize it:
He lists what is happening with a certain number of people doing terrible things. They….
- Suppress the truth by their wickedness
- Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God
- Did not gave thanks to Him
- They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals and reptiles
- They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator
- Men exchanged natural relations with women and instead burned in lust for other men. Women did the same and had unnatural relations with women.
- They did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God
- They became filled with every kind of wickedness
A lot of bad stuff is happening. There’s ingratitude towards God, idol worship, and homosexuality. A lot could be said about the first two, but it is the third thing that right now that consumes our culture.
Is homosexuality a sin?
When we read the Bible, it is clear.This isn’t cultural. It is something that brings about God’s judgment.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
It speaks of homosexuality as
- Dishonorable passions
- Unnatural relations
- Shameful acts
We’ve just been told to look at nature. In nature, with mammals, it takes a male and a female to produce life. Of course there are rare exceptions. But not with humans. There is no life without both the contribution of the male and the female parts. Life needs a sperm and an egg. Anything else is “unnatural.”
Yes, you can make things happen “unnaturally,” but that’s the point. They are unnatural. They are not natural expressions of God. They are “dishonorable” and “shameful.”
The problem is this: People we know and love are attracted to same gender. Some of those people don’t care what the Bible says, or what God has to say, they just want to act upon their desires.
Then there are others that hate their desires, and don’t know what to do with them. They don’t want to have the desires they do, but they don’t know what to do with what they feel, think and are attracted to.
So what do we do? Do we rewrite the Scriptures? Do we say that this is of God since the desire persists?
Not at all. We cannot rewrite God’s truth as much as those we love struggle with these things.
The truth is we all have deviant desires. And those desires dono’t automatically go away when we are baptized. Some do but some don’t.
I met a man once who dreamed of being a thief since he was a child. Al Capone was his hero. All he could think of was stealing and theft. And that’s what he did. He stole cars and other things. He loved it.
Did this make stealing right? Not at all.
Here’s another thought. How many people have always been tempted to have sex outside of marriage? Or before marriage? Most, I would say. Whether that is before marriage, during marriage or whenever, our sexual desires and fantasies are not typically inclined towards faithfulness. Our sinful selves want to take a good thing and turn it sideways.
Does that mean just because a person has desires that they should act on it? Should the married person sleep around with others because the desires never stop? Or those unmarried have sexual relations with anyone and everyone?
Not at all. It is necessary for all of us to put to corral the wild nature of desire. Fire is good when it is in its boundaries. When it rages out of control, it brings death and destruction.
But there’s another side to the story here. And that is found in the very next chapter.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4).
Don’t misread this. God has just been speaking about how he will judge such behavior. Sin does not get a free pass, an endorsement, or tolerance. It will be judged.
But there’s mercy here as well. God gives time and kindness, calling them and leading them to repentance. Yes, repentance.
It’s like the woman caught in adultery. He desired to show her mercy. Which he did. And most people stop reading there. But there’s another truth. He told her to “go and sin no more.”
Jesus was the embodiment of truth and love.
It’s why sinners were attracted to them. He didn’t judge them. But he lead them and called them to repentance. It’s both.
We err when we say just love and accept and don’t call them to repentance, or just call to repentance and don’t give the grace and mercy of time to give them opportunity to repent.
The truth is those outside of the church are to be given that longevity. And those inside of the church are to walk out their repentance. It will take time. It will take stumbling. Repentance is a journey. But God calls all believers to be on that journey.
Some will try to say that the sin of homosexuality is like every other sin. And there’s a truth to that in that all sin separates us from God.
But the reality is that it isn’t treated like other sins. We don’t say murder is of God, just let people murder. Or adultery is of God, and so let people love whoever. Yet when it comes to the sin of homosexuality, it is endorsed, disturbingly by many Christians. This should not be the case.
We must show love. But also stand firm in the truth.
Love isn’t just love, as the drum is being beaten. Even Jesus said people love evil and wrongdoing. Loving something wrong doesn’t make love righteous.
What, then, do we tell the person who struggles with desires. Does it mean they can never “find love”?
Not at all. This question is a fallacy. It states that “love” must include sexual relations.
Love is much deeper, richer and wider than sexual engagement.
The single person who has been unable to find a spouse, yet has strong sexual desire, can still love and be loved without engaging sexually with someone or anyone.
The married person who has sexual desires outside of their marriage, can still love and be loved without engaging with someone sexually outside of their marriage.
A severely handicapped person can love and be loved, without needing to sexually engage with someone.
A person with strong homosexual desires can love and be loved ,without needing to act on their sexual desires.
Henri Nouwen was an example of this. He was a significant Christian writer of our times. He was one who said he didn’t have heterosexual desires, but lived in holiness to honor God. He found meaning, fulfillment and love by caring in holy ways for a handicapped person. His holiness against his desire was out of gratitude to the Lord. Just as a man who struggles with lust works to be holy before the Lord by not engaging in sexual relations outside of the marriage covenant, turning from pornography and more. Even though he may have lustful desires the entirety of his life.
God has made us for Him. For righteousness and for holiness. Whether a person has heterosexual lust or homosexual desires, we are all called to be holy before him.
Let’s all be consistent as well. If in a church that pursues Biblical holiness and says no to homosexual behavior, we must also say the same and speak with gentleness and love to believers who are knowingly practicing heterosexual sin.
So much can be said on this topic. This post will likely cause me issues in the future. Or even the present with those who read it. But let’s all together stand on the Word of God. Let’s work towards holiness. And pray God will help all of us to throw off the sin that so easily entangles us all.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David[b] according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Longing to Go to Rome
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,[c] that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians,[d] both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[e] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[f]
God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.