JP's Mind

Gay Marriage February 11, 2015

You may be gay, you may have been born that way. However God did NOT make you that way.

God’s original creation was one of beauty, and delight. One way in which Adam’s body did mirror God’s is that it was created in perfect health, sinless and not subject to death. It was the sin of Adam and Eve which corrupted that creation. With the fall of mankind because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, that aspect of our likeness to God ended. Sin entered the world and along with it, sickness, disease and death. It is the primary result of sin that human nature has been corrupted (Rom 5:12). Every part of man—his mind, will, emotions, and body—is affected (Rom 3:9-18). Our nature is now bent toward sin, so that man’s unregenerate heart is “deceitful … and desperately sick” (Jer 17:9)

‘Nature’ is a pleasant way of stating that our world operates in a corrupted version of God’s creation. Subsequently, God did not create homosexuality, disease, death, envy, malice, strife, hatred, mental illness, etc. All that is not right in the eyes of God has come about through the corruption of His creation.

I don’t care if you are gay or not.

I wasn’t put on this earth to make judgments on anyone’s state of being. It doesn’t matter to me if you are gay, straight, tall, short, thin, fat, pretty, ugly, addiction prone, insufferable, or marvelously happy all the time. As a Christian I have been commanded to love everyone as Christ has loved me: “I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].” (Joh 13:34-35)

It is however, my place to make judgments (discernment) on the sins of other believers (not the guy downtown whom I don’t know):

Christians are often accused of “judging” whenever they speak out against a sinful activity. However, that is not the meaning of the Scripture verses that state, “Do not judge.” There is a righteous kind of judgment we are supposed to exercise—with careful discernment (John 7:24). When Jesus told us not to judge (Mat 7:1), He was telling us not to judge hypocritically. Matthew declares, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” What Jesus was condemning here was hypocritical, self-righteous judgments of others.

In Matthew, Jesus warns against judging someone else for his sin when you yourself are sinning even worse. That is the kind of judging Jesus commanded us not to do. If a believer sees another believer sinning, it is his Christian duty to lovingly and respectfully confront the person with his sin (Mat 18:15-17) This is not judging, but rather pointing out the truth in hope—and with the ultimate goal—of bringing repentance in the other person (James 5:20) and restoration to the fellowship. We are to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). We are to proclaim what God’s Word says about sin. 2 Tim 4:2 instructs us, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.” We are to “judge” sin, but always with the goal of presenting the solution for sin and its consequences—the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

Being homosexual is not a sin, but engaging in homosexual activity (sex) is.

This is a sticky point among religious folk. Many look to the words of the scriptures, specifically the King James Version, and take it at face value, building a belief on the words rather than the intent and meaning of the words. But I will clue you in to a scriptural truth and my thinking about that truth, beginning with 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:

Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled): neither the impure and immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality, Nor cheats (swindlers and thieves), nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. (1Co 6:9-10)

The phrase “men who have sex with men” (translated “homosexuals” in the NASB) is a translation of the Greek word arsenokoitai. Those who object to this translation say that arsenokoitai does not refer to all homosexual relationships but only to those involving abuse, coercion, or unfaithfulness. They say the word does not refer to “loving, faithful” same-sex relationships.

Arsenokoitai is a compound word: arsenois the word for “a male,” and koitaiis the word for “mat” or “bed.” Put the two halves together, and the word means “a male bed”—that is, a person who makes use of a “male-only bed” or a “bed for males.” And, truthfully, that’s all the information we need to understand the intent of 1 Cor 6:9.

The word meaning “bed” carries a sexual connotation in this context—the Greek koitaiis the source of our English word coitus (“sexual intercourse”). The conclusion is that the word arsenokoitaiis referring to homosexuals—men who are in bed with other men, engaging in same-gender sexual activity.

The notion that some homosexual relationships are accepted is not even hinted at in this passage. The men’s commitment level or the presence of “love” is not addressed. The idea that the condemned same-sex activity is linked to economic exploitation or abuse is also a forced reading with no textual basis.

If we look at the whole of what Paul is telling us in the passage we see a list of activities which are ‘sinful’, or rather ‘separate from the righteousness of God’. Adultery is listed here, and anyone who knows anything about the teachings of scripture understands that adultery in all its forms is sinful (Mat 19:18, 1Th 4:3, Eph 5:3, et al)

So let me clue you in to something: Homosexual activity, at its core, is adultery. It is sexual activity committed outside the bond and covenant of marriage as established by God in His creation of Eve and His giving of her to Adam (Gen 2:22).

Whenever the Bible mentions marriage, it is between a male and a female. The first mention of marriage, Gen 2:24, describes it as a man leaving his parents and being united to his wife. In passages that contain instructions regarding marriage, such as 1 Cor 7:2-16  and Eph 5:23-33, the Bible clearly identifies marriage as being between a man and a woman. Biblically speaking, marriage is the lifetime union of a man and a woman, primarily for the purpose of building a family and providing a stable environment for that family.

Then you ask: since the courts and the laws of the land have now started making same-sex marriage legal, doesn’t that bring homosexual activity in a ‘marriage’ into the realm of God’s righteousness?

No.

It should come as no surprise that the world desires to change what God has instituted. “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Rom 8:7). Though the world is attempting to provide their own definitions for what they call “marriage,” the Bible still stands. The clear definition of marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life.

However, while we are admonished to submit to the government, and the government is now ‘endorsing’ same-sex marriage, we must also recognize that our beliefs and the dictates of scripture cannot be superseded by the whims of the government, particularly when those whims contradict God’s Word.

Gay marriage/same-sex marriage is a perversion of the institution of marriage and an offense to the God who created marriage. As Christians, we are not to condone or ignore sin. Rather, we are to share the love of God and the forgiveness of sins that is available to all, including homosexuals, through Jesus Christ. We are to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) and contend for truth with “gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15). As Christians, when we make a stand for truth and the result is personal attacks, insults, and persecution, we should remember the words of Jesus: “This is what I command you: that you love one another. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [no longer one with it], but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world, the world hates (detests) you.  (Joh 15:17-19)