A reminder for
today
For this cause God
gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural
use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men
working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of
their error which was meet. (Romans 1:26-27)
Pope Francis tells
gay man ‘God made you like this and loves you like this’ the sun reported. What
the Pope said and what my bible teaches seems to contradict the statement made
by the Pope. I have never been a fan of the Pope or the Vatican. I found a very
interesting piece on homosexuality, let’s look at the Bible.
It is a surprise to
many people to discover that there are only a handful of passages in the Bible
that directly mention homosexuality. Yet despite its infrequent mention, where
the subject does come up, the Bible has some very important things to say about
it. We need to understand them if we’re to avoid the twin mistakes of
homophobia and thinking God is indifferent about how we use our
sexuality.
Genesis 19
Sodom has become so
associated with homosexual conduct that its name was for many ears a byword for
it. But is 'sodomy' really what Sodom is about?
The account
describes the men of the city attempting to forcibly have sex with two angelic
visitors to the city, who have appeared in the form of men. Later parts of the
Old Testament accuse Sodom of a range of sins: oppression, adultery, lying,
abetting criminals, arrogance, complacency and indifference to the poor. None
of these even mentions homosexual conduct. This has led some people to wonder
if we have read homosexuality into the Genesis narrative, when in fact the real
issue was social oppression and injustice. But a close look at the text makes
it clear that homosexuality was in fact involved.
Although the Hebrew
word for “know” (yada) can just mean to “get to know” someone (rather
than to “know” them sexually), it is clear from the crowd’s aggression (and
Lot’s dreadful attempt at offering them his daughters as an alternative) that
they are looking for much more than social acquaintance. Hence what happens
next: the angels warn Lot that judgment is imminent (v.13).
In the New
Testament, Jude adds an important insight:
...just as Sodom and
Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual
immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a
punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)
What happened at
Sodom is clearly meant to be something of a cautionary tale. Jude makes it
clear that their ungodliness involved sexual immorality. They were punished for
sexual sin along with the other sins of which they were guilty.
Jude also highlights
the nature of their sexual desires: they pursued “unnatural desire” (literally,
unnatural “flesh”). Some have suggested that this relates to the fact that the
visitors to the city were angelic; Jude references angelic sin earlier in his
letter. But these angels appeared as men, and the baying crowd outside Lot’s
house showed no evidence of knowing they were angelic. Their desire was to have
sex with the men staying with Lot. In other words, it was the homosexual
nature of their desires, and not just the violent expression of them, that is
highlighted in the New Testament.
Romans 1:18-32
Turning to the New
Testament, Romans 1 has much to say about the nature and character of
homosexual behaviour.
Paul’s aim in these
early chapters is to demonstrate that the whole world is unrighteous in God’s
sight, and therefore in need of salvation. In Romans 1:18-32 he zeroes in on
the Gentile world, describing the way it has turned away from God and embraced
idolatry. The particular details in the passage may indicate that Paul is using
the Greco-Roman culture surrounding his readers as a case in point.
Gentile society
faces God’s wrath because it has suppressed the truth that God has revealed
about himself in creation (verses 18-20). In the verses that follow, Paul
illustrates how this has happened, giving three examples of how what has been
known about God has been exchanged for something else: they exchange the glory
of God for images of creatures (verse 23); the truth of God for a lie, leading
to full-blown idolatry, worshipping created things (verse 25); and reject the
knowledge of God (verse 28), exchanging “natural” relations for “unnatural”
ones:
For this reason, God
gave them up to dishonourable passions. For their women exchanged natural
relations for those that are contrary to nature; 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. (Romans 1:26-27)
Two important and
sobering truths are apparent from these verses:
1. Homosexual desire is not what God originally intended. This is not to say that homosexual
desire is the only thing that God did not originally intend. All of our desires
have been distorted by sin. But Paul does describe both lesbian and male
homosexual behaviour as “unnatural.” Some have argued this refers to what is
natural to the people themselves, so that what is in view is heterosexual
people engaging in homosexual activity and thereby going against their
“natural” orientation. According to this view, Paul is not condemning all
homosexual behaviour, but only that which goes against the person’s own sexual
inclinations. But this view cannot be supported by the passage itself. The
words for “natural” and “against nature” refer not to our subjective experience
of what feels natural to us, but to the fixed way of things in creation. The
nature that Paul says homosexual behaviour contradicts is God’s purpose for us,
revealed in creation and reiterated throughout Scripture.
Paul’s reference to
lesbianism as well as male homosexual conduct also supports the idea that he is
condemning all homosexual activity, and not just the man-boy relationships that
occurred in Roman culture.
The strength of
Paul’s language here should not make us think that homosexual conduct is the
worst or only form of sinful behaviour. Paul may be highlighting it because it
is a particularly vivid example, and may have been especially pertinent for his
readers in Rome given their cultural context. Either way it is illustrative of
something that is the case for all of us: as we reject God we find ourselves
craving what we are not naturally designed to do. This is as true of a
heterosexual person as of a homosexual person. There are no grounds in
this passage for singling out homosexual people for any kind of special condemnation.
The same passage indicts all of us.
2. Our distorted desires are a sign that we have
turned away from God. It is
important to recognize that Paul is talking here in social rather than
individual terms. He is describing what happens to culture as a whole, rather
than particular people. The presence of same-sex desire in some of us is not an
indication that we’ve turned from God more than others, but a sign that
humanity as a whole has done so. It is not the only sign, and in everyone there
is no doubt more than one sign or another - but it is a sign nevertheless.
Paul writes that
alongside the gospel, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:19). Though there will
one day be a “day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed”
(Romans 2:5), there is already a present-day expression of God’s anger against
sin. We see God’s wrath in this: he gives us what we want.
In response to the
exchanges Paul has described, we see three instances of God giving us over to
live in the outcome of our sinful desires. This is his present-day judgment
against sin. We ask for a reality without him and he gives us a taster of it.
In each case the
“giving over” results in an intensification of the sin and the further
breakdown of human behaviour. God gives humanity over to impure lusts and
dishonourable bodily conduct (verse 24), and to “dishonourable passions” (verse
26). The exchanging of natural relations for unnatural leads to being given
over to a “debased mind” and the flourishing of “all manner of unrighteousness”
which Paul unpacks in a long list of antisocial behaviours (verse 28-31). Sin
leads to judgment, but judgment also leads to further sin.
The presence of all
these sinful acts is a reminder that we live in a world which has deliberately
turned away from God in all sorts of ways and is therefore experiencing a
foretaste of God’s anger and courting its final outpouring on the day of
judgment. Again, homosexual activity is certainly not the only sinful act. All
of us are guilty. But it listed among them as one of the ways in which human
nature as a whole has been changed from what God originally intended.
You can also look at
Leviticus 18 & 20, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:8-10.
Attempts to read
these texts as anything other than prohibitions of homosexual behaviour do not
ultimately work. The plain reading of each passage is the right one. It is
homosexual practice in general, rather than only certain expressions of it,
which are forbidden in Scripture. To attempt to demonstrate otherwise is to
violate the passages themselves. Yet these very same texts list
homosexuality alongside many other forms of behaviour that are also against
God’s will. The very passages that show us that homosexual activity is a sin,
make it very clear that it is not a unique sin. It is one example of what is
wrong with all of us.
Have an awesome day dear friend of Jesus.
Cheers
