Denying Sin

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. 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 6:9-11

There is a disturbing trend within the Christian community to try to justify sin. I have found that people are willing to believe what the Bible says about sin until it affects them personally. I have had individuals that I know love the Lord, come and ask me to officiate their weddings. When I ask them if they have been divorced for biblical reasons (Matthew 5:32; 19:9, 1 Corinthians 4:6) and they respond no, and then they don’t understand why I will not marry them. All of us at some time, when our desires conflict with scripture, we decide to disobey God or deny the truth of His Word.

One of the recent areas of concern is in denying the sin of homosexuality. I have read several articles and blogs from people claiming to be Christians that are saying that the Bible does not speak out against homosexuality.

On the website Serendipitydodah.wordpress.com, there is a blog by Liz Dyer, who has a homosexual child. In that blog she posted this quote, “The church’s treatment of the LGBTQ community is reminiscent of days when the developmentally disabled and mentally ill were rejected and mistreated and accused of being possessed by Satan. It is heartbreaking to see that kind of hate and rejection aimed at your child. The Bible has been in the control of white hetero men of power since its inception therefore, as with all things in human control, is fallible and corruptible. We would be incredibly naive to think that has not been changed to meet the agenda of these powerful men.” She goes on to post from another author about the “clobber verses.” These verses are the ones in which the Bible speaks out against homosexuality. The following is a specific comment made about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, “The sin of Sodom is about hard-heartedness, abuse, insult to the traveler, and inhospitality to the needy, not about committed homosexual relationships that exist today (Helminiak, Daniel; What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality, pg. 46).” When the angels visited Abraham in Genesis 18, the Lord said to him, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.” According to some the grave sin of the two cities was inhospitality. So let me get this straight, God destroyed these cities because they insulted travelers and had hard hearts? Nonsense!

Doing a thorough word search of the Greek and Hebrew, while using correct exegesis and hermeneutics, there is no question concerning what the Bible has to say about the sin of homosexuality. In Leviticus 18:22, God gave the following command, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” God did not just prohibit this only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament as well. In Romans 1:26-28 Paul writes, “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable 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. 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.” The word study in this passage, as well in 1 Corinthians 6:9-1, makes it perfectly clear that homosexuality is a sin. The tragedy of well believing Christians, who love their children, is that they are condemning them to a life without Christ by not sharing with them the truth of Scripture. Love without truth is not love. This problem of parents denying the truth of Scripture because they have a fear of driving their children away is not a recent one. Rather there has been over two generations in this country, where many parents have turned a blind eye to the unmarried living together. We love to condemn sins that we think are disgusting, but have no problem with sin that we believe is no big deal.    

I want to finish my comments with a word of caution. The sin of homosexuality is grave, no question about it, but so are the other sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. All who practice these sins, that is without any remorse, guilt, or break in the pattern of sin, will spend eternity apart from God. If we truly love those around us, then we will not be afraid to share the truth in love.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark