YOU ASKED FOR IT – Part 2
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality and Why Is It Such A Big Deal?
(Matthew 19:4-6 NIV) “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ (5) and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? (6) So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
- God hates homosexuals.
(Romans 6:23 NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Luke 19:10 NIV) For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Homosexuality is the worst sin.
(1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV) (9) Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men (10) nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (11) And that is what some of you were. 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.
- If I interact with homosexuals, I am endorsing their lifestyle.
(2 Corinthians 6:14, 17-18 NIV) Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (17) Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” (18) And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND?
- The homosexual community should matter to us because they matter to God.
(1 Timothy 2:4 NIV) (Jesus) who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
(Hebrews 10:10 GNB) Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of his own body once and for all.
- Don’t be afraid to love them and be friends with them.
(Luke 7:34 NIV) The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
(Romans 2:4 NKJV) Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- We can disagree without being disagreeable.
(Ephesians 4:15a CEV) Love should always make us tell the truth…
- Let the Bible be a mirror and not a window.
(James 1:23-25 NIV) Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror (24) and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (25) But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it–not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it–they will be blessed in what they do.
(Luke 18:9-14 NIV) To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: (10) “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (11) The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. (12) I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (13) “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (14) “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”