What does the New Testament say about homosexuality?

(Please read and have in front of you Romans 1:21-32, too long to reproduce here.)

Part 2: What does the New Testament say about homosexuality?

A matter of conviction? If something is shown to be wrong it is no longer a matter of conviction, it is a matter of right and wrong, of obedience or sin.

One can look at Paul’s teaching on hair and wait for conviction, I Corinthians 11:14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?  He does not make it clear that this is or is not an actual mandate for the modern church or if it is a long standing moral obligation. So one can pray about it and see if God will make it a matter of compliance or freedom for them. However, I doubt whether anyone will look at the Ten Commandments and say they do not feel convicted about compliance with them. They are clearly taught as Divine truths which all of us must obey. So when the Bible makes it clear that something is a Biblical truth one simply obeys. We do not, and must not, use the idea of ‘conviction’ as a tool for avoiding godliness in our daily lives.

Homosexuality is a choice. The nature and power of God are clearly seen (Rom. 1:19-20) in all of nature and is formed within the very heart of man...there are no true atheists anywhere in the world only people who struggle to remove God from their hearts and minds until they are finally successful. In other words an atheist is one who pushed God out of his consciousness, not one who never believed.

Look again at verses 22-23. The truth of God is suppressed, held back and hindered by the unrighteousness of man. False religions and every kind of idol worship is the result of man denying God's existence; changing what they knew was right; choosing, making a cognitive decision, to worship false gods. At some point (v.24) God said, "That's enough" and stopped trying to change man's mind. He finally allowed us to sink into our own depravity because of the hardness of our own hearts. This is the birthplace of homosexuality, this is where it originates. When men are faced with the truth of God and His Word they rebel. People hate absolutes and the Bible is one humongous absolute. There can be no deviance from it in any fashion. And one of its biggest absolutes we saw in Part 1 of this discussion and that is sexual immorality. The two most prominent results of denying God are the worship of false gods (ultimately humanism) and sexual sin. Not wanting to conform to Divine standards and to worship of the one True God man intentionally pressed God from his consciousness. So, God finally left man to his own devices and to face the ultimate judgment of his actions. Verse 32 shows that man revels in the fellowship of others who choose the same ungodly life style as their own knowing they face the ultimate judgment of God. In other words, they search for others to join them in their sin. 

Yes, homosexuality is clearly a choice. There may be a tendency toward any given sin. Look at alcoholism. Some years ago I heard a study that said alcoholism is a disease and that it could be shown that there is a predisposition toward dependency that could be detected genetically. Well then, shall we say that since we are predisposed to certain things that we should simply give in to them? Should the alcoholic become the very best alcoholic he can be? Should the crack addict become the best crack addict he can be? And should the homosexual surrender to his/her sin? If there is a predisposition to something shall we simply embrace it and completely surrender to it since it seems to be a natural tendency for us? To all of these we would say no. But for some reason society says to accept homosexuality even knowing it is nothing more than a predisposition to uncontrolled corrupt passions. Without becoming too perverse for this type of study let me just say that all of us can imagine a multitude of vile sins that we should not give in to. Yet, we can also think of people we know or have seen in the news who are engaged in such vulgar activities. If they have predispositions to these activities, should they just give in and continue to pursue them? Or, should they seek help in giving them up and becoming free of them?

Marriage is an image of the Divine relationship: Only a couple of references are offered here. Since God frequently referred to His relationship with Israel as being like a husband and wife the references then would be many. (Here are 2 examples, Isaiah 54:5-6 shows God ‘married’ to Israel. And Revelation 19:7-9 shows Jesus married to the Church.) However, in Paul’s letter to the Church at Ephesus he explains in more detail how the marriage union is used to exemplify the relationship Christ has with His Church.

Ephesians 5:23-26 “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. (v.24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (v.25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it….” (Ephesians 5:30-32) “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (v.31) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. (v.32) This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

In the Old Testament Israel was seen as God’s wife. In the New Testament the Church is seen as the Bride of Christ. But notice the marriage union is used to exemplify the union of God with His people in both cases. It is not found anywhere in scripture that God ever used a same sex image to reflect his relationship with us. Homosexuality is a vulgar and crude corruption of a beautiful image that God gave us to represent His relationship to His people, an image that was intended to help us understand our relationship to God.

Genesis 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1 (please look up each one. Again limited by space.)

The first command of God to His non-human creation was to multiply upon the earth and later that same command was issued to man. An innate inability to do so reveals that something is not right, either a birth defect, an injury or something else, since anything created by God has the ability to reproduce after its own kind. No created being functioning within its natural parameters is without the ability to reproduce. A natural male and female without physical defects can reproduce. However, no male with male or female with female can ever do so, it is not natural. They cannot fulfill this command of God. The only way for them to even pretend to reproduce is to take children from others. They must take other people’s children and then try to raise them with a corrupted view of the family unit God gave us, a structure He designed to help us understand our relationship to Him.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Our creation has something to do with the nature of God and that includes the idea of both male and female and never the inclusion of something half way in between.

Homosexuality is an aberration of God’s creation, it is not natural.