One morning at church one of the fathers of the children I teach asked me how my week went. I responded that it was “okay, a little busy, but, good!”. He enquired about what I did that week that made it a bit busy, of which I clarified that it was technically a typical week; a week of Bible study prepwork for my small-group, Sunday school and a personal project I was working on at the time. At the time I was doing some research on the issue of homosexuality from many different paradigms: health, sociological, moral, Biblical and so on. This is when I learned that I had to be lovingly & Biblically correct (as apposed to politically-correct) around my friend as he apparently is a gay activist. He doesn’t support “gay rights”, as it’s called these days with the same fervor as say GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) or GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) does; but he informed me that he has some close male friends who were same-sex partners. Apparently these men are really nice, loving to both each other and the people around them and God loving Christians; and not knowing them I have no reason to suggest otherwise. This father of my five year old student and my friend, just can’t bring himself to agree that homosexuality is wrong! His thinking is as typical as it can get: “What is so bad with two people, may the two men or two women or one of each sharing their lives together?”
In Revelation 2:1 John states in verse one that the following are “...the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” John then contrasts a compliment that Christ made to the Ephesian church (vs. 2-3) with an issue that He had with them.
You have forsaken the love you had at first. - Revelation 2:4
Even though Jesus had some good things to say about the Ephesian church, he gets on their case for forsaking their foundational love. Christ thus strongly encourages repentance and for the Ephesians to “...do the things [they] did at first.” - Revelation 2:5a. He then threatens that if they “...do not repent, [He] will come to [them] and remove [their] lampstand from its [place]” - Revelation 2:5b. George R. Beasley-Murray explains that the “...failure of the Ephesians was the perversion of their chief [virtue.] ... The call for repentance and to do the things you did at first suggests that the failure of these Christians was not primarily loss of love for God but loss of love for people. When hate for practices of those err ... become hatred of those who err, Christians depart from redeeming love of God in Christ and pervert the faith. ... The removal of the lampstand from its place can signify nothing less than the end of Christ’s recognition of the church as a church of his.”[i] So the Ephesian church was obsessed with purifying its metaphysical sanctuary from evil so much they forsook love for those who are committing the evil. When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees as to what the greatest commandment was he alluded to Deuteronomy 6:5 by responding:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ - Matthew 22:37
And then referring to Leviticus 19:18 he adds as the second greatest commandment (cf. Matthew 22:38):
Love your neighbor as yourself. - Matthew 22:39
Do these two commandments effectively stand on their own or are they tied together? In sum can you do one without the other? Beasley-Murray asserts the Ephesian church’s problem was not a loss of love for God but a loss of love for one’s neighbor; however if you do not love your neighbor can you honestly say you love God? No (cf. 1 John 4:20); there is a necessary relationship between actively loving God and actively loving one’s neighbor. So a loss of love for one’s neighbor is a perversion of one’s love for God; and when one’s love for God is tainted God distances himself from them.
However how can one love their neighbor? The answer is to love God first (cf. 1 John 4:16). Paul offers several characteristics of love: patience, kindness, protecting, trusting, hoping and persevering. Love however is not envious, boastful, proud, dishonorable, self-centered and easily angered. Love doesn’t keep records of wrongs and nor does it delight in evil; rather it rejoices with the truth and does not give up (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13:6: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” In order to love God we will delight in the truth (cf. John 8:31-32). Scripture makes it clear as a bell that homosexual activity is wrong (cf. Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:10, Lev. 18:22, 20:13, Matthew 19:4-6). Ergo to passively promote homosexuality is permitting evil. To actively promote it is delighting in evil. And as such, participants of either behavior are at risk of Christ distancing himself from them. Why? Because the permission and the promotion of sin such as homosexuality is hating one’s neighbour. God’s moral law is a basic ‘how-to’ manual for loving Him and one’s neighbour; and ignoring it or disrespecting it is akin to forsaking the directions for the proper assembly of a ‘assemble it yourself’ cabinet. We are to love our neighbours; we are to put the effort in; however to do it properly we are to refer to God’s leading (cf. Proverbs 3:5).
Why is promoting or permitting a sin like homosexuality wrong? Homosexual behavior is akin to drug abuse, alcohol abuse, careless sexual activity (including a wide variety of heterosexual activity), etc. In one word, it’s *dangerous*. Love is kind and protective (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7). Would it be kind or protective to encourage drug abuse or sexual promiscuity or drunken disorderly behaviour or sexual activity outside of marriage? Of course not. Discouraging such behaviour would be the loving thing to do. So to discourage drug use/abuse (including cigaret smoking), alcohol *abuse*, sexual promiscuity and extramarital sexual activity is protecting the person from various harmful to even deadly outcomes: STD’s, unwanted pregnancies, overdoses, illnesses such as cancers, and last but not least eternal separation from God, (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9). In the same way then discouraging homosexual activity would be the loving thing to do. One way to do this is to not support it and be actively against it. But to promote it would be encouraging the aforementioned plausible outcomes to be a reality in someone's life.
Plus, besides it being in a direct disobedience to God, another reason why promoting sin is wrong is it gives the wrong message of Christ’s worldview on the subject. Even though many disagree with the disapproval of same-sex sexual activity, for a Christian to be aloof about it or be in active promotion about it is parallel to saying that Christ is also aloof about it or agrees with it; this would be wrong. Such an behaviour would also suggest that it has no earthly and eternal consequences; of which of course would likewise be wrong. Lastly speaking out in favour for sin speaks volumes regarding a Christian’s devotion for Christ. The act of one saying ‘yeh’ when Christ says ‘neh’ or visa-versa is paramount to saying that following Christ is a deliberation on the terms of a contract between the Christian and Christ. This is simply not how it works: its Christ’s terms and the Christian’s compliance.
In a previous article located here, I alluded to the idea that compromise on the nature of sin is apostasy. There is much more to say on this subject, but to conclude to side with an action that is considered sin according to Scripture is at the vary least splashing in the pool of apostasy and heresy. It doesn’t necessarily mean that one should be condemned as an apostate and a heretic, but dabbling in it can quickly and logically lead to becoming one.
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[i] G.J Wenham, J.A Moyter, D.A Carson, R.T France, contribution by: G.J. Wenham New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1953-1994),1427-1428.
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