What\u2019s the big deal with homosexuality? The older people in my church often refer to homosexuality as a sin. Why would it be a sin if God made a person that way? Isn\u2019t God and the Bible all about love? So why should it make a difference who a person loves? Does God really expect someone to live without love for their entire life if they were born homosexual? This doesn\u2019t seem fair. What do you think?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your question is one often asked by sincere Christians trying to know God\u2019s truth about the issue of homosexuality. Yet, in contemporary society, bombarded by divergent voices and seemingly individual truths<\/em>, it isn\u2019t difficult to confuse Christian ethics with utilitarian, secular, and\/or humanist ethics. So we begin by asking you to consider the message the Bible offers in 1 Corinthians 2:14: \u201cThe natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.\u201d*<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Genesis 2:24, 25 chronicles God\u2019s original plan for sexual activity, and it\u2019s clearly in the context of a heterosexual marriage between a man and a woman, when it says: \u201cTherefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When sin entered the earth through the choices made by our first parents\u2014Adam and Eve\u2014the entire planet became tainted by disobedience to God and its results\u2014death\u2014including the manifestation of aberrations in nature that have nothing to do with God\u2019s Creation plan. So, in God\u2019s attempt to save humankind, rather than having them experience the results of sin\u2014death\u2014the apostle Paul submits in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5: <\/strong>\u201cFor this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n God further clarifies the boundaries of sexual relationships for those who choose to be His disciples in the message of 1 Corinthians 7:1, 2: \u201cNow concerning the matters about which you wrote: \u2018It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.\u2019 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.\u201d Here again, God underscores the boundaries of sexual activity within a heterosexual marriage, and as a venture that should exclude sexual immorality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bible also shares a list of persons who will not have a place in God\u2019s eternity\u2014including those involved in immoral heterosexual activity\u2014when it submits in 1 Corinthians 6:9: \u201cOr 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is, being a follower of Jesus is characterized by sacrifice and obedience to His principles regardless of one\u2019s sexual orientation. After all, whether someone has a heterosexual or homosexual orientation, unless their sexuality is under the lordship of Jesus Christ\u2014meaning that they\u2019re obedient disciples\u2014they\u2019re in trouble. The Bible unambiguously states in Matthew 16:24: \u201cIf anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.\u201d This is the challenge of every follower of Jesus, regardless of sexual orientation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our deepest desire to love and be loved was placed in us by God at Creation. He made us to desire His love more than anything else. The greatest love of all is God\u2019s steadfast, unconditional love. Jesus Himself states in John 15:13: \u201cGreater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.\u201d This is exactly what Jesus did for us all, because He loves us better than any other love we\u2019ll ever experience on earth. When filled with this abiding love we\u2019re enabled to love others as purely as God loves us. This love should not be confused with sexual attraction and drive\u2014which is often the way love is portrayed in our contemporary context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While our human love relationships are often inconsistent and filled with frequent breakups and the reality of abandonment, we can depend on the incomparable love and presence of Jesus in our lives. In fact, He declares in Matthew 28:20: \u201cAnd behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of the nature of our sin\u2014even if it is homosexual practice\u2014we can find acceptance, forgiveness, restoration, and salvation in Jesus when we respond in obedience. We see this evidenced when Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: \u201cNeither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more\u201d (John 8:11). <\/p>\n\n\n\n We hope that what we\u2019ve shared will give you an opportunity to further reflect on God\u2019s will for His followers. You are in our prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/sup>Scripture quotations are from\u00a0The Holy Bible<\/em>, English Standard Version, copyright \u00a9 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s the big deal with homosexuality? The older people in my church often refer to homosexuality as a sin. Why would it be a sin if God made a person that way? Isn\u2019t God and the Bible all about love? So why should it make a difference who a person loves? Does God really expect …<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,78],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5100,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions\/5100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youngadventists.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\nOriginal Article Here<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"