One of the most hotly contested issues in our country and throughout the world in the last several years is the topic of homosexuality. Even those who proclaim to be Christians are divided on this topic. Some say that whatever one chooses to do is acceptable. Some groups, such as the Westboro Baptist Church, say that God hates gay people. Still others say that while God does not approve of this kind of lifestyle, He still loves the individual. These cannot all be true, so which is Biblical?
God does not hate anyone; let’s get that out of the way first. In fact, man was created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-27). Man is the highest point of God’s creation (Psa. 8:5). God loves man so much that He has given us a duty in life, namely to have reverence for Him and do what He has commanded (Ecc. 12:13-14). God desires that everyone would be saved (1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Pet. 3:9). This being the case, He expects all of us to love Him enough to follow Him (John 14:15). God has shown us His love by sending His Son to die for us when we were undeserving of such (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8). God has shown us the abundance of His love by giving us the Gospel system by which we are saved (Rom. 6:3-4, Eph. 2:8-9). God loves people despite their flaws. He loved David even after he committed adultery with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11). He loved Saul as he was killing Christians (Acts 9). He loved Jonah when he fled from Nineveh (Jonah 2). Just because God loved those individuals did not mean that He did not expect anything of them, though.
God does not approve of homosexuality. He did not approve of it in the Patriarchal Age (Gen. 2:24). He did not approve of it in the Mosaic Age (Lev. 18:22). He does not approve of it in the Christian Age, the one in which we live today (Mat. 19:4-6, Heb. 9:15-17). Some say, “God just wants me to be happy.” Yes, God does want us to be happy, joyful even, but He requires us to be obedient, even calling us to deny ourselves to follow Him (Luke 9:23, Mat. 7:21-23). Some say, “God made me this way.” The fact of the matter is, homosexuality is described as “against nature” (Rom. 1:26-27), so God quite literally did not make anyone that way.
Friend, God wants you to be saved. In a list in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, homosexuality is condemned in a long list of other sins, but there is such beauty that is found in the following verse: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). If you are part of the LGBT community, we hope and pray that you will turn to God and realize that He desires that you live as He has commanded.
