FAQ: What Is the Biblical View of Homosexuality? Part 1

I. Introduction
A. It will not surprise you if I express the opinion this morning that the Bible treats homosexuality as a sin. But before I even begin to get into that, I want to make a few things clear:
1. People who practice homosexuality are made in the image of God just as much as others. And, as such, they deserve the same respect, kindness, protection and consideration as everyone else.
a. I’m not here this morning to get you to hate anyone. Jesus was the friend of sinners. I hope everyone of us will love their homosexual friends more than their fellows do.
2. I also think the Bible is clear that homosexuality is one of a long list of manifestations of human sinfulness. And on that list there are plenty of sins which you and I are guilty of. 1Cor.6:9–11 lists homosexuality along with “sexually immorality, idolatry, adultery, thievery, greed, drunkenness, reviling, swindling,” — and many other things are added to that list elsewhere.
3. The blood of Jesus is powerful enough to cover the sin of homosexual practice, and the HS is powerful enough to deliver people from this lifestyle. We see this in 1Corinthians 6:11 “And such were some of you. 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.”
B. The question we’re addressing this morning is what the Bible says. This is our job as Christians. We don’t decide ethical issues on the basis of what seems right to us. We put ourselves under the word of God. We trust that God knows better than us, and we trust that the Bible is God’s word.
C. Now what if we don’t trust our ability – or other people’s ability – to figure out what the Bible means? I understand that concern.
1. Earlier in American history many Christians were defending slavery as Biblical. And yet now most Christians think it was wrong. So, what if the same thing is happening now? What if it’s not really the Bible but prejudice which makes so many people think homosexuality is sinful?
2. “My heart and my experience tell me that most homosexuals are good people, not evil, scary people, like a lot of people seem to think they are.”
3. I understand that dilemma and have sympathy for those who feel that way.
4. But going with your heart or your experience does not resolve the dilemma. Our own inner sense of what is right and wrong is a poor substitute for the word of God.
5. The fact is, you can’t trust your heart any more than you can trust the heart of someone who firmly holds the other view.
a. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” Jeremiah 17:9
b. And remember the summarizing statement which is beat like a drum in the book of Judges to explain why the era was such a giant mess, “Every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
c. Each person doing what is right in his own eyes is not the right answer.
6. There are dire consequences of getting it wrong — in both ways!!
a. If you spend your life condemning something which God allows, making people feel ashamed of something they should be proud of – that is a very bad thing.
b. But if you spend your life approving something which not only does God forbid, but which He calls an abomination which bars someone from the kingdom of God (1Cor.6:11) – that’s a very bad thing too.
7. I understand the lack of confidence some people feel in discerning the teaching of the Bible on a given subject.
a. The fact is, at times people are very legitimately in a place of not feeling like they know enough to take a strong stand on an issue, either out of ignorance or out of a lack of confidence.
b. But it doesn’t seem to me than an issue like this is any more difficult than deciding which treatment to choose for a medical condition, or which car or house to buy. Or what about jury duty, when you’re called upon to decide whether or not a person should go to prison?
c. And even if you feel the same uncertainty about ALL these things, it doesn’t mean you have an inadequate mind, though you may have an undeveloped mind. You may have a lazy mind.
d. And beware of theological laziness – not giving your whole heart and mind to it.
e. Listen to both sides, and if it’s still not clear, keep listening to each side critiquing the other, praying for the Lord to give you clarity. But don’t adopt a strong opinion except on the basis of what God says in His word.
8. And let me give some more counsel to those in this position:
a. Until you have clarity, hold to the historical Christian position, if there is one (and there certainly is, in this case). This isn’t fail-proof, but it is much safer than the alternative.
b. Until you have clarity, hold to the view which seems more clearly stated in Scripture.
c. Remember that we can never trust the world to provide guidance in these matters.
(1) Whole societies have adopted notions of morality we would all find morally repugnant.
(2) Right now most people in our society think it’s fine to kill a baby in the womb.
(3) “There are things man considers splendid which are detestable in the sight of God.” Lk.16:15
D. BTW, if you want to read a verse which condemns both slave trading and homosexuality, read 1Timothy 1:8–11 “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”
E. Matthew Vines, in God and the Gay Christian, comes to tell us that all the verses which we always thought forbade homosexuality actually don’t do so at all.
1. There have been a number of good responses to this line of thinking:
a. Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?
b. Preston Sprinkle, Why Didn’t Jesus Mention Homosexuality?
(1) https://centerforfaith.com/sites/default/files/cfsg_pastoral_papers_2_0.pdf
c. R. Albert Mohler, God and the Gay Christian? A Response to Matthew Vine
(1) https://www.sbts.edu/press/god-and-the-gay-christian-a-response-to-matthew-vines/?fbclid=IwAR3nWsH_JWwGHEBBmdYu7h73jH8GTxAMQdRr0WrgXOCqPK474OEFPamSjxk
II. Bible
A. There are a number of verses about homosexuality in the Bible, but the place where most discussions start is in the Book of Leviticus.
1. Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
2. Leviticus 20:13 “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”
3. These verses have been the foundation of the Jewish and Christian view of homosexuality down through the ages.
B. However, in recent decades there are a number of arguments that have been raised which question the meaning and application of these verses.
1. The first claim is that this refers only to homosexual prostitution or rape or reckless homosexual activity, not to faithful, committed homosexual relationships.
a. But what are the reasons to come to this conclusion? What evidence is there for this interpretation?
b. It doesn’t say that. It says, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.” (Leviticus 20:13) It’s the gender that is the problem.
(1) Making male/male relationships like male/female marriage is the problem, not the solution.
c. And you certainly wouldn’t want to use that interpretive model on all the verses around it pertaining to adultery, incest, bestiality, etc.
2. The second argument is that the Book of Leviticus contains many laws which pertain to things which were peculiar to the Jews in the OT times, and not to us today.
a. There are other verses in Leviticus which condemn eating unclean animals and mixing cloths and planting two kinds of seed in the same hole, and the proper calendar for temple sacrifices.
(1) “Why do we choose to apply this law and not that one?”
(2) Lots of different laws: Do we get to pick which ones to keep and which ones to discard?
b. So, are these Leviticus verses which forbid homosexual activity supposed to apply to us today?
c. These 2 laws in Leviticus are not found just mixed in with laws which don’t apply to us today.
(1) They are both found in the context of a long list of laws re: human sexuality, laws condemning incest, adultery and bestiality (zoophilia).
(2) The only law in the 30 verses of Lev.18 which does not pertain to sexual morality is a law forbidding child sacrifice (v.21).
(3) Lev.20 contains a greater variety of laws, about child sacrifice, sorcery, cursing of parents, all of which the Christian church still follows today. But Lev.20:13 is in the midst of a smaller section about sexual morality (10-21), forbidding adultery, incest, and bestiality.
d. But the claim is correct that Leviticus as a whole includes lots of laws, including some we don’t follow anymore.
(1) Obviously, it can’t be that we just get to pick which ones to follow and which to set aside.
(2) There has to be a right way to approach these laws.
(3) And I think the way we learn how to approach these laws is by how our Lord and the NT writers approached them. So how did Jesus and the apostles handle these laws?
e. In the OT law, we are given laws about all kinds of things, they are sometimes but not always ordered by subject.
f. And yet the laws fall into different categories. We know this not just by observation but by the way Jesus and the NT writers handle the law.
(1) They speak of the food laws as one, even though they are spread over many different chapters of different books in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy (e.g. Ex. 22:31; Lev. 11:1–47, 17:13–15; Deut.14). (E.g. Mark 7:18-20; Luke 11:41; Acts 10:14-15; Col.2:16-17; 1Tim.4:1-5)
(2) They speak of the sacrificial law as one (E.g. Heb.10:1).
(3) They speak of the ceremonial calendar laws as one (e.g. Col.2:16-17).
(4) They speak of the clean/unclean laws as one (e.g. Heb.9:10).
(5) They speak of the laws re: temple worship as one (E.g. John 4:21-23).
(6) They speak of the moral law as one, by referring to the ten commandments as one.
(7) They speak of the laws regarding sexual morality as one, by using the word PORNEIA.
g. Some of these are SET ASIDE as a group/category (e.g. food laws, sacrificial laws, ceremonial calendar laws, clean/unclean laws, temple worship laws). Others are reaffirmed as a category.
h. So the question is, what category does a given law belong to, and what does the NT say about that category of law and how it is affected by the coming of Christ?
(1) Is it reaffirmed by Christ, like the law that we must love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength?
(2) Or does it come to its fulfillment in Christ, like the food laws and the sacrificial laws, and the “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” laws (Col.2:21)?
(3) Or is it perhaps transformed by Christ (that is, reaffirmed but also adjusted), as the Sabbath law was transformed by the Lord of the Sabbath?
3. The law forbidding homosexuality belongs to the category of sexual morality laws.
a. The OT contains many sexual laws: forbidding adultery, fornication (premarital sex), incest, bestiality, rape, homosexuality, and premarital sex.
b. (Polygamy is different. It is never dealt with as a sexual sin. I think there’s enough in the Bible to conclude that it is not the way God directs us to go, but it’s certainly not on the level of these others. It is treated as a deformed and unfortunate form of marriage, but it IS treated as marriage.)