Context or Pretext: A Lost Purpose
Throughout the past few decades, the world has increasingly welcomed sin. Of course, the world never notices this trend but consistently chooses to accept things that were considered appalling transgressions not 100 years ago.
As with Old Testament Israel, the modern-day church also may fall into the common trend of man — a church may refuse to address sin properly, the sin gets worse, the church accepts the sin as normal and the church eventually falls after failing to address the broken issue.
God makes himself clear on most things. The 10 commandments offer a simplicity to God’s desire. However, as time moved on, homosexuality specifically proved to be a difficult concept for Christians to tackle and understand. I write the previous sentence knowing that this should not be the case. The only reason why some believers find the concept of homosexuality difficult to handle is because some churches lose sight of their purpose in the lives of believers. The sin of homosexuality should be understood by churches, and the a church’s misconstrued purpose directly connects to the misunderstanding of
homosexuality.
First, homosexuality is sin. A few passages from Scripture to look at are Genesis 2:23-25, Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1:26-28. Of course, the Creation account in Genesis implies homosexuality’s wrongfulness. Adam describes his relationship with his wife, Eve. He makes it clear that she is indeed a woman in 2:23 — “she shall be called Woman.” Then the text describes the precedent set by this creation in 2:24 — “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Implicatively, this is understood as strict male-to-female relations, nothing else. Later in the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus, a historical book of the Law, explicitly identifies male-to-male relations. Leviticus 20:13 says, “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.” Not only are sexual relationships between two males condemned, but the punishment was death. Now that the Old Testament shows homosexuality as sin, looking into the New Testament, the same condemnation transpires. Romans 1:26-28 describes “men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their sin.”
I could go into more detail, but the point is clear — homosexuality is sin. Before I go further and identify the church in relation to the concept, I want to make a distinction. Scripture regularly speaks of actions when identifying homosexuality. If you, as a believer in Christ, struggle with same-sex attraction, continue to valiantly fight your earthly passions. Unlike what the world tells you, a passion for the same sex does not make you gay or lesbian — it makes you broken just like anyone else who struggles with sin.
A beautiful thing about the gospel is found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. This passage also explicitly condemns homosexuality, but it offers encouragement in verse 11 — “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.” Your identity is no longer in the title of homosexuality, but you hold the title of washed, sanctified and justified.
The second point I made was that popular misunderstandings of homosexuality are the direct result of a church mistaking its purpose for something else. Many churches across the U.S. have given way to accepting homosexuality for the sake of bringing in more people to hear the gospel. Let me observe this — the local church is designed for the believer, not the unbeliever. The local church, looking at the theme of the New Testament, is meant to act as the spiritual family for believers. Christians should value their spiritual family found through Christ within the local church above their earthly family (Luke 14:26).
The local church, acting as that spiritual family, encourages, challenges, disciples and equips believers so that those believers can leave the church and spread the gospel. Think of it as a farmer would. You have your home, where you’re nourished by food, encouraged by family, etc. — and then you have your fields. Everyday you begin at home, your local church. Then you go out into the field or the community and plant seeds — that is the gospel. When the seed grows or when the unbeliever you’ve been sharing the gospel with for weeks shows genuine interest or accepts Christ as their Savior, then you harvest the field once that seed has grown. You tell the unbeliever, “I’m thrilled that you’re saved! Now, come with me, because not only do you have salvation, but Christ also supplies us with a community of people like you and me where we can grow and be encouraged in our faith.”
Sadly, churches try too hard to place unbelievers into settings that are meant for believers. I’m not saying this should never be done, but the principle should be salvation, then local church, not the other way around. Yes, the LGBTQ+ community needs salvation too, but the route of accomplishing that is not by first inviting them to church. Leading the community to Christ will be accomplished by going to the unbelievers and sharing the gospel where they are, then bringing them into the spiritual family of God.
Duvall is the opinion editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on Twitter
