Is Homosexuality Okay?
By Jill Newman
“Is homosexuality ok?”
Well, it depends on who you ask.
If you ask friends from school or your soccer team, you may get a variety of answers. Some will say people are born that way and have no control over it. Others may answer that everyone deserves to love whoever they choose. Still others may say that since God is all-loving, He just wants us to be happy however we decide to live.
As a Christian, whenever we are faced with a tough question, it’s important to go to the Bible first because God’s Word is absolute truth. Our world is in rebellion to a holy God and people’s idea of what is true or good changes with the winds of public opinion. Without a foundation of absolute truth, we have no way of knowing who’s opinion is correct. We may believe we are basically good, and excuse our bad behavior and that of others because we have no standard of what it means to be holy according to God.
Jeremiah 17:9 says it well,
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
So, before we can answer this question biblically, we must be standing on the same foundation. We need to agree on three things:
The Word of God is the basis of all truth (Psalm 119:160).
God is loving, holy, and perfect (1 John 4:8, Samuel 2:2, Psalm 18:30).
God doesn’t lie (Hebrews 6:18).
Repeatedly in scripture, homosexuality is declared to be sin in God’s eyes. (Genesis 19:1-13, Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10) But what is sin, anyway? Sin is rebellion against God and refusal to follow His standard of holiness. We sin because we want to be the lord of our own lives. We don’t want to submit to a holy and sinless God. We make up our own excuses for sinning because we want to call the shots and be in control. For example, some excuse the murder of another human being because of convenience, as in abortion. People approve of lying as long as it’s just a white lie which doesn’t “hurt” anyone. The same goes for homosexuality and other sexual sins which people excuse because the world considers these to be acts of love.
“But, how can homosexuality be sin if I was born this way?”
Looking at Genesis 1 and 2, we can see that when God created mankind, He made them in His own image, and He made them male and female. Additionally, His plan to populate the world depended upon a man marrying a woman and the two of them having children
together. Jesus reaffirms this in the gospels (Mark 10: 5-9). God designed us to marry a person of the opposite gender. How we were created and how we feel might be different, but the Bible is clear that God’s design is perfect, and His hand was involved as we were being formed in the womb. (Psalm 139:13-16)
In addition, because we were all born with a sin nature, we all could say that we were “born this way.” In other words, people are born liars, adulterers, murderers and homosexuals, etc. because we were born with a fallen nature that seeks after sin.
“Ok, but everyone should be able to love whoever they want.”
While we may not be able to control our feelings of attraction towards another person, we can control our actions. Having a temptation towards another of the same gender is not a sin, but acting on that impulse is.
Here’s an analogy that might help. Let’s say that a Frisbee represents sin. Temptation is like Satan throwing that Frisbee across your line of sight. To notice that Frisbee whizzing past is not sin, just a temptation to sin. We get in trouble when we reach out and grab that Frisbee for another look, study it, turn it over in our hands, and dwell on it, thinking of all the possibilities that might come with that Frisbee. Now we’ve crossed the line because we are accountable to God in our thought life too. Dwelling on a sinful temptation develops spiritual strongholds in our lives that make resisting that temptation increasingly more difficult. This is especially true in areas where we are weak. Eventually, we give in to that temptation because the thought of it has become so strongly entrenched in our minds.
For example, I love donuts, but I don’t eat them because I have a gluten allergy. However, every Sunday morning at church as I get a cup of coffee, I see the golden, sweet smelling donuts beautifully spread out on a nearby table. The more I look at the donuts, smell the donuts and remember the sweet taste of donuts melting in my mouth, and the more I think about them throughout the church service, the more likely it is that I will eventually give in and eat one even though I know it’s harmful for me. When we repeatedly imagine what it would be like to give in to a sinful temptation, eventually it becomes a reality.
“But, wait, doesn’t a loving God just want me to be happy?”
Our loving Father in Heaven definitely wants us to find joy and happiness. Many verses even command us to “rejoice in the Lord.” (Philippians 3:1, 4:4, Psalms 33:1, 32:11) However, the world’s method of finding joy and happiness is quite different from the Lord’s. The world says, “follow your heart,” “do what makes you happy,” and “live your own truth.” In other words, happiness is your highest goal, even if that means pursuing things that are opposed to God’s design and standard of holiness.
God does want us to be happy, but more importantly, He desires that we be holy — becoming more like Jesus as the Holy Spirit works in us. Sin separates us from God, hurting us and others. Because God loves us so much, He wants us to live fully and joyfully in the way He designed. Just as a loving parent puts guidelines in place for their child’s safety, prosperity and happiness, our loving Father has given us His Word to teach us His ways because, ultimately, following Him is the only path to true joy and happiness.
Is homosexuality a sin in God’s eyes? Yes.
Is homosexuality ok? It depends on who you’re going to submit your life to - the world or God. The choice is yours.
Additional Resources:
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis