Molehills: LGBTQ & The Church, Part One

 

Like Creation, marriage and sex (which go hand in hand Biblically) should have a unified front in the church that Jesus Christ founded on the day of Pentecost. But it is not so, especially in this day and age, when liberalism, individualism, and a diluted, perverted caricature of Biblical love is being paraded throughout the church proper. It would be a simple matter to say, “they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God,” John 12:43. This may be true, but this is not all.

This molehill, which is quickly turning into a Mount Everest-sized issue within the church, begins with a wrong conception of a number of Biblical truths. The idea runs along this line: “Christians are unloving and judgmental. They are the opposite of what Jesus taught, who was all about love.” True, spiteful, legalistic, unloving Christians are legion. But a bad student doesn’t negate the virtue of the Teacher, or His teaching. That would be akin to saying that because some students can’t figure out what 16 ÷ 4 is, mathematics must be wrong. They attack the teaching because of the pupils. Granted, if said pupils claim some degree of intimate understanding of the material and their results are incongruent with their claims, there is some legitimacy for the accusations.

 

Another objection that “love is love,” must here be briefly addressed. This blanket phrase is invoked to defend aberrant sexual attraction under the banner of love, which will be dealt with in more detail shortly. It is more than just people free to express their love with whom and for whom they wish. Christians, if a married man approached you and confessed that he was in love with a woman other than his wife, would you condone and encourage him, because “love is love”? Love wrongly directed perverts its intention; it emanates from a source other than God’s depiction of Biblical love. It is from the world, or the world system which is opposed to God, and from which we as Christians are called out of, not to continue freely in, 1 John 2:15-17.

 

Regardless, the Bible and what it states about a moral topic must be judged on its own merits, not the misunderstandings or overzealous speeches of certain professing Christians with more fire than wisdom. Let’s return to the first comment, about Jesus teaching love. Yes, our Lord certainly taught about love, extensively at that. But He also spoke about judgment, and Hell, and sin with equal vigor. Love is a truly selfless action; it is coupled in Scripture with another concept, named truth. We read, “[Love] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth,” 1 Corinthians 13:6. Truth, in this instance, is a moral revelation from the Creator about what is right regarding the words and actions of His creatures. “I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father,” 2 John 4, see also 3 John 3.

 

Love operates within the parameters of truth. God is the moral lawgiver for the church, and since Jesus our Lord is God, He had much to say about topics of diverse variety. More than that, He is the Author of both the Old and New Testament, inspiring prophets and apostles to speak His words over the course of 1600 years. This progressive revelation, continuing to add nuance and detail to the Lord’s interactions with humanity, began revealing truth as only truth’s narrator could provide. From Genesis to Revelation, the Christian’s all in all is found in these pages, and we are not to add to, or take from His word, lest we be found guilty and have our part in the Book of Life and the holy city denied us, Revelation 22:19. Solomon writes, “Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar,” Proverbs 30:6.

 

Christians are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) even if doing so makes the hearers your enemy, Galatians 4:16. Here we learn something profound about love and truth. We are to tell our fellow men, saved or unsaved, what they NEED to hear; we are not to tickle their ears as man-pleasers with what they WANT to hear. Paul wrote that if it was his goal to please men (with his doctrine) he would not be serving God, Galatians 1:10. Elsewhere we are instructed not to be pleasers of men, but to serve Christ from the heart, Ephesians 6:6. Love, then, seeks the spiritual or physical good of another. Again, love is selfless. It isn’t looking for how we’re pleased, but how others are profited and God through it is glorified.

 

Jesus Christ, while on Earth, first and foremost always sought to do the will of His Father. He did not compromise with the doctrines or emotions of mankind; neither did He pander to them. He confronted them, and subjected His audience to right thinking, which always would lead one to repentance and faith. His dialogue was not riddled with emotionalism, which retards rational thinking, logical decision-making, or considering what basis our worldview is founded upon. Emotionalism is a supercharged frenzy of desire, selfishly and proudly refusing to relent, regardless of the argument’s validity leveled at the worldview you aspire to retain. Emotion refuses reason entry because reason brings with it illumination. We don’t want correction; we crave affirmation from like-minded individuals.  Jesus, in love, shattered worldviews because they were fragile and uncritically defended; their foundation was based on tradition or emotional zeal, not reality and certainly not truth.

 

Now, speaking the truth in love, what does the Bible say about “gender identity”, marriage and sex? Genesis 1:26-28, 2:7, 20-25 depicts mankind’s origin. God created mankind—both male and female—in His own image, and after His likeness. We are spirits housed in bodies. Our thinking minds attest to the reality that man is more than the sum of his physicality. As Isaac Watts wrote In Logic about the observation of matter: since matter does not think, and man does, therefore man’s mind is not matter. Our brains process thoughts like a computer, but they do not create them, despite Francis Crick’s peculiar assertion. Furthermore, man and woman were created.

 

The sexes, biologically distinguished one from another, and complimentary to each other, had been established from the first. How was making man and woman still “in the image of God?” In Genesis 2:18 we read, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a helper comparable to him.” The NASB, in a footnote, indicates that the word, “comparable,” literally means, “corresponding to.” The definition of the word is, “have a close similarity, match or agree almost exactly.” Why did God create male and female in His image? Because God is a triune being, enjoying perfect fellowship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three persons in one being, that Christians call God. Being triune, God was never lonely; He understood that man needed someone equal to him as a partner so he did not have to be lonely, either. What was another reason man and woman were both created? They were to, “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it,” Genesis 1:28. This sexual union, resulting in children, was meant to be conducted under the sacrament of marriage, see Genesis 2:24. Yes, marriage is a God-ordained institution for mankind alone, see Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25.