That’s right, make no mistake about it, I love homosexuals, and I hope you do, too. In order to understand why I make the statement “I love homosexuals,” we need to look back about 2,000 years ago to the teachings of a man named Jesus, who was, in fact, the Son of God. You see, as a disciple of His, I try my best to follow the pattern He has left for me in His Word. That being said, to help you grasp what I am saying, let’s look at Jesus teachings.
I want to go to heaven more than anything else in the universe. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). If I want to go to heaven, which I do, I have to do God’s will, not my own. Part of doing God’s will is loving Him with every part of my being (Luke 10:27). This is where it sometimes gets a little confusing. The world has transformed “loving Jesus,” into a simple feeling, when in fact, it is more than a feeling, it is an action. Jesus explains what it is to love Him when he says “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Our love towards Jesus is shown through more than feelings. It is shown in our obedience to Him and his commandments.
The second greatest commandment according to Jesus is this “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). If I want to go to heaven more than anything else, which I do, and I am to love my neighbor as myself, I must desire them to go to heaven! Society has also transformed the meaning of love to be that of acceptance, but truly loving someone is to have their best interest at heart. In the spiritual sense, having someone’s best interest at heart is helping them get to heaven! Part of helping others get to heaven is teaching the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). In order to help others get to heaven, we must teach them that God loves them (John 3:16), that He wants them to get to heaven (2 Peter 3:9) and that to get there, they must be obedient to Him (John 14:6).
Friends the Bible is clear on the matter of homosexuality, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Truly loving our neighbor means sharing this news with them. God wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven, but in order to do that, our lives have to be lived according to His commands. If you are living in a homosexual lifestyle, God wants you to turn away from that sin and turn to Him (Luke 13:3).
I hope this article is received in the spirit in which it was written, love. Truly loving someone entails wanting what is best for them. I can think of nothing that I want for you more than for you to spend eternity in Heaven with the God who loves you.
I agree with you for the most part. I do question, though, how we should approach our lost homosexual friends. If they claim to be practicing Christians, if they they believe in the need for Jesus to cleanse their sin, then addressing their sinful lifestyle is probably the way to go. But if they have no faith in Christ at all, I'm not sure that targeting and individual sin (even if it is a lifestyle) is the best way to go. I think showing them the love of Christ must be first. I think we need to spend more energy loving the sinner than we do hating the sin. When trying to share how Jesus can forgive sins, I'm still not sure that pointing out specific sins is the most appropriate thing to do. After all, when someone shared the gospel with me, they didn't point out my specific pride or treatment of others. They only had to talk about sin in general. A homosexual needs saving from ALL their sins, not just their sexual ones. Of course, the subject of God's plan for sexuality is bound to come up. We should be prepared to address it. But I don't think that needs to be the first thing we do when reaching out to the lost.
ReplyDeleteHey Melissa, thank you for the comments. I guess the intention with the blog (and perhaps I did not lay it out as effectively as I had hoped) was to combat the false notion that telling others what God says about salvation and sin (in this case homosexuality) is not hate, on the contrary it is loving them. It is more hateful to allow them to think (or anyone living in any type of sin for that matter) that they are ok in God's eyes and then them be cast into hell. Society has attempted to turned preaching the gospel into hate speech, when in reality it is love, that is what I was trying to point out. And of course I agree with you that the the plan of salvation should be taught. If you look back at my original post, I address the need to teach them "that God loves them," (that was listed first and should be taught first) "He wants them to go to heaven" (repentence), and "be obedient to Him". If you know they are living a sinful lifestyle, that will need to be addressed so they can repent. Thanks again for the comments!
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