by Matthew Bassford
Synopsis: Our progressive society manifests an "anything goes" attitude toward sexuality, but the divine pattern is clearly and consistently set forth on the pages of Sacred Scripture.
Acts 13:4-12 records Paul's stay in Cyprus, particularly his encounter with the false prophet, Bar-Jesus. Because he wants to retain his influence over the Roman proconsul, Bar-Jesus opposes the gospel at every turn. In response, Paul asks rhetorically, "Will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?"
Sadly, Paul's words here apply equally well to the human race at large. God has given us a very simple plan for our lives, but we follow the promptings of the devil to complicate it and mess things up. This is evident in every area of morality, but it is perhaps most obvious in the realm of human sexuality.
Here, God's plan has been clear from the beginning: one husband, one wife, one flesh. It was established in Genesis 2 and confirmed by the Lord in Matthew 19. Anything beyond this is of evil.
It must be with some astonishment, then, that we contemplate the dizzying variety of sexual proclivities and practices apparent in the modern-day United States. For countless people, sexuality isn't about behavior. It's about identity. In our country, millions define themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, pansexual, and a host of other things. Year by year, the list grows, and grows stranger!
To this flourishing of unlawful sexuality, the word of God opposes a two-part critique. The first is so fundamental that, as products of our culture, we have trouble seeing it. The problem with people announcing, "I'm gay! I'm trans!" and so forth, is not merely that those activities are sinful. It is that those self-identifications are unscriptural.
Biblically speaking, sexual sin and sin generally are not matters of identity. They are matters of behavior. According to the word, if you are a murderer, it is so because of what you have done, not who you are. We are not defined by either our temptations or our sins.
Thus, it's simply not Biblically intelligible for a teenager who is a virgin to declare, "I'm gay!" That doesn't map against the morality of the word of God at all. In order to help us see this distinction, several of the more recent translations of the Bible have abandoned the use of "homosexuals" in 1 Corinthians 6:9. The ESV translates both malakos and arsenokoitēs in the verse as "men who practice homosexuality," and the CSB says, rather directly, "males who have sex with males."
This avoids cultural distractions in two ways. First, it turns our attention from the peculiarities of the ancient Greco-Roman perspective on male homosexuality, in which the passive partner (malakos) was stigmatized, but the active partner (arsenokoitēs, a word probably coined by Paul) was not. Second, it discourages us from adopting our society's identity-based perspective, which has far-reaching consequences.
In reality, the reasons why anyone might be inclined to engage in same-sex intimacy are complicated and uncertain. However, our cultural narrative insists that those inclinations are fixed and immutable, like having brown hair or blue eyes. In the words of Lady Gaga, one is "born this way."
Reading that understanding of sexuality into the Scriptures leads to a practically Calvinist perspective on those who experience same-sex temptation. They are gay, they are lesbian, they think the Bible condemns them for what they are, so it does not matter what they do. They're doomed. Paul's reassuring "Such were some of you," in 1 Corinthians 6:11 becomes nonsensical, and there is no reason even to try serving God.
Thankfully, the true message of the word of God is much more hopeful than that! If homosexuality is a matter of practice, one ceases to be a homosexual by ceasing the practice of homosexuality. "Such were some of you," thus describes a two-part process: first, being washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus; second, living a life of holiness and faithfulness to glorify Him.
Nobody has to stop being tempted to be righteous, not me, not those who experience same-sex temptations. The path for all of us is the same: war against temptation, repent and return when overcome, and trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. That's not easy for them or for me, but eternal life is well worth it!
A proper reading of Bible passages about the practice of homosexuality also frees us to acknowledge the justice of God's condemnation. I know brethren who practically have written 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 out of the Bible. They believe that it is right to admit practicing homosexuals into fellowship and even to allow them to assume leadership roles in the church. Underlying this, I think, is the conviction that it is unfair to condemn such individuals for who they are.
Put another way, the devil is appealing to the compassion of such brethren to lead them astray from the truth. Something of the sort must be occurring because the texts in question are not hard to understand. Despite the gallons of ink and buckets of pixels that have been expended on tortured exegesis, the meaning of 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is simple enough to be clear to a bright fifth-grader. The same is true of Romans 1:26-27.
The practice of same-sex intimacy is against nature. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who are tempted to practice them, if they do want to inherit the kingdom of God, must instead deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. This is Christianity 101, and we can make no apology for it.
The same is true for those who are inclined to become transgender. Again, the precise origin of these inclinations is murky. I do not know why a male would want to become a female, nor why a female would want to become a male.
Nonetheless, Genesis 1:27 reveals that God "created them male and female." The tiny percentage of people with chromosomal abnormalities should not distract us from acknowledging God's will in the far more numerous instances where no such abnormalities exist.
Additionally, the Scripture shows us that God's creation of humankind as male and female is prescriptive as well as descriptive. Paul's discussion of the covering in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 is one of the more difficult contexts in the Bible. Whatever our views on the covering, it is clear from the text that men ought to behave and dress like men, and women ought to behave and dress like women. Otherwise, why is it an issue whether women in first-century Corinth are wearing the covering at all?
Indeed, there are Christians who are tempted to masquerade as that which they are not. The answer here is no different than the answer to any other temptation. Watch and pray. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, at least until a more opportune time.
Much also could be said about the folly of "enlightened" parents in our day indulging the fancies of their children and treating a girl like a boy or a boy like a girl. At various times, my young son declared that he was a girl, a lion, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I gave all of that the (scant) attention it deserved. Today, he won't even sleep on a pink pillowcase (though I imagine a T-Rex pillowcase would be OK).
To take such a child seriously is to place them in grave danger of mental, emotional, and spiritual harm, not to mention departing far from the Ephesians 6:4 admonition to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. I wouldn't trust a preschool child to cross the street without help. How can it possibly be a good idea to let them make fundamental decisions about their identity, especially when the decision contradicts the clear evidence of God's will for them? Truly, the straight has become crooked!
Everywhere around us, we see the evidence of confusion about sexual identity and practice. Many have chosen to make their fleshly appetites the core of their identity as human beings. Despite the applause of the world, such indulgence makes us neither happy nor holy. According to a 2016 CDC report, LGBTQ youth are nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide than those who are not. The spiritual consequences are equally disastrous.
As Jesus does in Matthew 19, we must go back to the beginning to find the truth. The first two chapters of Genesis tell us everything we need to know about sex and sexuality. Since that day, God's will has not changed. If and only if we glorify Him with our bodies will it be well with us.
