Homosexuals

Some of this will sound harsh but please stick with it until the end.  I want to try to reveal something that I believe God has shown me.  Prayerfully consider what I've written here.

There has been much talk lately about Vicky Beeching coming out as gay.  Homosexuality one of the most polarizing topics in all the western world.  Sadly, it's also one of if not THE MOST polarizing topic in the church.

Let me get this over with right off the bat:  sex outside of marriage is a sin.  God defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman for all time.  Are homosexuals living in sin?  Let me answer that question with another question.  Is it a sin to worry that you won't be able to pay your bills?  Now, if that happens every pay period, are you living in sin?

Many would answer, "Oh but brother, that's different."  Well, since we are using the written word of God as our measuring stick, let's see what it says about sin:

James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

Do you understand that according to God's standard of righteousness you are as a homosexual to Him when you worry?  When you lust.  When you lie.  When you do not believe.  In His eyes, you are equal.  Let's go one verse back and see what James was writing about in the first place:

James 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Do you allow those who self-identify as gay into your church?  Do you approach them as "gay" people when you encounter them in public or online?  That's partiality.  Here's how I define being non-partial:

2 Cor 5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus:that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

When I approach someone as any identity they've given themselves or any identity the world has given them (drunk, athiest, porn addict, drug addict, lawyer), I have unwittingly regarded them according to the flesh.  To speak to a person as a homosexual is to disregard that person as God's dear child.  You are saying that their highest identity is defined by their sexual habits instead of the reason and purpose for which God created them.  Look at what Paul wrote!  We are "compelled by love" to "regard no one according to the flesh" because Christ is "reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses against them".  Jesus died once for all.  All means all.  We are defined by the value God placed on our lives:  the life of Jesus.

He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  It's up to us.  If we turn people away because they call themselves drunks or budhists or porn stars or gay, they will remain turned away.  That's the deal.  This whole thing isn't about protecting ourselves from their icky sin, it's about being compelled by love to reconcile the lost back to their Father.

I can hear some still saying, "But brother, it's a sin and there's just no way around that."  Those who are NOT lost do not need to be reconciled.  And as long as you are on a hunt for sin, you'll never get to the harvest.  This is how Jesus put it:

Matt 23:13 " But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."

Jesus did not ask for a group of Separated Ones whose job it is to keep the church clean of all sin.  How dare you.  The gospel is not about sin.  It's about grace.  When you see a person for their sin, you tread under foot what Jesus did for you and the other person.  When you speak against a person, you murder them.  What if this isn't about homosexuality at all?  What if this is about seeing clearly?

What if you can't see past the flesh of others because you've never seen yourself apart from your physical nature?  What if you can't give grace to some people because you never received it for yourself?  "For you neither go in yourselves..."

Consider what Paul said after talking about those who practice all kinds of imorality:

Romans 2:3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who "will render to each one according to his deeds": 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but to those who are self- seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness — indignation and wrath, 9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; 10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.

Guys, we are free from fighting sin both in ourselves and in others.  Do you not know that it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance?  If you have it on your heart to save those who revel in their sin, then magnify HIS goodness to them.  If you don't have it on your heart to do that, then magnify His goodness to yourself!

We did not earn salvation and The Kingdom is never in danger.  Remember that there is a very real enemy out there and it's not flesh and blood.  It operates in deception so that it can steal, kill, and destroy.  I refuse to empower the deception by even acknowledging it.  I'd rather speak things that are not as though they are.  I'd rather show tenderness, mercy, kindness, and patience to those who do not yet see how valuable they are.  We are better than we have been in the past and we are getting even better.  Please, love one another as He has loved us.