SEEK 50 – Gay Christians

SEEK 50 – Gay Christians

Question: How can you be Christian and gay? I love God very much and I want to grow my faith, but I can’t change my preference on which gender I like. (it’s like saying to a heterosexual, to go and love the same sex. They wouldn’t).

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:9-19

Text: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies” (1 John 1:8)

Many people feel the way you do. It is sometimes difficult to work out what is right and wrong when what we desire seems to conflict with what we believe.

It is a fundamental dogma of our society that sexuality is all important, unchangeable and must be expressed. It is regarded as the most basic of human rights. On the other hand, Jesus clearly teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman and that sex outside marriage is wrong (see ASK 33). Given those views your question is understandable. There is a conflict between the teaching of our culture, and the teaching of Christ. For some Christians that creates a dilemma. However,  it shouldn’t, not on this or any other issue where the Bible gives us clear teaching. Who should we obey? Christ or men?

There is another issue here. Your question seems to be written with the presuppositions of our culture. You are same sex attracted and you think that in order to be a Christian you have to change to become opposite sex attracted. That presupposes that our feelings are the ultimate authority in what should guide our behaviour. They are not. We put ourselves at the centre of the Universe and as the source of right and wrong. But we are not the Creator – we are creatures. We don’t get to make our own rules. We follow the Maker’s instructions.

Sometimes I describe myself as an IKEA Christian. In case you have never had the dubious pleasure of visiting an IKEA store it is the large well known Swedish furniture chain, and purveyor of meatballs, where you collect Scandinavian style flatpack furniture, go home and assemble it yourself. They give you detailed instructions so that people like me, who are useless with our hands, can assemble the bookshelf – or whatever else you have bought. As I do not have a practical bone in my body, I do what they say. I lay out all the pieces and follow the step-by-step guidelines. I follow the maker’s instructions. Do you not think that we should follow our Maker’s instructions?

But what are these? If I can set it out in these steps.

• God is our Maker
• He made us sexual beings
• He tells us that sex is to be within marriage and that marriage is between a man and a woman. Anything outside of that is sin.
• Sex is not just an appetite to be indulged as we see fit.
• Sex or marriage is not essential to being a human being. After all Jesus was the only perfect human being and he was not married (whatever novels like the Da Vinci may say!).
• The Bible’s teaching on sex and marriage provides for the good of society, the good of the family and the good of individuals. If we go against it – it is a bit like putting diesel fuel into a petrol driven car – it won’t work.

I’m pretty sure that you are smart enough to work out the implications of all that. Think about it from a different context. If I said that I am a Christian, but I feel attracted to lots of different women (or men), therefore I should be allowed to sleep with lots of different people, because that is the way I am made, what would you say?

As a Christian, I may find myself ‘liking’ lots of different people, but that does not give me the right to disobey the Maker’s instructions. As Paul told the Corinthians, who were also faced with society and personal pressures, we are to ‘flee from sexual immorality’ because our bodies are ‘a temple of the Holy Spirit’ who is in us, and received from God. We are not our own, we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

There are some people who don’t accept what the Bible says. Like Satan in the Garden of Eden they ask, ‘Did God really say’? They want to say that they are Christians and so they plant doubt in the mind of the believer, and they reinterpret the Bible in the light of their feelings and what our society says. For the Christian it has to be the other way round. We don’t get to rewrite the Scriptures to suit us. On any issue. We read our society through the Scriptures, not the Scriptures through our society (or our feelings).

So in answer to your question, I would not tell you to go out and change your feelings. I would ask you simply, as I would ask myself or anyone – no matter their sexuality – which desire is going to rule your life? The desire to love and serve Jesus, or the desire to satisfy your own lusts?

Consider: Do you think you can serve God and be single and celibate? Why do you think God gave us his instructions about marriage? Do you think your feelings can change? Remember that ultimately it is only God who is unchangeable. His word cannot be changed.

Recommended Further Reading:

Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With? – Sam Alberry

Tales of an Unlikely Convert – Rosario Butterfield

Prayer: Our Father, thank you for giving us freedom. Thank you that we are not robots, but that you want us willingly to love you. Thank you that you have not left us to ourselves, just to go our own way, but that you have given us your instructions. We confess O Lord, that we are not able to obey these without the aid of your Spirit. Cleanse us, renew us, forgive us, enable us to live for you. May our desires be yours, in Jesus Name, Amen.

Stumbling Blocks to Christianity 4 – Sex and Sexuality

SEEK 49 – Sinning Christians

 

 

 

 

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