Last week, I gave a brief introduction to a Christian perspective on homosexuality with a focus on the fact that we are to show the love of Christ to homosexual people. This week and next I will briefly discuss some Scriptures that address homosexuality in some way.
Some time ago I was looking on the website of a gay-friendly church. This church hosted a seminar on how to deal with the Bible’s claims about homosexuality and introduced it with a quote in which a man from the church asked in essence: “How do we deal with what the Bible says about homosexuality?” The quote struck me because of what the man assumed the Bible seems to say. He recognized what everyone recognizes when he or she reads Biblical texts that address homosexuality. Namely this: the plain sense of the Scripture condemns homosexual behavior. If it doesn’t, the man’s question makes no sense. The website also recognized the same plain sense by using the man and his question as an example of why the seminar was necessary. Now obviously, the seminar likely gave alternate interpretations of the texts in question, but the fact that many gay people struggle with what the Bible says indicates that even they naturally interpret Scripture as condemning homosexuality.
They have to. The plain sense of Scripture on this issue is obvious. Therefore, if someone wants to give an alternate interpretation of the Scriptures that deal with homosexuality, then the burden of proof rests on the alternate interpretation, not on the plain sense. If I say, “You shall not bow to idols as you would to God; it is an abomination,” or “Do not be deceived, no idolater will inherit the kingdom of God,” and you want to claim that I am affirming idolatry, then the burden of proof rests with you, and you’d better have some clear and strong evidence that cannot be interpreted more than one way.
So what does the Bible say? Let’s look at it.
Leviticus
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (18:22)
“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (20:13)
Leviticus 18 focuses predominantly on sexual sin. The chapter begins by saying in effect, “Do not do what the people of Egypt and Canaan do. Do not be like them. Instead, keep the statutes of the Lord.” (vv 3-5) The chapter then describes what Egypt and Canaan did sexually that God’s people are not to do. It reads something like this:
“Do not have sex with your mom. Do not have sex with your sister or your granddaughter or your aunt or your neighbor’s wife. Do not have sex with a man as with a woman. Do not have sex with an animal.” (1-23)
Both the context and the phrasing are sexual (e.g. look at verses 19-23). In Leviticus, God is condemning homosexual behavior, and the command refers to all forms of homosexual behavior, for it says, “you shall not do with a man what you would do with a woman.” Ordinarily, a man would lie with a woman within a committed and consensual marriage relationship. Leviticus says you shall not do that. The wording is comprehensive.
In addition, Leviticus 20:13 gives the punishment. It says that when a man lies with a man, both partners are guilty and both shall be put to death. The fact that God condemns both partners indicates that He is not referring to homosexual rape or pederasty. Leviticus condemns consensual and committed homosexual behavior for both partners.
Jesus
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person . . . (Mt 15:19)
Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Mt 19:4-6)
People often claim that Jesus never addressed homosexuality, and the claim is true in a strict sense. The words “homosexual” never cross His lips in the gospels. But Jesus does address sexual behavior and marriage. In Matthew 15:19 and other places He condemns sexual immorality. The word Jesus uses in the gospels is porneia, and it was a catch-all word for all types of sexual behavior outside marriage. Within His Jewish culture, it included adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, bestiality, and a host of other sexual sins.
Suppose then that I say to you that dishonesty is evil. Have I condemned perjury? Technically, I never addressed perjury, but perjury is a type of dishonesty just as homosexuality is a type of sexual immorality. Both Jesus and His audience would have seen homosexuality that way.
In addition, Jesus does talk about marriage and states that marriage is built on male and female (Mt 19:4-6). For further discussion, see the blog “Marriage Is . . .” here.
Jesus is much more relevant to the contemporary discussion on homosexuality than many people think.
