Chapter Two

Back to 1 Corinthians 6, after Paul lists these sins, he says something incredible to the Corinthian Christians in verse 11, saying, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” The Voice paraphrase puts it this way, “Some of you used to live in these ways, but you are different now; you have been washed clean, set apart, restored, and set on the right path in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Anointed, by the Spirit of our living God.”

Paul is saying to them (and to us) that the Gospel should make a difference in our sexuality; in what we believe about sex and in how we process, understand, and express our sexuality.

He says to them, “You believed these things and lived this way before you met Christ; before you accepted Christ; you were discipled by your culture and were driven by your desires. This is what you WERE—you were having sex with prostitutes, you were committing adultery, you were involved in homosexual relationships. But you are radically different now that Christ has moved into your lives through his Spirit and given you new desires that should result in new beliefs and behaviours.” 

He does not offer them (or to us) a Christianized version of adultery or homosexuality. 

Every human being has a natural sexuality; this is how we were born—the biological, environmental, emotional and sexual influences on our lives that have led to what we believe about our sexuality. 

Every human being has a natural sexuality; however, every Christian should also have a supernatural sexuality—the transformation of our sexuality through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The New Testament describes Christians as “aliens and strangers” in this world, and Christians should experience and express an alien sexuality—so different from the sexual beliefs and values of non-Christians that they think our views are from another planet; however, our views and attitudes are not from another planet but from another reality—heaven. We live on earth but are citizens of heaven through faith in Christ, and this means we should display a heavenly sexuality. 

Several years ago, I preached at a youth camp in Arkansas on the theme of holiness, and I developed a series of sermons titled “Keep Christianity Weird.” When Christianity ceases to be seen as weird to non-Christians, then we have allowed our culture to have more influence over us than Christ; then we have been converted by culture more than culture being converted by us. 

Non-Christians should see how Christians live and think, “that’s different” or “that’s weird.” A Christian worldview and lifestyle should prompt a question in the minds of non-Christians, “Why do you believe these things? Why do you live this way?”

1 Peter 3:15 tells us, “But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defence to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.”

Again, let me emphasize that the starting point is giving God possession of our hearts and our affections, with Peter saying, “Make Jesus Lord of your HEART.”

When Jesus captures our hearts, our behaviour will always follow. 

One of the greatest temptations of our time is not to outright reject God’s standard of sexuality but rather to modify it and to create a new and improved version of it, one that is less offensive and more inclusive, one that accommodates the desires of the sinful nature and is acceptable to our culture. 

Many go to great lengths in an attempt to biblically justify homosexuality—pastors and professors with impressive credentials; many very intelligent people who perform hermeneutical gymnastics to interpret certain words in ways that allow for monogamous same sex relationships. 

They act as if they are the first to discover the real meaning of these ancient words, the first to wrestle with the tension between relevance and truth; the first to face the relentless cultural pressure to conform to its values. 

If we go to the Bible looking for evidence to support something, we will always find it. 

However, these people miss the forest for the trees. 

They like to point out the fact that there are only a handful of passages in the Bible that deal specifically with homosexuality, and they carve out these passages, slice and dice them and study them under a hermeneutical microscope. They examine the original languages and identify other possible translations of certain words and alternative ways of interpreting these passages. They study the cultural context of these passages and attempt to make them prescriptive for a certain time and place rather than prescriptive for all time and in all places. 

But when we back up and look at the whole counsel of Scripture, there is not one example of a homosexual relationship that is acceptable to God.

Not one. 

The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, contains the underlying assumption of sex being between a man and a woman. Many parts of the Bible are rebuking and correcting people for their wrong thinking and their wrong behaviour concerning sex, but it is always in the context of a man and a woman. 

Always. 

In Paul’s final letter, he is passing the torch to his spiritual son, 

Timothy, and he says to him in 2 Timothy 3, “I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favourable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.”

In other words, he says that there will come a time when people in churches hire preachers that say what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear and this has come to pass in our time as churches recruit and empower preachers that are more like life coaches than prophets; preachers that give TED Talks instead of sermons; preachers that always encourage and never correct. 

Everyone wants to be encouraged, and no one wants to be corrected or rebuked, but if we are honest, we would all have to admit that we need correction and even the occasional rebuke. To have the humility to admit that we are “prone to wander” and “prone to leave the God I love” and need someone to call out our drifting and backsliding. 

Sexual temptation has been around since sin entered the world in Genesis 3, and perhaps no other sin is more prevalent in the pages of Scripture than this one—over and over and over again, we see some of the most faithful and devoted followers of God being susceptible to this particular temptation. 

Not only that, but over the past 2,000 years of Christian history, perhaps no other sin has been more prevalent and devastating than sexual sin. 

It’s a tragic reality that it seems familiar to hear about another priest or preacher who has fallen to sexual sin; people who know the Bible better than most; people who are leading a lot of people to Christ, and yet in the midst of all their success, they have sexual secrets that eventually cause their lives, families and ministries to implode. 

I believe that when we take an honest look at the passages in the Bible that deal specifically with homosexuality and interpret them within the context in which they were written, both culturally and linguistically, and examine how Christians have interpreted these passages over the past 2,000 years, we must conclude that homosexuality is not God’s will for any human being; neither is adultery or pornography. 

So what do we do with our desires when they don’t align with God’s will revealed in His Word? 

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