The Elephant in this Blog

A topic was touched on last week that I personally have avoided actually doing a full analysis on for far too long. Fear has kept it from ever surfacing. Fear of lost respect, fear of consequences, fear of...I don't even know what.

I have refused to broach the subject of homosexuality in any meaningful way. In fact, I daresay that last Monday's post was the first mention of it whatsoever. But today, I will meaningfully discuss the homosexual issue.

Homosexuality is indeed a sin. It is forbidden throughout the Old and New Testaments. It was clear from the Old Testament Law that those participating in homosexual acts was not allowed in the congregation of the Israelites. But perhaps, the clearest picture of the wrongfulness of homosexuality is seen in Romans 1, where Paul describes it as part of the punishment God put upon man in turning them over to their own devices.

I'd like to park here for a moment because this punishment needs some explaining. As I've mentioned before, God can and does punish people by giving them exactly what they want. When for instance, the Israelites grew tired of Manna in the wilderness, He gave them the meat they asked for, indeed so much of it that they grew sick and weary.

What is happening in Romans 1 is God is punishing man for neglecting His obvious presence in the world in that he "gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves." The first part of these lusts is described as man lusting after man, and woman after woman.

So, homosexuality is wrong, but there is an important point to be made that homosexuality is only the first item on the list of lusts that the Lord has turned man over to. Homosexuality is definitely no worse than any other form of adultery and I think that we as the church should probably just treat it that way.

Homosexuality also causes the same standing before God as my sins of lying, anger, pride, and others put me in prior to Christ's redeeming grace. Let us remember that we Christians are no better than any participating in homosexual acts.

Now what does that say for the way we should live our lives and interact with this world. Honestly, I recommend that you bring that question to someone who has more life experience than this little college Freshman. But what I can tell you is a little case study about how Jesus handled a similar situation. The passage is John 8:1-11, and in it our Lord Christ provides grace to the adulterous woman, but then doesn't giver her a pass on her sin, but instead admonishes her to "Go and sin no more." So as I leave you today, take a look,

"Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.  And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

Adulterers!

I have committed the cardinal sin of blog writing by titling my post for today as a shout of accusation to my readers. That's not how to win friends and influence people, apparently, but hey, it grabbed your attention to read what I said so you could like, scoff at me or something.

Our text for today is James 4. My message is simple. We must be of one mind and one focus upon God and not look outside of God for our satisfaction. Let's look at James 4:1-8,

"From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."

According to what we see in these particular verses, any division or argument within the church come from us seeking our own lusts and seeking satisfaction from places absent from God. Instead of that response, we need to show our humility by submitting fully to God and allowing Him to bring us closer to Himself.

(Now of course we hear a lot of these verses taken out of context to prove various parts of agendas that people are trying to scripturalize, but I am not going to be discussing that until this Monday.)

That summary is great, but it seems a bit pie in the sky. Perhaps, we should bring this down to more practical understanding. As such, I reserve the right to (without divorcing any of the verses from their context) focus in on a portion of them for communication purposes.

You are not feeling content with yourself and the way you live your life. You read your Bible and you serve in your church from time to time, yet you don't feel as if the Lord is satisfied with the way you are living your life. Your prayers aren't being answered if you are even praying at all.

Feeling as if your best efforts mean absolutely nothing, you lose all hope and think that maybe you should just give up on God, and just live the typical apathetic Christian life. If what you're doing isn't pleasing to God, you mise well stop wasting your time on it and find happiness somewhere else.

Naturally, you're not going to find anything to make you happy. Whether you remain in your casual service to the Lord, or you become apathetic, you will find the same thing - your life doesn't seem to have much value.

Now the all important question - why? Because your friendship with the world, your friendship with that which the Lord has saved you from, namely your own natural sin nature, is causing you enmity with God. That explains then the root of all your problems.

The Bible in this passage would use the term adulterers to describe this particular allegation. The concept of adultery is a simple one. Without being crass, adultery is when a marriage is tainted by divided loyalty manifested in a physical form.

When we became in Christ, we became the Bride of Christ. We had a loyalty to Him for what He had done for us, what He is doing for us, and what He will do for us in the future. Yet when we hold onto our own will and volitions, when we hold onto our own fleshly sin nature, when we hold onto to our friendship with the world, we are dividing our loyalty away from God, and our actions in the physical world begin to taint the marriage of the church and Christ. (Just for the record, it would be impossible for the marriage to be cancelled, so don't worry there.)

The obvious solution then is to become completely loyal to God, which is incredibly easy to put into practice, right?

Yeah, not really, which is why James 4 explains to us this following step-by-step process in verses 6-8,

"But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."

The solution that I want to tell to you today is simply this - exercise true humility. By seeking God's will and God's strength in our lives, rather than trying to do OUR best to serve the Lord, we'll be able to come to truly have the proper loyalty to God.

We must get to the point where my shout of accusation in the title does not describe our attitude toward the Lord. We can do this by resting within His strength, by submitting to Him alone, and by seeking Him completely.