Homosexuality. We talk about it all the time. It touches on your life in some way, whether you read about it through the media or talk about it with your friends and family. As Christians, we must choose how to respond to issues related to homosexuality in our schools, churches and businesses. Personally, I think we need to address our response to homosexual marriage since it is undeniably pertinent in our society, right now.
Try answering this question: What will you do when your homosexual family member or friend invites you to their wedding ceremony? Maybe these are questions you would ask. Shouldn’t we love as God loved us? Didn’t Jesus spend time with sinners in the Bible? Am I supporting homosexuality by being there? After thinking about these questions, I have some answers.
We are supposed to love as God loved us. As a Christian, your purpose day by day is to love God and to extend His love to everyone. We can love and be with sinners while being opposed to their sins. Jesus hung out with sinners, such as tax collectors, but what did he do with them? Although the Scripture does not clarify how he spent his time with them, I think we can be pretty certain about what he wasn’t doing. I doubt he was helping them to find a more effective way to make money off of others. Neither is it likely that he was celebrating in their greediness. Jesus was pro-sinner, not pro-sin. He was unconditionally in love with the greedy, and this love was intended to transform their sinful lives into new life. Thus, we cover the fact that Christians must love people who are actively sinning and do not intend to change, just like Jesus hung out with the tax collectors while they were still, well, tax collectors.
As we just covered, Jesus loved sinners without loving their sin. A relationship outside of God’s design between a man and a woman is sin. Every action building on the choice to pursue one’s desire for the same sex is consequently a sin because it is perpetual disobedience to God’s Word. A homosexual wedding is a choice to not only pursue a homosexual relationship, but it is a choice to be in that relationship for life. If you choose to go to this wedding, you are assumedly supporting your friend’s choice. How can you not support them on their wedding day? I suppose you could say that you’ll go to the wedding because you love them, but you’ll be opposed or even indifferent to their actions. However, if I were your friend and knew how you truly felt, I would rather you not be a guest at all. In fact, Scripture is not a fan of this behavior, either. God promises the Laodicean church, “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).
In our society, it sounds harsh or intolerant to completely accept or deny something. We’d rather be coined “tolerant” so that the world does not hate us. But we must remember that by conforming to this tolerance, we are also disobeying a God who is intolerant to sin.
So, if we choose to live according to God’s rules for right and wrong, we also accept that many will dislike us. As Christians, we need to remember that Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18).
What it comes down to is this: We should not be loved because we don’t take a stand against the things of this world. And we should not be hated because we show no love to the people in this world.
We need to firmly take our stand in true love, God’s love. Since I cannot support homosexuality, it follows that I cannot be present to support the matrimony of two individuals who are making a lifelong oath with its foundation in sinfulness. When I extend true love to my friend, then this love should “not rejoice at wrongdoing but [rejoice] in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). To be at their wedding necessitates that I do one of two things: condone what they are doing and hurt God, or be indifferent to their action and hurt both them and God. If I do not go, I maintain my integrity before God and my friend.
