What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?
What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?
By Sam Allberry
[Disclaimer: The author of this article is a Christian and so refers to the Most High Yahuah Alahim with the replacement terms of the “Lord God,” and Yahusha, the Messiah as “Jesus Christ.”]
It is a surprise to many people to discover that there are only a handful of passages in the Bible that directly mention homosexuality. Yet despite its infrequent mention, where the subject does come up, the Bible has some significant things to say about it. We need to understand them if we’re to avoid the twin mistakes of homophobia and thinking God is indifferent about how we use our sexuality.
The first two passages that directly mention homosexuality come from the Old Testament, and the other three are from the New Testament.
1. Genesis 19
Sodom has become so associated with homosexual conduct that its name was, for many years, a byword for it. But is ‘sodomy’ really what Sodom is about?
The account describes the men of the city attempting to forcibly have sex with two angelic visitors to the city, who have appeared in the form of men. Later parts of the Old Testament accuse Sodom of a range of sins: oppression, adultery, lying, abetting criminals, arrogance, complacency, and indifference to the poor. None of these even mention homosexual conduct. This has led some people to wonder if we have read homosexuality into the Genesis narrative when, in fact, the real issue was social oppression and injustice. But a close look at the text makes it clear that homosexuality was involved.
Although the Hebrew word for “know” (yada) can just mean to “get to know” someone (rather than to “know” them sexually), it is clear from the crowd’s aggression (and Lot’s dreadful attempt at offering them his daughters as an alternative) that they are looking for much more than a social acquaintance. Hence, what happens next: the angels warn Lot that judgment is imminent (v.13).
In the New Testament, Jude adds an important insight:
…just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)
What happened at Sodom is clearly meant to be something of a cautionary tale. Jude makes it clear that their ungodliness involves sexual immorality. They were punished for sexual sin along with the other sins of which they were guilty.
Jude also highlights the nature of their sexual desires: they pursued “unnatural desire” (literally, unnatural “flesh”). Some have suggested that this relates to the fact that the visitors to the city were angelic; Jude references angelic sin earlier in his letter. But these angels appeared as men, and the baying crowd outside Lot’s house showed no evidence of knowing they were angelic. Their desire was to have sex with the men staying with Lot. In other words, it was the homosexual nature of their desires and not just the violent expression of them that is highlighted in the New Testament.
2. Leviticus 18 & 20
Leviticus contains two well-known statements about homosexual activity:
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 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.” (Leviticus 20:13)
“An abomination” is often used to describe idolatry, and some suggest these verses do not condemn homosexual behavior in general but only the cultic prostitution connected to pagan temples. It is also often claimed that the fact that these prohibitions appear in a book full of other laws that no Christians think they are expected to follow today suggests that they should not be taken as having abiding moral relevance. But to take the first objection, the language used is not that specific; it refers to lying with a man “as with a woman” – that is, in very general terms. Secondly, the surrounding verses in each instance describe other forms of sexual sin (such as incest, adultery, and bestiality), none of which has anything to do with pagan temples or idolatry and which we would take as being applicable to Christians today. It is moral, rather than just pagan religious behavior that’s in view. Furthermore, Leviticus 20:13 highlights both male parties equally, again suggesting general, consensual homosexual activity (as opposed to gay rape or a forced relationship).
3. Romans 1:18-32
Turning to the New Testament, Romans 1 has much to say about the nature and character of homosexual behavior.
Paul’s aim in these early chapters is to demonstrate that the whole world is unrighteous in God’s sight and, therefore, in need of salvation. In Romans 1:18-32, he zeroes in on the Gentile world, describing the way it has turned away from God and embraced idolatry. The particular details in the passage may indicate that Paul is using the Greco-Roman culture surrounding his readers as a case in point.
Gentile society faces God’s wrath because it has suppressed the truth that God has revealed about himself in creation (verses 18-20). In the verses that follow, Paul illustrates how this has happened, giving three examples of how what has been known about God has been exchanged for something else: they exchange the glory of God for images of creatures (verse 23); the truth of God for a lie, leading to full-blown idolatry, worshiping created things (verse 25); and reject the knowledge of God (verse 28), exchanging “natural” relations for “unnatural” ones:
For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relationships with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)
Two crucial and sobering truths are apparent from these verses:
2. Our distorted desires are a sign that we have turned away from God.
It is essential to recognize that Paul is talking here in social rather than individual terms. He is describing what happens to culture as a whole rather than particular people. The presence of same-sex desire in some of us is not an indication that we’ve turned from God more than others but a sign that humanity as a whole has done so. It is not the only sign, and in everyone, there is no doubt more than one sign or another – but it is a sign nevertheless.
Paul writes that alongside the gospel, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:19). Though there will one day be a “day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5), there is already a present-day expression of God’s anger against sin. We see God’s wrath in this: he gives us what we want.
In response to the exchanges Paul has described, we see three instances of God giving us over to live in the outcome of our sinful desires. This is his present-day judgment against sin. We ask for a reality without him, and he gives us a taster of it.
In each case, the “giving over” results in an intensification of the sin and the further breakdown of human behavior. God gives humanity over to impure lusts and dishonorable bodily conduct (verse 24) and to “dishonorable passions” (verse 26). The exchanging of natural relations for unnatural leads to being given over to a “debased mind” and the flourishing of “all manner of unrighteousness,” which Paul unpacks in a long list of antisocial behaviors (verses 28-31). Sin leads to judgment, but judgment also leads to further sin.
The presence of all these sinful acts is a reminder that we live in a world that has deliberately turned away from God in all sorts of ways and is, therefore, experiencing a foretaste of God’s anger and courting its final outpouring on the day of judgment. Again, homosexual activity is certainly not the only sinful act. All of us are guilty. But it is listed among them as one of the ways in which human nature as a whole has been changed from what God originally intended.
4. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Paul writes:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
In these verses, Paul is describing different kinds of people who (unless they repent) will be excluded from the kingdom of God. Four types relate to sexual sin, and two of those specifically to homosexual behavior. The ESV takes the latter and puts them together as “men who practice homosexuality,” while the NIV translates them as “male prostitutes and homosexual offenders.”
The first of the two terms relating to homosexuality is malakoi, which translated literally means “soft ones.” In classical literature, it could be used as a pejorative term for men who were effeminate; for the younger, passive partner in a pederastic (man-boy) relationship; and to refer to male prostitutes (hence the NIV’s translation). In 1 Corinthians 6, malakoi comes in a list describing general forms of sexual sin, and the context suggests Paul is most likely using it in a broad way to refer to the passive partners in homosexual intercourse, as we are about to see.
The second term Paul uses is arsenokoitai. This is a compound of “male” (arsen) and “intercourse” (koites, literally “bed”). These are the two words used in the Greek translation of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, suggesting that Paul is linking back to those two passages. (Paul has already just made a connection with Leviticus in 1 Corinthians 5, where he condemns the church’s acceptance of a man living with his father’s wife using language that echoes Leviticus 18:7-8. For Paul, the sexual sins which Leviticus prohibits remain forbidden for New Testament Christians.) Arsenokoitai, then, is a general term for male same-sex sex, and its pairing with malakoi indicates that Paul is addressing both the active and passive partners in homosexual sex.
So, what does all this mean for our understanding of homosexuality?
1. Homosexual sin is serious. Paul says the active and unrepentant homosexual, as with all active, unrepentant sinners, will not enter God’s kingdom. Paul urges his readers not to be deceived on this point. He assumes there will be those who deny this teaching, and argue that some forms of homosexual conduct are acceptable to God. But Paul is clear: homosexual conduct leads people to destruction. This is a serious issue.
2. Homosexual sin is not unique. Paul’s list includes other forms of sexual sin (sexual immorality and adultery), and it includes non-sexual forms of sin (drunkenness and theft, for example). Homosexual sin is incredibly serious, but it is not alone in being so. It is wicked, but so is, say, greed. We must not imply that homosexual sex is the sin of our age. If we are to be faithful to Scripture, we must also preach against theft, greed, drunkenness, reviling, and defrauding others, many of which are also trivialized in our society, and all of which also characterize the unrighteous.
3. Homosexual sin is not inescapable. Paul continues in verse 11: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
These forms of behavior are not appropriate for the Corinthian church precisely because it is not who they are anymore. Some of them had been active homosexuals. They did once live in these ways. But no more. They have been washed, sanctified, justified, forgiven, cleansed from their sins, and set apart for God. They have a new standing and identity before him.
However ingrained it may be in someone’s behavior, homosexual conduct is not inescapable. It is possible for someone living a practicing gay lifestyle to be made new by God. Temptations and feelings may well linger. That Paul is warning his readers not to revert to their former way of life suggests there is still some desire to do so. But in the Messiah, we are no longer who we were. Those who have come out of an active gay lifestyle need to understand how to see themselves. What defined us then no longer defines us now.
5. 1 Timothy 1:8-10
Here, Paul writes:
“The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.” (1 Timothy. 1:9-10)
He again uses the term arsenokoitai (translated by the ESV as “men who practice homosexuality” as a catch-all term for all forms of homosexual conduct. Also, in common with 1 Corinthians, same-sex sex is mentioned among other wide-ranging sins, non-sexual as well as sexual.
These forms of behavior characterize those who are not “just” and for whom the law was given in order to bring conviction of sin and the need for mercy. All these practices contradict “sound doctrine” and the gospel. They do not conform to the life Christians are now to lead. They go against the grain of the new identity we have in Christ.
Restoration of a Sinner is through Humble Repentance, NOT Celebration of Sin
“Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that YAHUAH has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.” Jeremiah 25:5
“Thus says YAHUAH: ‘Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.'” Ezekiel 14:6
“Therefore I will judge you, . . . every one according to his ways,” says YAHUAH. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that SIN will not be your ruin.” Ezekiel 13:30
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Matthew 3:2
“I tell you. . .but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:3
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of YAHUAH.” Acts 3:19
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:19
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth YAHUAH require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy Alahim (God)?”
“Humble yourselves in the sight of YAHUAH, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:10
“Come now, and let us reason together, says YAHUAH. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“And I gave her/him time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.” Revelation 2:21
THE MESSIAH DIED FOR THE SINS OF US ALL,
BECAUSE OF HIS GREAT LOVE AND COMPASSION,
INCLUDING HOMOSEXUALS AND
TRANSGENDER PEOPLE.
BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN
SINNERS ARE FREE TO CELEBRATE
THEIR SIN OR REQUIRE OTHERS TO
SUPPORT THIS ABOMINATION AGAINST
THEIR BELOVED CREATOR AND MESSIAH!
Conclusion
Attempts to read these texts as anything other than prohibitions of homosexual behavior do not ultimately work. The plain reading of each passage is the right one. It is a homosexual practice in general, rather than only particular expressions of it, which are forbidden in Scripture. To attempt to demonstrate otherwise is to violate the passages themselves. Yet these very same texts list homosexuality alongside many other forms of behavior that are also against God’s will. The very passages that show us that homosexual activity is a sin make it very clear that it is not a unique sin. It is one example of what is wrong with all of us. Those who engage in celebrating sin, the transgression of God’s Laws, will not receive the reward of eternal life.
Finally, I would like to share the following video:
Same-Sex Marriage | The Truth About Homosexuality