"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. . . . But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (NKJV)
"Solid food belongs to those who are of full age"
There is no end of discussion, arguing and strife these days in Evangelical America about homosexuality and whether or not the LGBTQ community should be allowed to marry. Christians in the wedding industry are refusing to participate in gay marriages and gays are suing Christians for equal rights under consumer laws. Pastors, churches, and denominations are being torn apart by deciding whether or not they support gay marriage. The lines are being drawn and Christians are taking up sides against other Christians, one side believing that gays should be able to legally marry and the other side just as firm that gay marriage is a sin. It seems like believers are being asked to choose sides, to be either for or against. For many of us, the arguments are confusing and we don’t know how to respond, particularly if we have LGBTQ friends or family members.
Perhaps there is a third choice. Perhaps there is a third option that we, as a Church, haven’t considered . . . and which we should consider. Perhaps there is an option where we can still pour out the love of the Lord Jesus to the gays and lesbians and transgenders around us. Perhaps there is an option where we can still be the light of the world, where we can still reach out with the love that took Jesus to Calvary. Perhaps there is an option that we haven’t considered.
What does the Bible say?
"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person’" (1 Corinthians 5:9-13 NKJV).
The New Century Version says it thus:
"I wrote you in my earlier letter not to associate with those who sin sexually. But I did not mean you should not associate with those of this world who sin sexually, or with the greedy, or robbers, or those who worship idols. To get away from them you would have to leave this world. I am writing to tell you that you must not associate with those who call themselves believers in Christ but who sin sexually, or are greedy, or worship idols, or abuse others with words, or get drunk, or cheat people. Do not even eat with people like that. It is not my business to judge those who are not part of the church. God will judge them. But you must judge the people who are part of the church. The Scripture says, ‘You must get rid of the evil person among you.’"
The Bible tells us "Do you not judge those who are inside?" (The NCV version explicitly says, "But you must judge the people who are part of the church.") By "inside," Paul is specifically and clearly talking about believers, those "inside" the Church. We are to judge them, not in the sense of what their eternal outcome will be, but whether or not they have chosen to live a life of practicing, habitual sin. If a person is a Christian and is sexually immoral (fornicators, adulterers, pedophiles, or homosexuals), covetous, an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or an extortioner (and is that list inclusive?), then we are not to even eat with such a person. Did you even know this passage was in the Bible? When the writer of the Hebrews talks about spiritual maturity and the ability to discern good and evil, that ability is based on the experience of so knowing the Word of God that we know what it is in it and know how to exercise the tenets of the Bible in our everyday lives.
So what does this passage tell us about interacting with the LGBTQ community?
First, it tells us that there are two groups of people in our lives: those who are unsaved and those who are saved. If someone is gay, lesbian, transgendered or questioning/queer and not saved, we are to interact with them. We are not to segregate ourselves from them because we are to be in the world! We are the light and salt. We are to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). We aren’t, at this point, to even worry about whether or not they are sinners. Of course they are sinners! They are unsaved and unsaved people are slaves to sin.
"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? . . . For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." (Romans 6:16, 20 NKJV).
Sinners (the unsaved) are slaves to sin; therefore, even when they choose "good," it is still sin because they are slaves to sin. And because they are slaves to sin—because they are unsaved—they are going to hell.
Harsh words, but true. So now consider this: Is homosexuality more of a sin than lying or watching nude scenes on television or yelling at one’s children in anger? In other words, is there some sin which will send the unsaved person more to hell than any other sin? Think about it. It’s kind of ridiculous, actually, for us to think that there are categories of sins that make one sinner worse than another sinner. Being unsaved is being unsaved and being unsaved will send a person to hell. Mark 16 goes on to say:
"He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16 NKJV).
We are to be in the world in order to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." To every creature, to every person. How can we "preach" the gospel if we aren’t among them, loving them, befriending them, caring for them? And how can we care for them if we are spending so much time reviling them? Why would they even want to listen to us? Why refuse to bake a wedding cake or take wedding pictures? These are opportunities to "preach the gospel!" They’re there, in our business establishment, in our store! And the gospel is the Good News! You see, we absolutely shouldn’t worry about their sexual orientation. There are "good heteros" going to hell! Sexual orientation doesn’t condemn you. Failing to believe the gospel, failing to trust Jesus for your salvation, that condemns you. We need to be preaching the good news that Jesus loves each and every one of them so much that He died for them.
So why are Christians so angry at the LGBTQ community, so afraid of them?
Because, for Christians, homosexuality (in any form) is a sin! Clear and simple. And those who claim to be Christian and yet are practicing (living and doing) homosexuality should be totally and absolutely excluded from our churches and from our lives. BUT (and this is a huge "but"), so should anyone who is sexually immoral, anyone who is greedy, anyone who worships idols, anyone who abuses someone else (with words or with physical violence), anyone who gets drunk or high, anyone who cheats people or steals. All of these people need to be put summarily out of the church until they repent and give up their sinful lives. Scripture clearly says this! And yet, we know that there are even pastors who have sinned sexually (more than once) and continue to pastor. We know there are elders and people of influence who continue within the church because the leadership wants and needs their financial backing and yet these are people who regularly, through their business practices, extort and cheat people, who abuse workers (either in the US or abroad) by paying substandard wages, who are slum lords and make fortunes on the backs of the poor. We know that there are people who regularly attend church and are welcomed who on Friday and Saturday get drunker than skunk, who are addicted to legal prescription medication, who abuse (verbally or physically) their spouses, who can’t live without their televisions and smart phones . . . and the list goes on and on. And if we were to segregate ourselves from these people—WHICH THE SCRIPTURE SAYS WE ARE TO DO—the churches might actually be empty! Why? Because, in many cases, these people are US!
Those in the LBGTQ community see Christians are more than hypocritical because we refuse to take care of the sins within our own community and within our own lives. And yet we so easily condemn them! Why are we so helpless to take care of our own sins and yet so empowered to condemn the unsaved around us? Because it’s easier to point a finger than change our lifestyles. Because it’s easier to condemn than to repent.
"And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." (Matthew 7:3-5 NKJV).
We don’t need the gay community to call us hypocrites. The Lord Jesus Himself has already done that! The Church in America continues to call for revival, but until we are ready to repent ourselves, revival won’t come. Until we are ready to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the plank in our own eyes, the Lord isn’t going to move one inch in response to our prayers about the speck in the eyes of those around us.
There is another reason why evangelical Christians are so angry at the LGBTQ community. We are afraid for our children! We are afraid that LGBTQ teachers, actors, television shows, authors, and others of influence will convince our children that gay sex isn’t wrong. We’re afraid that our own children might even become gay.
And again, the onus of this can’t be laid at the doorstep of the LGBTQ community, but rather, we must lay it at the door of the Church. If we were doing what we should be doing about our children, this wouldn’t be our fear because we would know that these sinful people would never have access to our children until our children were grown and mature. Why? Because we would pull our children out of public school. We would turn off our televisions and devices. We would screen the reading material in our homes. We would actually parent our kids, rather than just supervise them. Our churches would reorient their financial priorities and create Christian schools without tuition for Christian families. Our church leadership would begin to understand that the future of the Church lies in our children and would provide comprehensive programs for them, rather than babysitting entertainment during the church service so that mom and dad don’t have to be bothered with their kids at least two hours a week.
We would get serious about being Christian families!
But instead, it’s so much easier to lay the blame at the feet of the unsaved who can’t do anything other than what they’re doing because they are slaves to sin! It’s easier to blame them then to look at ourselves. It’s easier to complain than to change. It’s easier to drink milk than to eat solid food. "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age." Are we working toward becoming more mature? Are we moving toward God or away from Him? Is there anyone in the America Church who is spiritually mature? Is there anyone who even wants to be?
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
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