Most people don’t sexualize their awareness of the beauty of children or of other people of the same sex. But for reasons that aren’t entirely understood, the sexual longings of some people are drawn towards persons of the same sex or towards children. This desire is clearly not a natural expression of the mating instinct, as it can’t result in reproduction, and medical and psychological evidence shows that people who struggle with such desires do so for a constellation of physical, environmental, and cultural reasons.¹ For such people, these desires feel natural, even though they are clearly unnatural in terms of instinctive purpose and reproductive design. However, the fact that the desires feel natural is usually no comfort to people who experience them, but is the source of deep feelings of confusion, shame, and guilt. (See the Questions, Do People Choose to Have Same-Gender Sexual Attractions? and What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuals Who Were Born That Way?)

This tendency to sexualize feelings towards children or people of the same sex is an aspect of fallen human nature in a world tainted by sin. Yet by itself, unnatural sexual temptation isn’t a sin we will be held accountable for, nor can it harm us and others if we don’t yield to it. As in the case of people with heterosexual desires, only willful surrender to temptation is sinful.²

Although no one will be held accountable for unnatural desires alone, they must be taken with the utmost seriousness. There is a sense in which yielding to the temptation to do something that is inherently unnatural will have even more serious emotional, spiritual, and physical consequences than succumbing to heterosexual temptation. Since yielding to any kind of temptation increases both temptation and the compulsive power of wrongful desire, one who yields to paraphilic or homosexual temptation will inflame his/her unnatural desires still further. The sexual desires of such people may become so badly distorted that it might become impossible for them to ever experience the kind of wholesome heterosexual marriage for which sexual feelings were designed, and the psychological damage inflicted on the objects of unnatural desire—whether children or vulnerable adults—will be profound. (See the ATQ article, >What Should Our Approach be Toward Homosexuals?)

1. David Greenberg, for example, sides with the dynamic view in that he rejects the idea that homosexuality is a fixed, pre-social given common to different societies and different periods of time. Against the “static” theorists, he notes that sexual practices and the conceptual categories through which people understand them—including practices involving persons of the same sex—vary greatly from society to society. Hence, the contemporary Western concept of homosexuality as a fixed, biologically based sexual orientation that is “normal” for a select group of people is in fact the product of a constellation of ideas present in our society and not the transcultural reality proponents assume it is. Like other proponents of the dynamic view, Greenberg argues that homosexual behavior is learned. But he quickly adds that this learning always occurs within a specific social context. In his view, cultural conditioning is able to override whatever seemingly innate factors might otherwise be operative in a person’s life. He writes, “Where social definitions of appropriate and inappropriate behavior are clear and consistent, with positive sanctions for conformity and negative ones for nonconformity, virtually everyone will conform irrespective of genetic inheritance and, to a considerable extent, irrespective of personal psychodynamics” (Welcoming But Not Affirming, pp. 29-30). Back To Article
2. In its widest sense, “sin” refers to every aspect of human life that fails to reflect the design of God. Viewed from this perspective, fallenness means that we are sinful in the totality of our existence. At the same time, we generally use the word more narrowly; thus, we speak about “sins,” that is, specific actions, even transgressions.The word sin immediately conjures up another idea that likewise carries two related yet distinct meanings: “judgment.” On the one hand, insofar as God will one day transform every dimension of creaturely fallenness, human fallenness comes under divine judgment. On the other hand, the biblical writers consistently reserve the idea of a divine judgment leading to condemnation for sinful acts (e.g., Rom. 2:3; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:12).Putting the two together leads to the conclusion that as the great physician, God will heal our fallen sinfulness in the new creation, and as our judge, God will condemn our sinful actions. Hence, our fallen disposition is sinful in that it is foundational to our sinning. But it is our sinful acts—which bring God’s condemnation upon us—that are what mark us as guilty before God (Stanley Grenz, Welcoming But Not Affirming, p. 120). Back To Article

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Because homosexuality has become an identity issue for many people, powerful political and cultural pressures are being brought to bear on Christian denominations to view homosexuality as a natural, normal, and legitimate form of sexual expression.

There are many reasons to have empathy for those who are in the grip of sexual attraction to people of the same sex. Such people are likely to have experienced an unusual amount of developmental trauma including some combination of the following factors:

• Peer pressure created by the propaganda of sexualization in media and school ¹
• A distant, hostile, abusive and/or alcoholic father
• Parents who failed in some significant ways to encourage same-sex identification (i.e., failed to encourage boys to identify with father and other male role models, and girls to identify with mother and other female role models)
• An overprotective, needy, or demanding mother
• Rejection and mocking by peers in childhood because of poor hand-eye coordination, incompetence in sports, and reluctance to engage in rough-housing and team sports
• Sexual abuse or rape
• Separation from parent during key developmental years
• Loss of parent by death or divorce
• Extreme shyness and social phobia²

Yet while we should have empathy and compassion for anyone who has developed a homosexual orientation, the Bible makes it clear that homosexual behavior is a form of sexual sin (See the ATQ article,  What Is the Sin of Homosexuality?), and that we cannot allow our empathy for people tempted to sexual sin to displace our awareness of its dangers both to them and to others. The Bible places sexual sins in a unique category because they are sins against the body.

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who unites himself to the Lord is one with Him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:15-20).

Because they are sins against the body, sexual sins utilize the body’s powerful instinctive drives to create degrading forms of addictive behavior that wreak havoc both for the sinner and everyone within his/her sphere of influence.

The Bible exalts human sexuality within marriage. It uses the image of husband and wife to portray the intimacy that exists between Christ and the church (2 Corinthians 11:2; a href=”https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5:21-33″>Ephesians 5:21-33; Revelation 19:7), which is why Paul describes sexual sin with special concern. By means of sexual sin, the human will becomes the instrument by which the body’s reproductive instincts are misdirected to destructive ends, and, in turn, the body’s wholesome physical drives become complicit in enslaving the human will. The personal and social repercussions of sexual sin are extreme.

Like other sexual sins, homosexual behavior isn’t innate or unavoidable. (See the ATQ article, What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuals Who Were Born That Way?) It is essential that Christians hold each other accountable within their community to protect young people whose traumatic backgrounds and existing same-sex attractions might make them vulnerable to being drawn into this addictive and destructive kind of sin.

1. After his departure from a homosexual lifestyle, the one-time founder of Young Gay America Magazine acknowledged the powerful social pressures that are coming to bear on Western young people to view homosexual behavior in a positive light:
   
   

   YGA [Young Gay America] Magazine sold out of its first issue in several North American cities. There was extreme support, by all sides, for YGA Magazine; schools, parent groups, libraries, governmental associations, everyone seemed to want it. It tapped right into the zeitgeist of “accepting and promoting” homosexuality, and I was considered a leader. I was asked to speak on the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2005.
   

   It was after viewing my words on a videotape of that “performance” that I began to seriously doubt what I was doing with my life and influence.
   

   Knowing no one who I could approach with my questions and my doubts, I turned to God; I’d developed a growing relationship with God, thanks to a debilitating bout with intestinal cramps caused by the upset stomach-inducing behaviors I’d been engaged in.
   

   Soon, I began to understand things I’d never known could possibly be real, such as the fact that I was leading a movement of sin and corruption—which is not to sound as though my discovery was based on dogma, because decidedly it was not.
   

   I came to the conclusions on my own.
   

   It became clear to me, as I really thought about it—and really prayed about it—that homosexuality prevents us from finding our true self within. We cannot see the truth when we’re blinded by homosexuality.
   

   We believe, under the influence of homosexuality, that lust is not just acceptable, but a virtue. But there is no homosexual “desire” that is apart from lust.
   

   In denial of this fact, I’d fought to erase such truth at all costs, and participated in the various popular ways of taking responsibility out of human hands for challenging the temptations of lust and other behaviors. I was sure—thanks to culture and world leaders—that I was doing the right thing.
   

   Driven to look for truth, because nothing felt right, I looked within. Jesus Christ repeatedly advises us not to trust anybody other than Him. I did what He said, knowing that the Kingdom of God does reside in the heart and mind of every man.
   

   What I discovered—what I learned—about homosexuality was amazing. How I’d first “discovered” homosexual desires back in high school was by noticing that I looked at other guys. How I healed, when it became decidedly clear that I should—or risk hurting more people—is that I paid attention to myself.
   

   Every time I was tempted to lust, I noticed it, caught it, dealt with it. I called it what it was, and then just let it disappear on its own. A huge and vital difference exists between superficial admiration—of yourself, or others—and integral admiration. In loving ourselves fully, we no longer need anything from the “outside” world of lustful desire, recognition from others, or physical satisfaction. Our drives become intrinsic to our very essence, unbridled by neurotic distractions. (From the article, “How a ‘Gay Rights’ Leader Became Straight,” by Michael Glatze). Back To Article

2. The significance of trauma in the development of same-sex desires is documented in the paper, Homosexuality and Hope, published by the Catholic Medical Association. Back To Article

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Our Lord gave serious warnings against causing little ones to stumble. How might we cause them to stumble? One way is by being hypocritical and setting up rigid formal standards that we ourselves violate. The Pharisees who hated Jesus were guilty of this (Luke 11:42).

Another way we might cause them to stumble is to be so fearful of being hypocritical (or being perceived as hypocritical) that we fail to appeal to their own consciences by compassionately warning them about sin.

Jesus didn’t shrink from affirming moral guidelines (Matthew 5:28; Matthew 21:11-13; John 4:15-19; John 8:11), but affirmed them like a loving parent, not a self-righteous hypocrite. He didn’t shun sinners or treat them contemptuously. Neither did He mince words regarding their spiritual need.

Anyone with knowledge of the wide variety of human sexual behaviors knows the extent to which sexual desire is shaped by behavior. The fact that some people are aroused by children, inanimate objects, or the infliction of pain, humiliation, or suffering demonstrates how seriously sexual desire can be distorted by gradual conditioning. These forms of sexual behavior are still viewed as abnormal and destructive by most people, and a general cultural consensus remains that it would be wrong to encourage them.¹ Non-religious psychiatric standards still acknowledge that such behaviors are learned.

But other types of harmful sexual behavior—including cohabitation, “hooking-up,” and active homosexuality—have gained wide cultural acceptance.

Life is short, and the way we invest our femininity and masculinity will have tremendous consequences. Common sense and human experience show that promiscuity, uncommitted sex, and gender confusion lead to tragedy. Conscience reinforces what the Bible teaches—that only sexuality dedicated to the nurture of spouse and family can contribute to wholesome lives with healthy personal boundaries.

As they seek to uphold and maintain the divinely revealed moral standards of Scripture, Christians often fail to keep the attitudes and example of Jesus in mind. Great harm has been done when Christians confront moral confusion in cruel, self-righteous ways. In the postmodern world, it will be impossible—even within the community of the church—to successfully grapple with issues like cohabitation and homosexuality without a degree of humility and self-awareness that the Christian community has seldom attained.

Most mature Christians in our sexualized modern world realize how far they personally have fallen short of sexual purity. As they experience sexual and emotional healing through God’s grace, they need to apply the lessons they have learned to help people who are still struggling. Although it is right that they be humbled and seasoned by their own failures, they shouldn’t lose sight of those who are still struggling and are far from sexual and emotional healing. Don Williams explains why, using as an example the potential effects of “normalizing” homosexual behavior within the church:

“For the church at this point to surrender to gay advocacy and gay theology and thus to give up her biblical faith would bring not only disaster upon herself, it would bring more havoc to the world as well. If the church simply blesses homosexuality, the hope for change in Christ will be destroyed. Millions of potential converts will have the only lasting hope for wholeness cut off from them. Untold numbers of children and adolescents who are struggling with their sexual identity will conclude that ‘gay is good,’ deny their heterosexual potential and God’s heterosexual purpose for them, and slip into the brokenness of the gay world. Untold numbers of adults will follow suit.” (Don Williams, The Bond That Breaks: Will Homosexuality Split the Church? (Los Angeles: BIM, 1978), 73)

The ultimate motive for upholding biblical moral standards must be love and concern for those missing the mark. Any light we shine into a dark world (Matthew 5:13-16) needs to be as suffused with love as it is with truth.

1. Contemporary research upholds the timeless wisdom of biblical teaching about the infectious nature of sin and the need to maintain clear moral guidelines. Stanley J. Grenz notes:
   

   “Social constructivists point out that we construct who we are—including our sexual identity—in large part through interaction with others. This parallels the epistemological idea of the social construction of reality, which speaks about the power of language to create the world we inhabit. The constructivist insight cautions us against adopting too quickly the language of ‘sexual orientation,’ understood as a fixed, lifelong, unchanging given of a person’s life.” (Welcoming But Not Affirming, p. xi) Back To Article

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So, should Christians be tolerant? Well, that depends. If tolerance means compromising our belief in the message of Jesus Christ, the story of the Bible, or historic Christianity to avoid conflict with others, then no. But if tolerance means that we strive to live unwavering in our convictions and at the same time love others unconditionally, then yes. In this sense tolerance would look a lot like embracing prostitutes, tax collectors, drunks, and other sinners like ourselves. It would look a lot like emptying ourselves of our spiritual pride, looking beyond people’s actions, and seeing them as people who matter to God. It would look a lot like submitting ourselves to the will of God and laying down our lives for those who desperately need His mercy and forgiveness.

In other words, it would look a lot like Jesus.

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Surely some attitudes and behaviors carry the potential for greater, far-reaching consequences than others. But that does not make one set of sins worse than another. The New Testament calls us to take all sin seriously:

Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law. (James 2:8–9 nlt)

James, the author of these words, does not seem to be setting up a hierarchy of sins. He wrote to people who were guilty of such things as favoring the rich over the poor,[1] and he is confronting the self-righteous attitudes of those who don’t feel they have sinned enough to need God’s grace. He told his readers that this kind of thinking is not only prideful but also self-deceiving. Everyone sins and needs God’s grace.

The mercy of God is not just for those who commit obvious and heinous kinds of sin. A person who doesn’t murder or commit adultery but shows partiality to the rich while ignoring the poor is a lawbreaker, too.

Sin is a struggle for all of us. And none of us have reason to feel superior to those who sin in ways we don’t. Most of all, let us never forget that our gracious God longs to extend His hand of mercy to all.

[1] James 2:1-4

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If poverty means there is sin in our lives, why would Paul say this about the churches in Macedonia: “They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.”[2] Later Paul wrote, “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.”[3]

If Jesus was poor, would we dare say that his poverty was a sign of sin in his life? Of course not! Yet Jesus claimed to be homeless. “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head,” he said.[4]

Significantly, many passages in the Bible warn against ill-gotten riches. So we might just as easily ask: Is wealth a sign of sin in my life?

The prophet Jeremiah warned, “Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means.”[5] And the book of Proverbs says, “Evil people get rich for the moment, but the reward of the godly will last.”[6]

The apostle Paul wrote, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.”[7] Yet he too warned against the dangers of wealth. “True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth,” he said.[8] Then he warned, “People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”[9]

Jesus said, “Don’t store your treasures here on earth.” Instead, he urged, “Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”[10]

It’s dangerous and unfair to generalize, especially when making assumptions about rich or poor people — including ourselves. Material wealth (or the lack of it) is a poor indicator of whether we are following God’s ways. God is building his kingdom with people from across the economic spectrum. What matters most is how we use what he has given us.

[1]. Proverbs 10:4

[2]. 2 Corinthians 8:1-2

[3]. 2 Corinthians 8:9

[4]. Matthew 8:20

[5]. Jeremiah 17:11

[6]. Proverbs 11:18

[7]. Philippians 4:12

[8]. 1Timothy 6:6

[9]. 1 Timothy 6:9-10

[10]. Matthew 6:19-21

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Some people have mistakenly thought that this verse means that all sins are equal in God’s view, that no sins are worse than others.

In the Old Testament, there were sacrifices to atone for sins done in ignorance or through weakness. But deliberate, premeditated transgressions were a more serious category of sin for which the law couldn’t atone (Hebrews 10). People who committed such sins (Leviticus 6:1-2; 10:1-2; 20:1-27; Numbers 15:32-35; 16:26-32) either had to make restitution (as in the cases of theft or lying) or be put to death (as in the cases of adultery, violating the Sabbath, cursing one’s parents). When David premeditatedly committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, he wrote, “You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; . . . The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart” (Psalm 51:16-17 nkjv). David knew that no sacrifice could atone for what he did, and that he could only, like other Old Testament believers who committed such sins, cast himself on God’s mercy. The law provided no forgiveness. He needed grace.

Paul’s declaration in Romans 2 that God will judge “according to works,” “light,” and “opportunity” implies that there are degrees of guilt, as did Jesus’ declaration that rejecting Him and His gospel was a more serious sin than the sin of Sodom (Matthew 10:15; 11:23-24). If there are no degrees of sin, then it would be pointless to struggle to seek the lesser of two evils in the kinds of situations we all sometimes face.

What James is confronting in this verse is the self-righteous attitude that we don’t depend as much on God’s grace as someone who has committed more obvious and heinous kinds of sin. This kind of thinking is self-deceiving and encourages complacency. Any violation of the law is enough to keep us from being justified by the law’s standards. A person who doesn’t murder or commit adultery but shows partiality to the rich should not feel self-righteous. He is a lawbreaker too. The function of the law is not to justify but to bring awareness of sin (Romans 4:14-16; 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 15:56). We should be humbled and conscience-stricken by the many sins we do commit, and not feel superior to those who sin in ways we don’t.

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Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone (James 1:13).

Nor was He implying that there is something unusual about being subjected to temptation.

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Peter 4:12-14 NIV).

Rather, Jesus was modeling the healthy self-distrust that should mark every child of God. He was showing us that we must be continually conscious of our own weakness and of the wiles of our enemy. We are not to have any false assurance about our ability to do as well as Jesus did when “put to the test” by Satan in the wilderness. Instead, we are to recognize our inclination to be headstrong like Peter, thinking he was equal to any challenge that might come his way (Luke 22:31-34,54-62.)

We as God’s children never have to give in to temptation, for God will “make the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13 nkjv), but we must be conscious of our vulnerability. Jesus therefore emphasized the need for humble dependence on God. He called us to recognize our human frailty and to acknowledge that we on our own are no match for our triple foe: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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