There is a constant need for people, gay people, straight people, tall people, short people, you name it, to hear the good news, the gospel, of Christ. It is what Christians are supposed to be spreading. We are to let our light shine in a dark place.
The world is a dark place, especially for many LGBT people. They have been raised in churches who have spread a message of hate instead of one of love.
Now, it is not my job to convince anyone that any particular action is sin or not, to convince others that they are particularly sinful. But it is my job to uphold the Word of God and point them to the Scripture as a means of starting to get to know Him. It is the means He chose after all.
We are all in a perilous position when it comes to convincing someone of sin or of sinlessness. It is a personal journey that we are accountable for no matter which role we play.
Just as we are accountable to build a relationship with God wherein He writes His laws in our hearts, we are not God and cannot pronounce someone else guilty or sinless.
Let’s first look at this concept from a bit more distance to get the applicable points.
John the Baptist, cousin to Jesus, we all probably know the story. He was a miracle baby. Born to his parents when they were old. His mother was known to be barren. Then his father saw a vision. An angel appeared to him and told him they would have a son, what to name him and that God wanted him to be a Levite from the time he was born.
A Levite was someone who had taken a vow to serve God in some capacity, any capacity. Even women could take the vow of the Levite. It was typically a dedicated thing, act, or service to God for a specific period of time. They would come and go through a ceremony to begin their service as a Levite, and then they would have a ceremony at the end of their service. Whatever they dedicated to God was in His service for that specified period of time.
God wanted John the Baptist to be a Levite from the time he was born. You may remember that Samson was also a Levite from the time he was born.
Levites let their hair grow during the entire time of their dedication. Thus Samson and John the Baptist weren’t to cut their hair among other things.
Now, typically, at the end of the Vow of the Levite time of dedication, as well as at the beginning, they cut their hair. So they would cut their hair and begin their service to God and let it grow all the while. Then, when they had completed their time they would cut it again. Since John the Baptist and Samson were supposed to always be Levites from the time they were born until the time they died, they were never to cut their hair.
What’s the point? Well, since God told them, instructed them, required of them, that they be Levites, and they were never to cut their hair, cutting their hair would be sin. But it isn’t sinful to cut your hair…
Let that sink in for a second. It’s an important Christianity 101 concept. Even Levites who would be in sin to cut their hair DURING their committed time of service, were SUPPOSED to cut their hair to start their commitment and to end it. It wasn’t sin for them ALWAYS, just during the time of their Vow of the Levite. But, it would definitely be sin during that time. Why? Because it would be disobedience to God.
If you begin to read the Bible you will discover that there are many instances of something being sin for one person that is not sin for another, or sin in a particular instance that isn’t in another.
You may think that makes things harder and seem more arbitrary, but it isn’t. It’s built into our relationship with God so we will continue to be engaged with Him. God didn’t create us so we would obey Him. If He had He could have made us all zombie like followers of Him. He’s not an egomaniac who wants us to all kiss His ring. He created us because He wanted to love us and wanted us to love Him, just as parents love their children and want to have a relationship with them.
Obedience to Him is for our own well-being and the blessing of others. It’s not some bizarre mandate like the crazy rules we encounter at our jobs. It is all about Him loving us and us loving Him.
Problem is we lost our ability to see His love for what it is, much like those sweet little children who used to gleefully announce, “MOMMA,” when we picked them up at daycare lose their ability to see our love for them in their teens and scream about how much they hate us! Our love hasn’t changed. But they don’t get it right then.
We don’t get God’s love right now, but it doesn’t change His love for us one bit. However, just as the oldest child might have a different set of chores and responsibilities than the youngest child, we too, have a different relationship and thereby accountability to God as individuals. If He told us personally to take the trash out and we don’t, we’ll we are in trouble, we are in sin. It is sin for us not to take the trash out. But someone else who doesn’t take the trash out is not necessarily in sin.
The Bible calls this a Rhema. It is a direct command from God. To disobey a Rhema is sin. That’s different than general sin like stealing. A Rhema is a “take out the trash” kind of sin. It is something God has told YOU to DO. For Samson it was cutting his hair. He was not allowed to do that. God had a reason. He’s running this shindig after all.
So, how does this relate to being gay and whether or not it’s sin? Many ministers will jump in here with their opinion at great peril. I don’t believe I can tell you it’s sin or not. I believe firmly that you have to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
You see, it’s important that folks do or don’t do based on God’s direct relationship with them.
Let me give you another fundamental concept of Christianity: Anything that is not of faith is sin.
That’s a quote. Verbatim. So don’t think I’m concluding or opining. Anything that is not of faith is sin. So, what’s faith?
Faith is anything you DO because you trust what you’ve been told. Read that again. Faith is anything you DO because you trust what you’ve been TOLD. Told by Whom? God. Period. Faith is not a ooey gooey feeling you get because you “believe” something to be true. Anything you can be convinced of you can be unconvinced of. Faith is not a conclusion. Faith is an action. Let that sink in. It’s an action.
The classic example is this: I tell you to trust me and fall back in my arms. You refuse. You don’t trust me. You choose the action that proves you don’t trust me. You have no faith in me. You don’t believe what you’ve been told and you act like it. If you do trust me and act like it, you fall back in my arms and let me catch you. This is faith. It’s an action you DO because you believe what you’ve been told.
You can’t, therefore, have faith, take action based on the trust in what you’ve been told, if you have not been told something. Were you to stand up right now and fall down backward, it would not be faith because I did not tell you I would catch you. It is not trust in what I’ve said. It’s stupidity. If you were to do this, fall down and get hurt, you would have no right to be mad at me for not catching you. I didn’t tell you I would.
That’s what people do to God all the time. They decide God wants them to do this or that, go do it and when it doesn’t work out like they plan then they blame God. He didn’t tell them to do that. They weren’t acting in faith because He didn’t tell them to do it.
In order then to have faith, you have to be told to do it, and then you can do it with all confidence that God will work it out, make it happen, etc. Then you are plugged into miracle power. Anything else is foolish or superstition or trying to get God to do something.
How does this fit with the sin question about being gay? what has God spoken to you? And if He isn’t, are you asking? Are you willing to do what He tells you to do? This is Christianity, by definition. Letting God call the shots in your life, be your coach, make the rules, be your boss, be the Lord of your life, instead of yourself.
Until someone is in that kind of relationship with God it doesn’t matter about whether homosexuality is sin or not. It really doesn’t. Heaven and Hell are determined according to Scripture based on whether or not we have a relationship with God’s Son. Whether He is Lord of our lives. Whether He calls the shots in our lives. If He were to instruct you to be gay or not, would you do it? Would you take the action that proves you trust? Anything outside of that is sin anyway, the go to hell kind. So what does it matter?
And if folks are worried being gay is bad, but not worried about gossip, stealing, drug addiction, wife beating, cheating on taxes, etc. then we do them and God a disservice by attempting to convince them they are “all good” with God when they aren’t.
And for those who want to serve God but can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that they are gay, who have a relationship with God but struggle to discern the difference between God’s sweet loving voice and the voice of condemnation, this site is for you. But I would caution you to recognize, especially ministers, that guilt, real or imagined, is a very real thing.
Anything not of faith is sin, and to whom it is sin it is sin. Don’t try and convince someone against their conscious. If they don’t “own” that piece of truth as revealed to them by God, they are in sin because they think it’s sin and it is not of faith because they haven’t heard it from the Master.
Instead, spread the good news and allow God’s Holy Spirit to mix that Word with faith and reveal God’s love for all parties. Let them discover God’s love for them at their own pace, in their own way and actually build a relationship with God, not hear some false message that causes them NOT to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and go on their blind way toward hell, certain that it’s okay with good ole’ God if they are gay.
Don’t let your message become a simple matter of “who can do who.” That’s not what the Bible is about. Let the message be that of love, and light, peace, and mercy, and undeserved grace. Point them to the Living God to find the answer to the burning questions that they seek. And always speak the truth in love.
