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Second Corinthians 11:14 says,

Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

When he does this he tricks people into doing evil by convincing them that what they are doing is good. One area where this tactic has been successful is the change he has brought about in our society’s attitude toward homosexual behavior.

According to the Bible God established marriage as a union between a man and a woman and limited sexual activity to marriage.

And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:22-24

In Matthew 19:3-5 Jesus quoted this passage in answering a question about marriage.

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

He taught that marriage is to be a permanent union and that it is to be between a man and a woman.

In 1 Corinthians 6:15,16 Paul quoted the statement from Genesis in a different context.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

A comparison of what Jesus and Paul said shows that God equates sex and marriage and any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage is a sin.

God has provided a way that we can be forgiven for out sins by faith in Jesus Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 homosexual activity can be forgiven in the same way as any other sin.

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. 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 our God.

But before anyone can be forgiven for his sins he must acknowledge that what he is doing is a sin and needs to be forgiven.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people today who try to convince everyone that there is nothing wrong with homosexual practice. They even want the government to endorse it by permitting two people of the same sex to legally marry. No doubt they are sincerely trying to help homosexuals but in fact they are the worst enemies the homosexuals have. What they are doing can be compared to a doctor telling a patient he is healthy when in fact he has a fatal illness which could be cured if he received the proper treatment. The real source of this attitude is Satan. He wants to keep people away from God and he does this by planting false ideas in peoples’ minds.

The Bible commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and this applies even when that neighbor is a homosexual. It is morally wrong to discriminate against someone because of his sexual orientation. But when the government passes laws prohibiting such discrimination or permitting same sex marriage this encourages homosexuals to think there is nothing wrong with what they are doing and can keep them from repenting and being forgiven. Such laws might make things easier for them in this life, but Jesus said it doesn’t profit a person to gain the world and lose his soul.

The way to really show love for homosexuals is to tell them what the Bible teaches on this subject and to warn them about the consequences of disobeying God. If they have already violated God’s commands we need to show them how they can be forgiven if they will turn from their sin and put their faith in Jesus. Those who do this will be accused of being homophobic and hating homosexuals, but in fact we are the best friends that homosexuals have.

It is important to keep in mind the difference between homosexual orientation and homosexual practice. A person can’t help it if he finds himself sexually attracted to people of the same sex but he can and must choose whether or not to act on this attraction. He is in the same situation as a heterosexual who finds himself attracted to someone to whom he isn’t married. Homosexual activity is a sin; homosexual orientation is a temptation which must be resisted.

There are two groups of people who are hurt if the difference between orientation and practice isn’t made clear.

The first group is those people who have homosexual desires but have refused to act on them because they know it would be wrong to do so. When they hear someone use the Bible to condemn homosexuality they may conclude that they are already guilty just because they have been tempted. For some this could lead them to give up resisting their desires and to yield to the temptation. It could also keep others from admitting their problem to people who could help them with it.

The second group is those homosexuals who have repented of their sin and trusted in Christ for salvation. They are likely to think that when they are saved their homosexual desires will be removed just as the guilt for their sin has been removed. When they find that this isn’t the case they could reach the conclusion that they aren’t really saved or that the gospel message is false. This problem could have been avoided if they had been taught the difference between orientation and practice and had been warned that after salvation God would help them resist temptation, not remove the temptation.

An excellent source of information about this subject is Wesley Hill’s book Washed and Waiting. Hill is a Christian who believes the Bible’s teaching about homosexual behavior but who also finds himself sexually attracted to other men. His book describes how he decided to live in obedience to God’s will regardless of how much it was contrary to his desires.