It was recently suggested to me that as a Christian I should love and accept homosexuals. The Scripture quoted to me was Galatians 5:14: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” It is true that love is the fulfilling of the law. But it is not the whole truth concerning sin of any kind and homosexuality in particular.
To say that we must simply love and accept a sinner and or a homosexual, because love fulfills the law, is like saying a doctor should put a pretty bandage on a wound and allow it to fester underneath. It is morally wrong and an act of malpractice for a doctor to hide the truth about a deadly disease and its remedy from a patient. And it is unloving and morally wrong to hide the truth about sin and its remedy from a sinner. To simply pull a verse out of context, as was done with Galatians 5:14, is a pretext: it disguises the truth and misleads people.
There are people who say, “Well, Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, so it must not be a sin.” This is true. Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, but then he never said anything about rape either, but that doesn’t justify rape and we all know that. Here is what the Bible does say about homosexuality. Romans 1:21-26 lays out the pattern of thinking and living that people make in their abandonment of biblical truth. First, they do not glorify God or thank Him for life. Therefore they become futile in their thinking and their hearts are darkened. They profess to be wise, to know more than others, they believe they are enlightened, but they are fools (v. 21, 22).
They then exchange the worship of the true God for some form of idolatry (v. 23). They are given over to various lusts, not necessarily sexual lusts; we can lust after many things (v.24). They exchange the truth of God for a lie (v. 25). And finally natural sexual relations are abandoned for unnatural ones (vv.26, 27). Homosexuality is an abandonment of God’s moral law and the natural way men and women are to relate sexually. God’s will is for one man and one woman to become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). In this union, sexuality finds its God-appointed meaning and we find our deepest satisfaction.
This is why homosexuality is uniformly condemned in the Bible. It is called wickedness (Genesis 19:7), abomination (Leviticus 18:22), unnatural and shameful (Romans 1:27). To say that homosexuality is an alternative form of sexuality is like saying bulimia is an alternative form of eating. The homosexual lifestyle is not a benign alternative to male/female married sexual relationships; it is a perversion of God’s plan for mankind. It is a perversion just as stealing is to honest work and lying is to telling the truth.
I understand that many people now accept homosexuality. Polls show that more and more Americans believe that gay and lesbian marriages are morally acceptable and should be allowed. This lifestyle is being normalized, institutionalized and even celebrated in our world; I understand this, but this does not make it right. Homosexuality was a way of life in the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah too. But they ultimately faced God’s judgment (Genesis 19). Unrepentant sinners, of all stripes will not inherit everlasting life in the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
Having said all of this, God does offer love to the sinner—any sinner and every sinner. I’m sure that you are familiar with John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Sin can be forgiven, all sins and every sin. But the sinner must repent of sinning (Mark 1:15) and then believe the good news about Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9, 10).
So, yes, we should love homosexuals. We should love them enough to tell them and every sinner the truth about sin and judgment. We should love them enough to offer them the remedy for sin and it consequences, which is forgiveness and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. To hide the truth from someone is unloving and wrong.
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