There is no reason to translate the Greek words Paul uses as referring to rape or lust alone. They refer to sex with one’s own sex (quite graphically). To further illustrate this, he spells it out for us, telling us that even the women would lie with each other as with a man — not a very violent image.
Another thing to realize about sin is that it is not the same as crime. By this I mean that there need be no victim. Simply because one’s sin hurts no others does not make it acceptable in God’s eyes. He is concerned with 2 things: His glory and our good. We do not need to call a relationship rape to call it broken. As a matter of fact, your parents could very well have had a marriage as fallen as the union of two men. A legion of sins are possible (and present) in every marriage, and none of these are ‘worse’ or ‘better’ than homosexuality. This is illustrated well in Paul’s lists that place sexual sin alongside arrogance and disobeying ones parents as equal and equally appalling sins.
We must be careful in approaching Scripture not to read it looking for justification of the things we feel or desire. God more often than not asks us to surrender things, to take the thorny path, to go through pain and deprivation. We must learn to focus our hearts and minds and wills fully on Him, His Son, and His Spirit who mediates their truth to our very souls. Biblical interpretations that explain away the exhortations to flee homosexuality are leaning as far as they can to create God’s Word in their image.
It is a painful thing to look into the truth about homosexuality. It is a burning of refining fire. I would urge those who feel that God would not ask us to undergo such pain to explore the stories of Christians all over the world who are routinely tortured and killed for their faith. God calls women in North Korea to work unprotected in chemical factories because they will not deny their Lord. God calls fathers in South East Asia to watch their wives raped and their children abducted because they are ministers of Him. And God calls gays and lesbians in North America, where there is fullness of bread and idleness of hands, to relinquish their claim to a romantic relationship. We all must count the cost when coming to the Saviour.
In the end, there is no distinction between any sin, either those that are recognizable or those that are more subtle. Self-hated is murder. Envy is rape. Pride is adulery. And, achingly (I have weathered the pain), homosexuality is disobedience.
ehud
Nov 22 2004
07:56 am
There is no reason to translate the Greek words Paul uses as referring to rape or lust alone. They refer to sex with one’s own sex (quite graphically). To further illustrate this, he spells it out for us, telling us that even the women would lie with each other as with a man — not a very violent image.
Another thing to realize about sin is that it is not the same as crime. By this I mean that there need be no victim. Simply because one’s sin hurts no others does not make it acceptable in God’s eyes. He is concerned with 2 things: His glory and our good. We do not need to call a relationship rape to call it broken. As a matter of fact, your parents could very well have had a marriage as fallen as the union of two men. A legion of sins are possible (and present) in every marriage, and none of these are ‘worse’ or ‘better’ than homosexuality. This is illustrated well in Paul’s lists that place sexual sin alongside arrogance and disobeying ones parents as equal and equally appalling sins.
We must be careful in approaching Scripture not to read it looking for justification of the things we feel or desire. God more often than not asks us to surrender things, to take the thorny path, to go through pain and deprivation. We must learn to focus our hearts and minds and wills fully on Him, His Son, and His Spirit who mediates their truth to our very souls. Biblical interpretations that explain away the exhortations to flee homosexuality are leaning as far as they can to create God’s Word in their image.
It is a painful thing to look into the truth about homosexuality. It is a burning of refining fire. I would urge those who feel that God would not ask us to undergo such pain to explore the stories of Christians all over the world who are routinely tortured and killed for their faith. God calls women in North Korea to work unprotected in chemical factories because they will not deny their Lord. God calls fathers in South East Asia to watch their wives raped and their children abducted because they are ministers of Him. And God calls gays and lesbians in North America, where there is fullness of bread and idleness of hands, to relinquish their claim to a romantic relationship. We all must count the cost when coming to the Saviour.
In the end, there is no distinction between any sin, either those that are recognizable or those that are more subtle. Self-hated is murder. Envy is rape. Pride is adulery. And, achingly (I have weathered the pain), homosexuality is disobedience.