The passage about homosexuals and the Kingdom as well as the Romans passage must be put into context. Both are about a multitude of sins, of which homosexuality is simply one equal member.
Romans 1 talks about the general degradation of human culture. Those Paul lists as faithless, etc. etc. are humans in general. His illustration of men burning in lust for each other and exchanging natural relations with women for unnatural relations with other men is only one example of society’s rampant sin. Check it out again. The ‘they’ he speaks of (from the verse 16 on, well before he even mentions homosexual activity) is man in the universal sense. Society had (and has) become so corrupt that people did not obey their parents, were arrogant, were covetous, etc. These men (all of us) are deserving of death.
The fascinating thing about this chapter is the constant repetition of “God gave them over to” shameful lusts, a depraved mind, the sinful desires of their hearts. Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, He gave them over to that lie. This within a discussion of God’s wrath revealed. At the end of his paragraph on homosexuality, he says that “Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” This brings it all together. They received in themselves the penalty. God’s wrath is giving us what we want. And that is punishment enough.
So, I hope that you can see that the descriptions of faithless men are not aimed only at those who slept with other men. Rather, the latter is an example of the first.
The other passage you ask about is I Corinthians 6:9-12:
“9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. 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. 12”Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. "
Again, notice the list, much longer than just sexual sins. We’re all implicated. The glorious part is verse 11. Note the past tense. And verse 12 is a beautiful statement on the era of grace, using the language of Paul’s contemporaries and turning it on its head. In a way, everything is now permissable for us, but God has given us structures in which we may stay to truly experience His freedom and get what is beneficial for us…as only He can truly discern.
ehud
Nov 21 2004
03:54 am
The passage about homosexuals and the Kingdom as well as the Romans passage must be put into context. Both are about a multitude of sins, of which homosexuality is simply one equal member.
Romans 1 talks about the general degradation of human culture. Those Paul lists as faithless, etc. etc. are humans in general. His illustration of men burning in lust for each other and exchanging natural relations with women for unnatural relations with other men is only one example of society’s rampant sin. Check it out again. The ‘they’ he speaks of (from the verse 16 on, well before he even mentions homosexual activity) is man in the universal sense. Society had (and has) become so corrupt that people did not obey their parents, were arrogant, were covetous, etc. These men (all of us) are deserving of death.
The fascinating thing about this chapter is the constant repetition of “God gave them over to” shameful lusts, a depraved mind, the sinful desires of their hearts. Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, He gave them over to that lie. This within a discussion of God’s wrath revealed. At the end of his paragraph on homosexuality, he says that “Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” This brings it all together. They received in themselves the penalty. God’s wrath is giving us what we want. And that is punishment enough.
So, I hope that you can see that the descriptions of faithless men are not aimed only at those who slept with other men. Rather, the latter is an example of the first.
The other passage you ask about is I Corinthians 6:9-12:
“9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. 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. 12”Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. "
Again, notice the list, much longer than just sexual sins. We’re all implicated. The glorious part is verse 11. Note the past tense. And verse 12 is a beautiful statement on the era of grace, using the language of Paul’s contemporaries and turning it on its head. In a way, everything is now permissable for us, but God has given us structures in which we may stay to truly experience His freedom and get what is beneficial for us…as only He can truly discern.