As homosexuality becomes an increasingly hot topic in our culture, many in the Church ask what our stance should be on the topic? The Bible, thankfully, gives us a very clear answer. Homosexuality is a sin that must be repented of, not a beautiful personality trait to be celebrated. Yes, Jesus loves gay people, just as He loves all sinners, but this does not mean He approves of homosexuality, or even that the impenitent homosexual will escape the fires of Hell.
But despite the clarity of Scripture on this topic, many Christians will find what I just said very objectionable. Half of them may have already stopped reading, dismissing me as a homophobic hatemonger stuck on the wrong side of history. Others may still be reading (and for that I applaud you), but will nevertheless firmly disagree with me. It is an unfortunate fact that not every Christian follows Jesus, and indeed, as a sinful species, every Christian falls short in some way or another. But some might argue that actually, I am attributing beliefs to Jesus that He simply never held. Jesus never said homosexuality is sin, did He?
There are a large number of problems with this reasoning, starting with the fact that actually, we don't know. We know many of Jesus' public teachings, but we don't know everything. We do know that He would never have preached anything contrary to Scripture, and that if He intended His whole Church to believe something, He would never have said it and not have it recorded in Scripture, but we do not know everything Jesus ever said and did. It is possible that Jesus, at some point in His ministry, met a gay man, and lovingly brought him to repentance. If this ever happened, it would not be significant enough to record, because it would add no new doctrine. Of course, that's not to say that this did happen. But it could have, and we wouldn't know.
One thing we do know, however, is that Jesus' primary audience, that being the Jews (Matthew 15:21-28) were all on the same page with regard to homosexuality. Jesus was very firmly Jewish. He affirmed the Jewish Scriptures, including the Jewish law. Observe: "If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;" (John 10:35, emphasis mine). "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." (Matthew 23:23, emphasis mine). "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-19, emphasis mine).
Here you see just three examples of Jesus affirming the Old Testament, saying that the Scriptures cannot be broken, that the Pharisees were hypocrites who should have obeyed it all, and that He has not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, because not so much as a pen stroke can pass from it until He's fulfilled it. Jesus had much more to say regarding the authority of the Scriptures, which He Himself expertly wielded, be it to fight off temptation, even from the devil himself, or even to prove His own authority. It should tell us a lot when even the God who wrote the Scriptures submitted to them as if He was less than they are.
So, clearly, in Jesus' eyes, the Old Testament is very authoritative. That includes Scriptures like Leviticus 18:22: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Now, generally speaking, I don't like to argue from this verse, because of course there are about half a million side arguments it causes. For example, if we are no longer under the law, how can we also say we are still under Leviticus 18:22? Far better to find New Testament verses (more on that later). Nevertheless, the fact that Jesus did affirm the Old Testament means that, indirectly, He did make His opinion on homosexuality clear. To Jesus, men should not be having sex with men, because this is abominable. The fact that He never said those exact words doesn't matter. If I say "I agree with everything that guy over there says", and then that guy over there says "coffee is awesome", I don't have to say the words "coffee is awesome" for you to know I think coffee is awesome. I said I agreed with the guy. Jesus said He agrees with everything in the Old Testament, the Old Testament says homosexuality is an abomination, Jesus believed homosexuality is an abomination. It is a simple syllogism.
And of course, His primary audience agreed. They were all Jewish. They were all aware that homosexuality was an abomination, and if they were still practicing their own laws (of course, due to the Roman occupation, they were limited in their ability to do so), anyone practicing homosexuality could be quite severely punished. With death. Jesus' primary audience already believed what He believed about homosexuality, and so He had no need to preach it to them. His silence can neither be taken as approval or indifference. He did not approve of homosexuality, and we know that. He didn't have to express it because He and His audience were on the same page.
Compare this with His Apostle, Paul. Paul's primary ministry was to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Romans 11:13; Galatians 2:7). Gentiles, of course, did not have, nor explicitly live by, the Jewish law. Therefore, whereas some of them would obviously be intolerant to homosexuality, others would be steeped in it. Indeed, the Romans were notorious for their sexual immorality. Because of this, Paul was significantly more vocal than Jesus regarding homosexuality. In his epistle to the Romans, he almost immediately begins describing it as an unnatural lust, particularly one that occurs in a society without God (see Romans 1:18-32). Furthermore, Paul tells us that impenitent homosexuality bars one from God's Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
"But that's just Paul!" the dissenting voice cries. And indeed it is. Paul and Jesus are two different people. They are not, however, speaking on the authority of two different spirits. Jesus' view on homosexuality comes from both His divinity (i.e. He is God) and from His submission to the Father. Likewise, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit, just as He promised, to guide His Apostles "into all truth" (John 16:13). Given that Paul, a legitimate Apostle sent out by Jesus, and of course in cooperation with the other Apostles, tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:15-17), suffice to say that Paul's words in Scripture are exactly as authoritative as if Jesus had written them with His own pen.
Which, by the way, you will never see. The words of Jesus we have today were not written by Jesus, but by the same Apostles we apparently can't trust because they're not Jesus. Do you see the paradox? You say you trust Jesus, but not His Apostles, yet if you don't trust His Apostles, you can't know His words, so you can't trust Jesus, so you have to trust His Apostles.
So we see that although Jesus never explicitly, with His human mouth, addressed the issue of homosexuality, this is due entirely to His primary audience. It's not because He doesn't care about the issue, and it certainly isn't because He approves of homosexuality. Rather, Jesus chose to express His opposition to homosexuality through the Scriptures, written by His prophets, and His Apostles, who certainly were not silent on the issue.
The Bible, i.e. the word of the Living God, is very clear: Homosexuality, however much it is cherished by our culture, however deeply it is enshrined into a gay person's personal identity, is a sin, offensive to the God who designed sex to be enjoyed only by a male husband, and his female wife, within the privacy of their own marriage bed. Jesus absolutely loves gay people, so much so that He went to the cross and died for their sins, including homosexuality. As we read in 1 Corinthians 13:6, love does not rejoice in iniquity, but in the truth. Because of all of this, Christians should never support homosexuality, but should lovingly preach the Gospel, including repentance, to gay people, in the hope that their souls may be spared the eternal fires of Hell.
