HOMOSEXUALITY: Romans 1:18-32
LIBERTY AND LOVE #93
If we want to study the Bible responsibly, then we have to begin by accepting the fact that it is possible that we have been taught wrong or have read the Bible wrong in the past because of circumstances or cultural influences or just general ignorance. We are all ignorant about certain things at different times in our lives. There was a time when people read the Bible and thought that it justified slavery because they wanted it to justify slavery. But we know they read it incorrectly. So no matter what the subject is—and especially is this true when it comes to controversial subjects—we simply must approach the Bible with an attitude that says “I will accept whatever the Bible teaches and go where the evidence leads.”
When it comes to studying what the Bible says about homosexuality specifically, there are other things we must keep in mind. One is the controversy over Paul’s writings. I dare say that no one in the Bible has been misread and misrepresented more than the Apostle Paul. He wrote the majority of the New Testament, and most of the false doctrines of men, when it comes to how they treat other people, come from statements that he made.
And yet we know that he was Christ’s chosen vessel who understood that the two greatest commands are to love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, in order to use his writings to condemn others and justify hate or prejudice, his words have to be misused.
Who could possibly deny that the words of Paul have been misused to justify oppression and bigotry against just about every group known to man? Jews, women, divorced people, and homosexuals have received some of the worst treatment. Paul has also been used to justify slavery, male superiority over women, and a lot of other abominable things.
So let’s start by agreeing that Paul is hard to interpret. We don’t have to decide that for ourselves. Peter said it. “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:15-16, NIV).
Anyone who has read Paul’s letters knows how true that is. But not only are Paul’s words hard to understand at times, they can be equally hard to translate. We won’t focus on that right now, but it would be very easy to establish that the words we throw around about gay people are not the words that Paul used.
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul is dealing with how Gentiles need salvation. The Roman believers were Gentiles. He talks about the Jews in Chapter 2 and says they are just as much in need of salvation. Then in Chapter 3, he says everybody needs it equally. But in Chapter 1, he’s talking about Gentiles. Specifically Roman Gentiles.
Why do Gentiles need to be saved? The Law of Moses was not given to them. Well, that’s what the part about them being without excuse in verse 20, because God has shown himself to them, is all about. They ignored what they knew about God and worshipped idols. So God gave them over to the lust of their hearts and one thing that happened is they became inflamed with lust for members of the same sex.
Paul cannot be dealing with sexual orientation in this passage because he continues to talk about lustful deeds, exchanging the natural use, etc. A person who is gay does not “exchange” what is “natural” to him by being with someone of the same sex. A gay person cannot “abandon” heterosexual activity, because they are not attracted to people of the opposite gender. Only heterosexual men could “abandon” the “natural” use of a woman by having sex with a man. Only a heterosexual woman could be said to “abandon” the “natural” use of a man.
What Paul is describing is “unnatural” and lustful and therefore cannot possibly be talking about committed, loving relationships of any kind between consenting adults. Lust is the counterfeit of love.
So I believe he is clearly talking about heterosexual men and women who, because of an excessive lust and desire for pleasure, turned to homosexual acts—and lawless heterosexuals do this often (think of “experimenting”).
It is a biblical fact that anytime you engage in sexual activity from a selfish standpoint to fulfill your own lusts, then you are doing something that is unnatural. And most ALL of us have done so at some point. But for a homosexual man or lesbian woman to be with someone of the same sex, that would be “natural” for them.
The people who committed the acts described in Romans 1, according to verse 32, are worthy of death. A gay man or lesbian woman who isn’t hurting anyone—it’s impossible to believe that is who Paul is talking about. It just does not make any logical sense. These are bad, bad people that Paul is describing in Romans chapter 1. I doubt you really believe, deep down, that this passage refers to people who are of a different sexual orientation than you based on that fact alone.
Lustful self-seeking and hurting others is always wrong. But relationships of love and honor between consenting adults, are they ever wrong? If same-sex, long-term relationships in a committed and loving environment are wrong, Romans Chapter 1 doesn’t teach it. And even if I am wrong, and this is talking about homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, the context is still clearly about hurting others and using them for sexual pleasure. Not all homosexual people do that anymore than all heterosexual people do.
Dewayne Dunaway
