Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Sexual Ethics”
Our Bible verse for today: “You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable.” Leviticus 18:22 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “The Old Testament clearly teaches against same-sex sexual activity.”
As we proceed over the next several days giving careful thought to what the Bible teaches regarding same-sex sexual activity it is imperative that we do so accurately, but also kindly and compassionately. Without injecting emotion or personal bias into it, we must simply allow the Bible to speak for itself. We have to be careful we do not try to make it say more than it actually does, and also not less.
Although there are numerous passages all throughout both the Old and New Testaments which teach about sexual ethics, there are really only six which speak directly to the issue of homosexuality. There are three in the Old Testament and three in the New Testament. In the Old Testament they are Genesis chapter 19 (the story of Sodom and Gomorrah); Leviticus 18:22; and Leviticus 20:13.
In recent decades some revisionist writers have attempted to assign new meaning to those three Old Testament passages, claiming that they do not really teach against monogamous committed same-sex relationships. Most notable among those is the book “God and the Gay Christian” by Matthew Vines. We will address Vine’s work in a future devotional message. For now it is enough to say that the new enlightened meaning these modern-day revisionists attempt to assign to these Old Testament passages is in direct contradiction to the universal understanding of these texts – by Jewish scholars for almost 3500 years, and by Christian scholars for almost 2000 years.
The sin of Sodom has been universally understood for thousands of years to have been homosexual activity. The same is true of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Also, no distinction was made between a spontaneous homosexual hook-up and sex within a long-term committed same-sex relationship. The clear intent of these passages was to express God’s disapproval of same-sex sexual activity.
It was necessary for Moses to write of such things not because same-sex activity was prevalent among the Jews, for the most part it was not, but because it was practiced in the cultures the Jews were surrounded by and which they were in close contact with.
In the Genesis account God established the standard for sexual relations for the human race as being between one man and one woman in marriage. In the story of Sodom we see a great deviation from that God-ordained ethic and we read of God’s judgment upon it. And Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 could not possibly be clearer – sexual relations between two people of the same sex are contrary to the expressed will of God. Tomorrow we will consider the three passages from the New Testament which speak directly to the issue of same-sex sexual activity.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 