Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Sexual Ethics”
Our Bible verse for today: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Ephesians 5:31 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Same-sex marriage cannot be Biblically justified.”
In Ephesians 5:31 Paul quoted and therefore affirmed the words of Moses in Genesis 2:24. These identical words also appear in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:7-8. Additionally, Malachi 2:15 and 1 Corinthians 6:16 express the exact same thought using only slightly different words. The same point made six times. Do you think God might have been trying to tell us something?
As noted yesterday, there simply is no verse or passage in the Bible which can in any way be made to imply that a marriage between two people of the same gender is ok with God. It is not. Six passages specifically state the God-ordained Biblical model of marriage as being between one man and one woman for a lifetime. Six other passages directly forbid same-sex sexual relations of any type under any circumstances.
In the book, “God and the Gay Christian? – A response to Matthew Vines”, Professor of Biblical studies at Boyce College Denny Burk contributed an essay which addressed this issue. In his essay Professor Burk wrote that Biblical marriage must be reflective and symbolic of the gospel (as described by Paul in Ephesians 5:22-31.) The imagery is clearly and intentionally male/female, husband/wife. But there is no way same-sex marriage can be made to fit that model. Burk also notes that:
“Jesus defines the marriage covenant in Matthew 19 as a monogamous heterosexual union.”
Since there clearly is no Biblical sanction for a marriage between two people of the same gender, and since the Bible is the foundation and guide for all of Christian thought, belief, and practice, it becomes unthinkable for a Bible-believing Christian to endorse or promote gay marriage. To do so would be to disregard the clear teaching of Scripture.
Therefore, since we now know there is no Biblical justification for same-sex marriage we realize that if there is any rationale for it at all, that rationale would have to be cultural. Are there good cultural reasons to endorse, encourage, promote, and even legalize gay marriage? We will discuss the cultural dimensions of it tomorrow.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 