We should offer Christ with love but not accept sin

My View

I’d really like to write about something else, but Dan Adams keeps bringing up homosexuality.
In his latest epistle (“Let’s be clear about what Bible says on homosexuality,” Aug. 12) Mr. Adams writes, “Many prominent biblical scholars have determined through study of Greek terms that mention of same-sex behaviors (in the Bible) is more about pederasty (than homosexuality as we know it today).”
What he did not write is that many other “prominent biblical scholars” come to a very different conclusion. The “many prominent biblical scholars” are hardly a unified and conclusive voice.
But for the sake of conversation, I’ll grant Mr. Adams the (unproved) point that homosexuality as we know it today is not mentioned in the Bible. Neither is nuclear war, but that hardly makes it acceptable. We would decry nuclear war on the basis of biblical principles that clearly apply.
President Bush’s invasion of Iraq is not mentioned in the Bible, but we ask penetrating questions about a pre-emptive attack based on biblical principles that apply. And we can examine homosexuality on the basis of biblical principles that apply.
What principles shall we employ with regard to homosexuality?
Mr. Adams rightly lays claim to the biblical principles of love and compassion, insisting the body of Christ must speak and act toward homosexual people in a Christlike way.
However, love and compassion do not require us to accept any and all behaviors as morally acceptable and God-honoring. Neither do love and compassion define whether homosexual behavior is a sin. For that we must investigate and apply other biblical principles.
God’s intentions for sexual behavior are expressed throughout the Bible in a unified voice, starting with the creation story. Human beings were created specifically male and female, for purposes of companionship and procreation.
Not male and male, nor female and female, but male and female.
Before political correctness came into vogue, and in Paul’s discussion of homosexuality in Romans 1, it was considered common sense to see God’s design in the complementarity of male and female anatomy.
Every fully acceptable expression of sexual behavior described in the Bible is within the bonds of marriage. Every biblical description of marriage is that of male and female, displaying an expression of God’s original intentions.
No expression of sexual behavior except sex within heterosexual marriage is described in unambiguously positive terms in the Bible. On the other hand, every biblical reference to homosexual behavior is unambiguously negative.
Having said all that, we still must remember Mr. Adams’ appeal to love and compassion. We must address the homosexual person as Christ addressed himself to sinners of all sorts:
“I do not condemn you. Now, go and sin no more.”
That is how he offered himself to others, and that’s how we ought to offer Christ to all.