My View on One Sin of MANY

Disclaimer: I feel the need to put this in here because of how controversial this topic is. I do not hate people who perform homosexual acts, neither does God as some groups have claimed. I hate sins not sinners. The sins that are performed by one person are no worse than the sins performed by every other person on this planet, myself included. While your sins are no worse than mine, I believe that we should both be repenting (turning away from) of our sins and dying to sin every day so that we can have a fuller life in Jesus Christ.


I'm sorry if this post sounds hateful towards any group of people. I didn't intend for it to sound that way, and I do not hate anybody.

First off, I do not hate people who identify themselves as homosexuals or bisexuals. Quite the opposite. I have several friends and acquaintances who are attracted to the same sex. I do not approve of their homosexual acts, just as I don't approve of the behavior of my friends who lust after others of the opposite sex whom they are not married to, the behavior of my friends who steal, or the behavior of my friends who lie. And I am not being self-righteous here, for I am guilty of all of these things too. All of these are sins and they are all deserving of the same punishment.

There seems to be a lot of disagreement on this topic, as I have noticed while looking at discussions about it on the internet. Some people say that Christians believe that simply being attracted to someone of the same sex is a sin. This, of course, is ludicrous. You do not choose who you are attracted to, at least not completely. You can spend time with someone and develop deeper affections for that person, but there will still be certain characteristics that you will be more likely to respond to.

What I, and I believe most other Christians, believe (although it is often poorly communicated) on the subject is that acting on urges of lust for the same sex is a sin, much in the same way that it is not a sin for me to be attracted to a woman, but it is a sin for me to perform sex acts or even "check her out" unless we are married to each other.
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ~ Matthew 5:28

The reason that all homosexual acts are sins in this regard is because there is no God-approved same-sex marriage.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ~ Genesis 2:24


Now back to the concept of urges introduced earlier. If urges, or temptations, themselves are sins, then Jesus Himself sinned.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ~ Matthew 4:1
Therefore temptation cannot be a sin because Jesus was tempted and He was the perfect sacrifice, never having committed any sin.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:21
The temptation to sin is not a sin itself.


Now, many people will say that some people are born gay. This is not true. Some people are born much more likely to be attracted to the same sex than others, but they are not born already attracted to the same sex. This has been confirmed by studies on twins, which show that the attraction is most likely mostly genetic, but there is some amount of nurture involved in the decision. In the same way that someone is born more likely to be an alcoholic is not guaranteed to be an alcoholic (I am an example of this) or someone that is born more likely to develop schizophrenia is not guaranteed to develop schizophrenia, someone who is born more likely to develop an attraction to the same sex is not guaranteed to be attracted to the same sex.


I have also heard the argument that two people of the same sex can be in love, therefore it cannot be wrong. This itself is a ridiculous argument. If I, a 20-year-old man, were to be in love with a 10-year-old girl, who in turn loved me back, we would still say that this is wrong. Just because two people are in love, that does not mean that their love cannot still be wrong. (To make myself clear, I am not saying that a homosexual relationship is wrong in the same way as the relationship between a pedophile and a child. I am simply saying that the the argument that it is love, therefore it cannot be wrong is a ludicrous, invalid argument.)


Why would God create people who are more likely to struggle with this particular sin? For the same reason he created people who are more likely to struggle with any other particular sin: because we all have a unique role to play in God's Kingdom and we were all created uniquely to perform our individual roles. God also gave a choice, for there is no love without choice (Thus the old saying: "If you love something set it free. If it loves you, it'll come back.").  God gave us the choice to follow Him or to ignore Him. If we choose not to follow Him and instead to follow our sins, then He gives us up to our sins. After all, that is what we want.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. ~ Romans 1:24-31

God gave people up to the individual sins that that they wanted. Their hearts were turned towards these sins, so some he gave up to lying, some to murdering, some to heterosexual lust, some to homosexual lust, some to stealing, some to greed, some to laziness, and others to other sins, of which there are too many for me to mention here.


All of the people of the world have fallen short of God's glory, not just people who practice this one particular sin. And all people, including those who live in this one particular sin, can go back to God and have a relationship with Him thanks to the redemption that He gave us by dying on the cross for us. We all have a choice: an eternity with God or an eternity without Him. Take your pick.