Day 341.
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. (Romans 1:24-27 ESV)
The Bible is clear that homosexuality is sin. It is described here as a “dishonorable passion”, as “contrary to nature”, and a “shameless act”. But more importantly we find that it is a product of “exchanging the truth about God for a lie.” When man decides to worship a god of his own imagination, God gives him over to his own choices. Rather than looking down at those who practice homosexuality in judgment, there is a call to compassion here. Paul writes of this not so that we might have reason to judge others (see the way he begins chapter 2), but so that we might see the dangers of following a path away from God. It is destructive and steals life! The solution isn’t to hurl words of condemnation but rather to speak the gospel, for it is “the power for salvation” from this dangerous path.
Lord, thank you that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Would you put the gospel on our tongues in a compassionate and winsome way and give us a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in us to speak words of salvation to those around us? Forgive us for our eagerness to judge and our hesitancy to share the gospel.
