How Should We Respond to Gay Marriage?

Every blog post I wrote has come from personal experience or a conversation I’ve had, etc.  This one is no different.

Yesterday on facebook, I was saddened to find out that a college acquaintance of mine, one who was in youth ministry with me and a professing Christian – now ordained in a denomination, was getting married yesterday to her girlfriend.  This saddened me so much for her.  On our long scenic drive home, the Mister and I were discussing what should be our response.  Here are some thoughts:

1.  A government-sanctioned marriage between two women is not a marriage in the eyes of God.  In our country many states may be allowing same-sex marriage.  This does not make it right in God’s eyes.  God would never rejoice in something that is an abomination or sin to Him.  See Romans 1:18-25, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

2.  Sin does not please God – so how could a homosexual marriage?

3.  We all sin (yes), so we should not counsel the person (if you have a relationship with them in the first place) in a harsh, judgmental tone.  Ephesians 5:14-16.  The reason I chose this verse is because the person in my life that got married yesterday is a professing Christian.  I’m not a judger of hearts.  I am also a sinner – a great sinner.  But, this passage is written by Paul to the church at Ephesus.  He is talking about people in the church who have been diluted and mislead by all sorts of unbiblical teaching.  For any to think that gay marriage is promoted by God, or right, has clearly been mislead by the Enemy.

4.  Show compassion; this needs to be our immediate response.  We need to be like Jesus in this encounter.  When he dealt with the woman caught in adultery, he did not shame or accuse her, but allowed her to be free of the sin and the entanglement of it.  Our God does show wrath and anger toward sin, but he also shows compassion on the sinner.  (John 8)  God the Father shows much compassion on me and I’m a sinner.  I would need to show compassion to my friend and hopefully lead her back to a right relationship with God.

5.  Call to repentance.  One of my favorite Scriptures in the NT says this “…God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.”  Oh that has blessed me and lead me to have a repentant heart so often as I’ve read with tears over my sin this incredible display of God’s love toward great sinners.

6.  What about church membership.  Let me say a few things: first, any denomination that would ordain a homosexual to be a minister of the Word of God and sanction and condone homosexual marriage is no longer a church because they do not hold to the truth of the Word of God.  Second, if this couple were at the church I attend, I would (hopefully) seek to encounter them, provide them with godly counsel about their lives and why their lives demonstrate that they do not believe God or His Word.  If they couple were members and then became homosexual or started living a homosexual lifestyle – that would be cause for church discipline and counsel and a desire for them to turn from sin.

7.  As I’ve been reading in a book about the authority of the Word of God in our lives: this matter of homosexuality (whether it is right or not) is not primarily a question of preference or sexual orientation or anything else for believers.  It is a question about what we believe the Bible to be.  If we believe with the Bible that it is the very word of God and it is profitable and truthful in everything it says and is useful for our lives to instruct us in all truth – and we disagree with what the Bible says about the “rightness” of homosexuality – then obviously we have a disagreement with God.  I have a feeling that I know who is going to ultimately win that disagreement.

As we get deeper and deeper into a country that is living in prevalent sin and as we see sin creep in (or barge in) to our churches – let us pray that we will know what the Word of God says, guard our own hearts and minds, show compassion to sinners, and call them to repentance (just as the Lord has done for us).