Did Jesus Condemn Homosexuality?
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Many have claimed that Jesus never explicitly condemned homosexuality, and therefore, it must be “okay.” To begin with, this is a very poor way of thinking. If God were obliged to tell us everything that we were not permitted to do, the Bible would be a much bigger book. It would be more in line with the United States Tax Code which has within it over 70,000 pages when one includes all the legal precedents and requirements associated with it.[1] People complain about the Bible being difficult to understand as it is. If God had made the Bible a list of continuous “thou shalt nots,” with all of the contingencies and explanations, only a specialist would be able to get it. Thankfully, God has not done this. He has told us what He wants, and He expects us to do that specifically.
In Matthew 19:4-6, “And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” God wants marriage to consist of a man and a woman. What God has joined together, man is not permitted to put asunder without penalty. To say that homosexuality is permitted by God would be to do just that.
Additionally, all sexual relationships outside of marriage are classified by the Bible as fornication. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” The word fornication means any sexually act that involves copulation outside of marriage. All fornication is immoral. Homosexuality is a sexual act that involves copulation outside of marriage, so homosexuality is immoral.
Jesus made it clear that fornication was a sin. He said in Matthew 15:19-20, “For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.” Since homosexuality is fornication, it follows that homosexuality is a sin. Jesus lists it alongside of “murder, adultery, theft, and lying.”
Moreover, Jesus told the apostles, “But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you” (John 14:26). This means that what the apostles spoke and wrote were the very words of Jesus. The apostle Paul makes that very clear in Galatians 1:11-12 where he says, “For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). To summarize, Jesus authorized marriage between man and woman; everything else is fornication (Matthew 19:4-6). Second, Jesus explicitly condemned fornication in Matthew 15:19-20. Third, the apostles explicitly condemned homosexuality, and the Holy Spirit gave them Jesus’ words.
[1] https://taxfoundation.org/how-many-words-are-tax-code/