Romans 1: 26-27 has been one of the universally quoted scriptures that Christians reference as an authority on homosexuality. I’m going to do something that doesn’t seem to be done much anymore – I’m going to look at a scripture within it’s greater context. In doing so, I hope to share with you something in passage that you’ve probably never heard or thought of before. Something that will really surprise you and will also very likely change a lot of your thinking on not only this verse, but on your whole thinking about homosexuality. All References are NASB.
A few years ago, a friend of mine, and a leader in my youth group at the time, posted a very loving and compassionate little letter on our youth group Facebook group page about homosexuality. My very loose paraphrasing below:
In addition to expressing his true and heart felt love for anyone dealing with that lifestyle and his in-ability to understand why anyone would be cruel to homosexuals or how difficult it must be for anyone in their situation, He also confessed that they could not begin to know the pain or agony that people in that lifestyle must feel. He admitted very humbly that he did not fully understand why some people were attracted to the same sex, and probably never would. He even confessed that despite his own sincere attempt to follow Jesus as best he could, he failed miserably at times. And he was careful to re-affirm and express that his love for them did not change regardless of their persons sexual orientation.
It was a very nicely written letter that I believe had the right motivation, the right words and the best intentions. But…
He finished by saying that as a Christian, he believed what the Bible said and asked them to read the following scriptures and give it some thought. Even though the post was hard for him to write, he felt that he owed it to this LGBTQ+ friends.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Romans 1:26-27.
There were more passages that could be referenced, but he would not list them all. Finally, he said that he knew this may be painful to people or them personally, but as a true friend, he just wanted them to be aware of what the bible says and that he would gladly pray with them and would always be their friend.
Of all the similar letters or statements I’ve heard over the years, this was certainly the most loving, most well intended and nicely expressed version. The actual post, not my above overview! 😉
But sadly, I believe that in the vast majority of cases, the only thing that a LGBT+ person would hear out of the above, especially if they actually read those verses, was that they were going to hell. It was the nicest sort of notice. It was a super sensitive and oblique delivery of the truth. Sort of like being hit over the head with a cute, cartoon looking, giant fluffy inflatable hammer!
But no matter the framing or intent, the messages that a LGBT+ person hears, that they have heard over and over again, from a full range of and mostly far less eloquent or loving expression, is that they are going to hell. That is what both of those verses appear to say, right? They don’t ever get quoted to people as a “promise of blessing and goodness for the day” to anyone.
Of course, there were the expected resulting comments of those agreeing with his loving yet un-compromising expression of the truth, and there were those that adamantly disagreed, not on Biblical grounds, but on “humanitarian” grounds. And there were many more who just stayed out of the fray, confused, saddened, or deeply wounded by the whole thing.
We can’t always know the reason or reasons why any youth kid stops coming to youth group, sometimes its as simple as they just don’t like it! But for one reason or another we lost three youth kids within a couple weeks. Three LGBTQ+ kids.
My response was to do something I had never done before.
Since we had no less than three LGBTQ+ kids in our youth group at the time, and they would certainly notice his post and the biblical and leader’s position on one of the deepest and most intimate parts of their identity as a human, (and they soon did) I decided it was time to take a closer look at Romans 1 to see what it had to say. Amazingly, I had never done a more detailed study of this passage before!
Romans 1 seems to be the primary New Testament passage that is quoted by anyone who wants to make sure that everyone knows that homosexuality is a sin. As Christians, we often feel compelled to quote it “for” or more accurately “at” LGBTQ+ people, usually because we want to make sure they know how much we love them, by telling them how horrible their sin is. While that may sound counterproductive, I can assure you it is far worse than just being counterproductive. In nearly all cases, it is destructive both relation-ally and to the very soul of the people we portend to care so much about.
How can this be you ask? How can telling anyone about their sin do anything but give them the opportunity to change their path so they can gain freedom be cause anything but gratefulness in their heart? That is a separate discussion I’ll post another time – I’ll call it something like “Are you Satan?” (Sometimes we bring truth in the form of condemnation and judgment…which sounds an awful lot like that other guy!)
For now, let’s just tackle one thing at a time. We’ll just try to take on something simple like… pretty much the entirety of the modern Christian doctrine and teaching on homosexuality and see if there isn’t something new, or rather old, that the church has been missing for a very long time.
Oh, in case you are afraid that I will attempt to change the meaning of the Word of God to somehow make the case that homosexuality is not a sin, to deny God’s very words, don’t worry, I’m after much bigger game. I’m looking to change your heart.
A word of caution. This is not a short little post that will answer every question you’ve ever had about this topic. It is detailed, and it will be most helpful to you if you engage your thinking along with it. It will probably challenge your thinking on this issue, but I can promise you that you’ll come away with something you have never seen before or thought might be found in this passage. It might even change you. But I also promise that the conclusion will be so obvious, powerful and life giving that you will be very glad you invested that time.
This is Part 1 of a two part post. The really good stuff comes from combining the two with the climax of the study that will show up in Part 2. So, be sure to read both parts. Trust me, it will hurt more if you do — in a good way! 😉
A Little Context for Romans 1
One thing I have learned in many years of studying the Bible, is that nothing helps illuminate the meaning of any single passage as much as the surrounding passages and their context. So rather than just jump right to the prize, the verse that is the vortex of so much “love,” “hate,” “division,” and “anger” — I did what I always do when I want to learn what the Bible is saying to me, rather than tell the Bible what it is going to say to me — I read the whole chapter around the verse I’m looking at. Then I read it again, trying to take note of the structure of the writing, the progression of ideas and thoughts and how they are tied together. Yes, it’s important to gather some historical and cultural context about what was going on at the time of writing. It’s important to get some understanding of the various Greek or Hebrew vocabulary in a passage, but it’s vital to begin to see the structure of the passage. How is it formed, where is it going, and how does it get there.
The structure of any writing is not just a side note or a flourish of the message, it is the foundation and skeletal system that holds it together and brings focus and clarity to its primary intent and meaning. Structure brings definition to the overall book and provides the foundational context that we must stay true to when trying to discover or understand the meaning of any passage. Structure is the flight path that a spaceship will take to get to the moon or to mars and everything within that design is informed by, defined by, or serves the primary goal in propelling the main message or ideas to their powerful conclusion. Without grasping a passages structure, you’ll often end up grasping at straws when trying to find meaning of specific passages while at the same time missing the big idea or main meaning of a passage. To learn more about literary structure in the Bible and why it matters and is so vital to unlocking the meaning of the Bible, check out my post on Getting Your Word’s Worth! – How to Study the Bible. It has a nice little overview of literary structure and how to recognize and make use of it when reading or studying the Word.
In this day of instant gratification, short sound bite stories, and “cut to the chase” simple answers, it’s so tempting to just read a verse or three and be content to take whatever hits us in the face as the whole and final meaning of that passage. But when we take the easy path, the short path, the well-traveled path that everyone has told us is the best way to get to our journey’s end, we run the risk of being oblivious to the passage’s real and full meaning. I know I’ve done that and I can assure you that many other pastors and well-intended people have too.
Being painfully motivated to take the time to actually pay attention to what God has said about homosexuality in this passage I decided to take a deeper look. Not surprisingly, I was very surprised by what I discovered. If you enjoy a good surprise, and want to discover something most people have never noticed in this passage, then to get started, please read the whole chapter below. Bold supplied by me!
Romans 1 (NIV) Greeting and introduction
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, as to his earthly life[a] was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from[c] faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,[d] that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[f]
God’s Wrath against Sinful Humanity
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Note: I put this in italics because it’s really an amazing statement that is full of all sorts of amazing things like General and Special Revelation.)
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Question: What do you think the relationship is of the above listed sins and their severity to the order they are listed in? Is it Random? Ordered? Are they ranked least to most severe? Ranked Most to least severe? Is there any logical connection that flows from one to the next?
If you are not sure, as you read it again, take a piece of paper and pencil and write down the things you see and put them in a numbered list. 1, 2, 3, etc. It doesn’t matter if you get them all or start with the very first one, (I’ll list them all later), what matters is that you force yourself to observe them and to try to decide from their order, nature, and effect, if Paul has created an un-ordered (random) list of sins where all are of equal in severity and consequence, or if they appear to be in an ordered list that progresses from worst to least, least to worst, or have some sort of logical connection that leads from one to the next. Structure. This is really important. Spend the time to read and think about this passage until you really see what is going on. You will. It’s there. But I want you to see it for yourself because it’s going to change how you are able to understand this passage.
Once you have your Ahh-Hahh! moment, write it down on your paper and circle it, and then come back and pick back up here…
What Sort of List is This?
If I didn’t already think that one of the sins listed here was worse than another, and I wasn’t paying attention to the order and context, or more likely just quoted verse…homosexuality, would probably pop out at me because it seems the most un-natural and worst thing… to me! (I’m talking about the typical Christian “me” here not my own personal view on homosexuality or any other particular sin. 😉 But, like most great discoveries in the Bible, context and order always mean something.
What did you notice?
In case it wasn’t obvious or didn’t pop out to you, let’s take a look at the chapter in outline form — this always helps us start to spot structure. Try to notice the progression. Note examples of different points along the progression. Note the movement from bad to worse along the progression. Notice that the cause of all of the below is stated at the beginning of the list vs 3 – All of the sins are the result of a disconnection from God — the root problem is not having God in our lives.
Note: Whenever we see order, structure, and apparent flow or design in the written word it’s no accident. The Bible is filled with structure and often it is the primary key to unlocking the meaning of difficult or even often mistranslated passages. The Apostle Paul was a brilliant writer who always wrote with intent and purpose. He always uses structure to reinforce and communicate his ideas. Paul was an exacting writer. If he put things in an order, it was because he knew he was doing it and he intended us to gain understanding from it.
My Simplified Outline of Verse 18-32
Below is my own “summation or compressed” outline of the main points and flow of the main section, Verse 18-32. You could create your own and it might look a little different and might be worded differently but the basic ideas would be the same because they flow from the verses themselves.
- The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Vs 18
- His nature has been made clearly known to all mankind, even to them
- They knew Him, but their thinking became futile! Hearts foolish and darkened.
- They claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.
- Because of the above things… God gave them over to:
- Example 1: Sinful desires of their hearts
- Example 2: to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25
- Example 3: They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.
Notice here that people’s sin is firstly choosing to trust their own wisdom over Gods, then from that comes further actions and sins. Next come sinful desires of the heart, then sexual impurity (not homosexuality) just regular old sexual impurity, fornication, adultery. Not knowing God, they have no reason not to engage in these things because they are Wise in their own minds that rationalize such activity. AND lastly, the worst example listed in this section is that they served “things”, rather than their Creator! (They broke the very firstst commandment ;-).
These sins progress from Least to Greatest. Smallest to Largest, Minor to Major, Bad to Worse.
26 Since they did that… God gave them over to shameful lusts.
- Example: – their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
- Example: 27 the men abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
- Example: These men and women received (right then) in themselves the due penalty for their error. (I know that I just opened a whole can of worms. 😉
28 Furthermore (even more than the above homosexual sin), since/because they didn’t think it was worth anything to know God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Continuing on, Paul lists even more examples of even worse things!
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, +
- evil,
- greed, and
- depravity.
- They are full of envy,
- murder,
- strife,
- deceit and
- Malice.
- They are gossips,
- 30 slanderers,
- God-haters,
- insolent,
- arrogant and
- boastful;
- they invent ways of doing evil;
- they disobey their parents; 31
- they have no understanding,
- no fidelity,
- no love,
- no mercy.
- 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things
- but also approve of those who practice them.
So, from the structure of this passages, you can easily see that Paul has created a logical progression of thinking and actions (sins) and the results of those actions that produce a progressively more depraved spiritual state.
Each point of wrong thinking, and resulting action from that wrong thinking, leads to more wrong thinking and more wrong actions, which take us further and further from God’s desire for us, having a greater impact on us and on those around us!
Notice that the sins get worse in their impact on us and on those around us as we go down the list.
Which has worse impact on you? A guy who is openly and honestly gay, or a fellow Christian who lies about you or steals from you? Which is worse, a woman who loves another woman or a Christian who sees a person in need and does nothing, has no love for them at all and shows no mercy? See the problem? People place all the attention on homosexuality as being this terrible sin when they are actually committing worse sins themselves!
Note also that this passage lists 28+ sins. 2 of them are homosexual relations 26+ of them are all about sins I have to worry about!
The truth is, I wish that my friend had not posted this passage not because it pays too much attention to homosexuality, but because it pays way too much attention on ME! 😉 Just the ratio of usage alone points to homosexuality as being far from the worst of all possible sins. The fact that it’s near the top of the list, in a passage that is contextually ordered to show progression from faulty thinking and trusting our own wisdom over Gods wisdom, down through utter depravity of hearts, minds and spirits… shows that it is but one small stop along the way to of evil.
I’m guilty of many of the things on this list. I’ve gossiped, I’ve stolen, I’ve been envious, I’ve been boastful, I’ve not shown mercy to someone that I COULD HAVE taken the time to help. I have so many things in my life that I need to get taken care of before I spend any time looking at someone else’s problems.
It looks like envy, murder, deceit, malice are far worse than homosexuality! That Gossip and slandering is worse, that hating God is worse! (I’ll bet that most LGBTQ+ don’t hate God, but that they do think God hates them!).
It looks like being insolent, arrogant, and boastful are worse! Having no love or no mercy for others is…worse!
In fact, it looks like having no love or mercy for others is the worst of all – Which would make sense because you couldn’t do any of the “worster” things unless you really had no love or mercy for people in the first place! These people know what God says to do, but they instead they do all the opposite things and even encourage others to do the same…and that is worse!
So…if I am so compelled to point out the one sin that I don’t personally ever even think about committing as being one of the worst sins, can you see how that might be considered disingenuous at a basic level? Especially since I probably often deal with many of the other 8 verses of sins listed (26 of them!), and all too often visibly fail to avoid them?
Rom 2:14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
Remember, the people in this passage, including homosexuals, are those whom Paul’s describes as people who “knew of God” in verse 1:21. Perhaps some knew Him in a personal way. Perhaps he is referring to their knowing Him in the same way that people have the laws of God written on their hearts (Rom 2:14-16) or have an awareness of Him from the witness of all of creation (Rom 1:19-20). In any case, we all have some awareness of God and His laws in our hearts – at least in some capacity or at some time. But at some point they began to trust in their own wisdom – and that leads them away. Trusting man’s reasoning alone, led them from one point to another to another until ultimately, they no longer even knew how to love.
It’s important to note that it’s easy for Christians, or anyone for that matter, to assume that the sin they don’t deal with is a worse sin than the sin that they do deal with. And, it’s easy to think that the sin that is connected to something they would never consider doing as worse then another person’s sin. We tend to minimize the severity of our own failings, and look to the failings of others and think, I might be bad, but I would never do that! Or I’ve failed here or their but at least I’m not like that person doing something much worse.
This tends to filter or perception of which failing are more severe and skew our opinion of which failings are worse than others, and lacking any objective order or ranking, tend to place our selves in a “better” bad position on the list of all possible failings. And in deed, there are listings of sin in the Bible that appear to be just lists, with no implied order or ranking to their severity. And these types of lists should be taken as they are delivered. Andy often they are delivered in a way that puts forth the idea that even the least of them is severe enough for us to fall under judgment and worthy of death if we were under the Law. So they are making the point of … pick one, anyone… even the smallest one… and you are guilty enough enough.
But what we have here, is an obviously ordered list that is logically connected in a progression from least to worst in both the thinking that gets us there, and in the impact or severity of those sins to me personally and to those around me. It is given purposefully by Paul and inspired by God and objectively ranks which sins do the most damage. And I seem to have made the bottom of the list!
But It’s easy to assume that since we have received the free gift of salvation and started a new life that was paid for by the blood of Jesus, we don’t really deal with sin anymore, or at least not as much and certainly not the worst sins as we define them. And when we look at the 2 verses about homosexuality in Rom 1 but ignore the greater context, we miss the fact that on the list of sins given here, each progressing and getting worse than the previous ones, and having more and worse effects on the people around us as they descend, we don’t realize that our sins are often worse and more common and more damaging to people around us than the one we have been so enamored with hating! We think, “Oh, that is horrible and we have to let them know how horrible it and they are”…and we totally miss the fact that we are way down at the bottom of the list with our own sin!
We think we have it right. And we do if we mainly care about the letter of the law. But if we mostly care about the spirit and motivation of the law, love, then they have it very wrong and we have no defense!
This passage is talking about people who have had God’s law of how you treat people, and something of His nature known to them. And this is critical to understand. They intrinsically know that hating someone, not loving someone, not showing mercy…is fundamentally worse than homosexuality. Nonbelievers know the law of God, homosexuals know the fundamental laws of God and often they try to abide by them better than a lot of Christians! And even after they have cast off what God wants for them, they fully remember and know the evil of hate and judgement when someone treats them in a way that God wrote on their heart as being wrong.
So when I as a Christian, talk of their sin, their eternal damnation, their moral failings, something inside of them instantly rises up to their defense and says, “What? You who cheated on your spouse?, You who abused your child?, You who steals and lies?, You who sees nothing in me but a place to focus your hatred for the very core of who I am?, You who are breaking the most basic and most important law – the law of love – are condemning me?
And that thing that rises up from within them is not without merit, for it is the very law of God standing up to defend them and at the same time, it condemns the Christian who is so focused on bringing the sin in their lives out into the open, that they have committed the far worse sin of being without love themselves! Yes, you can quote me on this 😉
Great… While I admit that this has been rather convicting to me… I mean here I am, just trying to show homosexuals how bad and dangerous their sin is and the very passage I’m throwing in their face has got all this other junk in it that is all about MY sin. That is so like God! 😉 But at least it’s over with. Now I can relax and know that yes, I’ve got sin in my life too… but so do they, just like I wanted to let them know. All is right in the universe… 😉
So while this was definitely bad, very bad, for me to have to read and suffer through, at least it’s over now and at I can still go on making sure that I let LGBTQ+ people know, that along with me, they are terrible sinners! I can just leave off the part about how I am actually a worse sinner than they are. It’s for their own good really, I mean if I told them that I was a worse sinner than they were, why would any of them ever listen to me and get saved from their own sin? Surely it’s more important that they get saved than for them to know what a mess I’m in?
In fact, thanks to my new, deeper understanding about my own personal sin, I can better empathize with them and love them more, and be more “humble,” which will help them believe me when I constantly remind them that they are going to Hell.
What a relief! I’ll just close up my Bible now…and get back to watching sports, where men are men and women are cheerleaders! 😉 And as the pages close, my eye catches just a momentary glimpse of something odd. Something out of place. Something unexpected. I’ve closed the Bible up, but my finger is still in the pages at Romans 1. What was it that I saw? Probably nothing. After all, I’ve read the whole chapter. I’ve even studied it and listed all my little sins and compared them to gay peoples’ two huge sins, and admitted that I might need to tread more carefully in the future…but what was it that caught my eye? The game starts in just a few minutes, well, not the game, but the pre-show to the pre-show to the game, and I don’t want to miss the commercials! What to do… it can probably wait… Oh, all right I’ll just open it up again and take a quick glance.
There… nothing. It’s still all there, just as before, Romans 1…
I let my eyes scan down through the chapter… nothing new. Down through the middle, the passage listing all the sins in order or progression… yeah, I got that. The last closing verses… the last verse… period. Done. Nothing to see here!
Except my eye happens to go just a bit lower and sees Chapter 2 verse 1…
Ghad! What’s that!?
Uh-Oh! It looks like there is another problem here… there is a “connection word” in chapter 2 verse 1. It’s got that pesky word “Therefore” which makes it seem like the whole previous chapter is connected to the second chapter and that the things covered in the first are really only there to help support whatever is coming in the second chapter.
It’s almost like Paul intended his thoughts and my understanding to keep going. To keep going and building and growing to a bigger, more important final destination or conclusion. A conclusion that is not the one that I stopped at, but beyond it! In fact, it’s almost like Paul said all this stuff that makes me very uncomfortable just as the context and “reason” for whatever his main point was about to be and that I haven’t even seen the main point yet! It’s like even after that huge emotional and spiritual beat down of finding my sins near or at the bottom of the list, I still have no idea what the big idea is that he is leading up to. The big finale is coming and I didn’t even know! I was about to miss it entirely!
Fine, let’s take a quick look, now that the curious cat is out of the bag, we might as well see if whatever lays in waiting and find a way to minimize it or figure out why it wont apply to us! 😉
“Therefore” in Greek, Hebrew or English means the same thing. It means “because of all that was just considered – do this!” Or “because of that, this is obviously true!”
I hope not, but knowing Paul, I think we are in for another surprise. I should warn you, if you are still uncomfortable with what Paul has said in chapter one, you’re probably going to hate what he says next!
But assuming that you are like someone staring at a grisly car accident, that you are too horrified by the carnage of our beloved anti-LGBTQ+ theology to turn away, let’s keep going to see what else Paul has to say about all this sin stuff. I think it will be particularly interesting because when people teach or quote out of this passage they seldom go beyond their point. Many people will confuse verse 24/25 about “sexual impurity” as being homosexuality and further evidence of the uniquely evil homosexuality in verse 26/27. They just don’t notice that there are 2 verses about homosexuality and 8 more about even worse things! (with 22 worse things!) And, they are worse things that, you and I, probably deal with on a frequent if not daily basis.
I don’t’ think I’ve ever heard anyone preach about this within its context within the whole list of sins. And I’m sure I’ve never heard anyone teach about it considering the fuller context of Paul’s logical progression of thought that is now poking me in both eyes with the clear structure of his writing!
I’ve never heard anyone teaching on homosexuality bother to mention the following conclusion to the whole section that comes in chapter two! Believe me, it contains some very strong advice based on what we have already learned about all types of sin.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years studying the Bible is that the more something is ignored or “missed,” the more likely it is to be very difficult for us to grapple with and the more likely that it is very important for me to learn. Let’s take a peek!
