Same-sex marriage

A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife (Genesis 2:24).

Homosexuality has been around for a very long time. It is mentioned in God’s laws given through Moses some thirty-five hundred years ago. In ancient Greece, men were thought of as superior to women, so naturally the love between men was superior to the lesser kind of desire a man might feel for a woman. Over the course of centuries, some civilizations have embraced gay and lesbian sexuality as normal and natural.

These past few decades, there has been a push in America to embrace homosexuality as just another way for two people to express love. There are efforts to give legal status to gay and lesbian unions, according them the same benefits traditionally attached to marriage. Same-sex couples want tax breaks and the right to adopt children. And in some places, there is already a need for laws to help sort out the mess when such couples dissolve their domestic partnerships.

God does not view gay and lesbian unions as marriage. Through the Bible, He repeatedly tells us to avoid this kind of behavior. For example, in the Old Testament God said If a man lsleeps with a man as one sleeps with a woman, both of them have done something detestable (Leviticus 20:13). In the New Testament, Paul has this to say: They exchanged the truth of God for a lie…Because of this, God let shameful lusts take hold of them. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion (Romans 1:25-28).

God has two purposes for sex. The first is stated in Genesis and reinforced later by Jesus: a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). God designed sex to be a glue that unites a man and a woman as one in marriage. The other purpose for sex is also stated in Genesis, when God told Adam and Eve: Be fruitful and increase in number (Genesis 1:22). Same-sex couples cannot honor God’s design for marriage by conceiving children.

We are all sinners; thankfully, Jesus loves every one of us, and died for all our sins. But our Lord does not want anyone participating in gay or lesbian activity; if we want to please Him, that kind of behavior needs to stop.