How Can Homosexuality Be Wrong If It Doesn't Harm Anyone?

so Russell bode uh a lot of Christians seem to lose their footing when they're talking with a neighbor about homosexuality in trying to explain why it's wrong I mean we may not quote maybe a couple Bible verses but explaining the wrongness of it especially when the response is well it's not hurting anybody so how could it be wrong it's not harming anybody what would you guys say to that well I would say first of all you have to ask what is this for what is sexuality for and so if we believe that God designed this then it means that there's a there's a purpose to it and the complementarity of a man and woman a marriage relationship fidelity one flesh that stands behind the whole reason for the design of sexuality is not just an individual matter it's something that has to do with binding those two together in connection with future generations and with the generations that have come before so it's kind of a big-picture discussion about why do we even have sex what what's the purpose here and the other problem is what a lot of our gay and lesbian neighbors assume is that we have marriage and we're wanting to restrict this marriage and we're not wanting them to have it so we wanted to keep something to ourselves what we're saying is not we don't want you to be able to get married we're saying the same-sex marriage is impossible all right based upon what sexuality and what marriage is so it's not that we're trying to disappoint our neighbors we're saying this is this is for the good of human flourishing yeah and we love you that's the reason why not only do we say that we think there's there's some restrictions for you there's some restrictions on us in terms of what with this list yeah and they always have been yeah and I think that's an important point I think people also need to understand two things one we say it's not harming anybody it's being my bedroom well the current debate about marriage explodes that myth this is not private this is pressing upon culture as a whole and because they framed it in civil rights language and it means that this is a greatest farce ever you can go ahead and practice your religion this has nothing to do with you practicing your religion if this is a civil rights issue and if us not doing weddings for homosexuals or not hiring homosexuals becomes violating civil rights then it is not conceivable that the church will be unharmed by this so that that myth is exploded this is not private this is public the other thing is that all legal decisions are based on principles and established precedent and right now the principle is you know sort of the Beatles mentality all you need is love what that's the case if marriage is based on popular opinion and who loves each other the 50 year old man and the 12 year old boy the man and his daughter so on and so forth anybody say Oh red herring no not once the principle is established so this is not private right right it doesn't stop here yeah I think you know I think we ought to even challenge the principle that just because something doesn't harm that that takes it out of the realm of morality yeah if you cheat on your wife and she never finds out about it and you lie about it is it wrong and I think most people would say yes because lying is inherently wrong yeah and then the other thing is is realizing that a lot of times harm does not reveal itself immediately you know if you if you if you are violent towards someone that's an immediate effect but you have to look at the long-term effect of the harm and for as long as there's been human history you mentioned this Votey that the sanctuary into which families have been brought forward has been a monogamous relationship between two opposite genders where they learn to love the other and that is what the creator called marriage you know the Achilles heel right now of I think of the homosexual so-called marriage debate is just the utter lack of monogamy that's something that's not really in that and so once you start tearing down the other 'no sub marriage the sanctuary of monogamy that lifelong faithfulness into which a family arises the the harmful effect may not be demonstrably immediate yeah but i think you'll see it and i think a lot of survey start to bear that out well one of the things i think that we need to recognize is that the language is being used here is language that we have already surrendered to yeah one of the reasons why this is such a confusing thing for a lot of evangelical teenagers is because we have talking as though marriage is an individual matter between two people our wedding ceremonies couples are writing their own vows right there you know they're there they're dictating the terms and this is our big day preaches the writing out and that's not what that's not what marriage is and if there's a context yeah and so even when for a long time you've had in Christian churches couples who are newly married and the people are coming by and saying now make sure that you wait a long time before you have children so that you're able to enjoy one another right as though you can't enjoy one another raising up children together well you're already surrendering to the terms that the rest of the culture says well if that's what marriage is is celebrating a relationship between two people we have a relationship why shouldn't we do this so I think we've got to back up and reclaim in our own churches a longer bigger definition of what marriage is and start grounding that back in Ephesians 5 rather than the ways that we've commented so maybe related to this what does what role does the church have right now and speaking about this issue I mean there's some who say this discussion is lost we just need to let the world be the world and we'll just focus on the church I mean you know the fact of the matter is we're in this world although we're not of this world the fact of the matter is the church is the pillar and ground of the truth and we don't take the truth and hide it under a bushel hmm that's not the church we don't live these completely separates or bifurcated lives that we are the light of the world we are the salt that preserves and so it's just completely it's unconceivable that we would not speak to this issue I had a pastor tell me not long ago he said why don't we just say let's read allow everybody to redefine marriage on the outside and we'll just maintain Christian marriage on the inside of the church as well we tried that with the divorce culture yeah and what happens we wind up with churches that have said we're going to we're just going to allow this to take place no divorce on the outside not speak to it and then speak to it internally and that collapses in to the church it transforms the nature of the church level one number two is not loving to neighbor we have accountability to one another divorce hurts kids hurts families hurts the entire social fabric so does the expanding out of marriage to where marriage doesn't mean anything anymore I mean there's a reason why the state is involved in marriage in the first place state doesn't have anything to do with registering people as friends doesn't have anything it has an interest in male-female marriage because male-female marriage can lead to something very dangerous for the state and that is children and the state has to say who is the father of this child who's accountable for Zach's job that's the distinction there and you think also the spiritual danger I mean just the thinking of the role the church's priest in the community 1st Corinthians 6 those who practice such things cannot inherit the kingdom of God this is in many ways a gospel issue because we fail to preach year absolutely you know I think of John the Baptist I've thought about you know him in this culture you know I mean just think about the absurdity of his death and you can hear the critics today say we'll see that's what you get from Mexico messing around in politics of course here is gonna sleep with his brother's wife because they're the world we got the world Beatle yeah why are you surprised right right that just kills me when people are you surprised yeah Jesus called him the greatest prophet that had ever lived yeah you know up until his time and you think of where is the spirit of John the Baptist who are we willing to the spirit the spirit of John the Baptist enemy the spirit of John the Baptist enemies is at work within them today but where is yeah the John the Baptist in our culture let me let me say quickly hearty amen to that but thank you for addressing what I think a two core issues as it relates to responding to the culture because they say on the one hand well now you guys are concern but nobody says anything about divorce that's a flat-out lie I mean we've been talking about this for a long time and there's a long paper trail of us you know talking about this and dealing with this for a long time and the second thing is Christiane's and both you've hit on this Christians either saying well why are you surprised that's them this is us or saying well the state has no business and no place in marriage and I think you just succinctly address nobody believes that it should have children who are abandoned on the side of the road and the state has no interest if that's it that's the kind of world you want to live in right then that's the case but that's that's not the world anyone wants to live in I mean not even the Roman Empire was that bad off right uh and so we have to have the state coming in even even just at the level of adjudicating between people what Solomon had to do right who do these babies belong a woman who's abandoned yeah well what do we do that somebody's responsible when a woman's abandoned and that becomes a judicial issue there I think what people are trying to say is the state doesn't have the authority to define marriage and that's exactly right and I'll go there but they have to acknowledge what the definition is that's a good point yeah this is a discussion that needs to happen it's probably going to need to happen a lot more on local church levels as people have got to get aware of why this is wrong what it is I appreciate the wisdom and gentleman chair thank you

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Keywords: minister, preaching, biblical, church, spiritual, pastor, Christianity, teaching, reformation, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Christ, pastors, faith, gospel, coalition, God, preacher, bible, spirit, the gospel coalition, Christian, ministry, evangelical, reformed, churches

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Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 23 2014