Anonymous asked:

Hi Matt, I love your posts, they are so encouraging and inspiring. I really liked your post on marriage equality a while back. It answered a lot of questions that I had been trying to find. However, I still don’t really understand how we can claim to love homosexuals and at the same time say that homosexuality is a sin. I understand loving someone, sins and everything included, but homosexuality seems different to me than something like pride or lust. Could you shed some light on this?

I answered:

Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate that.

The confusion you describe is a common problem for some Christians. Let’s look at the example you gave of lust. If you had a friend who regularly looked at pornography (which I bet you do) you would see that struggle as just one aspect of their life. If, however, you had a friend who was gay, you might see that as their defining characteristic. But it isn’t. Gay people are people, they are not defined by their sexuality.

Scripture is very clear that everyone has sinned. It is also clear that all sin is equal in the eyes of God. That is why, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus says that lust is the same as adultery and anger the same as murder. Yet, there are only a few sins which some Christians want to let define people. They often happen to fall in line with a socio-political agenda. Things like homosexuality and abortion. I think that is an attempt to dehumanize people in order to justify making villains of them.

What defines people is that Jesus spilt His blood for them, in full knowledge of their struggles and issues. The book of Romans says that the proof of God’s love is “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Jesus died for someone’s struggle with their sexuality just the same as He died for pride, or lust, or whatever else. 

People who have sex with someone of the same gender are sinners. So are you, and so am I, and we are all the same category of sinner. The good news is: God loves sinners, and Jesus came to die for sinners. Trying to say that one sin is worse than another is arrogant and theologically inaccurate.

Jesus loves gay people. I can say that with confidence because He loves me, and I am a sinner just the same as they are. That is the wonder of Jesus’ love.

-Matt from The Bridge

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