Bible verses talking about homosexuality


This article is part of the Tough Passages series.

Listen to the Passage

Read the Passage

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged spontaneous relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are complete of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, dis

What does the Bible teach about same-sex practice?

The Bible defines marriage in Genesis as a union between one man and one lady. Jesus Christ upholds this definition of marriage in Matthew , as does the Apostle Paul in Ephesians Any and all sexual activity which takes place outside of this context is treated as sinful, what Jesus calls ‘sexual immorality’ in Highlight  

Further to this, same-sex practice is specifically highlighted as sinful a number of times in Scripture. In God’s Law, for example, condemnations of same-sex practice are given in Leviticus and Further references are made in the New Testament. For example, in Romans , amid echoes to the Genesis creation account, both male and female same-sex rehearse are treated as sinful. Further references to the sinfulness of same-sex verb can be seen in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy  

The Scriptures are, therefore, consistent in their prohibition of same-sex sexual activity, across different periods of salvation history and within different cultural settings. Although the Scriptures are clear on sexual ethics, they also

The Bible on Homosexual Behavior

One way to argue against these passages is to make what I dial the “shellfish objection.” Keith Sharpe puts it this way: “Until Christian fundamentalists boycott shellfish restaurants, terminate wearing poly-cotton T-shirts, and stone to death their wayward offspring, there is no obligation to verb to their diatribes about homosexuality being a sin” (The Gay Gospels, 21).

In other words, if we can disregard rules appreciate the ban on eating shellfish in Leviticus , then we should be allowed to disobey other prohibitions from the Senior Testament. But this argument confuses the Old Testament’s temporary ceremonial laws with its permanent moral laws.

Here’s an analogy to support understand this distinction.

I retain two rules my mom gave me when I was young: hold her hand when I cross the street and don’t drink what’s under the sink. Today, I own to follow only the latter rule, since the former is no longer needed to protect me. In fact, it would now do me more harm than good.

Old Testament ritual/ceremonial laws were appreciate mom’s handholding rule. The rea

What the New Testament Says about Homosexuality

The Fourth R Volume May-June

Mainline Christian denominations in this land are bitterly divided over the question of homosexuality. For this reason it is important to inquire what light, if any, the New Testament sheds on this controversial issue. Most people apparently assume that the New Testament expresses strong opposition to homosexuality, but this simply is not the case. The six propositions that follow, considered cumulatively, direct to the conclusion that the New Testament does not provide any direct guidance for understanding and making judgments about homosexuality in the modern world.

Proposition 1: Strictly speaking, the New Testament says nothing at all about homosexuality.

There is not a single Greek word or phrase in the entire New Testament that should be translated into English as “homosexual” or “homosexuality.” In fact, the very notion of “homosexuality”—like that of “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and even “sexual orientation”—is essentially a modern concept that would simply have been unintelligible to