What does God think about homosexuals?

Scripture is clear: He loves them and desires their salvation, just as He does with all other sinners.

In fact, it is God’s love for sinners that provided the only means for their salvation: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Likewise, God patiently restrains His judgment on sinners: “Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9). In love, He holds back His righteous wrath, while paving the only path to salvation.

That is God’s consistent message to His people: “‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways!’” (Ezekiel 33:11). Throughout Scripture, God lovingly pleads with sinners to repent before He unleashes His wrath.

Ultimately, it’s only through God’s love that anyone can be saved in the first place. Scripture is clear about the sinner’s spiritual condition:

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1–3)

The only hope for those trapped in the slavery of sin and its spiritual death is God’s love. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4–6).

For those of us who have been rescued and redeemed by God’s love—who have been transformed from spiritual death to life in Christ—it is our calling and privilege to bring the good news of the gospel to others, pleading with them to repent and believe while there is still time.

Sadly, that is not the message many churches are bringing to homosexuals today. One of the supreme tragedies of our time is the reclassification of homosexuality as normal, acceptable, and even noble behavior. Too many churches have compromised the truth of God’s Word and capitulated to the whims of the culture. They have acquiesced to the idea that a person’s deviant sexual proclivities are a genetic feature, rather than a perversion from which he needs to be rescued. There is a massive movement in the church today to normalize homosexual behavior—a relentless attempt to provide appeasement for the fierce guilt of unchecked lust and rebellion.

To that end, many churches today readily dole out the false assurance to homosexuals that God loves and accepts them just the way they are. They claim this is a tolerant, loving message, but the truth is that it’s a deceptive and destructive lie. By failing to identify and confront sin as sin, these churches are denying homosexuals—and all sinners—their only source of hope and deliverance.

If God’s people are going to be faithful to His calling and the work of His kingdom, we need to be clear and consistent on what His Word says about homosexuality.

What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?

The truth is that homosexuality is not an alternative lifestyle. It’s not simply a viable sexual orientation, a genetic predisposition, or a personal preference. In fact, it is nothing more than a perverse sexual proclivity—one of many that Scripture identifies as rebellious deviations from God’s good design.

There is a beautiful clarity and simplicity in God’s creation of mankind. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). His Word tells us that suitability and compatibility were at the heart of His creative design for human relations (2:18). And from their inception, God revealed His design for marriage and family: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (v. 24).

It’s no wonder that sexual sin explodes into the world shortly after the Fall and the expulsion from the garden. The pagan religions of the early world enfolded all kinds of perverse practices into the religious rites of their false gods. Immorality was a consistent feature of ancient idolatry.

By the time the Lord delivered His people from Egypt, sexual sin was such a prominent part of life that He included specific prohibitions against it in His law. In fact, it’s clear from God’s law that ancient satanic religions had great success when it came to blurring the distinction between males and females. Deuteronomy 22:5 says, “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.”

The first verse of chapter 23 identifies another dominating degeneracy of the day: “No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” Just as we see today, God’s creative work was under assault. In the ancient world, men would become eunuchs to serve in the temples of pagan gods, often as male prostitutes. Parents attempting to gain the favor of their preferred deity would give their sons for service in the temple, mutilating them and turning them over to a life dominated by the gross debasement and immorality that passed for worship in the ancient world.

We get a sense of just how pervasive sexual sin was in Leviticus 18. There the Lord codifies His commands against a host of immoral behaviors, forbidding His people from engaging in incest, child sacrifice, and bestiality. The Bible is clear that such practices were commonplace among the surrounding nations. “You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes” (v. 3). Listed among these wicked perversions is homosexuality: “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination” (v. 22). God is unequivocal in His condemnation. “Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants” (vv. 24–25). The chapter closes with this dire warning:

For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the Lord your God. (vv. 29–30)

In case that wasn’t clear enough to God’s people, He gave further instructions for the punishment of such sinful perversions. “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them” (Leviticus 20:13). It’s worth noting that homosexuality isn’t singled out as exclusively punishable by death—the Lord demanded the same penalty for adultery, fornication, incest, and bestiality. The message to the Israelites was unmistakable: “You shall not follow the customs of the nation which I will drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them” (v. 23). God made it clear that the immorality that dominated the ancient world was not to be tolerated among His people.

And lest someone think that such provisions applied only to God’s covenant with Israel in the Old Testament—that somehow His condemnation is now outdated and irrelevant to modern society—the Lord wove similar prohibitions into the New Testament as well. In 1 Timothy 1, the apostle Paul includes “immoral men and homosexuals” alongside murderers, kidnappers, liars, and perjurers, characterizing them all as “unholy and profane,” and “contrary to sound teaching” (vv. 9–10).

The apostle delivers an even stronger condemnation in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Scripture is clear. Homosexuality is a sin—one of many that God rebukes, condemns, and will one day judge.

Which is why it’s so tragic that so many churches today have compromised the clarity of Scripture to capitulate to this sinful, rebellious world.

Just consider the biblical illiteracy or outright defiance of encouraging a group of sinners to identify themselves by their particular sinful proclivities. We don’t single out liars, thieves, or adulterers for special recognition in the church. Why treat those with a predilection for the sin of homosexuality any different? The world wants to elevate homosexuals as a special, protected class. When the church buys into that thinking, it contradicts the biblical call to repent of that sin.

Others attempt a more nuanced compromise, hoping to carve out room for those not acting on their lustful impulses. Many in the church today want to downplay same-sex attraction or excuse it altogether. They might even adopt the worldly perspective that homosexual attraction is an immutable characteristic—essentially laying the blame at God’s feet. But that notion ignores the fact that any sinful desire for anything God has forbidden is itself sinful. In fact, it gives license to those tempted by other sexual perversions—all the way up to pedophilia and bestiality—who believe their wicked bents are likewise inherent to their makeup, and acceptable as long as they don’t act on them.

Moreover, making excuses for sinful inclinations nullifies Paul’s exhortation to “consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience” (Colossians 3:5–6). All evil in the heart must be repented of and mortified—not entertained and excused.

Such obfuscation is unbecoming of God’s people. We need to be clear and consistent with the biblical truth about homosexuality. We need to faithfully identify it as sin, while lovingly calling those caught in its grip to turn from it and believe in Christ.

And we likewise need to be clear about the dangers it presents. Next time, we will see that God’s Word is abundantly clear about the destructive nature of homosexuality.