Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Truth About Love: "Love Is Love" VS "God Is Love"

    Okay, so I've talked on the subject of homosexuality once or twice before, but never have I directly taught against it. I mean, I taught against it, but the only time I really did an article on it was when I was talking about how we should remember that we do have to teach everyone in love, and not avoid edifying others because their sins are more shocking to us. After all, the Bible is written for the unjust as we see in 1 Timothy 1:9 which says, "understanding this that the law is not laid down for the just but for the disobedient" and it continues on down the list which includes sinners, murderers, those who despise their fathers and mothers, and of course, the homosexual.

Homosexuality is becoming more and more popular as morals slowly die off from the people who are falling away from the Bible. The farther away a country gets from the Bible, the worse off it gets. This is because the plan that God has for us is perfect, and unfortunately man thinks that his ideas are better, when in reality it's the exact opposite. People seem to also believe that disagreement means hatefulness but really that is not the case. 1 Timothy 1 talks a lot about homosexuality. But before he starts, Paul says something that I find interesting, as if it were meant for this exact time in the 21st century. In 1 Timothy 1:5 it says, "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." Before I get into this, I want to stress that I don't hate anyone. I want to stress that no one should hate, and that even though people think that Christians hate all homosexuals, that doesn't mean that we do.

"It's not that big of a deal." or, "It's not like it's hurting anyone." and, "Love is love." are sentences that I have heard all too much when hearing people speak about homosexuality. However, I want to bring your attention to Jude verse 7 which says, "just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." I know that this seems a bit harsh, and I won't go too much into it because that's what my next article is going to be on, but I want to encourage you all to  read Romans 1 because it really talks about it a lot. But as we can clearly see in this verse, it really is a big deal.

     Romans 1:27 says, "and 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 of their error." I don't want to get into this too much, again, because I don't want to get into my next article and then have nothing to write about. But as you can see in Jude verse 7, Sodom and Gomorrah were absolutely destroyed because of the sexual immorality and issues with homosexuality. These things are too often taken lightly or sometimes even encouraged by Christians more and more as time goes on. In light of this, I would like to direct your attention to Romans 1:32 which says, "Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things [speaking about gossips, slanderers, haters of God, etc. that we see in verse 30] deserve to die, they do not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them." Now, this isn't talking about homosexuality specifically, but clearly based on the context it's talking about sin. People who not only do these sins, but encourage or give approval to those who do those sins are just as much in the wrong as those who are doing the sins. It's not something to be taken lightly.

     Lastly, I will be discussing the very common phrase "Love is love", in saying that it doesn't matter who or how you love, because love is simply that: love. However, I would like to point you all to 1 John 4:16 which says "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." This passage states clearly that God is love, and if God is love then doesn't he get a say in what what love should be? God is love, and yes it's important to love everyone but also to stay in the bounds of what is natural.

Today I would like to encourage you all to not only not hate people, despite their sins, but to teach to them the truth, and to not fall into the so called "wisdom" that the world supposedly has, but to remain faithful and always search the scriptures to find your answers for everything.