13 – Homosexuality

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous, I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out." And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Abraham stepped forward and said, "Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there? Far be it from You to do such a thing- to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?" So the LORD replied, "If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place." Then Abraham answered, "Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord- though I am but dust and ashes- suppose the fifty righteous ones lack five. Will You destroy the whole city for the lack of five?" He replied, "If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it." Once again Abraham spoke to the LORD, "Suppose forty are found there?" He answered, "On account of the forty, I will not do it." Then Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?" He replied, "If I find thirty there, I will not do it." And Abraham said, "Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose twenty are found there?" He answered, "On account of the twenty, I will not destroy it." Finally, Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?" And He answered, "On account of the ten, I will not destroy it."

Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, and said, " My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square." But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. They called out to Lot, saying, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!" Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. "Please, my brothers," he pleaded, "don't do such a wicked thing! Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." "Get out of the way!" they replied. And they declared, "This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them." And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door. But the men inside reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.

Then the two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here- a son-in-law, your sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. "Get up," he said. "Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, "Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD's compassion for them. As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, "Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!"

Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah- from the LORD out of the heavens.

But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination. You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion.

If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

A woman must not wear men's clothing, and a man must not wear women's clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

Jesus answered, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

However, from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.

In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents."

Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling- these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day. In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.

But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death."