With the repeal of the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, it is clear that a sexual revolution is continuing in the United States. In some ways, it looks like the rest of the nation is catching up with the UCC. Starting in 1985, our General Synod called up UCC congregations to identify themselves as “Open and Affirming (ONA).” “To say that a setting of the UCC (a local church, campus ministry Etc.) is “Open and Affirming” means that it has publicly declared that “lesbian, gay, bisexual” (LGB) people (or those of all “sexual orientations”) are welcome in its full life and ministry.” Underlying this position is a belief that “God's affirmation of the gifts of loving relationships and sexuality are not restricted to those who are heterosexual…the ONA movement helps to counter the widespread perception that “Christians think being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is wrong/sinful.” The ONA message is that sexuality is a good gift of our Creator, as is its responsible, loving expression.”
It is the right of human institutions, including denominations and congregations to set standards for membership and leadership. These standards inevitably include some limits on what sexual behaviors are lawful. As society changes, these laws change. Human laws can only deal with behaviors that are witnessed or confessed. As a result, hidden violations go unpunished. This has left societies and churches vulnerable to the charges of hypocrisy and selective enforcement. A divorced person cannot be a church leader, but a married person who carefully conceals their adulteries can be accepted as a pillar of the congregation.
Social standards reflect the way in which a society thinks and talks about sexuality. For example, the church of earlier times could not have standards relating to “sexual orientation” because that concept and that personal identity did not exist until the 20th century. In our democratic pluralistic society, these standards reflect Biblical values, but they also reflect secular values that come from many sources. As a progressive denomination, the UCC also draws on many sources for its values including theology, philosophy, and science.
In a pluralistic society and in a denomination that values diversity, what is sexually lawful in human terms becomes a separate issue from what is sinful in the eyes of God. What is lawful for the community is decided democratically according to human judgment. What is sinful has to be decided by each Christian person according to their discernment of God's Will.
For an orthodox, Biblical Christian, this discernment must stand on the timeless Word of God, the person and teachings of Jesus our Lord and Savior. These standards tell us which behaviors are sinful—those that “miss the mark” which God has set for us. The exegesis (interpretation) of the Bible changes as the Church changes, but the Word of God never goes “out of date.”
There is no indication that our Savior viewed sexual sin as being any different from other kinds of sin. It is frequently pointed out Jesus spoke much more frequently of money than he did of sex! Jesus came to forgive sin. He also called us sinners to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. Jesus did not expect his disciples to be without sin. His emphasis was always on forgiveness. For example, in Luke 17 Jesus says we must forgive again and again.
3 So watch yourselves.“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
In Paul's letters, there is also an expectation that church members are also sinners. However, there is also an expectation that church members will repent of their sins and strive to live holy and pure lives. Paul clearly expected church members to live according to a higher moral standard than their surrounding society. As he stated in 1 Corinthians 5, those members who continue to behave sinfully were to be shunned by the rest of the congregation.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
How does the Bible define sexual sin? The Bible concerns itself with sexual behaviors, not with “orientations.” These behaviors include both thoughts and actions. It is quite clear that for our Savior only one form of sexual expression is potentially free of sin—sex within a male/female married couple. The only other acceptable form of sexual expression is no expression—celibacy. This is not a cultural convention or a social construction. The Lord teaches us that it is part of the essential nature of humanity as created by God. These teachings are made clear in the Gospels and are further developed in the Epistles. Key texts include Mark 10.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Also Matthew 19.
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” 10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” 11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Also Matthew 5.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
In this teaching, Jesus makes it clear that the New Testament limitation on acceptable sexuality does not just apply to sexual acts. It also applies to sexual feelings and thoughts. The only sexual feelings and thoughts that are not sinful are those of husband for wife and wife for husband. All other forms of sexual expression, no matter how “harmless,” “innocent,” or “natural,” are sinful and must be confessed and repented. This includes homosexuality, but also premarital sex, “serial monogamy” (divorce), and masturbation. Not surprisingly, under this impossible standard, we are all guilty.
We are all guilty whether or not we subjectively experience any feelings of guilt. Whether something is sinful has nothing to do with how it makes up feel. Many “natural” and “normal” feelings, impulses, and thoughts are sinful. Sin does not automatically lead to guilt, regret, or repentance. Before the flood, “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5)” Yet as Jesus said, “For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. (Matthew 24:38-39)” Just because a form of sexual expression is responsible, loving, functional, statistically normal, biologically natural, or culturally acceptable does not mean that it is not sinful. God defines what is sinful. Sin is sin regardless of how we experience it and “the wages of sin is death.”
Paul translates Jesus’ teaching into practical advice for the Christian life in 1 Corinthians 7 and Ephesians 5. The most famous of these statements is probably 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul advises those who cannot be celibate, as he is, to marry.
7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Those who spend time arguing over the exact historical context and meaning of specific New Testament prohibitions of homosexuality are missing the point. The famous passage of Romans 1:26-27 is about the consequences of idolatry—it leads to sexual sin. However, when Paul’s letters are considered as a whole, we see that all sexual expression outside of male/female marriage is unequivocally condemned. For example, 1 Corinthians 5:1 “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.” Paul asks the congregation to expel this man from the congregation to “hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” For Paul, exclusion from the congregation was the most severe penalty recommended for sexual sin.
The celibate and the married are potentially able to live without sexual sin. Those who do so are very holy people. People who are faithfully celibate and faithfully married are special and different from the rest of us. I can sympathize with those who feel left out of this circle of holiness. Nevertheless, there are other circles of holiness that many of us can never enter. The celibate and married are especially blessed, but so are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
In my personal experience, sanctification is a slow process. Those who are in relation with Christ and belong to him continue to sin. Over time, the power of sin is weakened but it is often a slow and difficult process, with many steps forward and back. Many of those who die in Christ have continued to sin up to the last moments of their lives. Yet they are saved by Grace.
A congregation or denomination that is truly part of the Body of Christ is part of a fundamentally counter-cultural community. The Church is subject to an authority that transcends any cultural fashion. That power is the living, creating, sustaining, ruling, triune God. That God commands us to live under the authority of his Word. When we defy that authority, we sin. When we sin, we are judged and condemned. We are also forgiven and saved through the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross. Although the visible Church has itself sinned many times, the Church must always repent and return to the authority of God. If it does not, it ceases to be part of the Church, the Body of which Christ is the head.
The restriction of human sexual expression to celibacy and marriage is a core Christian value of the New Testament. It is about as clear and unambiguous are you could ask for. It is not a social convention or a practical guideline. It is the Holy Word of the most high God. That God is a power independent of all human preferences, desires, and conveniences. He speaks and we listen. We are judged and convicted by his Word, whether we like it or not. God judges our sexuality and our sexual sin is condemned by God without regard to our social conventions and conveniences.
If we are in relationship with Christ, we will stand convicted of our sexual sins, as well as all the other sins we commit each day. If we are in relationship with Christ we will confess, repent, and be forgiven of those sins each day. If we are in relationship with Christ, we will slowly or quickly grow away from those sins each day of our lives. If we are in relationship with Christ, we will not be perfected and fully holy in this life, but fully holy in the next, where “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
The nice Gay couple is condemned, as is the nice straight couple with the “open marriage,” the caring young single man who goes home after a long day at the office to unwind with a pornographic movie, the faithful wife who enjoys an occasional session in an “adult” chat room after her snoring husband is sound asleep, and the faithful husband who daydreams about how the college girl he passes on the street will look in the shower after a workout…all are judged and condemned. And if they belong to Christ they are also saved and sanctified.
Your Friend in Christ,
Pastor Dan
Bible quotations from the New International Version, ©2010 (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by Biblica
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