I have often criticized homosexual behavior on the count that it is either fornication or adultery, which would condemn the behavior whether or not homosexual sex was itself labeled (which it is). However, many gays have made comments to the effect that since I do not see gay marriages as biblical, that I have no right to find fault with their promiscuous behavior. It is a weird sort of logic, I think an analogy is in order. It is much like saying, "since cocaine is illegal according to law, I must break the law to do cocaine". The desired goal is wrong, and the means to get it are wrong. In short, both are wrong. There is no such thing as a "gay marriage" in the Bible. There are over 50 uses of the word marriage and its variants in the Old and New Testaments, and not one of them speaks of a union between two men. Nearly all of them relate either to the marriage of a man to a woman, or to the marriage between Christ and the church.
Marriage was instituted by God when he said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him" (Gen. 2:18). It is important to note that God created Eve from Adam, and when Adam saw her he exclaimed, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. . " (Gen 2:23) Furthermore, "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). God's plan is clear, one man and one woman. It is foolish to think that Moses merely "forgot" or "neglected" to mention gay "marriages", or that we are free to come up with creative alternatives to God's sanctified plan of the joining of two people to one flesh.
Jesus reiterates this plan in Matthew 19:4-
When asked a question about divorce Jesus answered, "Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh'? Consequently, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."
Why does a man leave his mother and father? To join in marriage
And who shall a man marry? A *wife*
Jesus goes on to deny divorce for any reason but sexual immorality.
Upon hearing this, even his disciples were shocked at the severe limitations (in their eyes) Jesus had just put on marriage. "If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry," they replied.
Jesus is blunt, this is the ONLY way for marriage. There is no gay marriage, there is no adultery, there are no concubines, there are no divorces (accepting the one He stated). The only alternative He lists is to live the life of a eunuch. Abstinence or a marriage in which a man is joined with a woman, so that the two may become one flesh. With this realization, all the arguments about interpretation become less important, for if there is no such thing as a sanctified gay marriage, all homosexual sex is either fornication and adultery. And while I have met some gay Christians who do not believe fornication to be a sin, and at least one who does not believe adultery to be either, most Christians still think fornication and adultery are sins.
Marriage is a serious issue in the Bible, it is part of God's plan for the human race and for most of us as individuals. It is not something that we, mere men and women, should tamper, fiddle, adjust, alter, reconceive, dismiss, improvise, or change from God's plan.
Hebrews 13:4 "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulters God will judge"
Sex belongs in marriage only, a marriage in which a man is joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh. Time and time again the biblical authors quote that passage, it is timeless. Also importantly, it excludes any notion of same sex marriages in God's plan.
1 Corinthians 7:2-4
"But because of immoralities let each man have his own *wife*, and likewise also the wife have her own husband. Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to the husband."
Another aspect of the marriage debate is the other purpose of marriage, to represent Christ's love for His church.
Ephesians 5:23-32
"For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; . . . . . So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife, loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.' This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church."
Marriage is an institution (sanctified by God) that symbolizes Christ's relationship with the church. The man is as Christ, and the woman as the church. The love they have for each other and the relationship they possess typifies Christ as the head of the church. There is a formula here, Man + Wife = One Flesh. Head (Christ) + The Body (The Church) = Unity. This is why Jesus, Paul, Moses, and Peter are so adamant about marriage, it symbolizes something much larger than it appears, it symbolizes the most awesome thing ever done! Christ's death and resurrection on the cross as the love a man has for a wife, and it symbolizes the most awesome thing yet to come, Christ return to join His Church as the joining of man and wife to become one flesh.
Revelations 19:7-8
"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Additional references to Christ as bridegroom, by himself and John the Baptist.
Matthew 9:15, 25:1, 5, 6, 10. Mark 2:19. Luke 5:34. John 2:9, 3:20
There are more, and several discussing the Bride.
To use one's body in a sexually immoral was is damaging to one's self, and to the body of Christ. It is to "exchange the truth of God for a lie" (Romans1:25). It is to disregard the sanctified institution of marriage as taught by Moses, Jesus, Paul, Peter, The author of Hebrews, and John the Baptist. God created it in the way He did for a reason, and it is gross pride and arrogance on our part to think our model, or our way, or our vision of things is superior to God's!
1 Corinthians 6:15
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, 'the two shall become one flesh.' But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."
We are Christians. Christ died so that we could be free from sin, so that we could become members of His body. The Holy Spirit lives within us friends, our bodies are Its temple. Shall we trade this off? Shall we join ourselves with the wrong flesh and sacrifice our joining with Christ's Spirit? The sexually immoral man sins against his own body. The avenue for sexual expression is in a marriage, where a man and a wife 'become one flesh.'
I once asked a gay Christian how his "committed" relationship reflected Christ's relationship with the church. He said, "MINE doesn't have to!" Why not? Please back this up with scripture. Jesus, John, and Paul time and again use marriage as an illustration of Christ and the Church, and raises that as a standard of what marriage is. Paul says that it SHOULD reflect Jesus's love for His bride. Any other "type" or "alternative lifestyle choice" is a counterfeit, a deception, it is settling for a lie.
Jesus Himself stated the alternatives, marriage between a man and a woman or abstinence. There is no other alternative that is not contrary to the Bible, the revelation of God to man.
Jesus would not have set such high a standard without giving us the ability to reach it. If you do struggle with homosexual desires, and you have realized that the witness of scripture states that homosexual acts are immoral, then there is help. Feel free to write me for info.
