Subject: Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? |
Bible Note: Hi Tim, Thanks for your notation! You are right in Romans 6 when St. Paul talks about yielding our body to reflect God. This a point that I try to live by each day. I especially like 1 Cor 6:12-20. This describes that our very bodies are his temple. Whatever we do to them in a sexual context should be moral and right. Also in 1 Cor 7:17-24, breaking it down vs 20 and 21, I interpret slave to mean "subject to this world". As subject, I believe two things play out here. The spirit and the body. The body is created by God but subject to laws of this world. The spirit however is free from all. When vs 21, where you called while a slave? I interpreted that to mean in our individual circumstances in life we each have different points. I happened to be in a gay disco when the spirit called me. I looked around, I was not happy with what I saw. I was not happy with me and who I had become. Being gay was not the issue. The lust I felt from everyone else was too much. I left. Verse 24 means God put us there for a reason in that place. That the spirit called us there, and because of this we grew in Christ. I dont know the word in each bible, but mine specifically uses the word "state". This means to me the point where God came into our lives to change our hearts. I remember my mother telling me as a child God wrote right and wrong on every heart. Based on the state I was in, the scripture, and through prayer, this is what I concluded. A single monogomous relationship in true love, is what God wants us to have. If Jesus came down and spoke to you right now, would you really take out your bible and say, I cant find that anywhere, you didnt say that here, or (now this is extreme) your wrong? I dont think you would. I believe that however we are and live our lives, the question really comes down to this, do we love completely everyone and everything. When we love we have God. The American Indians for example, some lived their life through love. Because they didnt know Jesus, doesnt mean they didnt know God. I dont believe they will be eternally damned for simplicity of not knowing Christianity. I also don't think it is a fair comparison of a monogomous gay relationship with an adulterous relationship. Also when I applied the Matthew verse, I am recalling being kicked out of my mothers church, shunned at many other churches, being spit on in school, being kicked, judged, ridiculed by fellow "christians". I pray that they see no superiority in being Christian, but knowing they found love in Christ and therefore have the burden of passing love on to others. Not through conversion, not through ministering a particular religion, but through your actions, through your words, do you (speaking generally) show others God's love and permote love? Would love to hear your take on this Tim. Thanks for your well wishes. Your friend in Christ, Florian |