Subject: how can we minister to homosexuals |
Bible Note: Dear Brother Jeff, My comment was directed at your specific statement as I quoted it. God's grace to transform the unbeliever is not in question. Scripture is quite clear about a number of specific behaviors and how they relate to how a person stands before our Holy God. "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. 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." (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV) "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21 ESV) "And he [Christ] said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.'" (Revelation 21:6-8 ESV) As I pointed out from Matthew 7, the Scripture is unequivocal that we are to be careful observers, not only of our own lives (2 Corinthians 13:5), but also the lives of others (Hebrews 12:15-16). Our deep and loving concern for the souls of men requires us to take great care about the incredible danger of impending judgment for those who habitually live in sin (1 John 2:4). Their relationship before God is not unknowable, but rather dire. In Him, Doc |