Subject: God love the senner but hate the sin |
Bible Note: You asked me to analyze your post. As you may or may not have noticed by my profile, I’m just a common man. I have no formal training in Biblical matters outside of what I have received in my church and on my own. If you are expecting a deep theological response, I’m sorry, I can’t give one, but I will give you my simple answers. I don’t know if you have ever read the book ‘How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth’ by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, but it has two quotes that I like: “A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers.” “Whenever we share comparable particulars (i.e., similar specific life situations) with the first-century hearers, God’s Word to us is the same as His Word to them.” The first issue I will raise is your interpretation of 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 1CO 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 1CO 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Your statement: “So do not think that your son is automatically excluded from "heaven" because he is currently choosing another way to express his sexuality. That is not what Scripture means when it says that homosexuals cannot inherit the kingdom of God” There are two things to look at, your definition of ‘kingdom of God’ and your definition of ‘sin’ (hamartia). The word for ‘kingdom’ in the New Testament is ‘basileia’. According to Expository Dictionary of Bible Words “Two particularly significant phrases containing the term basileia are “kingdom of heaven” and “kingdom of God”. These phrases are functionally synonymous and both refer to the dominion of God on earth and incorporate the heavenly realm as well.” According to Expository Dictionary of Bible Words ‘sin’ is “failing to meet God’s revealed moral, ethical, and ritual standards. The Strongest NASB Exhaustive Concordance, ‘sin’ is failure. The definition you give is hamartano which is to miss the mark, do wrong (NASB Concordance). Expository Dictionary of Bible Words defines hamartano as “senses of missing the mark that God has established as a standard for His people.” Based on the definitions that I read, ‘kingdom of God’ does very much involve heaven. This being true, homosexuals will not be in heaven because they are not measuring up to God’s standard. Do we just give up then on homosexuals? No. Yet we have to understand God is Sovereign and we can’t change the ‘rules’ just because we don’t agree. God being sovereign is a difficult concept and one that is not easy for me to explain. I know that all my Pentecostal friends (yes I’m Pentecostal, born and raised Assembly of God) we push the ‘free will’ issue. Yet, from my limited scripture study, truly we don’t have a ‘free will’. (I can see the rocks being picked up now.) How to explain this without writing a book…..the best short answer I can give you, is we are born sinners. We want to follow the sinful nature. We have no desire to come to light, but to stay in the darkness. The desire to come to the light comes from the Holy Spirit working in our life. Without the Holy Spirit working in our life, we would never seek out the light. (This is the best short answer I can think of right now.) Your statement: “Therefore, we must stop labeling people as "sinners." And we must stop condemning people because they fall short in some particular area where we happen to be strong. I don't struggle with homosexual tendencies... but there are plenty of other things I do struggle with. And until I have mastered all my struggles and can hit every target without fail, then I have no place to criticize or condemn anyone.” You are both right and wrong in the above statement. Let’s deal with the right first. We should not be condemning people. You are correct we should be loving people. Yet we have to be careful not to love their sin. There is nothing wrong with calling sin, sin. Does it offend people when you point out their sin? YES! Just walking up to a person on the street and saying you are sinner, might just get you punched in the nose. Dealing with an individual has to be Spirit led. As stated earlier, the ‘sinner’ isn’t going to want to just walk right into the light. We have to make sure that we let the Holy Spirit do its job and we do ours. Yes that involves loving the sinner just as Christ did, but it also involves making sure we don’t compromise because (how to phrase this)……we are so caught up in the ‘love thing’. (Hope this is making sense.) (read second post, ran out of room) |