Theological Thursday --- Homosexuality and the Church (Part 2)

Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1)


The "judge not" verse is thrown out pretty often in our country when it comes to "politically correct" issues (in the book True for You, Not for Me...the author claims the "judge not" verse is quoted more often today than any other verse including John 3:16!). Most people stop at verse 1, and miss the fact that just a few verses later Jesus calls people "pigs", "dogs", and "wolves in sheep's clothing" (5, 16). The people who love to use Matthew 7:1 out of context, would no doubt be willing to call murder a sin, stealing a sin, abuse a sin, etc...but when it gets to the "political correctness" stuff, they hide behind their misinterpretation of God's Word.


What Jesus condemns in Matthew 7:1 is a critical and judgmental spirit, an unholy sense of superiority. Jesus commanded us to examine ourselves first for the problems we so easily see in others. Only then can we help remove the speck in another's eye – which, incidentally, assumes that a problem exists and must be confronted. It is interesting that the people who usually use the "judge not" verse out of context are many times and ironically the most judgmental and mean-spirited people.


The Bible tells us that one of its purposes is to help us teach, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (II Timothy 3:16). So it is not judging to call something a sin, that God in His Word tells us is a sin when we use it to teach, rebuke, correct, and/or train others and ourselves on living a life pleasing to Him (and who wouldn't want that???). Making a Biblical judgments on issues is a good thing (and we are instructed to do so), but making judgments for the wrong reasons is not (see the above picture of Westboro Baptist Church who use soldier's funerals to protest homosexual sin...very wrong motives behind them).


As a disclaimer (because this is such a hot-headed topic to some), I want to point out that because homosexuality is a sin (according to God's Word), and we are instructed to be bold (Romans 1:16) in calling it what God does, homosexuality makes someone a sinner. Guess what...I am a sinner too. I may not struggle with the same sin as someone else, but make no doubt about it...I struggle with my own stuff. To call homosexuality a sin in no way puts me above them...it just puts us in the same boat --- Sinners. And that gives us all the same need...the need for a Savior, Jesus Christ.

Continued next week...