Once when I mentioned to an atheist about something in the bible, they began to question everything in the bible, tell me about how their grandma treated a prostitute badly and how the bible contradicts itself in saying love your enemies but at the same time don't love gay people.
So I decided to write a short article for the sake of understanding.
First of all, I believe every person who searches for the truth will find it, and they will not be disappointed or discouraged. Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He also said that whoever finds their life in this world will lose it, but whoever loses their life for his sake will find it for eternal life. This goes for every person, not just those who consider themselves gay.
Secondly, God enables us to have control over ourselves and our feelings and instincts through repentance, the spirit of grace and the renewing of the mind. We actually find ourselves in him, we find our identity as his sons and daughters who are accepted in the beloved. Jesus said to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness because that is who we really are. 2 Peter says we have been given a divine nature through faith in his promises and Romans 2 says it is the goodness of God which leads us to repentance.
Ok, now concerning the verses in the bible about gay people, I believe Corinthians is used the most,
[1 Cor. 6:9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
In the supernatural new covenant, any hint of sexual immorality is not to be shown even in your heart, We can be a holy people through the grace and teaching of the Lord Jesus, and all this through the Love of God.
God created us to be like him in the Garden of Eden, we were created in his image. Jesus came to restore that which was lost as the last Adam (see Romans 5). We can never know who we are until we draw close to our designer. Unrighteousness and selfish ambition has blinded us to truth, demons convince us that our entire identity is wrapped around unrighteous, and self centered man, The carnal mind is meant to be renewed in the knowledge of the creator.
Jesus revealed who we were created to be from the beginning, before Adam and Eve fell. Bold and Unashamed in our nakedness. In the New Covenant, we can go back to that reality through putting to death the carnal ways and raising to life the new creation made in true righteousness and holiness. Hebrews 10 says we have been made perfect by him who is making us perfect. This is good news of great joy for all people.
The whole world is lying to us and telling us we can't have control over ourselves and we can't be motivated, which is true without God, but then as Jesus said "He whom the son sets free is free indeed" talking of truth and falsehoods. With this in mind, let us continue reading the passage to the Corinthian Church who was indulging in sexual immorality.
And that is what some of you were. 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.
Sexual Immorality
12“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”b 17But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.c
18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."
If we understand that heaven went bankrupt to buy us back from the devil, If we understand that Jesus was Gods grace personified and Jesus came to reveal the nature of the father, if we understand that Jesus cleans our conscience through forgiveness and his mercies are new each morning, then how can we not turn away from sexual immorality? you will find that it is quite amazing when you turn your thoughts away from those things which are shameful and confess them in order to be washed with a clean conscience, how freedom sets in.
Jesus died so we might become the righteousness of God.
Do we love Gay people?
The biblical answer is Yes of course, but our war is not with the person it is with the stronghold of lies that have caused them to believe that is who they are. I have heard stories about how pastors have driven out demons that cause the victim to believe they are gay. Our war is not with the gay person ever. Is it our job to keep the gay person accountable? nope. We are called to preach righteousness and the goodness of god until the body learns self discipline and walks just as Jesus walked. It is no longer us who lives, but christ in us. Our desires change. Grace is meant to teach us to set aside ungodliness. Titus 2:11 but the wicked don't learn righteousness when grace is revealed Isaiah 26:10.
If God is love then how can he hate gay people?
the question is wrong. It assumes there are people that are gay, but that is wrong, God has forgotten our sins in a sea called forgetfulness. There are only people that are righteous that have fallen from righteousness, Every person is unrighteous but those who are one in spirit with Jesus are seen as righteous, this by grace through faith, and faith is confidence is all his promises and teaching. So the heathen are the simply the unbelievers but this is not based on what is seen, rather it is based on what is in the heart, but you can tell if someone has faith by their fruit. Their divine nature.
Why is God against sexual immorality?
This is a better question. God is love and we are called to represent him and shine as lights to a lost and dying world. We are to forgive not 7 times but 70 x 7 times when our brother or sister in Christ sins against us and they repent. Jesus said "it is enough for a student to be like his teacher" because Jesus wanted us to become like him. How can we ever become love if we are only interested in our own selfish ambitions and are led by the lusts of the flesh instead of by the spirit of grace? We can't. in fact we are blinded by selfish motives that seem right. We are hindered from bearing fruit for God.
So we have to do works to be saved?
If you are asking this question, you missed the point of the cross. Jesus taught that we will know a person by their fruit, and fruit comes by faith in Jesus promises which is forgiveness of sins. He is commanding us to seek righteousness. God's love is intended to control us, and love is not self seeking or lustful. Love surrenders. therefore, Be diligent to rest from your works in order to bear natural fruit.
This entire contradiction in the carnal mind is not a contradiction at all when you understand what love is and how God is multiplying that love to the world by transforming believers. Somehow the church has created a lot of thinking that the purpose of Jesus love was meant to serve us instead of transform us into being like him, because how can someone who practices homosexuality become the love of God to this world? they can't, they are still self - conscious. Jesus wants to set such people free from guilt, shame and condemnation.
Scriptures to consider
1 Corinthians 13:
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind,forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdomof our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Philippians 3:8 Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Hebrews 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
2 Corinthians 10:2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."