(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see how)
Focus Question:
Did Jesus ever address homosexuality?
Intro:
Our focus question today is “Did Jesus ever address homosexuality?” And I’m going to cut to the chase: One narrative that makes the rounds is that Jesus did not, in fact, address it. And he did. And we’ll address that after we do our NT segment.
Today’s NT passage, Matthew 19, is where a response to that question begins.
New Testament segment:
Passage: Matthew 19
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 30
Words: ~634
Let’s say you’re babysitting a kid. You tell the kid to stay in the yard. You tell the kid, “You can’t go out of the yard. Not to get a ball, not to capture a butterfly, not because a friend says it’s okay. Got it?”
And then the little bugger leaves the yard.
When you catch up with him or her, the kid says, “But the dog ran away. You didn’t say I couldn’t go get the dog.”
So let me ask you…is the kid off the hook? After all, you didn’t actually say the kid couldn’t go get the dog.
And that’s what’s happening when some claim that Jesus never addressed homosexuality.
Did he address it directly? Not that we know of. But remember that John writes that there is a whole lot more he could have written about Jesus, but didn’t. We have no way of knowing. But if you stop there, that is being purposefully misleading. There are many ethical issues about which Jesus never commented. He never explicitly stated that torturing babies was off limits, right? So since he didn’t, that makes torturing babies okay, right? The reasoning doesn’t hold.
But here’s the simple logic sequence. And then I’ll close out the program today giving you more detail.
Jesus affirms the truth and authority of the OT, including the OT’s description of God’s design for the boundaries of sexuality.
Elsewhere he did not name every possibility of what is outside those boundaries…but said that everything outside those boundaries is a no-go.
When you affirm what is ok, you’re also affirming what is not ok.
Therefore, he did address homosexuality (along with a lot of other potentialities).
Old Testament segment:
Passage: Isaiah 6-9:7
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 67
Words: ~1827
Wisdom segment:
Passage:
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses:
Words: ~
The bottom line:
Remember how yesterday we laid out an attitude check? That even if there is a spiritual battle going on, we are to respond to others with grace and humility and gentleness and respect?
I can’t emphasize enough how much Jesus loves every single human. And every one of us is broken, we all will face the ultimate judge one day, and we all need a savior. If that doesn’t make us equal and humble, I don’t know what does.
When it comes to homosexuality, there are a whole bunch of other questions we obviously can’t address in this program designed mainly to read through the Bible. But today we hit a verse that prompted that particular focus question. Let’s review the keeping-it-simple line of thinking:
Jesus affirms the truth and authority of the OT, including the OT’s description of God’s design for the boundaries of sexuality and that sexual immorality is anything outside that. (Ge 2:24)
Elsewhere he did not name every possibility of what is outside those boundaries…but said that everything outside those boundaries is a no-go. (For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. Mt 15:19, CSB)
When he affirmed what is ok, he also affirming what is not ok.
Therefore, he did address homosexuality (along with a lot of other potentialities).
Hope that helps.
Love you!
Roger
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
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