Sexuality, Gender & the Bible

Do the Bible's few verses really condemn loving same-sex relationships?

The handful of texts usually cited — Sodom, Leviticus, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1 — address idolatry, exploitation, excess, or rape, not the committed, monogamous same-sex relationships we know today, a category the ancient writers never had in view.

The revisionist reading keeps running into the texts. Leviticus forbids male-male intercourse as such; Paul's word in 1 Corinthians 6:9 (arsenokoitai) is coined straight from the Greek of Leviticus 18:22; and Romans 1 grounds the prohibition not in idolatry alone but in male-and-female as the created order — what is “natural.” Tellingly, even scholars who personally favor inclusion concede the exegesis: Luke Timothy Johnson openly grants that to affirm same-sex unions is to reject Scripture's commands and appeal to another authority.

Matthew Vines, God and the Gay Christian (Convergent, 2014) — subtitle“The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships”

An affirming scholar's admission — against his own side · Luke Timothy Johnson (a pro-inclusion NT scholar, conceding the point), “Homosexuality & the Church,” Commonweal, June 15, 2007“I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good.”

Jesus never said a word about it — doesn't his silence speak?

Jesus, who centered love, never once mentioned homosexuality. The fixation is the church's, not his.

Jesus didn't name many specific sins, but when asked about marriage he went straight to creation: “Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,” and that “the two shall become one flesh.” He affirmed the Genesis pattern as the very definition of marriage and called all sexual activity outside it porneia. Silence on a word is not endorsement; his positive teaching on marriage is explicit.

What does the Bible actually define marriage as?

Marriage is a human institution that evolves; the Bible itself shows many forms, including polygamy, so “biblical marriage” is whatever a culture makes it.

From the first pages to the last, the normative pattern is consistent: a man and a woman, one flesh, a covenant. Genesis sets it, Jesus reaffirms it, and Paul calls it a living picture of Christ and the church. Scripture records polygamy and brokenness without ever commending them; the design it teaches is male-and-female covenant union.

Isn't gender a social construct — and what about transgender identity?

Sex and gender are distinct; a person's gender identity is internal and may differ from their birth sex. To love people is to affirm the identity they know to be true.

Scripture roots personhood in being made “male and female” in God's image, and treats the body as a good gift — not a costume the real self wears over. It calls for genuine compassion toward those in distress (gender dysphoria is real suffering, never a punchline) while holding that our maleness or femaleness is given, not self-authored. Truth and tenderness belong together, not one without the other.

Isn't the traditional view just bigotry — the wrong side of history?

Opposing same-sex relationships is animus dressed up as theology. History has moved on, and a loving church should move with it.

The historic Christian ethic isn't aimed at one group — it asks the same of everyone: sex belongs within male-female marriage, which means chastity for the unmarried, faithfulness for the married, and costly self-denial for many, including lifelong singleness. That is a hard teaching applied universally, not a prejudice. And “the wrong side of history” measures by the calendar, not by truth; every age is sure its own instincts are final.

So does God reject people who are gay?

This teaching tells gay people they are unloved and unwelcome. Better to leave the church than to stay and be condemned.

No. Every person bears God's image and is loved and welcomed. The call to holiness — and to find one's deepest identity in Christ above any desire — falls on every Christian alike, same-sex attracted or not. Many such believers walk this costly road with joy, not self-hatred. The church's sin has more often been a failure to love than an excess of truth; the gospel asks for both — full welcome and the full, life-giving claim of Christ.