What does God say about the family? Is homosexual marriage wrong? What does God have to say about all of this?
Homosexual marriage is very controversial in our culture today. One just has to look to what happened at Chik-fil-a to see that. But before we get there, what does God have to say about the family?
Genesis 2:4-25 shows us God's provision for the first family. First we see God describing what the earth was like before man was created. There were certain things which were not operational yet. Certain plants had not grown. There was no rain. There was no one working the ground. I don't believe that this is a contradiction of Genesis 1 but shows that certain things were not operational yet. Notice that the passage does not say this about all plants, just certain ones. It could be that Moses was saying that the environment was different before the fall and the flood.
God made man differently than he made everything else. God took his time and worked the dust into the shape of man and then breathed life into him. God made man in his image. Man was then to name the animals. This showed his dominion over them. But, God said that something was not good for the first time in the Bible. God then put Adam to sleep and took a rib and made a woman. She was a helper who corresponded to him. Note that the role of helper does not infer her inferiority. God is called a helper elsewhere in the Bible.
Moses comments that this was the first marriage. A man would leave his family and start a new family with his wife. They would become so close that they would be one flesh. Moses ends this passage by noting that Adam and Eve were naked yet felt no shame.
What then does God say about the family? The family is the foundation of human culture and society. We can see some of this in our culture with many children being raised without a father in the the home. Sometimes they will find a father figure in a gang or some such thing. God has ordained the family as the primary learning place where children can learn the fear of the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). This is brought out in the book Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp. Roger Oscar Lopez describes his life being raised by lesbians in which he did not have a male influence and which brought him challenges as he grew up and even got married (http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/08/6065). You see, God made marriage and as such he is able to make the rules about it. Some things he says about it are that adultery is wrong (Exodus 20:14). There were rules regarding who could not have sexual relations (Leviticus 18). These would be precluded from marriage. Paul even shows that marriage is between one man and one woman (1 Corinthians 7:2). Divorce was only allowed for desertion (1 Corinthians 7:2) or sexual immorality (Matthew 19:9). Marriage is sacred in God's eyes.
What then about homosexual marriage? This topic is not addressed as such in the Bible. Homosexuality is condemned outright in the Bible. Romans 1:26-27 shows that even in the New Testament, God said that this is wrong. In context, Paul is showing that the Gentile culture is guilty before God because of their sin and their rejection of what they knew about God from the creation around them. Leviticus 18:22 shows that homosexuality was condemned in the Old Testament as well. 1 Corinthians 6:8-11 has Paul giving a list of who would not inherit the Kingdom of God. Homosexuals are on the list, but also note that other sins are as well. If one takes into account what Jesus has to say in the Sermon of the Mount every one of us has committed adultery in our hearts. Also, Paul addressed this church and said that some of them used to sin in this way. There is hope for every sinner. Christ's death on the cross is enough to atone for anyone's sin. God gives power to all his children to resist sin and grow in holiness. We may all still struggle with particular sins and be tempted in that direction. Any sin is enough to send someone to hell, so we must not, as Christians, make homosexuality worse than other sin. On the other hand, we must speak truth to our culture which wants to legitimize homosexual relationships as something normal and God approved.
What must we do then? When it is in our power, we must support God's definition of marriage. We can support what God says in our conversation. We can love those who disagree with us while telling them the truth.
The video of the sermon is available here.
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