Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)
What is love? What is hate? If you listen to many people today “love” means, “Let me do whatever I want to do without any criticism whatsoever.” If one identifies any chosen activity as “sin”, he is quickly and vehemently accused of “hate speech”. In some cases people have been placed under criminal investigation. (Case in point: Päivi Räsänen of Finland)
But is this true? Is it really “hate speech” to identify someone’s chosen activity or preferences as sin?
Before we can answer this question we must establish what is to be the standard by which we make our judgment. Is that standard whatever is the most popular opinion of the day? Is it the opinion of whoever has the most lethal power? Is that standard one’s own subjective thoughts? (What’s true for me might not be true for you, and that’s okay so long as you keep your opinions to yourself.)
For me, the only acceptible standard is God and what he tells us in his word, the Bible. The Bible has been the recognized standard for thousands of years, even if it has been misunderstood and misapplied. That many today reject the Bible matters not to me. Those who call the Bible an evil book are among those referred to in Isaiah. It is not that they are to be hated, but that they have put themselves in grave danger.
Does the Bible identify any activity as sin? What is sin?
“Sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4) (KJV – other translations “sin is lawlessness”) Sin is living without, apart from, and contrary to law. Whose law? Well, since the Bible deals primarily with our relationship to God, God’s law. It is sin to covet your neighbor’s spouse and property. It is sin to lie about your neighbor. It is sin to steal, to commit adultery, to murder, to dishonor parents. It is sin to despise God’s word, to use his name in vain, and to place anyone or anything other than God higher in our priorities than God.
Sin is anything that goes against God. God is the Creator of all things. He is the standard by which all things are judged. He knows how all things were designed and what is good and best for all things. That some deny that God is the Creator doesn’t change the fact. He is. As Creator he has the right and the authority to define good and evil. In fact, he is the definition: what agrees with him is good, what opposes him is evil.
Whom does the Bible identify as guilty of sin? Are some people good and others sinful? Not before the law of God. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8) What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.(Romans 3:9,10) But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. (Galatians 3:22) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.(Romans 3:23) And lest someone think he is better than someone else, the Bible also says, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)
Why? Why does God accuse and convict everyone in the world as a sinner? Is it because he hates the world? Not at all. Note that the Bible says “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) It is much like when a loving parent scolds an errant child. Real love of an erring child does not let the child continue in bad behavior as if there is no problem. Bad behavior causes problems for both the child and those around him or her. So it is with sin. Sin always causes problems. That bears repeating. Sin always causes problems.
It only makes sense. God is the source of good. If one goes against God, one goes against what is good and cuts one’s self off from what is good. When cut off from good, what is left? Only bad. No good person will argue that coveting, lying, stealing, adultery, and murder are either good or benign. Every one of these transgressions against God’s commandments brings problems, pain, hurt, and suffering to at least someone, and most often to more. Some of the bad consequences of sin are more immediate than others, some more intense, some more long lasting, but they’re all bad. That someone might not immediately experience the bad results of sin doesn’t mean that they don’t or won’t exist.
The ultimate bad result of sin is death. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 3:23) Note that this passage does not use “penalty”, but “wages”. Death is what sin earns, what it brings. This also makes perfect sense. God is the source of life just as he is the source of good. Without God there can be no life. When one sins, he or she is turning his or her back on life. What’s left is death. And death is not merely passing into oblivion, but, as the Bible teaches, an eternal death – eternal dying – an eternal consciousness of nothing but pain, sorrow, and darkness with no good whatsoever. “Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.” (Isaiah 66:24 and Mark 9:43) “Eternal fire” and “everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:41 & 46)
Lest there be any question for why God convicts all of sin, the Bible spells it out. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. (Galatians 3:22) For God has consigned all men to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all. ( Romans 11:32)
When God created the world, everything was perfect, just as God wanted it to be and as he had a right to expect it to be. When Adam and Eve sinned by going against his one command, they spoiled the prefection of the world and earned death. God would have been well within his rights and goodness to cast them aside immediately, but even though he hates sin – it repulses him greatly – he loved his creation so much that he promised a Savior instead – a way to satisfy his perfect justice against sin and still rescue the sinners. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Even though sin repulses him no end, he took our sin into himself and became the embodiment of all sin to bear the just punishment of God against sin in our place. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) God did this not for a select few, not for only “the good people”, but for all. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)
God offers salvation from sin and death to all, but he forces no one to accept it. He invites, coaxes, and urges people to receive his merciful gift through repentance – recognizing our sin and total need for a Savior together with sorrow for sin – and faith – trusting completely in what Jesus, the Son of God did for us: living a holy life to our credit and being forsaken by God in our place. Faith in Christ Jesus is urged to all, and it is the only way. “No man cometh to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6) Having offered salvation freely to all through Christ, there is no need for God to offer any other way of salvation. In fact, rejecting God’s salvation through Christ again rebels against God and keeps one under the sentence of sin. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Many Christian teachers have well said that the worst sin of all is unbelief, for it rejects the salvation of God.
But, some may say, does not the Bible contradict itself? In some places it speaks of God’s love, yes; but in others it says he hates. Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Psalm 11:5 “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” Psalm 5:5 “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” How can God love the world and yet hate some?
It’s basically the same question as: “How can God be perfectly merciful and at the same time perfectly just?” Some of that has to do with the mystery of God, who is beyond our understanding. He is the Creator, we are the created. We do not have the right to question his judgment. We aren’t in the position of giving God permission to be and do what he is and does. But the Bible shows us an answer. God is loving and merciful in Christ. His justice requires holiness for entrance into heaven. That holiness was provided by Jesus’ holy life lived to our credit. His justice demands sinners be forsaken by God. That justice was satisfied in Christ for all on the cross. But rejecting Christ rejects his payment and leaves people under only God’s justice and, yes, hatred.
So, is it hateful to identify someone’s sinful activity and thinking as sin? Not at all. It is, in fact, loving. It seeks to rescue people from sin. It seeks to turn people away from ways that are harmful, hurtful, and problem causing. Harmful for their lives on earth, harmful to their relationship with God, harmful for their eternal destiny. It seeks to get people to recognize their need for a Savior from sin so that they ask, “How can I be saved,” and so that Christians can answer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Perhaps, at the present time, the sins most commonly considered a benign personal preference are those associated with sexual activities and perceptions. Those identifying homosexuality, transgender thought and actions, and gender dysphoria as sin are condemned as being guilty of hate speech. The first question that needs to be asked is: Does God identify these as sin? If God does not, then the condemnation fits. Then those who call these actions and attitudes sinful are teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
What does God say?
Romans 1:26-28 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.”
1 Timothy 1 8-10 “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine.”
Leviticus 18:22 “[Men] shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”
Leviticus 20:13 “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act.”
Matthew 19:4-6 “Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate”
1 Corinthians 6:9,10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
One cannot read these passages and not come to the conclusion that the Bible, God’s Word, identifies homosexuality as sin. But someone might ask if the tranlsation “homosexual” in Timothy and Corinthians is a correct translation of the original. 1 Corinthians 9 uses two words: malakoi and arsenokoitai, and Timothy uses arsenokoitai. Malakoi literally means “soft to the touch”, but already in ancient times was commonly to used to refer to “effeminate” and to a catamite (a boy used by men for sexual activity – a problem rather common in ancient Greece). Arsenokoitai (note the relationship to the English coitus) translates literally as “male bed”. Other Greek writings confirm that “homosexual” is an accurate translation.
Make no mistake. Homosexuality, whether between men or between women, causes problems. Those problems might not be immediately evident to those participating in the sin, but they are there. When homosexuality first exploded in American culture in the late 20th Century, it resulted in an epidemic of AIDS and HIV, and huge costs for finding, if not a cure, a way to stop the effects. Homosexual couples raising children confuses the children and has contributed to the epidemic of gender dysphoria today. (Encouraging children to work out their own gender identity is really child abuse and will result in manifold problems in their later lives. It imposes upon children who would not worry about such things on their own the dysfunctional attitudes of the adults who are supposed to care for them. God created us male and female; and while there are birth defects that sometimes confuse the issue, those cases are extremely rare, not something to establish a norm.) Normalizing and legitimizing homosexuality and other perversions is harmful to society for it promotes sin and tempts others to participate in it, especially the young. Promoting, enabling, and encouraging any sin incites God’s wrath against whole societies, just as the sins of Sodom (which likely included homosexuality) moved God to destroy it.1
But the temporal problems caused by homosexuality are the not worst. The worst are the spiritual problems and the sinners’ relationships with God. As with any sin, those who continue in sin without repentance are doomed to hell. Love for sinners does not want that to happen. Not for thieves, for murderers, for drunkards, for those who dishonor parents and others in authority, not for homosexuals. When God identifies something as sin, be it murder, adultery, stealing, lying, coveting, idolatry, or homosexuality, and one rejects what God says about it, one is rejecting God.
Homosexuals are not beyond the grace of God. As with any sin, there is forgiveness and salvation through repentance and faith. Nor are homosexuals worse sinners than any Christian. Part of the Christian message is that we are all sinners equally. We all deserve hell. We all need God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ. And Christians, too, fall into sin – sometimes even homosexuality – and avoiding what has been a habitual sin is not easy, no matter what the sin. Sin is a problem for everyone, but unrepentantly continuing in sin is a greater problem.
What about the argument that says homosexuals were born that way; it’s part of their DNA. Well, we’re all born sinful. We inherited sin from our parents all the way back to Adam and Eve. It’s a part of our spiritual DNA, if you will; but not of our physical DNA. In some of us, selfishness rises more strongly than other sins, in some the tendancy toward pornography, in some the desire to take what belongs to others for ourselves, in some pride, and in some homosexuality. We all have some way in which our brains and reason are miswired by sin. Therefore, we all need to be corrected by God’s law, shown our sin for what it is, and be moved to repent and strive to avoid futher sinning and trust in the salvation and forgiveness offered by God through Christ.
We strive to avoid sin for two reasons: practicality and repentance. The practical mind tries to avoid sin to avoid the temporal consequences of sin for one’s self and others. It is the wicked heart that wants to continue in sin but avoid the consequences. The wicked heart doesn’t even want to be told it is sinning and will attack those pointing it out as “hateful”. The repentant heart appreciates correction. “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.” (Proverbs 9:7-9)
The repentant heart strives to avoid continuing in sin, not to avoid the eternal consequences of sin nor to gain salvation, for that has already been accomplished by Christ, but because the repentant heart has a changed attitude toward what is sinful, an attitude that aligns with God’s attitude and despises sin and wants nothing to do with it. It no longer enjoys sin or considers it benign. While still in this world we cannot avoid sinning from time to time, but we strive to keep from it, draw on the power and strength of Christ to do so, and rely on the mercy of Christ to forgive.
Will Christians who continue to identify homosexuality et al as sin continue to be persecuted and accused of “hate crimes”? No doubt, they will. Sin does not want to bow before God. But what Isaiah said remains true: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.” Pray for them, that they see their sin and repent; for if they do not, their woe will not end.
1It is not just individuals who need to be warned of sin. Whole cities and nations need warning, too. Our nation – with its current promotion of sexual perversion in the courts and in new laws, with its punishment of those who refuse to enable sin, with its continuing record of murdering infants in the womb by the thousands each year, with its corruption in government, with its social Marxism indoctrination in public schools, with its continuing rejection of God’s record of creation, with its corruption and greed in the corporate realm – has earned God’s righteous anger, is “cruisin’ for a bruisin’”, is actually asking for the kind of punishment he administered to Sodom and Gomorrah. The question is not “if” but “when” and whether it will be limited to the United States or include the whole world. I say this not because I hate my country, but because I love it and want it to continue. But if this nation does not repent and change its ways, God’s judgment will come, and the opportunity for repentance will be gone.