Today's post will kick off another blog series, a continuation of a series I wrote in 2020 about sexuality and specifically Biblical sexuality (see posts here, here, here, here, and here). With "pride" month starting today, and considering the current age we are in, I felt it timely and necessary to proceed with sharing this and the next few posts on this topic. As time has gone by, it appears as if the Christian perspective on this issue has been exponentially becoming less and less popular, which heightens the necessity all the more to be pushing back and speaking Biblical truth.
Over the next few days I will be sharing not just a poignant series of posts but also stumping for people who have been so thoroughly deceived as to their identity so as to openly hate God, to repent and realize that that same God in fact loves them.
"Love the sinner, hate the sin." OK, that is actually not in the Bible, but the following passage is:
And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Jude 1:22-23, NKJV
This is our command as believers not only unto Jesus but also the Word of God which brings life. I will confess that, as you will read in Parts 2 and 3 (older sketches from a year-and-a-half ago), I have some personal faintness of heart about reaching out to the particular individual in question. I have my reasons, which I will share in those posts, but if God redirects me to change course on this, with His help I will follow. One of the reasons I will detail further in Part 4, in which I believe God gave me a revelation concerning an aspect of the origins and early stages of my friendship with my childhood best friend that I had not previously considered.
Back to the topic of pride, however. Today marks the first day of a month of not just supporting homosexuality (a sin) but also being proud of it (another sin). For today's post, I am compelled to share what the Bible has to say about pride in general:
Proverbs 11:2 - When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.Proverbs 16:5 - Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
Proverbs 29:23 - A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Galatians 6:3 - For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
The bottom line is that, as sinful as homosexuality is, pride is also a serious problem. "Pride" month is not just about sexual sin, and not just about celebrating it, but also about cursing God and His law (and His Good News while we're at it) from the heart.
Look, we all sin (even all forms of heterosexuality outside of the confines of marriage is wrong in God's eyes). This is not to pick on homosexuality; after all, God doesn't "pick on the gays." But, if it is a sin according to the Bible (which it is), it means God clearly hates it and will punish such people accordingly if they don't stop committing it. That's why "repent" is such a big word. To repent means to change one's mind and purpose; literally, to turn around. If God and sin cannot coexist in the same space, it then means that repenting from one's sin means to turn back to God Himself, and ultimately, allow Him to make such a person right with Him once again. But pride, in which a person self-justifies their behavior, prevents them from repenting, from turning around and returning to God.
I could write more, but, I'm already writing (or already have written) a lot. Part 2 will appear tomorrow.