Some thoughts on the poster on Facebook today implying that religious people who view homosexuality as sinful are haters.
This isn't the poster. For some reason when I tried to copy it on to my blog, it was blocked.
Here are some Christian thoughts on who we should love and some final comments on the poster on Facebook at the end of this post.
Luke 10:25-37 New International
Version (NIV)
The
Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert
in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to
inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in
the Law?” he replied. “How
do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind’[a]; and,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered
correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do
this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to
justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus
said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and
went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened
to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the
other side. 32 So too, a Levite,
when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a
Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he
took pity on him. 34 He went to him and
bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own
donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he
took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’
he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may
have.’
36 “Which of these
three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of
robbers?”
37 The expert in the
law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go
and do likewise.”
THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN
ADULTERY
8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he
appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him,
and he sat down to teach them. 3 The
teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
They made her stand before the group 4 and said
to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law
Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were
using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the
ground with his finger.7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened
up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to
throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he
stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this,
those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until
only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.10 Jesus
straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned
you?”
And...Paul’s teaching in his letter to the Romans...
Romans
13:8-10 New International Version (NIV)
Love
Fulfills the Law
8 Let
no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for
whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The
commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You
shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there
may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as
yourself.”[b] 10 Love
does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
This then is
the Law – to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our
neighbour as ourselves – to hate anyone is to disobey the Law of God. To love God with all our heart, soul and mind
is to spend time with him, understand him, see what kind of life he would have
us live and for a Christian we discover these things in The Word of God, the
Bible.
An example
of how The Bible says we should not live is shown in Paul’s letter to
the church in Corinth.
In Paul’s first letter to this church, amongst other things he teaches how Christians should not be living. In this long list of failings or ‘sins’, is the sin of homosexuality.
There are many folk in society today who do not accept that this particular item is a sin.
My thoughts on this are people should be free to believe that homosexuality is not a sin as are others who believe it is. Nevertheless, no matter what we believe, as Christians we are instructed to love one another as Christ has loved us.
My worry about what people believe or don’t believe is when the perceived ‘victim’ or their supporters feel they have the authority to denounce the ‘other’ as a hater.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 New International Version (NIV)
9 Or do you not know
that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom
of God. 11 And that is what
some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of
our God.
And finally, the Good News is that although we are ALL sinners, God loves us and when we turn to him in repentance, he is ready to forgive us...always ready to forgive us and give us the grace and strength to fulfill the two great commandments.
