8 Bible Verses about Homosexuality
What the Bible says about homosexuality.
The Bible teaches that God loves all people.
God’s love for us and the grace that He has given us teach us to leave sin behind and live for Him (Titus 2:11-14). God teaches us in His word that one of those sins we must leave behind is homosexuality.
Here are eight different passages from both the Old and New Testaments that discuss homosexuality in some form and show that God certainly considers it to be sinful behavior.
Leviticus 18:22-24
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion. 'Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.
Leviticus 20:13
If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
Jude 7
as Sodom and Gomorrah [Genesis 19], and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Romans 1:26-28
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
1 Timothy 1:8-11
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
Mark 10:6-9
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast 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 not man separate.”
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
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. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Some of the Christians Paul wrote to in Corinth were former homosexuals. That was the lifestyle they used to live.
But they had been washed by the blood of Jesus and set apart for God’s service. They had purpose and meaning in life. Their guilt was gone, as the Savior had forgiven their sins.
The Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin. It also teaches that through Jesus Christ, the homosexual can be forgiven and live a new life to God - leaving their sin behind.
The gospel is God’s power to save everyone (Romans 1:16-17).
I have studied this matter on both sides. The "affirmers" bring out interesting points, but their conclusions are fundamentally wrong. They can quibble over the meaning of μαλακοὶ and ἀρσενοκοῖται in 1 Cor. 6:10 -- the latter appearing to be Paul's combining of ἄρσην and κοίτη from Lev. 20:13 in the Septuagint -- and over anything translated "homosexual". They can claim that consensual monogamous homosexuality didn't exist in Paul's time -- wrong. But they can't undo Exodus 18, although they can dismiss it. It is not Mosaic law per se, although it is found within it, but addressed to all the nations.
That said, I have been and still am involved in a limited outreach to the LGBT communities. I am connected with them in ways not of my choosing, and I do what I can with that. It is slow, difficult work, and I can only count one "success" so far, with some hope remaining for a second. I have walked in "pride" marches with them, hearing vitriol blared at us by "christians" from their megaphones, opposed mainly by apostate 'affirming' churches, and mostly ignored by the rest.
It is difficult to reach out to these communities when they are so accustomed to being accused by others that consider someone else's sin to be so much greater then their own. I am encouraged, however, by the small number of people I know that have come to love and follow Jesus anyway, despite these circumstances (I have no way of knowing how many more there are), and by the occasional pastors that speak out against the sins being committed here on _both_ sides.