What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?

by Kevin DeYoung

The Promised Land was a lens through which God’s people were supposed to look back to the Eden that was and look forward to the Eden that was to come again (Heb. 11:8–10, 13–16).

Is homosexual activity a sin that must be repented of, forsaken, and forgiven, or, given the right context and commitment, can we consider same-sex sexual intimacy a blessing worth celebrating and solemnizing? That is the question this book seeks to answer. It’s not a question that dominates the pages of the Bible. But it is a question that touches many of the important and most precious truths the Bible upholds.

Our feelings matter. Our stories matter. Our friends matter. But ultimately we must search the Scriptures to see what matters most.

As painful as it can be, we must reinterpret our experiences through the Word of God, rather than let our experiences dictate what the Bible can and cannot mean.

It’s hard not to conclude from a straightforward reading of Genesis 1–2 that the divine design for sexual intimacy is not any combination of persons, or even any type of two persons coming together, but one man becoming one flesh with one woman.

While the violence associated with homosexual behavior in Sodom certainly made the offense worse, the nature of the act itself contributed to the overwhelmingly negative assessment of the city. Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of a great many sins; we don’t have to prove that homosexual practice was the only sin to show that it was one of them.

If the underlying principle from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 is something other than “God does not approve of homosexual behavior,” then that needs to be proven from Scripture, not simply asserted based on a casual dismissal of Old Testament instruction.

The authors of the New Testament did not hesitate to turn to Leviticus, the preeminent book on holiness in their Bibles, to find instruction and exhortation for godly living. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul appeals directly to the law of Moses—Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 22:30; 27:20—to establish the sinfulness of incest (a move he makes again in 1 Corinthians 6 with respect to homosexuality). Paul found in Leviticus moral obligations still binding on the Christian. The sexual ethic of the Old Testament was not abrogated like the sacrificial system, but carried forward into the early church.

the sexual ethic in Leviticus 18 and 20 is squarely reaffirmed in the New Testament. Adultery is still a sin (Matt. 5:27–30). Incest is still a sin (1 Cor. 5:1–13).5 Even polygamy is more clearly rejected (1 Cor. 7:2; 1 Tim. 3:2). It would be strange for the prohibition against homosexual practice to be set aside when the rest of the sexual ethic is not, especially considering how the rejection of same-sex behavior is rooted in the created order.

When the Gentiles entered the church centuries later, they did not have to become Jews (1 Cor. 7:19), but in keeping with God’s moral law, they did have to leave sexual immorality behind (5:11; 6:18; 10:8).

In Paul’s mind, same-sex sexual intimacy is an especially clear illustration of the idolatrous human impulse to turn away from God’s order and design. Those who suppress the truth about God as revealed in nature suppress the truth about themselves written in nature. Homosexual practice is an example on a horizontal plane of our vertical rebellion against God.

The issue cannot be pederasty because there is no record of adult-youth sexual intimacy among women in the ancient world. Likewise, the issue cannot be master-slave relationships or other sexual abuse more generically because Paul speaks of both parties being “consumed with passion for one another” (v. 27).

(speaking of Romans 1:26-27 here)

No doubt, much of homosexual practice in the ancient world was by men who also had sex with women, but this does not mean Paul had no concept of orientation or that the category would have altered his final conclusion. Even if Paul did not use our modern vocabulary, his judgment is still the same. Homosexual behavior is a sin, not according to who practices it or by what motivation they seek it, but because that act itself, as a truth-suppressing exchange, is contrary to God’s good design.

we must face squarely the serious indictment God’s Word levies against the individuals and churches that “give approval to those who practice them” (v. 32). It is no little mistake in God’s eyes to encourage and support what harms our fellow creatures and dishonors our Creator.

There are at least eight vice lists in the New Testament (Mark 7:21–22; Rom. 1:24–31; 13:13; 1 Cor. 6:9–10; Gal. 5:19–21; Col. 3:5–9; 1 Tim. 1:9–10; Rev. 21:8), and sexual immorality is included in every one of these. In fact, in seven of the eight lists there are multiple references to sexual immorality (e.g., impurity, sensuality, orgies, men who practice homosexuality), and in most of the passages some kind of sexual immorality heads the lists. You would be hard-pressed to find a sin more frequently, more uniformly, and more seriously condemned in the New Testament than sexual sin.

To insist that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality is not really accurate. Not only did he explicitly reaffirm the creation account of marriage as the one-flesh union of a man and a woman (Matt. 19:4–6; Mark 10:6–9); he condemned the sin of porneia (Mark 7:21), a broad word encompassing every kind of sexual sin. The leading New Testament lexicon defines porneia as “unlawful sexual intercourse, prostitution, unchastity, fornication.”5 Likewise, New Testament scholar James Edwards states that porneia “can be found in Greek literature with reference to a variety of illicit sexual practices, including adultery, fornication, prostitution, and homosexuality.

there’s no reason to treat Jesus’s words (all of which were recorded by someone other than Jesus) as more authoritative than the rest of the Bible. He affirmed the abiding authority of the Old Testament (Matt. 5:17–18) and understood that his disciples would fill out the true meaning of his person and work (John 14:25–26; 16:12–15; cf. Luke 24:48–49; Acts 1:1–2).

How many verses in the Bible speak directly to the issue of homosexuality? Robert Gagnon provides the following list: Gen. 9:20–27; 19:4–11; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Judg. 19:22–25; Ezek. 16:50 (possibly 18:12 and 33:26); Rom. 1:26–27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10; and probably 2 Pet. 2:7 and Jude 7. Texts referring to homosexual cult prostitution could also be added: Deut. 23:17–18; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7; Job 36:14; and possibly Rev. 21:8; 22:15. The Bible talks about homosexuality more than we might think (Robert A. J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics [Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2001], 432).