The Sin of Homosexuality
by
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Forbidden Practices enumerated (vv. 6-23)
Now that we know where the idea of prohibiting homosexuality and other forbidden sexual practices came from, let’s look at the forbidden sexual practices that He named. Verses 6-23 list all of the immoral acts that God did not want Israel to practice. Verse 6 says, “None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness (to engage in sexual activity); I am the LORD”. “None of you”, not the leaders, not the adults, not the teens, not the singles; it is totally unacceptable for relatives to engage in sexual activities—married or not. God follows this statement up with, “I am the LORD”. In other words, God was reminding Israel that I am your creator, I made you, and I know what’s best for you. The same is true with us today. He is our creator; He made us, and he knows what’s best for us.
Verse 7 begins a series of prohibitions which make this author cringe to think of such practices: “The nakedness of thy father, or thy mother. God said, “she is thy mother” Nor the nakedness of thy father’s wife (stepmother) (v. 8); nor the nakedness of thy sister or step-sister (v.9). The list goes on and on. It includes pedophilia (v. 10); your aunt (v. 12, 13) your uncle (v. 14) a daughter-in-law (v. 15) a sister-in-law (v.16) a mother and daughter (v. 17), and other forbidden acts. Verse 22 is the verse from which the title of this book derived: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination”. Abomination is a sin that is an abhorrent to God ( Lev. 20: 23). This means that it is a repulsive sin for two men to engage in the sex act with one another. This prohibition applies to women as well. We will show the reference to women in another chapter. Not only were those Egyptians and Canaanites people promiscuous with relatives and others, but they had stooped to beastiality. God tells Israel, “Neither shall thy lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman—bond or free—stand before a beast to lie down thereto; it is confusion” [for the beast] (Lev. 18: 23). It appears once these people started down the path of sexual exploration, they kept sinking deeper and deeper into places more dark than the previous. Sex is like any pleasure which is a brain teaser, it is potentially addictive.
God continued His message of sexual purity, so that He could ensure the sacredness of marriage and family: “Defile not yourselves in any of these things: for in all of these things, the nations are defiled which I cast out before you”. The Canaanite people and Egyptians were trade partners, and association had brought on assimilation. Egypt was the highest culture of
that day. Israel had grown up in Egypt, and now they were going to enter the Canaanite land, so God stated emphatically, “Defiled not yourselves in any of these things” (Lev. 18: 24).
Just because a country is economically prosperous, does not mean that it is moral; just because the rich and famous are doing it does not mean that it is right in the sight of God; just because a practice is socially acceptable does not mean that it is theologically acceptable. These practices were popular in Egypt and Canaan, but they were not theologically popular. In fact, they were morally repulsive to God. These and other sins of the Canaanite people were the very reason God was moving them out of the land and giving the land to Israel: “for in all of these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you” (Lev. 18: 24, 28).
A defiled people have a defiled land: “And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity (wickedness) thereof upon it (the land), and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants” (Lev. 18: 25, 27). The land is seen to be sick as with an upset stomach, and it vomiteth up the tainted food which caused it to be ill. In this case it was the wickedness of the people who inhabited it which caused the sickness.
Verse 26 is a repeat of what God expected from Israel: “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation nor any strangers that sojourneth among you”.
“For whosoever commit any of these abominations. Even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among his people. Those souls shall be destroyed (v. 29). Verse 30 is a repeat of the same principle, but it ends with, “For I am the LORD your God”. In other words, because I said so!
It should be clear from this chapter that the mind of God is that the practice of homosexuality is a sin. It is forbidden! For one to claim that they are saved and still practice the gay lifestyle, or for that matter any sexual lifestyle, or for that matter any sin, that person is fooling himself. Think of this for a moment: few people would argue that sex with one’s mother or father is an acceptable practice. Even fewer would argue that sex with a child is ok. Most would agree that any of the other forbidden sexual practices listed in 18: 6-20 is not healthy for society. Now if God got the prohibition of all of these other practices right, why would you believe that He got the practice of homosexuality wrong?
The answer is that He did not get it wrong. There is a reason why gay person struggles mentally with the gay lifestyle, and this book has the answer. However, there is more foundation which needs to be explained, so please read on.
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About the Book
Too often, gay people are led to believe that God made them gay and that He must therefore want them to be that way. Meanwhile, others believe that if you are gay, you cannot be saved. Brother Jeffries, who has been a pastor for more than thirty years, doesn’t seek to criticize or condemn gay people, but he does seek to inform them and the public about what the Bible does and does not say about homosexuality.
By looking to the Bible and the sinful nature that humanity took on after what happened in the garden of Eden, it’s clear that homosexuality is indeed a sin—and a dangerous one that should not be trivialized. Fortunately, the Bible, which serves as an instruction manual for how to live life, provides us with insights to understand and resist homosexuality.
The stakes are high: you can be sentenced to eternal torment, or you can seek to reap the rewards of eternal life in heaven by understanding how the Bible tells you to live your life, including what it says about the sin of homosexuality.
About the Author
Willie Jeffries earned a B. S. degree from Mississippi Industrial College and a master of public administration degree from the University of Colorado and studied theology at the Denver Seminary and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He has been a pastor for more
than thirty years and is dean of the National Missionary Baptist Fellowship of Churches. He lives with his wife, Gladys, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. This is his second book.