The Ones We Love

“Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT)

Does it make sense to you that when we’re struggling to love ourselves, it’s nearly impossible to love anyone else? It’s also very difficult to love someone with whom we strongly disagree. If I’m an alcoholic or a drug addict it can be very difficult for me to love someone who is trying to “change” me, get me sober, make me change my ways. Think of how that fear of change is compounded in the heart and mind of someone who is gay. If I can’t help how I am, how can I change? Why would I even want to?

I’m running a risk today as I write, because we tend to be so prone to “hear” what we want to hear and discard the rest. Please read what I’m sharing today as from the heart of God. He has laid these things on my heart, and I need to be submissive to His directives. If anything you read today isn’t verifiable in the Word of God, then I’ve obviously misunderstood what the Lord is saying to me.

The foundation of what I’m sharing today is found in our desire, even as Jesus followers, to categorize and prioritize sin. Sin is sin and all sin leads to death, separation from God. There are no “big” sins or “little” sins. Anything done to please ourselves and ignore God’s directives to the contrary, is sin and will result in an eternal separation from God if we don’t repent and seek God’s forgiveness.

As it pertains to those who have chosen a homosexual lifestyle, one of the most common reasons I’ve heard for why they are the way they are is: “I was born this way” or “God made me this way.” The reality is EVERY human being is born with a bent to sin; EVERY human being is born with an inclination to want to please themselves. What particular “brand” of sin we choose varies almost from person to person.

As I sat listening to a gay friend as he poured out his anger and grief in the loss of his beloved partner, my heart broke for him. On many levels his grief is no different than my grief if I lost my wife. But something he said caught my attention. He told me how as a small boy he had “feelings” that led him to believe he was attracted to other boys. He said that he finally stopped fighting these “feelings” and gave into them, believing he had no choice.

Sounds very reasonable, and it is, because it’s essentially the struggle with which every human deals. No, not same sex attraction, but pleasing ourselves and following the dictates of our sinful nature. In my life, my “inclinations” led me to heterosexual fantasies and lusts. For others it’s prostitution, drunkenness, greed, being abusive, cheating people, adultery, fornication, gossip, and a thousand other manifestations of sin that’s geared to pleasing me and blaming God for the outcome.

By the way, check out 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, that’s where I got most of the sins I listed above which, of course, is not an exhaustive list. But let’s follow my friends’ logic to its natural conclusion. He said he ultimately gave into his relentless feelings to engage in homosexual activities. He told me he’d been married to more than one woman, but ultimately found his satisfaction in being with a man.

Okay, what if my sin of choice is killing. I start with insects, then graduate to animals, that leads to another human being, that leads to rape, torture and any number of other manifestations of murder. Am I to believe I should tell that person it’s okay, they’re just being “themselves?” They’re just being what God created them to be? They’re just yielding to their relentless “feelings?”

Let’s pick this up in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊