Homosexuality is attraction and/or sexual behaviour between the members of the same sex. The Christian view homosexuality in current culture is highly controversial and contested. Therefore it is important for the Christian to be clear on what the Bible says on the topic.
Creation
The Bible begins with God creating the universe, including the first marriage.
The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:21-25
A key feature in the institution of marriage is the complementary nature of man and woman. They are similar (bone of my bone) but also different (man and woman), coming together in unity (one flesh). Adam and Eve are given the job to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), their complementary reproductive systems being an essential part of marriage.
Old Testament
The first mention of homosexual behaviour in the Bible occurs in Genesis 19 with the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is living in the city of Sodom when two angels arrive in the city. That evening, when the angels have accepted Lot’s hospitality, a disturbing scene occurs.
Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Genesis 19:4-5
The angels strike the men of the city with blindness, and help Lot’s family to escape before God destroys the city (Gen 19:24). Before these events, the angels tell Abraham that this will happen because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is grievous (Gen 18:20). It seems clear that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were not only homosexuality. Elsewhere the Bible describes them as arrogant and unjust (Ezekiel 16:49). However, the book of Jude is clear that their sexual behaviour was sinful.
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Jude 7
Homosexuality is mentioned twice in Leviticus as part of a wider selection of laws.
Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Leviticus 18:22
If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. Leviticus 20:13
These commands are mentioned alongside other forms of sexual immorality such as incest, adultery and bestiality. A common objection to these laws is the accusation that Christians ‘pick and choose’ which laws to obey. Why do Christians not also follow laws against eating shellfish or wearing mixed fibre garments? Firstly, this is a misunderstanding of how Christians now relate to the Old Testament laws.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5:17
Since Jesus has fulfilled the law, Christians do not approach the Old Testament laws in the same way as the ancient Israelites. Ceremonial laws regarding the temple no longer apply as God is now present in his people, the church. Ritual purity laws no longer apply as we are made pure through the blood of Jesus. Civil laws do not apply as we are not living in the nation-state of Israel. The Old Testament laws which are still binding on Christians today are those that are reiterated in the New Testament.
New Testament
Jesus does not mention homosexuality directly, but refers back to Genesis as the pattern of marriage when questioned about divorce.
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:3-6
Jesus viewed the creation account as the pattern for marriage.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:18-32
In Romans 1, Paul describes idolatry (worshipping creation rather than creator) and its results (God’s wrath revealed by ‘giving them over’ to their desires). One of the examples used by Paul is homosexuality. Here, it is described as an unnatural result of human sin – the rejection of God and looking to other things for satisfaction.
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 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 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. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul includes homosexuality in a list of sins. It is clear that homosexuality it considered to be sinful. However, the wide range of sins mentioned here corrects the misconception that homosexuality is somehow worse than other sexual sins, or other sins in general. Paul also encourages the Christians in Corinth that these sins represent their old way of life, from which they have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus. Homosexuality is not beyond God’s grace.
We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. 1 Timothy 1:8-11
The final mention of homosexuality is in a similar list of sins, this time in Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Homosexuality is not mentioned many times in the Bible, but it is always described as sinful. The Bible does not discuss any distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual acts. However, as with other sins, Scripture does not teach that temptation is sin. Acting on temptation is sinful. Christians should not treat homosexuality as if it is different to any other kind of sexual sin, while also avoiding the cultural pressure to not call it sinful at all.