Over the last few weeks we have been barraged by constant media attention on the same sex marriage debate because one particular political leader in our country has changed his mind about God.
In the discussion that ensued it seems that some thought he changed his views really quickly and in an uninformed way whilst others thought he spent good time coming to his changed position. Whatever the process of him changing his mind was, do we really think we can set the agenda for what God does and does not like? He might have changed his mind but did God change his own mind?
If your view of God is something that YOU determine and YOU can change over a cuppa or via a research paper, it might be time to stop and ask yourself who is really god and what sort of fluctuating god do you follow?
A Christian’s view of God is shaped by God revealing himself through his Word. So does the bible really comment on sexuality and marriage? Absolutely – in fact there is far more in the bible than what I could deal with here.
Marriage is defined as a man and woman leaving their parents and becoming one. Their new family unit is described in the Bible as like they are glued together. This perspective of marriage is affirmed in both the Old Testament (Gen 2:24) and the New Testament (Mat 19:5, Eph 5:31).
In the bible we are commanded to keep the marriage bed pure (Heb 13:4) and we are informed many times in Scripture what this means. The only proper sexual expression for those who claim to follow God is between a man and woman who are married to each other. Specifically adultery, sex before marriage, homosexuality and all other acts of sex outside of this marriage (all called Pornea in the Bible) are prohibited for those who claim to follow God. (see Mark 7:21, 1 Thess 4:3-8, 1 Cor 6:9, 7:2, Eph 5:3, 1 Tim 1:10 for a start)
So if you want to take God seriously and live a life that honours him please remember God has not changed his mind about what constitutes marriage nor about where is the proper place for sex to be enjoyed (or BTW, between who it is to be enjoyed – See Rom 1:26-27 – the term ‘natural relations’ is a word that refers to the fact that male and female sexual organs are actually designed by God to ‘fit’ together in a way).
But what about those who neither care about God or desire to honour his name? I guess their problem does not really lie in the way they express their sexuality, it lies in their broken relationship with God and like us all, we need to recognise our sin and repent of it. Remember God longs to forgive if we would only ask.
Well this is only very brief, if you want to know more what the Bible says on these topics please ask me and I can send you some stuff to read.