In Genesis 1 God speaks the whole universe into creation. In John 1 those words become living, breathing, human flesh and live among us as a man named Jesus of Nazareth.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… the Word became flesh and lived among us…” (John 1).
All four gospels are filled with people worshipping Jesus “The Word” Christ. Philippians, though, tells us that Jesus had a very different view of himself.
“Though he was in the form of God, (Jesus) did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.” Colossians reminds us that in Jesus the whole fullness of God dwells, but he never used this to his advantage.
One such example of this is in John 8; Jesus refuses his God given power of judgement to condemn a woman caught in adultery.
Philippians extends this refusal of power to us saying, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility regard others better than yourselves.”
Which brings me back to the title of this post and why it is hypocritical to voice that homosexuality is a sin… because whether you believe that being gay is a sin or not; saying so is a sin itself.
In the verse from Philippians ‘vain conceit,’ is better explained as, ‘pride that produces no results.’
Again, we go to John 8 when Jesus is confronted in the city temple by a group of men dragging along the woman caught in adultery, they ask him whether or not to kill her according to Moses’ law.
We already know that Jesus doesn’t condemn her, but his full response is, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Jesus does not tell us to, “Love the sinner, and hate the sin.”
Rather, Jesus encourages us to, “Love the sinner, and hate our OWN sin.”
Jesus knows that condemnation does not produce results (it doesn’t show the love of God); which is vanity. Jesus also knows that all condemnation does is stroke our own ego; which is conceited.
Whether or not you believe being gay is a sin, saying it out loud has never caused someone to become a Christian or feel loved by you, by God, or anyone else that is connected to you or your God (read: useless). That’s vanity.
The only effect of saying that homosexuality is a sin is to convince yourself that you are somehow better than someone else or that you are mistakenly doing God’s work by calling out sins in the world… that’s conceited.
Saying things that alienate others while making ourselves feel better is the very definition of selfish ambition. It also doesn’t show an attitude of considering others better than ourselves.
If you are somebody who believes with me that Jesus is the son of God and as such carries the very fullness of God; then you either need to stop using that as an excuse for your words of pride and selfish ambition (because Jesus doesn’t agree with you) or stop speaking words of condemnation and alienation.
Christianity is not about making personal beliefs known and forcing others to live by them regardless of the consequences; it is about humility and looking out for the interests of others ESPECIALLY when we carry the power to do so (Philippians 2:1-11).
lukewarmdisciple 