Obedience is the Proof of Genuine Love
Postmodern theology has defined sin as not loving God or neglecting to put Him first in our lives. However, the biblical definition of “sin” means “to miss the mark” or “to wander from the law of God.” According to the Bible, obedience is the proof of genuine love. We grasp this concept at an early age when our parents ask us to do something. Why do we expect God to ask any less of us? The Bible further speaks of homosexuality as a sin through a) God’s exclusive design of male and female relationships as stated in Genesis b) sin being accurately defined as disobedience to God’s law, and c) explicit, multiple, scriptural references to God’s disapproval of homosexual behavior.
While homosexuality is a sin, it is no more offensive to God than any other sin. The best news of all is that Jesus forgives ALL sins. It is this forgiveness and radical grace that transformed my life over 17 years ago. Ironically, accepting that my homosexual behavior was sinful in God’s eyes gave me a tremendous opportunity — the chance to encounter the compassionate love and grace of a perfect, holy God.
Jeff Buchanan has spent more than ten years in church ministry and is the director of the Exodus Church Network—an interdenominational network of churches reaching out to those affected by unwanted same-sex attraction.
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"Jeff Buchanan has spent more than ten years in church ministry and is the director of the Exodus Church Network"
The above clip explains why Jeff does not understand "true love".
Love is an evovled element of human existence no less a product of evolution than eating or breathing.
Love is the ulimate "natural" expression of beings caring for one another ....to ultimately ensure the survival of the human species.
god did not invent love.....it came about as a natural consequence out the need to cooperate to survive.
People invented god.......the worst creation ever to spring from the mind of human mind.
That was a marvelous testimony. God bless you.
I liked your response.
obedience is based upon separation. The ruler and the ruled. There can be no communion with, and therefore no true understanding of ' god ' under this archaic principle.
Obedience is fear based. 'disobedience' is love based. Not KNOWING what you are obeying/disobeying is stupidity ;-)=¦
Being gay is on the same level as eating a shrimp cocktail.
Why aren't there massive anti-shrimp groups, with schools training people, curing them of their unnatural desire for crab cakes?
The writer for Exodus wrote, "the biblical definition of “sin” means “to miss the mark” or “to wander from the law of God." I think that Rick Brick Brentlinger would adhere wholeheartedly with that definition. However, we disagree with Exodus as to what God's law is.
There is a difference between God's Law in the Old Testament and God's law in the New Testament isn't there? The New Covenant, that the prophet Jeremiah predicted (Jeremiah 31v31-34), is now in force, and the Mosaic Law no longer applies to Christians. That's why Christians eat pork.
But what law does apply. Is it not what the apostle James called "The Royal law," and "The Law of Liberty" (James 1v25, 2v8), "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
The Old Mosiac Laws, which were necessary for Israel at the time of Moses, were made redundant after Pentecost. The believer of the gospel is personally redeemed to God, regenerated, and filled with his Spirit, and laws that have nothing to do with love, nothing to do with the Royal law, are no longer relevant.
When other Christians lambast me for my long-term committed and faithful relationship with my Partner, I ask them, "How am I breaking the Royal Law?"
Dear friend, peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I write to you to convince you of the soundness of the Word of God from its begining to its end beacause it is the word of life and sound truth from God for all men. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16,17 NIV). Remember that when this was written to Timothy the only cannonized Scripture available was the Hebrew Tanak and Torah, or Law. The Apostle Paul clearly considered it inspiried and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteiousness... and so on. Furthermore, Jesus himself said he did not come to abolish the law but to fufill it.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20, NIV). Jesus didn't do away with the law but rather fufilled it. There could be a whole sermon on this but it speaks for itself that the law is not done away with. As believers in Christ you are right in saying that we are no longer judged by the law but that is not because it is not relavent or useful, but like the Apostle Paul said it is useful and to the Romans wrote:
"So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." (Romans 6:12-13, NIV).
The law still reveals what is sinful and as a Christ follower it is not ok to keep on sinning. THe reality that we live by the Royal law, or the Law of the Spirit of life is that we are free from our sinful nature to yield and follow the Spirit of God who leads us into the way of righteousness, which the Law (Mosaic) defines. We are not saved by or through the law but by grace through faith but faith is demonstrated in obeidienace and obeidience to God is done through obeying his law. Jesus said "If you love me you will obey my commands." And remember, Jesus didn't nulify or do away with any of God's law (as given through Moses) but rather fufilled it. The commands in both the Old and New testaments (covenenents) against the practice of homosexuality are still binding for Christ followers as they were in the beginging of the church. The good news is that Jesus frees us from our sinful nature and gives us the power through the Spirit of God to put to death the misdeeds of the body and live by the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature reep death but those who live according to the Spirit, by his power (that is God does it) reep eternal life.
Peace to you, and may the peace of Christ come into every area of the life and convict you of your need for God's help in restoring your whole person and sexuality. God loves you!
Hi Periannath,
Thanks for your reply and the grace with which it was given. But, Periannath, there is an obvious question that lots of people will be asking you right now - "Do you eat pork?"
If the answer is positive, should you not then admit that something certainly has changed between the Old and New Testaments? Also, is it is vital for you as a teacher to find out what that thing is?
I, like you, believe in the inspiration of Holy Scripture. But I also see something dramtic happening at Pentecost, when God's people were placed under a new covenant, and released from the "tutors and govenors" of the Mosaic Law (Galations 4v1-5).
In Acts 15, the apostles acted decisively against a "sect of the Pharisees who had believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them (Christians), and to command them to keep the Law of Moses." (V5) I have the whole weight of New Testament scripture behind me when I say that Christians no longer need to keep the Mosaic Law.
So how then does any Christian explain Jesus' words in Matthew 5v17-20. For me, the answer lies in verse 19, and the phrase, "the least of these commandments," because Jesus wasn't actually referring directly to the Law of Moses with this phrase. Instead, he was referring to the commandments that he was about to utter- v22, v28, v34, v40, v44; Chapter 6v3, v7, v14, 20, 25; Chapter 7v1. F
inally, Jesus sums up the morality that underpins the Mosaic Law, by saying-
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." (Chapter 7v12)
Jesus didn't come to "destroy" the Mosaic Law- that is certain. He came to ensure that the morality that underpins that Law is fulfilled in the believers life. And what is that morality? I have just quoted what Jesus taught about that morality. It correlated exactly with the "Royal Law" - "Love you neighbour as yourself."
How do you think that I break this Royal Law?
Lots of love,
gaychristian
"Is homosexuality a sin?"
That is such a tricky question and it's hard to explain. I'll share my story:
I am gay. I always wanted to find a boyfriend.
That was my dream since the time I could first imagine it as a young boy of 13. As I grew older and became active in the gay community, I found that dream quickly shattered.
My first boyfriend took my virginity and then promptly left me. My second boyfriend was controlling and always full of anger. He was verbally abusive to me aslo. My third boyfriend was a habitual cheater who would have secret sexual escapades behind my back and then lie about them.
One night at a club, a man was flirting with me. Later, I found out he had a boyfriend. He was still interested in me, so I found his boyfriend and asked him some questions.
I asked his boyfriend how long they were together? He answered "almost 20 years". I said, "wow! that's amazing! what's the secret?"
He looked at me, showed a smile and said in a matter-of-fact tone "those that PLAY TOGETHER, stay together".
I was taken back by that remark. At first, I thought it was just this couple, but as I got to know more gay couples, I'd ask the same question and almost always get the same answers.
I gave up hope in a relationship and plummeted into a life of promiscuity. It was an endless cycle of hurt, shame and brokenness.
One night, I grew so sad and full of despair that I prayed and asked God to show me his love and he did.
Today, I live my life as a 28 year old gay celibate male. I have not tried to become heterosexual. Heterosexuality is not my goal. My goal is happiness -- something I never found in the gay community. My celibacy and relationship with God has kept me free of heartache, unnecessary drama, diseases and hurt.
I find my celibate life and my relationship with God to be very happy and fulfilling. I love God and I can feel his love for me.
My choice was a personal one and I readily acknowledge that.
Merely having homosexual or "gay" feelings is not the issue, it's what you choose to do with them. Alcohol is not an issue if you drink it in moderation.
I cannot condemn anyone for living an actively gay lifestyle. That is between the individual and God.
All I can do is share my experience and the peace, love and happiness that I have found when I left the gay community and grew more spiritual.
are you a Christ follower?
I grew up a Catholic so I had some convictions about homosexuality. Yet I still practiced it. I was later convicted of it in my early twenties and became a born-again spirit-filled Christian. However, I started to recognize that I wasn't completely over my affections toward men, and though I never engaged in another homosexual relationship or sex since I became born again, I have struggled with it.
Having confessed that, I also want to point this out too; I never gave in to the belief that it's okay. I will always continue to fight and resist and struggle to gain the complete victory over those illegitimate feelings.
I recognize that Jesus Christ didn't suffer and die so that I can live a life as a slave. He promises that who the Son sets free is free indeed. So there must be a problem on my side and with the way I am doing things, and there has been. I've learned that God's weapons are mightly and capable of pulling down strongholds.
Don't compromise on this. That's the first rule. God is committed to your complete deliverence in this life. Believe in Him, that's the second rule.
Thirdly, consider yourself dead to your old nature and your carnal nature. Don't obey the lust of your flesh, rather subject yourself to the Spirit of God and live for God.
I leave you with this amazing tool and weapon from Romans 6:6
"knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;" (Rom 6:6)
Don't stop here though, go ahead and read all of Romans 6 and consider your beliefs and way of living out your new gift of salvation in Christ Jesus.
-God Bless
"Thirdly, consider yourself dead to your old nature and your carnal nature. Don't obey the lust of your flesh, rather subject yourself to the Spirit of God and live for God."
Torturing yourself is not healthy. What your are saying is that you must torture yourself to obey god's supposed "word." What kind of god would want a person to do that? The only logical conclusion I can think of is a cruel one.
It's like you've made it some sort of "righteous test" in your mind; something you think you need to overcome - but what you can't see is that a god that would do that to a person isn't worth worshiping in the first place.
My friend. You will either suffer for sinning or for doing what's right.
I'd rather suffer for choosing the right path.
God desires to rescue us from suffering as sinners, but that means we'll need to suffer ridicule as His children.
Humans are in a battle for their souls. You can either surrender to the enemy and sit in a cell as satan's prisoner or you can suffer with Jesus Christ as a soilder and take some hits.
"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. 2:3
Secondly, you're making an assumption from a perspective of someone who's obviously never experienced a true encounter with the very real God who sets people free from lust and dysfunctions.
God came in the form of man in the person of Jesus Christ and suffered with us against sin and won our freedom. He paid for our debt. That's worth suffering for if it means gaining life eternal.
Hbr 2:10 ESV - For it was fitting that he (God), for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder (Jesus) of their salvation perfect through suffering.
I found your response to be humble and genuine. You did not come off arrogant or bigotted. YOu have a right to express your opinion as well as anyone else. Awesome!
"My friend. You will either suffer for sinning or for doing what's right."
How do you know? Do you think you're special enough to know what your god wants? That sounds pretty arrogant to me.
I'd rather suffer for choosing the right path."
Pascal's Wager is a false dichotomy; it's not just, "If my christian god isn't real, then I have nothing to worry about anyway since I'm taking the safe route and believing." In reality, any one of the thousands of gods in history are also a possibility. I don't know about you, but if I believed and then only realized many, many years later that I was wrong, I would be devastated. It would've been a complete waste of time.\
"God desires to rescue us from suffering as sinners, but that means we'll need to suffer ridicule as His children."
It's kind-of backwards for god to make a system that is guaranteed to send billions of people to hell, then pretend he cares. If god desired to rescue people, he would rescue everyone. It wouldn't matter if they believed or not. He would also have the omniscience to see the choices people will already make. Would make the entire thing quite redundant - and if he wouldn't have the omniscience nor the power to intervene, why call him god, then?
"Humans are in a battle for their souls."
I'd like to see some hard evidence for the existence of souls in the first place.
"You can either surrender to the enemy and sit in a cell as satan's prisoner or you can suffer with Jesus Christ as a soilder and take some hits."
God is ultimately responsible for satan's actions, if this is the case. Doesn't sound like a good god to me. Just sounds like a cruel, slave-driving tyrant that likes to play useless games.
"Secondly, you're making an assumption from a perspective of someone who's obviously never experienced a true encounter with the very real God ..."
What is a, "true encounter with the very real God?" If your christian god really exists, he would make it obvious to everyone - even with free will intact.
"... who sets people free from lust and dysfunctions."
Lust is natural; it's part of nature and yes, human nature, as well. Why would your christian god (who is perfect) make an imperfect creation? What would be the motivations for wanting all people to (ultimately) torture themselves? Why would he focus on one tiny rock in the entire universe? Doesn't make sense.
"God came in the form of man in the person of Jesus Christ and suffered with us against sin and won our freedom. He paid for our debt."
Firstly: Jesus was only written about in gospels and has no other references to him in history (during or shortly after his time) whatsoever. Second: in the bible, the romans treated Jesus special as opposed to traditional civil executions during the time. The romans who (supposedly) crucified him did not believe he was the son of god or anything special, but they somehow gave him special treatment anyway? Again, makes no sense. Even more ridiculous is the fact that they made a separate grave for him when tradition was to throw them in a mass grave. Thirdly: the supposed testimonials to seeing Jesus after death are inconsistent even when the multiple parties witnessing it were present.
"That's worth suffering for if it means gaining life eternal."
How do you know you'll gain eternal life? How do you know you're not just wasting your time? How do you know you're even worshiping the right god? There's too many questions that arise even from the assumption that a theistic god really does exist.
It's funny to me that if for any reason other than religion you acted the way you did, you'd be considered to be crazy. I think it's about time psychiatrists start evaluating religion, as well.
"It's funny to me that if for any reason other than religion you acted the way you did, you'd be considered to be crazy." Uh...you do realize that atheism is a RELIGIOUS view, right? It's funny to me that if for any reason other than your cliche, bombastically hateful views of religious people you acted the way you did you'd be considered an asshole. Oh wait...
This is what I gather from your conversation: michaelz wrote about a difficult personal decision he's made, and you decided to go ahead and tear it all to pieces on a public forum because you can. Thanks for trying to make atheists look bad, buddy. I'm sure they appreciate it more than you know.
I was very active in the gay comminity for 14 years. There was 4 years I didn't care who I took home from the gay bars.I marched in the gay pride parade, I attended Metropolitian Community Church In time their sunday school department asked me to teach some of their kids. During thids time I met a woman who was willing to help me in the gay sunday school class. Our relationship lasted nine years. We even had the gay marriage. I thought I had the best of everything I could worship God in a gay church, teach kids about Jesus, and love a woman. While I taught SUnday School at the gay church, I asked God to remove my alcohol problem that I had. He took the desire to drink away from me. Later my lover and I moved from Ca. to Ill. We told the church we attended we were just sisters. After attending a Louis Palau Cursade in the early '90's, my partner told me she thought our relationship was wrong in God' eyes. I was really taken by surprise,and didn't know what to do. She made plans to move out. I had a choice, but going back to the bars would have been like dying. In my belief that God is bigger than me I began reading the Bible, and asking Him for help. I met Jesus at the well, in John 4-The Samaritian Woman. I continued to read and seek God's will, I came to the conclusion that homosexuality was a sin in God's eyes, and I asked him to remove it from me, and I repented of my sinful ways. There was peace and healing when I let God be in control. All of us have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God, only when we repent of the sin and ask God for forgiveness can we have peace. In
1 Corinthians 6 there are a list of things that God calls sin. There is also hope, because that is what some of us were.
Sorry to bring you back to earth sunshine ....but "you" changed your heart ...not god or jesus .
"Thinking" is an experienced conducted by one brain at a time ....there are no external interventions.
The sooner you reaiize that "we" are on our own the better "we all" will be......superstition is a waste of time and only serves to hold us back.........when we could be spending our time searching for cures for cancer .
PS
Next time you talk to your sky fairy ask why he invented cancer and why he has not provided a cure....I'm sure some little children would be happier being cured of cancer than to to read how much jesus loves them.
Well said. Too often Christians make homosexual behavior the unforgivable sin. It is not.
However, that being said, it is still a sin. The line between law and grace is a tough one to walk, but we must do that nonetheless. There simply are no Scriptural references to homosexuality in a positive light. And the Church has always taught (for nearly 2000 years now) that it is a sin. It is only in our highly sexualized and self-indulgent culture that some people have sought to question that view.
Thank you for posting an honest, grace-filled article. And for sharing a touch of your personal experience.