Our interview with Nate Collins left a lot of people with questions, so today we try to wade through some of those questions and explain our position. Over a year ago, Rosaria Butterfield made the comment on our show that the Gospel has been on a collision course with the topic of sexuality ever since the Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. We believe we are now living in that collision.

Agreeing that homosexual desires are sinful is not enough. We have to do the work of understanding sexual ethics. We have to have a firm grasp on the new citizenship that is ours once we are born again in Christ. We have to understand why there is no biblical category of homosexuality as a noun in Scripture, rather it is described as a sin. There is no sexual orientation language in Scripture, rather we are told that we are male and female with a sin orientation in Adam.

We should not make an identity out of a temptation pattern. Temptation is both internal and external and we need to know what we are dealing with. A sexual temptation can quickly become identity, an indwelling sin. And taking in an indwelling temptation and trying to make it seem nice is like adopting a tiger and wondering why it’s eating you 3 months later. Homosexuality is a sin to be mortified, not a behavior to be modified.

It is interesting that this conversation inevitably turns to our relationships in the church. For some, it turns into a conversation on hospitality. For some, it turns to the Spiritual Friendship conversation. So let’s talk about friendship in the church!

Episode Navigation

6:23 We start a meandering conversation around the questions in our inbox, dealing with homosexuality as an ontological impossibility and what identity has to do with it.

28:30 We start another conversation around our relationships in the church.

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3 Comments

  1. Mo

    On relationships: 30 years ago (ACK! When did I get old?!) when I first became a Christian, our wonderful church was big on the “one anothers.” In the dinosaur years before social media/cell phones, I would go to a pay phone (so as not to steal company $) and call various friends from the church. We were all new believers at the time. Many of us had struggles with old habits and such. No one told me to do this. No one even suggested it. But I loved these people so much that I would think about them and pray for them and wanted to see how they were doing at work. It was wonderful.

    I don’t say this as, “Look how great I am!” I’m just saying it’s so much easier now with phones/social media. There’s no reason why we can’t send a quick text to say, “I’m thinking of / praying for you.”

    Reply
  2. Mo

    Also, you did a program on friendship and didn’t include the once ubiquitous Michael W. Smith? I’m disappointed. (Teasing!)

    https://youtu.be/SAeD2UEYaAk

    Reply
  3. Jim Willit

    It occurs to me that the gender identity issue has arisen because it allows those who “identify” as LGBTQ… to feed at the trough of identity politics. If identity politics ( which Doug Wilson says is like pouring miracle grow on bitterness and resentment) did not exist as a popular platform in our culture, we wouldn’t have as many identity-related issues.

    Reply

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  1. Christian Girl – You Should Compromise Culture, Not Christ – Madison Leistner - […] “Friendship, Temptation and Getting the Gospel Right” By Sheologians […]

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