"You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. That is detestable." — Leviticus 18:22 (WEB)

Few topics divide the church and contemporary culture like the question: what does the Bible say about homosexuality? On one side, revisionist theologians redefine Leviticus, Romans, and the Pauline letters as products of ancient culture. On the other, legalistic reactions treat this sin as if it were the only one unworthy of grace. Between extremes, millions of Christians — including people who experience same-sex attraction — seek exegetical honesty and pastoral compassion. This study examines the central passages (Leviticus 18 and 20, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1, Genesis 1–2, and Matthew 19) with historical-grammatical method and orthodox theology, answering common objections and pointing to the hope of 1 Corinthians 6:11: "Some of you were such."

1 · How to read this topic — method and heart

The Bible addresses homosexual practice explicitly in perhaps half a dozen passages — few in length, but unanimous in judgment when read in context (Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 1996, ch. 16). That does not mean a "peripheral" topic for those living the tension between faith and desire; it means we must read each text carefully, without isolating it or inflating it above other sins.

Three principles guide this article: (1) historical-grammatical context — what the author meant for first readers; (2) canonical unity — harmonizing Old and New Testaments under Christ; (3) evangelical pastoral care — every person is imago Dei (Gen 1:27); the gospel offers forgiveness and sanctification, not condemnation alone. As Sam Allberry writes in Is God Anti-Gay? (2013), the church should be a place where those struggling with sexuality find welcome — even when biblical doctrine requires renouncing certain practices.

2 · The creational design — Genesis 1–2 and Matthew 19

Before the Levitical prohibitions, the creation narrative establishes the positive horizon of human sexuality. Genesis 1:27 declares: "God created man in his own image… male and female he created them." The image of God includes sexual complementarity — not biological accident, but intentional architecture. Genesis 2:24 articulates the marital norm: "Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh."

Jesus, questioned about divorce, appeals precisely to these texts: "Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female… For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?" (Mt 19:4–5, WEB). The exception for "hardness of heart" (v. 8) regulates divorce — it does not create a new sexual norm. The original design remains: monogamous heterosexual union as the frame for human sexuality. Paul, in Romans 1, describes homosexual deviation as an exchange of the created order — not merely a violation of local custom.

"Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh." — Genesis 2:24 (WEB)

3 · Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 — sexual holiness

Leviticus 18 is part of the Holiness Code (chs. 17–26), regulating Israel's conduct as a people set apart for Yahweh. Verse 22 prohibits: "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman." The Hebrew mishkav zakur designates male-male sexual relations; the term tôʿēbâ ("detestable/abomination") expresses strong moral repulsion — also used for idolatry and gravely disordered practices.

Leviticus 20:13 lists the same conduct among capital sexual transgressions in Israel's theocratic context — alongside adultery, incest, and bestiality (vv. 10–16). The frequent objection — "Leviticus also forbids shellfish and mixed fabrics" — confuses categories. The Christian tradition distinguishes ceremonial, judicial, and enduring moral laws; yet Leviticus 18 does not isolate male homosexuality as mere ritual. The same chapter forbids incest (18:6–18), universally upheld by the church. If incest remains morally binding, the argument to "abolish all of Leviticus 18" fails.

Acts 15:28–29 requires Gentile converts to abstain from porneia — an umbrella term that, according to many exegetes (including Hays), echoes Leviticus 17–18. Paul reaffirms Old Testament sexual ethics in 1 Corinthians 6 without reopening debate on the moral validity of homosexual relations.

4 · Romans 1:26–27 — passions "against nature"

Romans 1 is the only New Testament passage that theologically explains the condemnation of homosexual practices. Paul describes Gentiles who, having known God through creation (vv. 19–20), exchanged His glory for idols (v. 23). Three times God "gave them up" (paredōken) — to impurity (v. 24), to dishonorable passions (v. 26), to a debased mind (v. 28).

Verses 26–27 are decisive: "For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another." The Greek para physin ("against nature") in Paul's argument points to the creational order — not mere personal preference. Including women and men refutes readings that limit condemnation to temple prostitution or coercive pederasty alone: the text covers homosexual relations as a category.

Douglas Moo (The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, 1996) observes that Paul integrates this conduct into the universal diagnosis of sin that prepares for grace (Rom 3:21). Romans 1 is not a homophobic proof-text ripped from context — it is a stage in the argument that culminates at the cross (cf. Romans 1 and the wrath of God).

"Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error." — Romans 1:27 (WEB)

5 · 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 and 1 Timothy 1:10 — vocabulary and hope

Paul confronts Corinthians who relativize sin: "Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's Kingdom?" The list includes the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, malakoi, arsenokoitai, thieves, the covetous, drunkards (1 Cor 6:9–10, WEB). Two terms require lexicographic attention:

  • Malakoi — literally "soft"; in the Greco-Roman world, often the passive partner in homosexual relations (BDAG: pejorative sexual context in vice lists).
  • Arsenokoitai — compound of arsēn (male) + koitē (bed/copulation). It does not appear in Greek before Paul; Robin Scroggs and Hays show direct derivation from Leviticus 18:22/20:13 — the Septuagint of 20:13 uses meta arsenos koitēn gynaikos. BDAG defines: "a man who engages in sexual activity with a person of the same sex." Post-apostolic witnesses (e.g., Polycarp, Phil. 5:3) continue condemning homosexual practices in vice lists.

The revisionist attempt to limit arsenokoitai exclusively to "violent pederasty" does not explain why Paul includes women in Romans 1, nor the Levitical etymology of the term. Kevin DeYoung (What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?, 2015) summarizes: evangelical lexicographic consensus supports a broad reading of male homosexual relations.

The pastorally decisive verse is 1 Corinthians 6:11: "Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God." Paul does not isolate homosexuality as an irremediable sin — he places it in the same list of sins from which the church was rescued. Grace does not relativize the standard; it transforms those who repent.

1 Timothy 1:10 includes arsenokoitai among conduct "contrary to sound teaching according to the gospel of the glory" — reaffirming continuity with Torah sexual ethics.

6 · Sodom — Genesis 19, Ezekiel 16, and Jude 7

Genesis 19 describes men of Sodom demanding sexual relations with Lot's visitors (angels) — a scene of violence and abuse, not romantic consent. Hays rightly warns: Sodom must not be the sole pillar of the discussion; Ezekiel 16:49 emphasizes pride, excess, and neglect of the poor.

Jude 7 declares that Sodom and Gomorrah "gave themselves up to sexual immorality and went after strange flesh" — explicit language of sexual transgression. A balanced reading: Sodom exemplifies multiple depravity — social injustice, violence, and sexual immorality. Denying any sexual component distorts the canonical witness; reducing all homosexuality to "Sodom" distorts equally. The Levitical and Pauline passages remain the exegetical core.

7 · Historical consensus and recent revisionism

From the patristic era to the Reformation, the orthodox church maintained consensus: homosexual practice is sexual sin. The Westminster Larger Catechism (Q139) includes "sodomy and all unnatural lusts" under the seventh commandment. John Chrysostom, commenting on Romans 1:26–27 (Homilies on Romans, Hom. IV, NPNF), interprets such relations as exchange of kata physin use for para physin — deviation from the order God established in creation. Augustine, in Confessions 3.8, classifies acts "shameful against nature, as those committed in Sodom" among conduct to be "detested and punished everywhere and always."

From the 1970s–80s onward, works such as John Boswell's (Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, 1980) proposed rereadings. Hays, DeYoung, and others demonstrate exegetical flaws in these proposals — often imposing modern categories on ancient texts. "Affirming" revisionism represents rupture with historical reading, not discovered continuity.

8 · Common objections — honest responses

"The Law of Leviticus no longer applies"

Jesus declared He came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them (Mt 5:17 — Greek katalyō / plēroō, not "abolish" in the sense of nullifying all moral content). The New Testament does end ceremonial and judicial requirements of the Mosaic covenant — circumcision, dietary laws, civil penalties (Acts 15:28–29; Gal 3:24–25; Heb 8:13) — but reaffirms sexual ethics in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, and 1 Timothy 1. Incest remains forbidden; practiced homosexuality appears in the same lists as adultery and sexual immorality. The Christian does not obey Leviticus 18:22 as an Israelite theocratic statute, but because the apostolic witness — under the same Spirit who inspired the Torah — proclaims the same moral standard in the light of Christ.

"Jesus never spoke about this"

Jesus affirmed heterosexual creational design (Mt 19) and the authority of the Law and the Prophets (Mt 5:17–18). Explicit silence does not imply approval — He also did not mention bestiality. The complete New Testament, inspired by the same Spirit, speaks through Paul and the other apostles.

"God made me this way — orientation is identity"

The Christian tradition distinguishes temptation from act and identity finalized against Scripture. Hebrews 4:15 declares that Christ was tempted in every way, yet without sin. Many Christians experience various disordered desires (anger, covetousness, extramarital attraction) — grace enables obedience; it does not deny struggle. Sam Allberry, who experiences homosexual attraction, insists: primary identity is "in Christ" (2 Cor 5:17), not sexual orientation.

"The church condemned slavery and changed — it can change here"

Slavery was never a positive moral command; it was regulated tolerance in a fallen context, later corrected in light of imago Dei (Gal 3:28). Practiced homosexuality is explicitly forbidden in both Testaments — the historical analogy fails.

9 · Grace, identity, and pastoral path

Biblical firmness without compassion produces cruel legalism; compassion without truth produces false hope. Tim Keller, in The Bible and Same-Sex Relationships: A Review Article (The Gospel Coalition, 2013), argues the church should be the most welcoming environment for LGBT+ people — precisely because the gospel demands the cross for all, not only for "different sinners."

  1. Unshakable dignity — Every person deserves respect as imago Dei; dehumanizing language or bullying is incompatible with Christ.
  2. No hierarchy of sin — 1 Cor 6:9–10 lists greed and drunkenness alongside sexual practices; no sinner is beyond the grace that repents.
  3. Faithful celibacy or heterosexual marriage — Biblical paths for sexuality. Celibacy is not "second-tier punishment" — Christ, Paul, and many saints lived it fully (Mt 19:12; 1 Cor 7).
  4. Substitute community — Wesley Hill (Spiritual Friendship, 2015) emphasizes deep friendships and spiritual family for those living celibately.
  5. No false promises — "Conversion therapy" as a guarantee of orientation change is not the gospel; sanctification is the Spirit's lifelong work, not a formula.
  6. Repentance and confession — As Jesus to the adulterous woman: "Go your way. From now on, sin no more" (John 8:11, WEB; cf. John 8 — grace and justice).

John Stott articulated the balance: the church must affirm the biblical standard with humility, recognizing that we all come to the cross as needy sinners — no one stands in moral superiority (cf. Same-Sex Partnerships?, 1998).

10 · Conclusion — truth and compassion in the Logos

The Bible, read from Genesis to Revelation, presents homosexual practice as contrary to God's creational design — in the same moral horizon as other sexual sins that distort the "male and female" union into "one flesh." Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, and 1 Timothy 1:10 witness coherently; the historical church confirmed this understanding until recent revisionism.

This is not the final word of condemnation — it is an invitation to the cross. "Some of you were such" — washed, sanctified, justified. The Logos who created man and woman in His image is the same who offers forgiveness and power for new life. Truth without love is not Christian; love without truth is not gospel. In Christ, both converge — for God's glory and the good of His creatures.

"Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God." — 1 Corinthians 6:11 (WEB)

SOLI DEO GLORIA

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