Did Jesus Condemn Homosexuality?
Today, it is not unusual to hear arguments such as this one: “Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality. He taught much on love, forgiveness, mercy, justice, and refraining from judging and condemning others, but said nothing about homosexuality. Since the matter was not an issue for Jesus, shouldn’t it be a non-issue for those who claim to be His followers?”
It may be true that Jesus never specifically mentioned homosexual practice in any New Testament account, but why should we assume that Jesus approved of every practice He did not specifically name? Many sinful practices may be grouped as a specific type of sin, so when Jesus condemns the type, He condemns all sinful practices included in the type.
The Greek word porneia, for example, covers a wide range of sins of a particular type. The term is used of adultery, fornication, homosexual practice, and other such sins. Here’s what Jesus says about porneia:
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…” (Matthew 15:19–20).
The term “fornications” is translated from the Greek porneia. It is rendered “sexual immorality” in several modern English translations. Since “adulteries” is distinguished from “fornications” in this passage, the latter must refer to unlawful sexual relations other than adultery, including homosexual activity.
There is additional evidence that porneia includes homosexual activity.
The apostolic decree of Acts 15:29 instructs Gentile Christians to “abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality [porneia].” This list summarizes, in order, the instructions set forth in Leviticus 17 and 18. Chapter 17 forbids pollutions of idols and the use of blood and strangled animals as food, and chapter 18 gives a list of sexual sins. Since this section of Scripture almost certainly forms the underpinning of the apostolic decree, the list of sexual sins (chapter 18) shows what the term porneia meant to the first-century Jew. Leviticus 18 condemns incest, bestiality, adultery, and homosexuality. Porneia, then, includes all these unlawful sexual unions.
It is true that the Gospels supply no record of Jesus specifically condemning homosexual practice. But then, there is no specific mention of bestiality in the Gospels or, for that matter, anywhere in the New Testament. The lack of specificity says nothing about whether the unnamed act is sinful.
Had the push to legitimize homosexual practice been a reality in Jesus’ day, as it is in ours, you can rest assured that Jesus would have openly opposed it through sound teaching and a call for repentance. His followers today must do no less.