Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Acts 28 & Romans 1-3
Romans is despised by many people because of Paul's very clear rejection of the gay lifestyle in chapter one. Some have tried to say Paul was talking about the forced sexual relations that took place in the temples and not the modern gay relationship but you really have to twist the scriptures to make that fit. The problem is Paul isn't making a treatise on sex but on the condition of humanity
Paul though isn't pointing out the gay lifestyle as the only example of people who have rejected the knowledge of God (verse 28). He goes on and list other examples, "being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them" (verses 29-32). Paul isn't picking on those in the gay lifestyle but all version of sin. For Paul (and God) being unmerciful is just as much a sign of rejection God as any sexual sin or murder.
Paul goes on and points out that we would like to point out the sins of others but in truth, we are doing the same thing, rejecting God's authority. I would argue that some sins have a greater impact (though the list in God's mind is different from ours, I am sure), the problem is that they all end in the same place rebellion to God. Dying from being poisoned by a sleeping drug might be less traumatic than murder by being thrown to the lions but in the end; you're still dead. This is the point Paul is trying to make. Some people were thinking they were better than others but the truth was they were all dead spiritually.
Romans is despised by many people because of Paul's very clear rejection of the gay lifestyle in chapter one. Some have tried to say Paul was talking about the forced sexual relations that took place in the temples and not the modern gay relationship but you really have to twist the scriptures to make that fit. The problem is Paul isn't making a treatise on sex but on the condition of humanity
Paul though isn't pointing out the gay lifestyle as the only example of people who have rejected the knowledge of God (verse 28). He goes on and list other examples, "being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them" (verses 29-32). Paul isn't picking on those in the gay lifestyle but all version of sin. For Paul (and God) being unmerciful is just as much a sign of rejection God as any sexual sin or murder.
Paul goes on and points out that we would like to point out the sins of others but in truth, we are doing the same thing, rejecting God's authority. I would argue that some sins have a greater impact (though the list in God's mind is different from ours, I am sure), the problem is that they all end in the same place rebellion to God. Dying from being poisoned by a sleeping drug might be less traumatic than murder by being thrown to the lions but in the end; you're still dead. This is the point Paul is trying to make. Some people were thinking they were better than others but the truth was they were all dead spiritually.
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