Five Responses by the Christian in a Same-Sex Marriage World

On June 26, 2015, the SCOTUS ruled 5-4  to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states.   This is not the first time SCOTUS has ruled contrary to Scriptural truth and natural law.  It IS momentous.  The landscape is changing and the cultural plates are shifting.

What’s happening in America is the result of the ever-widening gap between absolute truth and relativism.  In America, our nation is redefining what we want to consider to be truth.  SCOTUS did this Roe vs. Wade when devaluing life in the womb.  The consequences have been wide-ranging and horrific, and this will always be a consequence as we step further away from truth.  WE have no authority to define truth.  GOD does, and already has. We look to Him to know and understand truth.

Christians are called to do two things above all else.  

We are to love God first and foremost.  This means we love not only God Himself, but His Word, His ways and His design. Loving God means respecting His infinite wisdom in His creation of the first man and woman and how He brought them together in what we know as marriage.  This is His original design and it’s still “very good.”  Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”   (Matthew 19:4-6 NASB)  Christ-followers should love God’s design and His plan for them.  These words never change, regardless of a ruling by 5 unelected officials – or anyone else.  I’ll never stop speaking the truth of God’s word in the pulpit or in the public arena.  Our church will continue to stand on God’s Word firmly.  Truth is truth, regardless who believes it.

We’re also called to love our neighbors.  Loving my neighbor is sometimes a challenge – especially when our values may be so radically different.  But my neighbor IS my neighbor. It might even be my relative or friend whose values are so different.  I need to be ready to love steadfastly.  As believers, there may be times when our convictions will be mocked and ridiculed.  We may be labeled as unreasonable and narrow-minded simply for holding to a biblical pattern for marriage.  I want to go on record as saying and living out this truth: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”    The world that God SO LOVES includes all of us.  It includes every person of every color, race, gender, or action. The grace God has shown to me as a sinner who was by nature a child of wrath is the same grace that I’m to share with my neighbors, whoever they are.  My neighbor needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ just as badly as I do.

So what are some practical responses?

1.  PRAY for our nation and for those who live in America.  If anything should make us more desperate for prayer, it is the widening gap in America between truth and cultural reasoning.  This is not a slope, it’s a cliff that will hurt many in the days ahead.  Prayer for our families and for the individuals this will impact is critical – and that’s all of us.

2.  DISCUSS the issues with your family. Sit your kids down. Gather around a dinner table some evening with those you love with an open Bible. Tell them what the Bible says about loving God and His truth. Tell them about how we’re to love our neighbors and pray for those who do not believe God’s truth. Teach them a Gospel response.

3.  Don’t be DISCOURAGED. I like the words of Russell Moore. “First of all, the church should not panic. The Supreme Court can do many things, but the Supreme Court cannot get Jesus back in that tomb. Jesus of Nazareth is still alive. He is still calling the universe toward his Kingdom.”

4.  STAY ACTIVE to ensure religious liberty remains present. This is not a time to be silent to our elected officials. Fewer Christians are voting and speaking up, but our voice is so important!  Stay active!

5.  Stay on MISSION with the Gospel. Jesus took the good news of the Gospel directly to those who were furthest from it. He left no one out. He knew life wouldn’t be found in marriage or in relationships of any kind, but in His grace and forgiveness. Make sure your church is relentless about getting the Gospel where it’s rarely heard – in the lives of those who live around us.  Make sure this is what you personally do.

And…Christian…the world (and your neighbor) needs you to shine now more than ever. As believers, we may be more different from the world than we ever have been – and that’s not a bad thing at all. Shine.