Bible Question: What about homosexuals in church? Should they be allowed as members or as office holders in the church?

Bible Answer: This is a complicated question and no matter what I say, I am sure somebody is likely to object. I shall stick to what the Bible says, and let any arguments be with God's Word.

First, it is clear that the Bible labels homosexuality as a sin.

In Romans 1: 26-27, homosexuality among both men and women is labeled as a "vile passion" by the Apostle Paul, as he compares believers in Christ to the unrighteous unbelievers.

These two verses are clearly referring to the unrighteous.

"For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves and penalty of their error which was due," Romans 1:26-27 says.

If that is not plain enough about how the foremost author of Christianity feels about homosexuality, what more can I say?

Going back to the Old Testament, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God in a rain of fire and brimstone in Genesis 19:24, primarily due to the sin of homosexuality. If you read the story of that account in Genesis 19, you find the men of Sodom attempted to rape the two angels God had sent down to determine whether to destroy the cities.

As a popular saying goes today, that was an extremely bad case of poor victim selection.

Jude 7 says "As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Even today, criminal statutes define the sexual act performed by homosexuals as sodomy, after the city of Sodom, and it remains a crime against humanity in many states of the union.

But though homosexuality is clearly a sin, this certainly does not mean that homosexuals should not be welcome in churches.

We're all sinners, guilty of unbelief if of nothing else until we are saved, and Christians are certainly not immune to sin after we're saved. Anyone who professes to be above sin is deceived.

"As it is written: 'There is none righteous, no, not one,'" Paul writes in Romans 3:10, quoting David in Psalm 14:1. David was a man after God's own heart, yet he committed the sin of adultery and then plotted a murder to cover up his sin.

But he confessed his sins and received forgiveness. That's the difference between a sinner and a saint. Both have sinned, but the saved person has confessed his sins and been forgiven.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Paul continues in Romans 3:23. Compare yourself to the glory and God and you will have to admit how far short we are of purity.

So while homosexuality is a sin, it is not a sin God cannot forgive. In fact, it is specifically named as a sin which was formerly among members of the church in Corinth by Paul.

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. 6:9-10 says.

But then Paul adds a very important conclusion to that list of sinners.

"And such were some of you," referring to Corinthian Christians. "But you are washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God," Paul concludes in 1 Cor. 6:11.

So there's your model for dealing with homosexuals in church. Welcome them in to worship with you, just as you would any sinner, and preach Jesus and Him crucified. And like any other sinner, when homosexuals get saved, they won't be homosexuals any more, they'll be Christians and will be ready to be members and even officers in the church, as new creatures in Christ.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)