I have noticed something that has greatly disturbed me as of late. Conservative Christians, who openly preach against those who live LGBTQ+ lifestyles, have resorted to using very degrading and negative terminology to describe those living those lifestyles. I believe this usage of degrading terminology is just as sinful as the lifestyles themselves.
I want to ask you a simple question. If we are trying to tell the world that God is loving and says whosoever will may come, why in the world would we resort to calling them insulting names? One who lives in open sin is no worse than the Christian who has his sin covered in the blood of Christ. Apart from the grace of God, Christians too would walk a path of sin.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Isaiah 64:6 KJV
It is a foolish act of pride to exalt yourself higher than another because they sin differently than you do.
People who live these lifestyles are no more sinful than the Christian who drinks (just enough to not be drunk). They are no less sinful than the Christian who listens to music exalting sin, such as lust, immorality, drugs, alcohol, adultery, and the list goes on. These people are no more sinful than me, choosing to go my own way instead of the way God wants me to go. Sin is sin. If the only sin I committed in my whole life was telling one little lie that never hurt anybody, I, apart from the blood of Christ, would still be condemned as a sinner to die in the same Hell as the homosexual who lived his entire life in rebellion against God.
For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
James 2:11 KJV
What’s my point? My point is simply that we must realize that we are no better than anyone else if we are going to love the lost to Christ. D.L. Moody said Christianity is one beggar showing another where to find bread. I mentioned earlier that we are trying to show the world God is a loving God. Yes, God must judge sin, and we must call out sin for what it is, but it is God’s love that still reaches out even to those living sinful lifestyles.
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
James 2:1 KJV
Think about the woman at the well in John 4. Christ didn’t call the woman at the well derogatory names associated with her lifestyle; He realized the greater need was her finding the Living Water. Christ pointed out her sin, but He did not choose to berate the woman for it. He never said her sin was acceptable.
Christ never looked over sin, but He did look past it to see a soul in need of a Savior.
Loving the lost does not mean excusing sin, not calling it out, or compromising on what sin actually is. Loving the lost simply means recognizing the condition that the lost find themselves in: lost! Loving the lost will take the gospel to anyone and everyone we meet, regardless of their identity or lifestyle. Let us be cautious not to turn the world further away from God than it already is. God loves those who live such lifestyles. He does not love their sin, but Jesus died for those people too. Never forget that. Let us go forward in our evangelism efforts accordingly, as we move ever closer to Christ’s imminent returning, remembering that whosoever will may come!