We are at the end of this year’s “Pride Month,” when those in the LGBTQ+ community (and those who support them) have an entire month dedicated to promoting them and celebrating them. What an interesting world in which we live, when a lifestyle that is not approved by God can be elevated and applauded with “pride”! As this becomes more common, we need to be reminded of some things.
God has revealed His will to mankind in “the gospel of Christ” (1:16). And it is not that hard to understand! The will of God (found in His Word) has, according to Romans 1:17-18, revealed two things to us: (1) “the righteousness of God,” which tells us what is “right” in the eyes of God and how we can be “right” with Him; (2) “the wrath of God,” which comes upon “all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” when we do not do what is “right” in the eyes of God. What does this have to do with “Pride Month”?
God has revealed His righteousness when it comes to the choices and sexual behavior of those who practice the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. Passages in His Word (like Gen. 1:26-28; Lev. 18:22; Lev. 20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; Jude 7; etc.) reveal that God categorizes this lifestyle as “unrighteous.” Regarding homosexual behavior, God was very direct when He said that “women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature,” and “the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another” (1:26-27). Such explicit language clearly conveys God’s strong disapproval.
But notice, in the context, what “the righteousness of God” evidences about the larger motives, implications and consequences of such choices. Those who practice such a lifestyle are said to “suppress the truth” in their behavior (1:18), for they have actually “exchanged the truth of God for the lie” (1:25). They do “not like to retain God in their knowledge” (1:28), for they have “become futile in their thoughts” (1:21). God calls what they are doing “foolish” (1:21), “shameful” (1:27) and “not fitting” (1:28). Think seriously about God’s evaluation of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle in this text.
Because they have chosen to do things that do “not glorify Him as God” (1:21), there are consequences. Because of their own choices, “God gave them over” to fulfill what they want in their “uncleanness” (1:24), their “vile passions” (1:26) and “their “debased mind” (1:28).
This is so very disheartening, especially considering the last four words of verse 20: “they are without excuse.” There is no reason for God’s creation to have made these choices. He has revealed Himself and His will to mankind. Let us not exercise “pride,” when God “resists” it (Jas. 4:6).