Q: the bible states that divorce is a sin (and an adulterer) but the church accepts divorcees as naturally as we accept the sun rising from the east. what do u think (and esp in terms of the church’s treatment of fellow gay christians)?
Random Thought #106.
A: There are a few angles we can take to tackle this question and preceding statements. But then again, it looks like this can be dragged on and on to become an extremely long answer nobody wants to read, so I’ll get to the point of your question.
1. God knows our sinful nature. Even though He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), He knows that we’re going to be going through divorces because of our imperfect humanity. Jesus explains in Matthew 19:8-9 that God allowed divorce in the Old Testament laws because of people’s hard hearts, not because it was what He desired. Point 1: God hates divorce, divorce is inevitable with our sinful nature.
2. Now the touchy subject that will cause me to lose a few readers: the gay. First off, when we become Christian, we shed our sin. Agreed? Moving on, this doesn’t mean that we begin to live perfect, sinless lives. It means that we confess our sins to God. In this context of confess, the more accurate translation from the original Bibles of Hebrew/Greek is to “agree with” God that we have sinned. There are three steps to confessing: 1) Agree with God that we have sinned, 2) Agree that God has forgiven us and cleansed us from the sin, and lastly 3) Turn our actions and attitude away from sinning. With that said, if you turn to Romans 1:26, the Bible states men women abandoned their natural relations for unnatural ones. In verse 27, it says that “men also abandoned their natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.” The Bible equates these unnatural lusts as shameful in verse 26, and perverse in verse 27. Point 2: Biblically speaking, marriage between two men or two women doesn’t fit into God’s of a marriage. If there is no marriage, there can’t be a divorce.
Phew, that was long. Hope this answers your question?
**Disclaimer: Part 2 of this answer does NOT mean for you to go out and be disrespectful to gays. The Bible does say gayness is a sin, but it DOESN’T say to shun or judge them. Read Matthew 9:11-12 please. Don’t judge sin. That’s what God does. What we’re called to do is to show God’s love and to encourage one another to live our lives out of sin.**
