Should Celibacy Be Recommended for Individuals Who Are Tempted towards Sodomy?

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Tim answers your sincere questions. Here's pastor Tim On this episode of iron sharpening iron

We're going to be answering the questions should celibacy be recommended for individuals who are tempted towards abominable sexual practices

Now this is a follow -up to our podcast should Christians counsel gays to straighten up and marry a member of the opposite sex

In response to that episode we had the following post No So should

Christians counsel gays to straighten up and marry a member of the opposite sex this commenter says no No, first and foremost

Christians should admonish those that deal with SSA Notice deal with SSA notice the therapeutic

Victim language that's present in the way that that's phrased The Christians should admonish those that deal with SSA to follow

Christ as this is the main imperative of the Christian faith Jesus was not married, but he was holy.

So note what's being said there that the the admonition essentially is to say that this in this is part of what's happening in the

Celibate gay Christian movement the the standard SSA tropes that are being now presented to us in evangelicalism today

This is the kind of thing that Rosario Butterfield is noted for saying that heterosexuality is not godliness and you know

Individual should not be it's a heresy to you know It teaches them to mortify this set of sinful desires and attractions, but essentially they should be taught to follow

Christ the end period end of discussion and part of part of the issue with that is

That it is our contention and the Bible Speaks to this very issue that that if you are to follow

Christ then one of the things that you would want to do is follow his teaching and One of the things that he teaches is that for the vast majority of people

Alive on the earth the normal expectation for humanity is that human God's design for mankind is that that men and women come together in the

Union of marriage and to procreate and have offspring in order to fill the earth and subdue it and be fruitful and multiply

One of the first commands that man has given in the garden After man's single state is described as not good.

The Bible says it's not good for man to be alone one of the first commands that man is given is is the command to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth and Subdue it, you know for this reason man will leave his father and mother hold fast to his wife the two shall become one flesh marriage is designed uniquely by God as a fix for sexual temptation and It's designed to to accomplish

God's purposes of filling this world up full of people who will exercise Dominion over all creation and one of the things you'll notice about that be fruitful and multiply is that it comes to us in the

In the imperative mood. It's a command the commit. There's a command given to us to be fruitful and multiply and It's a command that God has given to the human race

It's what I would describe as a corporate command just like the Great Commission is a corporate command is a is a command that's given to the entire

Human race and it's the command that we should be encouraging other people to pursue

And if if an individual has a certain set of deviant sexual

Temptations that are coming from his sinful heart You know this the primary counsel that would be biblical to give would be to mortify those sinful temptations and to Put on godly attractions and godly affections as you would do with any other sin in life now part of the reason why this is so offensive as we said in our podcast is because In part what what's happening is that we have certain sets of unshared assumptions now

One of those assumptions is that this homosexual orientation is somehow a fixed move unmovable feature of an individual's life that that Has little to no hope of changing we challenge that assumption in our podcast that this orientation is is a fixed unmovable characteristic of certain individuals that created feature anything else it is a deviant set of Poles that is able to be by God's grace to be mortified just like any other set of deviant poles

Another part of the problem though is that you're living in the society this post -sexual revolution With easy access to birth control and so in a society like that one of two of the things that have happened in that sort of society is that marriage and children are seen in this kind of society and there's great culture pressure to view them that way as evidenced by the fact that marriage rates are on the rise and the birth rates are plummeting that marriage and children are viewed as purely optional pursuits that an individual may engage in if you know in the charismatic language they feel led or You know in a more crass secular sense if they desire to pursue those things

But then part of the problem with that is it's just it doesn't pass The exegesis tech text of the opening chapters of the

Bible we're looking at something that's obviously Written to us in an imperative mood is the command and so we need to do something with it

That's the problem. So the Bible tells the human race be fruitful multiply. We need to do something with that. That's actually a command

So if we're gonna follow Christ We need to follow his commands in the scripture and and one of his commands

Seems to be our corporate commands seems to be that for men and women to come together in marriage and have some babies

That's what it says So now the problem there is the parent and this is the problem that's brought up since Christ was single and Paul in some sense encourages singleness

Wouldn't if following Christ mean following Christ example, well, obviously if everyone followed

Christ example Here's the thing Then we would have no new people and essentially human race would die off So in order to follow

Christ example it seems to me that we need to follow his commands that we find in the Old Testament and the opening chapters of the

Bible is designed for humanity But then there seems to be that there is this gift of singleness that we have to figure out what to do with and so Is that a contradiction is is a gift of singleness a contradiction with the command in the

Old Testament? What do we do? Do we become red red -letter Christians ignore everything in the Old Testament?

Do we make silly arguments to say? Well, it's in the Old Testament and Christ came to overturn the

Old Testament Knowing that the Bible says Jesus didn't come to overturn the law, but to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

What do we do? well, if you do not wish to engage in the Marcionite heresy where you cut the

Bible in two and Obey one to the detriment of the other one of the things you might want to do is attempt to harmonize

This corporate command that you find in Genesis with the gift of singleness now when you attempt to do that Christians have always had an explanation

Readily available in order to give single people who are discouraged because they're unable to find a spouse

We've always had counsel to give that sort of individual to determine whether or not they have a gift of singleness

I can't tell you how many people particularly in a time where we're a marriage for the the age of First time marriages is so dramatically on the rise due to a variety of factors

I can't tell you how many times I've had individuals who come to me and say I think you know I just is impossible for me to found a spouse

I must have the gift of singleness and the problem is we've always had counsel to give that sort of individual

But when it comes to the individual with the deviant sexual temptations, we overlook everything we say in the one area and give the the

The the person struggling with sodomite sodomy a completely different answer So so how how would we normally counsel individuals who are asking that sort of question?

That's the question Well, that's how would we normally counsel the kind of individual who is wondering do

I have the gift of singleness? Well, here's how we would normally counsel them there's two passages that we typically go to if we're going to try to answer this kind of question for the

Individual in question 1st Corinthians 7 is one of the passages and Matthew 19 now

After Jesus gave his strong stance on the permanence of marriage in Matthew 19

The disciples basically said to them as such as the case with the man and his wife It's better not to marry, you know

If if divorce is not permissible for any reason including the burning of the toast in the discussion that the rabbis were having at that time if marriage is not permissible for any reason, but only

Permissible on account of sexual immorality the disciples look at him in verse 11 Matthew 19 11 They say not are in 10 and say if such as a case of a man with his wife

It's better not to marry But he said to them not everyone can receive this thing But only to those whom it is given for there have been eunuchs who have been so from birth

So eunuch is being used in the standard sense of an individual who is missing certain parts at that point

There have been eunuchs have been so from birth there have been eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men typically in the ancient world if you wanted to have

One cruel former point punishment was to turn a man into a eunuch If you wanted men who are gonna guard your harem for you, you would typically castrate them if you were a king

In order to keep them from expressing their sexual desires He says there have been eunuchs have been so from birth their eunuchs have been made eunuchs by men and their eunuchs who have made

Themself eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom. No, that's being the only instance in the passage that's being used in a figurative sense

Meaning not that men have castrated themselves for the kingdom. Although some have in the course of church history

But there are those who have intentionally pursued singleness or The absence of offspring for the sake of the kingdom of heaven

He says let the one who is able to receive it receive it So in this passage, one of the things that you find is that if an individual is going to have the gift of singleness

This is going to be the kind of individual who is intentionally pursuing the advancement of God's kingdom and Believes that he can better pursue the advancement of God's kingdom on this earth

By not being bound to a particular wife over and against Pursuing marriage and so there are opportunities are available to a person through marriage to advance

God's kingdom and there's opportunities Available to singleness Paul was able to evangelize the known world at the time because of his he

Intentionally did not pursue marriage, but in pursued the advance of the gospel. He He was constantly in danger of imprisonment and danger by robbers in danger by toil and danger by snares he's in danger from the

Romans and danger from the Jews like he's constantly being beaten and whipped and tormented and Stoned, you know and shipwrecked and everything else

But then if you had to care for a wife and drag along a family and make the kind of travels that he made

They would have been a liability to him in advanced in gospel So the first question we typically tell

Individuals who are wondering do they have a gift of singleness is is we ask them the question. Are you attempting to?

Do you do you have a desire to pursue full -time? Vocational ministry in some sense.

Are you are you you know, you wanting to be a missionary you wouldn't be a pastor Now are you wanting to advance the gospel to areas of unreached people groups?

Not just you don't ask him. Hey, you know, do you you don't want to spend your life? Building a secular corporation or something like that now that's where they work and that's fine

But that's not the kind of person this has in mind the kind of person that has in mind is the one who wants to give all of their time and all their attention to The spread of the gospel and in a very intentional way, so if you look at the person who's

Wondering do they have the gift of singleness because no one seems to be taking them up on marriage first thing you ask is are you wanting to give your life to the advancement of the gospel and the spread of the gospel and Need more time to be devoted to it and typically the answer is no now the second kind of question that you normally ask a person in those in that kind of scenario is

You ask him are you free from sexual temptation? Are you free from sexual temptation? So here's the thing

Paul says in 1st Corinthians 7 he says now concerning the matters about which you wrote It is good for a man not to have sex sexual relationships with a woman.

That's the question that they're asking him essentially, is it good for a man to To avoid sexual con contact with a woman does that defile individuals?

You know as the Greeks are saying is does that defile a person to have sex with a woman is it better to not

Paul says but because of the temptation to sexual immorality each man should have his own wife in each woman her own husband in other

Words God created man and he gave them man and women sexual desires And he did not intend for man to sit there and sit on those sexual desires forever

To delay the fulfillment of those desires until their late 20s and basically spend, you know a good 10 to 15 years post -puberty

Frustrated with no lawful outfit Outlet for sexual expression one of the things that God's designed is he's designed to give us these overpowering at times sexual desires but then he's given us a healthy outlet for him and the more that you sit there and try to Suppress them and try to pretend like that you're there the more that you feel cursed

I can't tell you how many single people Who have come to me and basically told me that they feel cursed and they wish

God would just take their sexual desires away And remove them because they're tired of burying him and they would like to get married and they can't and they don't know what to Do and they're just praying

Lord. Just take it all away. Just take it all away That's the kind of individual that God has not given the gifts of singleness now the person who is the

SSA Attracted Christian to use the neutral therapeutic language who is struggling with SSA The issue there is that we have had counsel we give to single people for a long time

And let me suggest in the nicest possible tone that we should apply that same counsel to individuals who

Have temptations that are coming from their own sinful heart towards abominable sexual practices

The same thing that's true of every other sin you would tell them to do

There's a put off to put on dynamic you put off the evil desires you put on righteousness holiness faithfulness goodness truth

Far from telling it like one of the things to realize is if you look at that person with those desires and you say hey

You're gonna be cursed forever and ever and ever to basically burn and Bible says it's better to marry than to burn

You're gonna be cursed forever and ever to burn because there's God has no hope for you with the changing these illicit unlawful abominable

Temptations you're basically consigning that person to a life that is going to be filled with substantial amounts of frustration

And not only that they're not going to be faithful to God's created design for them. They're obviously an individual who desires sexual they have sexual desires that are able to be lawfully pursued and There's no reason not to pursue them and if you adopt some sort of homeless or hopeless

Framework there that basically says that you're there's no hope for you that that Will become a self -fulfilling prophecy if you tell them hey this will never change and there's no hope for you

And you're just gonna have to pursue celibacy forever Many people will throw their hands up in despair now obviously here's the thing not everyone who has

Sexual desires that are unmet is Guaranteed or promised marriage from God for some people that truly is their cross to bear

Meaning the kind of individual who have lawful sexual attractions that they're not able to do anything with That may be their cross to bear and there's there's all sorts of counsel that you would give that kind of person

It's better to live to live as Christ and to die as gain You know there's many people who?

You know died not in faith not receiving the promises And you know sometimes the

Christian life cost you something sometimes faithfulness cost you something However to tell an individual that they are barred from marriage or they discourage them from pursuing marriage at all

Would be a gross mishandling of the scripture one of the things that we need to do as it relates to this topic is stop treating

This deviant sexual desire as if it's some fixed immutable part of a person's character

That is either neutral across the bear some sort of temptation that they can't help anything else if you if you consider it

What it is it's a it's a wicked pull from a wicked heart that may sound mean But there's great hope in that because if it's a wicked pull from a wicked heart

Christ is able to cleanse you from the other to the other most and it's my hope for those who

Have fed those abominable desires who have fed those To have who have grown those sets of temptations in their mind

It's my hope that they find true another deliverance from that not only put off the evil desires

But learn to put on the good desires And I can just tell you from my own life that God has helped me do that with a great many sins

And that's my hope for you as well This has been another installment of iron sharpening iron as Always if you would like to have your question included in one of these midweek episodes email us at Bible bash podcast at gmail .com

Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Facebook Twitter and gab Now go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move