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Please note: this study is narrated with AI-generated audio, which may occasionally misread a Scripture reference (for example, "Acts 1 point 9" rather than "Acts 1 verse 9"). For the exact wording, please refer to your Bible.
Doctrine · Truth & Grace
A hard subject, handled with an open Bible and an open heart. We will not soften what God has said, and we will not lose sight of the people He loves. The goal of this study is not condemnation. It is Christ.
Before We Begin
We come to this with two things held together that the world says cannot go together: truth and love. If we only spoke truth without love, we would wound people God died for. If we only spoke love without truth, we would leave people in something that separates them from Him. The Bible refuses to let us choose. It calls us to speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15).
So hear this at the start. Every person, whatever they feel or have done, is made in the image of God and is deeply loved by Him. This study is not about "them." It is about all of us, because all of us have sinned, and every one of us needs the same Savior. Read on knowing that we mean you well, and that we are aiming, from the first word to the last, at hope.
Start Where God Started
Before the Bible ever says a word about what is wrong, it shows us what is good. In the very first pages, God makes humanity male and female and joins them in marriage:
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."Genesis 2:24 KJV
This is not a passing detail. When Jesus was asked about marriage, He went straight back to creation and quoted this very verse, grounding marriage in how God made us:
"Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female... For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?"Matthew 19:4–5 KJV
This is the design: marriage is the covenant union of one man and one woman, and it is the only place God sets aside for sexual intimacy. Everything Scripture says about sexuality, straight or gay, married or single, is measured against this good and beautiful design. Homosexual practice is not the only thing that falls outside it. So does every other sexual act outside of that covenant. We are all measured by the same standard.
The Whole Counsel
The Bible speaks to this in both Testaments, consistently. It never celebrates homosexual practice, and where it names it, it names it as sin. Here are the passages, in their own words.
In the Law God gave Israel:
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."Leviticus 18:22 KJV
In Paul's letter to Rome, where he grounds it in the exchange of the Creator's design:
"For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly."Romans 1:26–27 KJV
In his letter to Corinth, in a list of sins that keep people from God's kingdom, and then, wonderfully, the way out of it:
"...neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed..."1 Corinthians 6:9–11 KJV
Paul says the same in 1 Timothy 1:9–10, and Jude points back to Sodom (Jude 7). The witness runs from Genesis to the apostles without contradiction. This is not the message of one lone verse. It is the settled voice of Scripture.
Exegesis, Not Eisegesis
Many today try to read these passages a different way. We owe it to the truth to answer them fairly, and to let the Bible interpret itself.
It was about several sins, and the Bible tells us which. Ezekiel names Sodom's pride, gluttony, idleness, and neglect of the poor (Ezekiel 16:49). But Jude, in the New Testament, adds the part some try to remove: Sodom gave itself over to "fornication, and going after strange flesh" (Jude 7). Genesis shows the men of the city demanding the visitors sexually (Genesis 19:5). So it is not only about homosexual sin, but Scripture will not let us pretend it was not about it.
Jesus defined marriage as one man and one woman from creation (Matthew 19:4–6) and condemned "fornication" (Matthew 15:19), a word that in His day covered all sexual immorality, including same-sex acts. Silence on a single term is not approval. He upheld the whole moral law of God, and He sent the apostles, whose letters state it plainly.
Paul does not root his words in abuse or in temple rituals. He roots them in creation, "the natural use," what is "against nature" (Romans 1:26–27), the same design Jesus pointed to. The word he uses in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 (arsenokoitai) is built straight out of the Greek wording of Leviticus 18:22, "male" and "bed." It reaches back to the broad command, not a narrow custom. The honest reading is the plain one.
We say this not to win an argument but because souls are at stake. To twist the text into approval is not kindness; it is to hand someone a false peace. The most loving thing we can do is tell the truth, and then point to the One who can save.
A Word to Every Heart
Look again at how Paul lists it. Right beside "abusers of themselves with mankind" he sets fornicators, adulterers, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, and the greedy (1 Corinthians 6:9–10). He puts sexual sin in the same breath as gossip and greed. That should humble every one of us. No one gets to look down from a clean height. We have all broken God's design somewhere, and we all come to the cross as beggars, not as judges.
So this study is no license for cruelty, mockery, or self-righteousness. A church that welcomes the proud and the greedy but sneers at one kind of sinner has understood neither its Bible nor its own heart. We name every sin honestly, including our own, and we point everyone to the same mercy.
It is worth saying gently and clearly: being tempted is not the same as sinning. A person who feels same-sex attraction and, out of love for God, refuses to act on it is not living in sin; they are walking in faith, and they deserve the full love and honor of the church. Scripture says our Lord "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). This does not mean Jesus was drawn toward every particular sin, nor that He ever carried a sinful desire, He did not. It means He truly knows what it is to be tested and pressed, and He never once gave in, so He meets every tempted person with understanding, not distance. So take heart: to be tempted and turn from it, even a hundred times a day, is not failure but victory. Sin is not the temptation that knocks at the door; it is the desire we welcome in and feed. The call for all of us, whatever our temptation, is the same: to deny ungodly desire and follow Him.
Where It All Lands
Now come to the most beautiful words in the whole discussion. After that hard list, Paul does not stop at condemnation. He turns a corner that changes everything:
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV
Such were some of you. The Corinthian church was full of people who had come out of every sin on that list, and they were washed. Not merely forgiven and left the same, but cleansed, set apart, made new. This is the gospel's promise to every person reading, whatever your struggle: you are not defined by your sin, and you are not beyond His reach.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV
God is not asking anyone to clean themselves up first. He is offering to do the cleansing. Through repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and the gift of His Spirit (Acts 2:38), He washes, He changes hearts, and He gives the power to walk in newness of life. That power is real. People have been, and still are, set free.
Carry It With You
1 Corinthians 6:11 KJV
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."
For the Scriptural Notes
Scripture is quoted from the KJV. We encourage you to read each passage in your own Bible, in its own context.
The Next Step
Jesus didn't simply call people to learn. He called people to follow Him. Discover what the Bible teaches about repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, receiving the Holy Spirit, and walking in new life.
"Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Acts 2:38 NKJV
Turn from sin and surrender your whole heart to God.
For the remission of sins -- every New Testament baptism was in His name.
The promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off (Acts 2:39).
Want to know what the Bible teaches about salvation?