“Jesus was this loving individual, he didn’t exclude people because they’re different…”

The Bible repeatedly tells us that Christianity is offensive. As one example, the Bible opposes cohabitation. Living together before marriage is increasingly common. “Cohabitation in the United States has increased by more than 1,500 percent in the past half century. In 1960, about 450,000 unmarried couples lived together. Now the number is more than 7.5 million,” reports psychologist Meg Jay in the New York Times. “The majority of young adults in their 20s will live with a romantic partner at least once, and more than half of all marriages will be preceded by cohabitation.”(3) People offer all kinds of justifications for living together, ranging from testing the relationship to saving money.

The current conflict between what the Bible says and what the culture wants is nothing new. Problems were rife for ancient Israel and its neighboring nations as well as the early church as it spread within the Roman Empire. Polygamy, fornication, adultery, ritual prostitution, homosexuality, and more—they are all reported in the Bible. Jesus’ own family line reads like a memorial to sexual brokenness, listing Rahab the prostitute, Tamar the rape victim, Bathsheba the adulteress and David the murderous adulterer (Matthew 1:1-18). Sex in both ancient Greek and Roman cultures was very much like our day and even included what we would basically consider pedophilia. Ours is not the first generation that wants sex however we want it and to want no one tell us what we can or cannot do.

As a pastor, I understand that what I can share in the space of a blog does not answer all the practical and even painful questions that real people made by God and loved by God have on this issue.

The rapid social changes we face force us to be prayerful and biblical and practical. They require us to reflect on crucial issues. But I do know one thing. We cannot make any headway without staying in relationship even with people we disagree with.

(1)Here he cites Robert A. J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Nashville: Abingdon, 2002), 159–83.

(2)Robert A. J. Gagnon, “Sexuality,” in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 745.

(3)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&