Paul Wallace posted about how his view of same-sex relationships began to change when someone he viewed as a mentor responded to his use of proof-texts on the subject by insisting that he was starting in the wrong place.
“You must start with the person.”
To illustrate that this approach is in fact reflected in the Bible, Wallace considers Deuteronomy 21:23. The early Christians had two options. They could have said (as the author of the Gospel of John depicts Jesus as saying) “the Scripture cannot be broken,” and determined that Jesus was accursed of God and not the anointed one they were hoping for.
But they started with the person.
So convinced were they that Jesus was the anointed one, that they chose to find ways of viewing him as not accursed, and even as willingly bearing a curse that he did not deserve.
Christians took this further. When Gentiles who were not circumcised showed evidence of having received God’s Spirit, they decided that God must accept them as they are – despite what Genesis clearly says.
And so, when you meet someone who is gay or lesbian, and in a committed relationship with someone of the same gender, and shows evidence of the Spirit at work in their life, what will you do?
Will you respond in the Christian manner illustrated above? Or will you adopt an approach to them that would, in an earlier era, placed you on the side not just against the acceptance of Gentiles in Christianity, but the acceptance of Jesus himself?
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