"Some issues
in the Christian life matter more than others. The apostle Paul made a
distinction between matters that were primary to the gospel, and issues that
were not. In 1 Corinthians 15:3 he writes, “What I received I passed on to you
as of first importance.” This is not to say that other issues are of no
importance, just that they are not of first importance.
In Romans
14:1 he instructs his readers not to pass judgment on “disputable matters.” On
such issues Christians need to know their own mind and receive in fellowship
those who differ. We might consider as examples of present day "disputable
matters" issues like infant baptism, or our understanding of the end
times. On such matters Christians are free to differ. But on matters of first
importance we must remain in agreement if we are to be faithful to the gospel.
There are
five reasons why we must regard the issue of homosexuality as being of first
importance.
1. The
witness of the church
For
virtually all of church history the people of God have held that homosexual
behaviour is sinful. This is still the case for the vast majority of Christians
around the world today. Those in the church who demand that we affirm
homosexual behaviour are proposing something that virtually every member of the
universal church would be bewildered by. And the one place where this is being
pushed is in the Western church at the precise moment our culture is making
this a defining issue. This should give us enormous pause."
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