I love homosexuals.

I also love liars, thieves, murderers, people who have children out of wedlock, people who “shack up” together, cheaters (in card games and on their spouses),  gamblers, drug dealers and users, prostitutes, drunks, child predators (and that’s a hard one for me), porn addicts and the actors inside the flick, Obama, spouse abusers, gossipers, back biters, gluttoners, the list could go on and on and on, but I think you’ve gotten my point. I love sinners.

Now that I have your attention let me say this, I DO NOT CONDONE HOMOSEXUALITY, OR ANY OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED SINS OR PRACTICES.

James 2:8-11

If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

I guess my question is why do we make such a huge deal out of homosexuality but when our teenagers get pregnant it’s easier to look over because, well, “what’s done is done. May as well accept it now.” When someone gossips to us we listen and even participate at times. We will tear the buffet up until we have to unbutton our pants so that we can waddle home and fall out into a food coma for a few hours, we cheat on our taxes to save a few dollars, keep the extra pizza that was accidently given to us, but at the mention of a homosexual, we act as if a diseased leper had walked up to us and wrapped their stinking arms around us and infected us!! We start thrashing around and yelling curses at them, wanting them to change because they are disgusting human beings.  WOW!  And I once was guilty of this. Snarling my nose at their sinful stench. Why do we elevate things like homosexuality and murderers and child molesters above stealing and gossiping? When James 2 said that if we fail in one point we are guilty of all? Isn’t a sin a sin? Doesn’t the stench of fornication smell the same as those “big named sins” ? Or have we sugar coated the sins we are comfortable with so that we can throw our righteous stones at people who sin bigger and differently than us so that the fragrance of our sins would be covered up?

I used to spray febreze on my sins. I didn’t act as badly as some people I knew so it made me feel more righteous than others. But then, I met Jesus. He came to live in me and completely remodeled my brain and my heart! Showing me a love like no other. And when you begin to know the love of the father and begin to realize his nature is in you you begin to look at things differently. I put on a new nature and gained the mind of Christ! (Col 3:10, 1Co 2:16, 2 Cor 2:16, all tell me that I, as a child of God have the mind of Christ.  (We haven’t just had a portion of Christ’s wisdom transferred to us; we have the mind of Christ! We know everything that Jesus knows! #andrewwommack) and my personal favorite I Jn  4:17-21.  Verse 17 says that as He is so are we in this world! Jesus is LOVE and COMPASSION and FORGIVENESS and SELFLESS and SACRIFICING and HOLY and GOOD! How can I knowing all that I am in HIM pass judgement on someone who doesn’t understand who they are in God? And how will they ever know as long as we are passing judgement on them and hating them and condemning them?? Verse 20-21 says, “If anyone says I love God, but hate my brother, he is a liar; and then commands us to LOVE our brother if we love God!”

For a moment reflect on Jesus’ life. He was pretty scandalous in his time! He ate with sinners and prostitutes. He redeemed the woman at the well who had been married numerous times and the man she was with currently wasn’t her husband! He redeemed the woman caught in the very act of adultry! He told her accusers, He who is without sin cast the first stone. And they all turned away because none of them were righteous. They all had faults and sins. The same is true today, If the very ones screaming condemnation at the homesexuals and the sinners were asked, He who is without sin cast the first stone, I have to wonder how many would have to drop their rocks and turn away?

Romans 2:1-4   Verse 4 asks the question, ” are you unaware of his rich kindness, forbearance, and patience, that it is God’s kindness that is leading you to repent?   I can’t help but believe that if we spoke the truth in love (Eph 4:15) and showed the goodness of God to people they would repent of their sins! If we would take as much time to tell people who they are in God and how God wants to redeem them and love them instead of picketing homosexual marriages with signs that read, “REPENT OR BURN IN HELL YOU SINNER”, that we would see a change! When someone knows how much you care about them they would be more willing to receive what you have to say! But when give someone the truth in poison form it’s no wonder they spit it out and avoid Christians at all cost. Its no wonder they avoid churches. They know they’re not accepted into the “Holier than Thou” club. They’re met at the door with you are not welcome here attitude. And while a sinner won’t admit to searching for a bandaid to cover their wounds, they are. And it’s our job to meet them with a first aid kit & kiss their boo-boos!

People are hurting!! They need us to get off our high horse, to quit looking down on them, quit passing judgement on them, quit determining their worth by their actions and LOVE the hell out of them! I am convinced love will keep more people out of hell than hate ever will.  That is why I choose to the love the homosexual. The sinner and the Christian. I don’t want to just pretend to love others. I choose to REALLY love them, hate what is wrong and hold tightly to what is good!  (Rom 12:9)

On a side note, I do realize some people do not want to hear the truth, but when you show them love anyway, you’ve shown them Jesus in a way they might have never seen him, and that could make all the difference.