While driving along the interstate I recently noticed a large billboard, sponsored by a pro-homosexual agenda group, which states: "Jesus affirmed a gay couple." The billboard includes Matthew 8:5-13 as a Scripture reference in support of this bold assertion. Does the passage in question contain a story of Jesus interacting in an approving manner with a homosexual couple? Matthew 8:5-13 reads as follows:
Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"...Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.
1. The passage makes no mention of a "gay couple." The story recorded in Matthew 8:5-13 is one in which Jesus responds to the faith of a centurion by miraculously healing the centurion's servant. The text is devoid of even the slightest hint of a "gay couple," of homosexual behavior, or of the Lord affirming the practice of homosexuality. Only one with a perverted mind would attempt to read such things into the story. Truly, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled" (Titus 1:15).
2. What about passages that do mention homosexuality? Rather than attempt to use a story in Matthew which has nothing to do with homosexuality to promote the homosexual agenda, why does the billboard not instead focus on Romans, which says of the Gentiles, "For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due" (Rom. 1:26-27)? If homosexual behavior is under discussion, then why not make reference to a passage that actually addresses homosexual behavior, such as 1 Corinthians, which states: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-10)? If the topic of discussion is the Bible's treatment of homosexuality, then why not examine those passages in Scripture which directly address that topic?
3. Jesus did condemn homosexuality. Contrary to the blasphemous claim that, "Jesus affirmed a gay couple," Scripture demonstrates that He actually denounced homosexuality as sinful. For example, Jesus said, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matt. 15:18-19). The term "fornications" (Gr. porneia) is defined as: "1) illicit sexual intercourse 1a) adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism..." (Strong's data, Bibleworks 4.0). Jesus did address homosexuality in the book of Matthew; He condemned it in Matthew 15, rather than affirming it in Matthew 8.
Conclusion: Do not be deceived by the shameful and deceptive tactics of those who promote the homosexual agenda. Jesus never "affirmed" the sinful condition of any sinner, but rather demands of sinners that they, "Sin no more" (John 5:14).
- Truth Magazine, Dec. 2014