“I have never found any mention of sexuality in the records of our dear Lord’s teaching.”  So says Joy Dawson in a letter in the Church Times on 9 September 2016.

She goes on to assert that Justin Welby’s comment that a bishop’s “sexuality is completely irrelevant to his office,” should put an end to the unseemly discussions about the bishop’s claim to have a male partner.

Is Joy Dawson right?  Is the Archbishop of Canterbury right?

On the surface Joy Dawson is right in saying that we cannot find a specific record of Jesus using the actual word sexuality.  However he does speak about sexual immorality (Mark vii.21).  And he clearly says that, like theft, murder, deceit and envy, it is an evil that defiles mankind (Mark vii.22).

So, what is sexual immorality (porneia)?  Does it include same-sex sexual intimacy?

Like so many, we would prefer not to speak of these things.  Sadly we cannot remain silent.  Why not?  Because some want the church to change.  They want her to accept same-sex relations as normal and right. The traditional view may be simply stated.  All sexual intimacy with a person other than your (male) husband if you are a woman, or your (female) wife if you are a man, is contrary to the revealed will of God.

From time to time this teaching has been ignored or rejected.  More recently it has been hotly questioned.  As a result, in Europe and the USA; but not just in the Western world;  it is now believed and taught that sexual intimacy with another person is not be confined to (heterosexual) marriage.  It is also argued that it is not to be restricted to a person of the opposite sex.

What does the Bible teach?  That is the crucial question.  It is not just crucial for Christians.  It is important for us all.  Why?  Because of what the Bible is.  It is the authoritative and definitive record of God’s revelation of himself to mankind.  It is his word to us.  In it we discover his will for us.  What does God tell us about sex?

Let us start in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  In the first two chapters of it we discover that mankind was created by God.  He made a man (Adam) and then, from the man, he created a woman (Eve).  The woman was created for the man for it was not good that he should be alone (Genesis ii.18).

It is wrong to see Eve as a mere after thought, as if God made things up as he went along.  There is no support for that idea in the Bible.  Instead it informs us that God is Sovereign and that he is sovereignly working out his purposes.  God created the first man and woman to go together.  His design for mankind is that a man and woman should leave their respective parents and then in marriage experience and enjoy sexual intimacy with each other.  Men and women are designed for heterosexual intercourse.

The New Testament begins with  the book Matthew.  Matthew, a one-time tax collector, tells us about the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.  Three facts should be noted.

First, Jesus confirms that adultery (a married man being sexually intimate with a woman other than his spouse) is wrong (Matthew v.27).Secondly, he teaches that it is sinful to have a desire for sexual intimacy with a person other than your spouse (Matthew v.28).  Jesus describes that as adultery committed in the heart.

Thirdly, Christ says that divorce is not permitted except when the marriage bond between a man and a woman is broken through marital unfaithfulness (Matthew v.31f; xix.3-9).

Let us now consider the teaching of the apostles.  Three facts stand out.

First, they teach that heterosexual marriage is to be honoured by all.  The marriage bed, they argue, is to be kept undefiled.   Why?  Because God will judge both the immoral and those who commit adultery (Hebrews xiii.4).

Secondly, the apostles urge us to live lives that please God.  We are to abstain from sexual immorality since God does not call us to be impure but holy.  To ignore this call, says Paul, is not just to disregard what the apostles taught.  It is to disregard God himself (1 Thessalonians iv.1,3,7f).

Thirdly, the apostles teach that same-sex intimacy is a form of sexual immorality.  In doing so they endorse the teaching of the book Leviticus (see Leviticus xviii.22; xx.13).

They teach that same-sex sex is:

(1) a manifestation of the disorder in human relationships caused by mankind turning away from God (Romans i.26-27);

(2) a behaviour, that is contrary to God’s law (1 Corinthians. vi.9-11);

(3) a behaviour that is contrary to the ‘gospel’ and ‘sound doctrine’ (1 Timothy i.10);

(4) an example of the sort of sexual immorality that will attract the eternal judgement of God (Jude 7);

(5) a behaviour that results in exclusion from the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians vi.9); and,

(6) that from which individuals can be set free by Jesus and the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians vi.11).

The message of the Bible is one.  It teaches sexual faithfulness within and sexual abstinence outside of heterosexual marriage.  C S Lewis puts it this way.  The rule is, he writes, “either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence.”Who were the apostles?  They were men called and appointed by Christ.  They did not assume their position or role.  It was entrusted to them by Jesus (Ephesians iv.11).

Why did Christ appoint apostles?  So that God’s Church and people:

(1) are equipped to serve God;

(2) are built up;

(3) are united in the faith;

(4) develop and mature

(5) grow more like Christ; and

(6) are not tossed about by any false teaching (Ephesians iv.12-14).

What should be said about the apostles?  They were empowered and enabled to oversee the Church of Jesus Christ in the days after his ascension to heaven.  Although Christ was no longer physically present in his body, his Spirit was upon and within them.  He enabled the apostles to teach the truth and lead the Church in the ways of God.

Thus the teaching of the apostles is the teaching of Christ.  He used them to help men, women and children know and love Christ.  That being so, it is too simplistic to assert that Jesus says nothing about same-sex sexual relationships.  Though we have no specific record of him using specific words such as sexuality or same-sex sexual intimacy, that does not mean that he has nothing to say on either topic.

Not once does Christ contradict the sexual ethic of the Old Testament.  Instead he emphasises that our righteousness (right behaviour) is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees who upheld traditional sexual ethics (Matthew v.20).  He also says that if it does not we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

In the light of (a) what the Bible says, (b) what Christ did through his apostles, and (c) the teaching of the Church since the earliest of days, it is difficult to see how any person’s sexuality (sexual preference and/or practice) can ever be deemed irrelevant.  Is it not true that Christ gives a solemn warning?  It is better, he says, if those who cause people to sin have a millstone fastened round their neck and that they be drowned in the the sea (Matthew xviii.6).

EPC  11 September 2016