You’ve heard it said, “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality.” But I tell you, he did. In fact, Jesus condemned it more than once. He also castigated people who gave approval to homosexuality.
To be clear, even if Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, it wouldn’t affect Christian sexual ethics. Homosexual sex would still be prohibited because Scripture teaches in both Old and New Testaments that such behavior is sin (Lev. 18:22, 20:13, Rom. 1:26–27, 1 Cor. 6:9, 1 Tim. 1:10, etc.). The entire corpus of Scripture is God’s special revelation, inspired by the Holy Spirit and authoritative for God’s people. There is no part of the Bible that is less of God’s Word or more of God’s Word. It is all divine writ.
Having said that, people who insist that Jesus was silent about homosexuality are simply wrong. To be sure, Jesus didn’t need to address homosexuality since his audience (many God-fearing Jews) would know the millennia-old teaching on sexuality from the Torah. They knew about God’s blueprint for sex and marriage from the Genesis account of creation. They knew God created Adam and Eve and commanded them to leave their parents and cleave to one another to form a one-flesh union (Gen. 1:27–28, 2:24). They knew the Torah’s teaching ruled out all sexual activity outside of a man-woman marriage. Jesus’ audience knew homosexual sex was sin, so there was little need for Jesus to address that teaching.
Still, Jesus condemned homosexual sex. Where is his teaching found? Listen to what Jesus says defiles a man in Mark 7:18–23.
And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
You’re probably thinking, Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality in that passage. Let me explain.
The English word translated “fornications” in the passage (the NIV translates it “sexual immorality”) is the Greek word porneia. According to classical Greek lexicons, the original meaning of the word was “prostitution.” By the first century, however, porneia held a broader meaning and referred to any illicit sexual intercourse. According to the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, the word describes “various extra-marital sexual modes of behaviour insofar as they deviate from accepted social and religious norms (e.g. homosexuality, promiscuity, paedophilia, and especially prostitution).” Likewise, the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels says porneia “refers to any and all unlawful sexual activity…and included not only adultery, incest, premarital infidelity, but also homosexuality (Lev. 18:22), bestiality (Lev. 18:23) and any other sexual conduct condemned in the OT.” New Testament scholar Scot McKnight summarizes the meaning by saying, “If you double-click on the Greek term porneia for a definition, it sends you to Leviticus 18’s delineations.” Therefore, when Jesus condemned “fornications” in Mark 7:21, his audience would have understood him to be condemning the sexually illicit behaviors of Leviticus 18, one of which was homosexual sex (Lev. 18:22).
That isn’t the only time Jesus condemns homosexual sex, though. In Revelation 2:14, while admonishing the church in Pergamum, he does it again.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.
Again, the word translated “acts of immorality” is porneia, referring to the illicit sexual acts of Leviticus 18, one of which is homosexual sex.
In Revelation 2:20, though, Jesus doesn’t reserve his judgment for only those who engage in homosexual sex. He also condemns false teachers who mislead people into practicing homosexuality. Speaking to the church in Thyatira, Jesus says,
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
As you probably guessed, “acts of immorality” is the word porneia, the word referencing the sexual sins of Leviticus 18. Jesus castigates both Jezebel—the false teacher—and the believers who tolerate her. In other words, not only are the people who advance pro-gay theology in sin, but so are those who support them.
Whether homosexual sex is sin is not an agree-to-disagree issue. Ongoing unrepentant homosexual sin is grounds for disqualification from entering the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9–10). We’re not permitted to practice homosexual sex, promote the behavior, or support those who do. If Jesus didn’t think this is an agree-to-disagree issue, then neither can we.