This week we are being told through a public service announcement that love has no labels.  That sounds pleasant, does it not?  Who could disagree that love has no labels?  However, just what is meant by this announcement?  What is being cast upon us is yet another attempt to show that homosexuality is normal and okay.

In an unrelated story, Dr. Ben Carson stated his belief that people choose to be homosexuals.  They are not born that way.  Very shortly after answering a question that exposed his belief, Carson took it back.  He back peddled and tried to explain his answer in a way that would be more acceptable to those of a gay persuasion.  The real question is, are these events really unrelated?

There is and has been a tremendous push in our country to justify, normalize, and force everyone to accept homosexuality as a viable, wholesome, alternative lifestyle.  Anyone who disagrees is instantly labeled as homophobic, hateful, or a bigot.  Let us just take a moment to think about the tactics from a logical standpoint for a moment.

Those of us who disagree with said lifestyle, are no longer allowed to express our opinion without fear of retribution, harassment, loss of employment (if employed within the media), and other labeling by the crowd that is telling us that love has no labels.  It cannot be about tolerance, for tolerance would demand that I can express my opinion as equally as they can theirs.  It is all about acceptance.  We are being forced to accept their opinion and say nothing about it.

I do not say this to be mean spirited, unloving, or otherwise prejudiced against a segment of society.  I merely mean to express another viewpoint with regards to this issue, and that is the viewpoint that God has written for our learning in the Bible.  By expressing what the Bible has to say about the issue, it is not my intention to “force my religion” down anyone’s throat.  God does not operate that way.  He merely tells us what is right, what is righteous, what is wholesome, and what is not.  Then it is up to us to decide if we will follow Him, or go our own way.  It is our choice, Dr. Carson.

Nowhere does God explain this better than in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:18-19 NKJV).  When mankind suppresses the truth, because they do not like it, that is called unrighteous and ungodly.  The creation of man itself is proof that there is a God.  There is no way that the complicated systems that exist within human life could have come about by chance.  Thus the evidence is within man, such that we are without excuse if we fail to believe that there is a God (Romans 1:20).

However, there are those who have not retained God in their knowledge.  They have made a conscious choice to walk away from God.  They do not glorify Him, nor are they thankful.  Instead, they profess to be wise when really they are being foolish for ignoring God (Romans 1:21-22).  Because they have given up on God and walked away from Him, He will also give them up.  They will not be considered to be His children anymore, while they are acting disobedient.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. . . 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 (Romans 1:24, 26-7).

Notice what God calls it when women exchange the natural use of their body to be with other women.  Notice what God says about men who burn in their lust for other men.  He says that they dishonor their bodies.  He calls their passions vile.  He says that their actions are shameful and deserving the penalty of their error.  It sounds like God has put “labels” on their “love.”

The real issue is a misunderstanding of love.  Men are to have brotherly love for one another.  This is the Greek word philos.  It is not the same as the love between a man and his wife that includes the sexual relationship.  This kind of love is eros (where we get the word erotic from).  Mankind has blurred the lines between the kind of love that we are to show toward one another, and the kind of love that is reserved for a married man and his wife.  So when people say, “well what is wrong with loving one another,” they are misunderstanding the difference between brotherly love and lust.

So why make such a big deal about this issue?  What harm is there in accepting what God says is vile, ungodly, unrighteous, and against nature?  Well, just notice what Paul goes on to write at the end of Romans 1:

(They) being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:29-32).

Not only does God disapprove of the homosexual lifestyle, His judgment is also going to be against those who approve of their behavior.  God says if you are okay with things that He calls evil, then you are deserving of spiritual death just the same as those who are practicing such.  That looks like God is placing many labels on their “love,” and none of those labels are good.

One last point with regards to this issue needs to be made.  The argument that homosexuals are that way because that is how God made them cannot be true if the Bible is to be believed.  Notice that God states the penalty for those who practice such behavior quite clearly in Romans 1.  If God were to make people that way, with that persuasion, then He would be making people to sin and be lost.  That is not God’s nature.  God does not tempt us to do evil.  We are tempted when we are led away by our own desires.  That desire then leads us to sin.  It is our own doing (James 1:13-15).  Indeed, God does not desire that anyone be lost.  He wants for all men to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4), and then to repent and follow Him (2 Peter 3:9).  People choose to practice what they practice.  They are not made to sin by God without a choice.

Furthermore, notice what Paul writes to the church in Corinth:

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.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 emphasis added).

There were some who were in the church in Corinth who had formerly been homosexuals.  Paul says that they were washed, they were changed, they made a conscious decision to follow God rather than their own lusts.

There is no need to be lost in sin when we can repent, change our sinful lifestyle, and become a child of God again.  This not only applies to the sin of homosexuality, but with any and all sin.  God does not state that one sin is any worse than any other, and neither should we.  Let us only apply the labels that God applies, and strive to walk in His ways each day.