In the New Testament era, should not the ethic of love and charity prevail, allowing for homosexual or gay living?

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In the New Testament era, should not the ethic of love prevail, allowing for homosexual or gay living?

 The Revisionist Answer

 The Bible sets forth the liberating ethic of love or charity as the chief principle of the Christian. Establishing such rules as forbidding homosexual relationships brings Christians under bondage and violates the ethic of love. 

 If our ethic is love, should not freedom prevail in such questions? Isn’t it a question of respect for the stronger (homosexual) brother (Romans 14–15)? The church should accept into its membership and among its clergy, those who live in committed, homosexual arrangements (marriages).

 The Biblical Answer

 Our attempt to obey the second greatest commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves (Levit. 19:8), cannot violate the first commandment, to love God with our total being (Deut. 6:5–9). A significant way to love God is to “be holy” (Levit. 19:2). Love motivates obedience to God’s commands (John 13:34, 35; 1 John 3:23; 2 John 6). Homosexuality violates any honest definition of purity and holiness. As with other sexual sins, it is not morally neutral, so it does not fall into the category of the “stronger” and “weaker brothers” (see pp. 26–146).

 The Revisionist Counter-argument

 The voice of the community fashions our morality. Although the Bible can give us our theology, only the whole community acting together can decide which ethical standards should currently prevail.

 The Biblical Counter-argument

 As much as we might like to customize our morality around current fashion, ethical principles are based in the character of the unchanging God. Neither does God shape morality around majority vote. Would the Israelites have voted for the Ten Commandments? Many of them were violating the laws even as Moses received them on Mount Sinai. God made His will clear, though not many agreed with it (see p. 171).
De Young, J. B. (2000). Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law (pp. 289–290). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

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