To the Editor:

In  response to “What did Jesus really say about homosexuality” (April 26.)

In Biblical times, the Law of Moses [Old Testament(OT) Law] regulated almost every aspect of Jewish life. By the time of Jesus, these moral principles God had given to Moses in the 10 Commandments had been turned into 100s of ceremonial rules. People thought they were living holy lives if they just obeyed all those rules. When there seems to be a conflict between OT laws and New Testament(NT) principles, we must follow the NT because it represents the most recent and most perfect revelation from God (Hebrews 8:13, 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, Galatians 2:15-20); according to the New Testament (NT), we are no longer under the harsh OT Law. (John 1:16-17; Romans 8:1-3; 1 Corinthians 9:20-21)

Jesus gave us a radically new understanding of the true intent of the OT Law; they brought a new era of the rule of love for all people and spiritual truth instead of rule by law (Luke 10:25-28, John 13:34-35, Ephesians 2:14-18). Christians are not required to follow these OT rules. However, freedom from the OT Law is not a license for Christians to relax their moral standards, rather a call to greater self-discipline than those of the OT (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-34, 38-48, 7:1-5, 15:18-19, 25:37-40; Mark 7:21-23, 12:28-31; Luke 12:15; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Galatians 5:19-21; James 1:27, 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17-19).

Jesus never mentioned homosexuality, but He did condemn all forms of sexual immorality: “What comes out of you is what defiles you.

For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you.” (Mark 7:20-23) The Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is as clear and plain as the Bible's condemnation of murder, adultery, premarital sex, kidnapping and idolatry.

Remember although written down by men, the words of the Bible are ultimately from God Himself. There were many things not directly spoken of by Jesus, but were known to be wrong, like abortion, bestiality, homosexuality, etc. “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

The cities of "Sodom and Gomorrah" were hotbeds of homosexuality. Gen 19:5-8 “and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’” The Greek word in the NT for homosexuality is literally ‘a sodomite.’

Apart from the fact the city was clearly destroyed by God because of homosexuality in the narrative of Genesis 19, even the NT clearly states the same thing in Jude 7, “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

The word translated in 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11 as "homosexual offender" is the Greek word arsenokoites which means a sodomite, a person who engages in any kind of unnatural sex, but especially homosexual intercourse.

Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living. Paul mentions women who ‘exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones,’ ie, lesbian acts. (Romans 1: 26)

Chris LaRose, Potsdam