Are You Fond of God's Commands?

Before doing this study, please read the one-minute introduction:

 “Adulterers Sensitivity Statement”  

It talks about the way culture has influenced church language and attitudes causing sincere believers to modify or downplay Scripture when it comes to popular sins like LGBTQ+ lifestyles.

In this study, we're going to address some statements on a Christian website that featured a “LGBTQ+ Sensitivity Statement.”  I'm not trying to pick on this one website, but it represents the way genuine Christians are trying to accommodate culturally approved sins.

I actually believe the author of this site is well-versed in Scripture and well-intentioned. He's very knowledgeable about the Hebrew Roots Movement. He never denies that LGBTQ+ lifestyles are condemned in Scripture. But the ways he presents these truths brings me sadness. It shows how successfully pro-LGBTQ+ groups have shamed Christians.

So let's look at specific quotes from this site so we can respond when we hear similar statements in our conversations with friends:

🚫 “Homosexuality is not worse than any other sin (James 2:10).” (source)

In one article, the author who made this statement acknowledged that according to 1 Corinthians 6:18 sexual sins are worse than other sins, but in the article containing this quote, he omitted that truth. 

Please consider this statement. It would mean that a child who is irresponsible about doing his homework is no different in God's eyes than men committing sexually perverse acts. If we think our God has that view of sin, we don't understand His character. 

I also encourage you to read Does God View All Sins the Same? It explains that all sins are bad, all sins need to be forgiven, anyone who rejects Christ will die for his/her sins no matter how insignificant the sin but that doesn't make sins equal. Scripture clearly shows that God judges sins differently based on motives, knowledge, opportunity, position, influence, and type of sin. Some sins do more damage to people's souls and to society at large. 

1 Corinthians 6:18: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.”

Romans 1:18-32 speaks about the decline of mankind and it specifically mentions homosexuality as an “unnatural” lust, meaning it goes beyond defying God’s commands to defying His creation design. It makes people more resistant to God's truth, causing God to “give them over.” 

Romans 1:24-25: “Because of this [exchanging 'the truth about God for a lie'], God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

For more insights see: God Gives Some People Over to Their Sins. Do You Know Why? and Did You Know that "Unnatural" Sins Are More Damaging to Our Souls?  

The author of this false claim used James 2:10 to support it. But that's neither logical nor biblical. 

James 2:10: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”

Let me offer some scholarly explanations, and I encourage you to look for further understanding of James 2:10. 

“The point is not that all sins are equally heinous. Rather, it is that on God's legal scorecard, for those He will judge according to the Old Testament Law, even one sin is damning. A person either is perfect, or they are not.”   BibleRef

“James 2:10 teaches the indivisible nature of God’s law and our universal guilt, not the moral equivalence of every transgression. Scripture consistently differentiates degrees of sin in gravity and consequence, while at the same time declaring that any sin, however slight, necessitates the redeeming work of Christ for reconciliation with a perfectly holy God.” Got Questions

I also encourage you to read Have You Noticed How Some Sins are Pampered in the Church?   

🚫 “Same-sex attraction is not sinful. It is not the temptation but the behavior that is deemed sinful in Scripture.” (source)

If a temptation comes from something in our environment that we didn't plan, we aren't to blame unless we give in to that temptation. And God promises to provide a way out for us (1 Corinthians 10:13).

 

However, ungodly thoughts, desires, and attractions are temptations we create. Christ said those who look lustfully at woman are committing adultery in their hearts (Matthew 5:27-30). This would apply to same-sex attraction as well. James 1:14-15 also explains that both desires and behavior can be ungodly. 

We’re commanded to take our thoughts captive, making them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). We’d never say having an attraction to lie, murder, or commit adultery isn’t sinful. Why this special treatment for homosexuality?

 

Thoughts shape our values, especially when they are reoccurring. 

🚫 Gays should “be afforded every legal right.”:

While not specifically stating it, that would naturally include marriage and adoption. As citizens, we are forced to acknowledge our national laws. But our love for God's creation order and His Word should make us sad that our country would adopt them.

🚫The author of the article said he struggles with “not being fond of everything the Bible teaches.” (source)

This was perhaps the most disturbing statement on this website.

It breaks my heart to hear a theologian say this. And that attitude is apparent in all of his articles about homosexuality. He repeatedly claims that Christians mistreat homosexuals, a popular piece of cultural propaganda. We are experiencing far more anti-Christian abuse than LGBTQ+ abuse. And from my personal family experiences and knowledge of similar situations with friends and readers, homosexual friends and family members are usually the ones who cut off contact, harshly judging Christians and Christianity, not the other way around. For one of my personal situations, see Why Some Folks Have Created a "New" Jesus.

God's commands about homosexuality are loving, warning people of Hell. We aren't honoring God by singling out popular sins and handling them differently from other sins. We need the same mindset Paul expresses in Galatians 1:10: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” 

 

These examples illustrate our need to be aware and prepared to respond to popular half-truths in culture that are influencing the church.

 

Lies in Disguise is a book that can help you understand and avoid half-truths that are damaging the church. And it's concise, understandable, and filled with Scripture like all of Bible Love Note's devotions. Click image to find out more.

Trusting Jesus In Dark or Confusing Times

Before doing this study, please read the one-minute introduction Trusting God as the Engineer of our Lives. It features and explains this quote by Corrie ten Boom: “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Sadly, many Christians are taught that following Christ will make their lives easy. But Scripture never promises this. So let's look at some of the verses that tell us that the Christian life will contain persecution, hardship, and confusion at times. 

✔ After telling the Apostles about the coming hardships, Jesus said this: 

John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

✔ The early church understood they would suffer hardships for their faith:

Acts 14:21-22: “They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,' they said.”

✔ Peter explains that as we remain faithful under trials, we honor God with proof of our faith.

1 Peter 1:3-9:  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

✔ I love this statement of faithfulness made by Paul:

2 Corinthians 4:8-9: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Have you thought about the purpose of difficulties in your walk with the Lord? 

Never forget that we can face these difficulties with the Lord's help!  

Free Subscription to Bite Size Bible Study. Have a short Bible study sent to your email several times a month.

10 Reasons You'll Love the book Wisdom for Life. A collection of 100 one-minute devotions from Psalms and Proverbs and a great gift for people who love God's Word.

Full description of the book Lies in Disguise. A much needed book to uncover half-truths that misuse Scripture and weaken Christian faith.

copyright 2015, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated in 2026

 

 

Handling Confrontation With Grace

Before doing this study, please read the 1-minute introduction: HOW We Do Things is Important. It explains that our motives and methods matter when we're talking about sin or confronting a fellow believer. 

1. What about sarcasm, mockery and arrogance used by some Christian teachers?

If they don't have the HOW right, I'm suspect of anything they have to say, especially if they are "exposing the errors" of other Christian teachers or speakers. 

If we have to correct a fellow believer, but we must combine the salt of the Gospel with grace, not sarcasm, mockery, self-righteousness, rudeness, or bluntness: 

Colossians 4:6: Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. 

Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

See Do You Know the Mom's Version of Ephesians 4:29? 

2 Timothy 2:24-26: The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

2. Self-righteousness is perhaps the biggest problem:

We can treat our parents, elders, and those in authority without respect.

See A Man Who Amazed Jesus.  

We can think we know the answers to our friend's problems even when we don't.

See Job's Judgmental Friends. 

We can think we have discernment when we simply overestimate our spiritual wisdom.

See "Thank You that I'm Not Like Other People."  

We need to remember this parable: 
Luke 18:9-14: To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’14 I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

See I’m Pressing On, But I’m Not There Yet.

Free Subscription to Bite Size Bible Study. Have a short Bible study delivered to your email 2-3 times a month.

10 Reasons You'll Love the book Wisdom for Life. A collection of 100 one-minute devotions from Psalms and Proverbs and a great gift for people who love God's Word.

Full description of the book Lies in Disguise. A much needed book to uncover half-truths that misuse Scripture and weaken Christian faith. 

copyright, Gail Burton Purath, 2015, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated in 2026