Michael Bresciani
Why "love" does not justify "gay marriage"
By Michael Bresciani
When blog trolls and the generally disgruntled leave the safety and anonymity of the blogs to email me and curse and complain I know I have touched a nerve. One such article entitled "Pop Culture Trends are not Morality – What Christians Actually Hate will Surprise You" brought email responses complete with un-refined language and long diatribes about how the perversion of "gay marriage' is perfectly justifiable.
One of the more common arguments which has been replayed a thousand times is the notion that "love" is all that is needed to greenlight or justify gay unions or "gay marriage." When writing to ministers of the gospel, people rarely mention the lusts that drive them, but more often than not they engage the "love" word to explain their basest compunction. How can a minister refuse the word, how can he argue with the greatest command of all the scriptures?
Working the idea of love into a wicked lifestyle, or much worse, using the scriptures to justify a sin is nothing new. For thousands of years it has drawn in the scripturally un-grounded who think a little use of the Bible is all that is needed to sweeten the pot of seething lust and immorality. This is why Peter addressed this particular proclivity in no uncertain terms. Peter, speaking of Paul's letters to the churches said...
"As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." (2Pet 3:16)
Love also – can be mis-guided
The power and the ability to love, resides in every human being and is a God given endowment, but it can easily be misdirected. In the ancient world it was accepted that you should hate your enemies and love your friends. When Christ entered the picture he corrected that falsehood by saying we were to love even our enemies. (Mt 5:44)
He did not ask us if we could, or if we would love our enemies, he simply commanded us to do it. He recognized the ability to direct our love as a foregone. But it does not end there. He also knew that because we could direct our love, we would be prone to direct it to the wrong things.
Christ knew that men could love anything to the point of obsession and that such love could swallow them whole. The warning is clearest in the following passage.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." (1John 2: 15-17)
The obvious question is; if a man or women can love things inordinately, how easy would it be to love people in the same way?
Curiously it is love and affection that the bible also says can and most likely will be used "inordinately" and will lead to God's displeasure and ultimately, to our own demise.
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience" (Col 3: 5-6)
Inordinate love may seem like a mystery and yet, it is as common as air. We love our houses, our cars and our things. We love those who provoke our compunctions and imaginations from the astronaut to the bank robber. We love what should not be loved. We are more apt to ignore the victims who were shot in the face with a powerful 44 pistol and adore Jesse James for his legendary braggadocio and bravado.
Real love is prioritized – Gay love ignores the priorities
While gays and their supporters often fall back on the scriptural admonition to love as justification for their "inordinate affection," they must ignore the call to love God above all things to do this.
When a Jewish teacher of the law approached Christ with a trick question with the hope of catching him off-guard Jesus replied with what may be the most important message of the entire New Testament.
"Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." (Mt 22: 35-38)
Our love can be sent in many directions, but according to Christ sending it to God first and in all its fulness is the number one priority for all mankind. It follows that if we love God with everything we have – we will love all that God is, says and does.
If we love what God says, can we dismiss his words and direct our love to what God says is an 'abomination' and a sinful practice? Loving God means we love the order, the direction and the guidance he has provided for us, which includes details about gay affections.
"If I've told you once I've told you more than ten times" – God
Here is a list of eleven passages that are clear as a bell in regards to homosexuality and the gay life. None of them have provisions for the "love justification" angle that is being touted today to whitewash the practice of homosexuality. "Gay marriage" is a giant leap from ignoring the basic teachings about homosexuality – it is a flaunting of evil in God's face. It is not love, and it will bring us into God's wrath as sure as the sun rises.
Lives are at stake, nations are in the balance and this is not the time to hide behind the "love" word to justify what God has clearly forbidden.
If your love is exalted above the love described in the first and greatest commandment then you may want to ponder this verse very carefully.
"When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it." (Eze 33: 13)
© Michael Bresciani
April 24, 2015
When blog trolls and the generally disgruntled leave the safety and anonymity of the blogs to email me and curse and complain I know I have touched a nerve. One such article entitled "Pop Culture Trends are not Morality – What Christians Actually Hate will Surprise You" brought email responses complete with un-refined language and long diatribes about how the perversion of "gay marriage' is perfectly justifiable.
One of the more common arguments which has been replayed a thousand times is the notion that "love" is all that is needed to greenlight or justify gay unions or "gay marriage." When writing to ministers of the gospel, people rarely mention the lusts that drive them, but more often than not they engage the "love" word to explain their basest compunction. How can a minister refuse the word, how can he argue with the greatest command of all the scriptures?
Working the idea of love into a wicked lifestyle, or much worse, using the scriptures to justify a sin is nothing new. For thousands of years it has drawn in the scripturally un-grounded who think a little use of the Bible is all that is needed to sweeten the pot of seething lust and immorality. This is why Peter addressed this particular proclivity in no uncertain terms. Peter, speaking of Paul's letters to the churches said...
"As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." (2Pet 3:16)
Love also – can be mis-guided
The power and the ability to love, resides in every human being and is a God given endowment, but it can easily be misdirected. In the ancient world it was accepted that you should hate your enemies and love your friends. When Christ entered the picture he corrected that falsehood by saying we were to love even our enemies. (Mt 5:44)
He did not ask us if we could, or if we would love our enemies, he simply commanded us to do it. He recognized the ability to direct our love as a foregone. But it does not end there. He also knew that because we could direct our love, we would be prone to direct it to the wrong things.
Christ knew that men could love anything to the point of obsession and that such love could swallow them whole. The warning is clearest in the following passage.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." (1John 2: 15-17)
The obvious question is; if a man or women can love things inordinately, how easy would it be to love people in the same way?
Curiously it is love and affection that the bible also says can and most likely will be used "inordinately" and will lead to God's displeasure and ultimately, to our own demise.
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience" (Col 3: 5-6)
Inordinate love may seem like a mystery and yet, it is as common as air. We love our houses, our cars and our things. We love those who provoke our compunctions and imaginations from the astronaut to the bank robber. We love what should not be loved. We are more apt to ignore the victims who were shot in the face with a powerful 44 pistol and adore Jesse James for his legendary braggadocio and bravado.
Real love is prioritized – Gay love ignores the priorities
While gays and their supporters often fall back on the scriptural admonition to love as justification for their "inordinate affection," they must ignore the call to love God above all things to do this.
When a Jewish teacher of the law approached Christ with a trick question with the hope of catching him off-guard Jesus replied with what may be the most important message of the entire New Testament.
"Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." (Mt 22: 35-38)
Our love can be sent in many directions, but according to Christ sending it to God first and in all its fulness is the number one priority for all mankind. It follows that if we love God with everything we have – we will love all that God is, says and does.
If we love what God says, can we dismiss his words and direct our love to what God says is an 'abomination' and a sinful practice? Loving God means we love the order, the direction and the guidance he has provided for us, which includes details about gay affections.
"If I've told you once I've told you more than ten times" – God
Here is a list of eleven passages that are clear as a bell in regards to homosexuality and the gay life. None of them have provisions for the "love justification" angle that is being touted today to whitewash the practice of homosexuality. "Gay marriage" is a giant leap from ignoring the basic teachings about homosexuality – it is a flaunting of evil in God's face. It is not love, and it will bring us into God's wrath as sure as the sun rises.
Lives are at stake, nations are in the balance and this is not the time to hide behind the "love" word to justify what God has clearly forbidden.
If your love is exalted above the love described in the first and greatest commandment then you may want to ponder this verse very carefully.
"When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it." (Eze 33: 13)
© Michael Bresciani
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