Does the Bible Whisper About Sexual Sin?

I am not a Southern Baptist. I’m the happy pastor of a Conservative Baptist church which is part of a loose fellowship of churches—recently renamed Venture Churches—that broke off from the Northern Baptist Convention because of increasing liberalism in the mid-20th century. But since I have Baptist convictions in common with my SBC brothers and sisters, I try to regularly follow developments there. 

Last week at their annual convention, the SBC elected a new president named Ed Litton. By all appearances, Ed seems to be a godly man, well-respected, gospel-focused, and interested in bridge-building during a time more characterized by bridge-burning. 

That said, I came across an interesting sermon clip that prompted me to write my first blog post in a while. The clip is of him saying that the Bible whispers about sexual sin, when compared to the “shout” God makes about greed and judgmentalism. I was a little taken back by this comment, for at least three reasons.

Interesting Comment 

First, Ed is the newly elected president of the America’s largest conservative evangelical denomination, which has historically held to conservative views regarding sexual sin. So his comments are interesting because they seem to rub against the traditional grain of SBC culture and teaching (as well as those of conservative evangelicalism.) 

Second, and related to the first point above, Litton is now the second straight SBC president who has made a comment like this. The former and most recent president JD Greear, quoting writer Jen Wilkin during a sermon at Greear’s North Carolina church in 2019, made very similar comments to Litton’s. The only difference is that the supposed “shout” from God, as opposed to the “whisper” about sexual sin, refers, according to Greear, to “materialism and religious pride.” Again, American evangelicalism generally and the SBC particularly have always held to a tradition sexual ethic, but Greear, like Litton, rubs against the grain with his comments. While I don’t know if the sudden consistency of this message among SBC leaders should be seen as a sign of things to come for the denomination, it might reinforce the suspicions that many conservative Baptists have held about the trajectory. 

But thirdly, and most importantly, these comments are interesting because they seem to be, on Biblical grounds, patently false. When I say “Biblical grounds,” I mean this: When one seeks out the Bible's teaching on a particular subject, what is the sense that Scripture gives, when the whole of Scripture is used as the context of each passage which addresses the topic? When considered that way, my conclusion is this: I don’t know how one could ever say that the Bible “whispers” about sexual sin.

The Bible and Sexual Purity

To understand the Biblical position regarding sexual sin, one must understand what is God’s intention for sexual ethics. Think about this: The first people created are a man and a woman, who are to be married, stay together, and have kids, thus building up godly society. After the fall of Genesis 3, ethics go awry, including sexual ethics. By the time Abraham arrives on the scene, monogamous marriage and child-bearing between husband and wife is still the norm, which is reinforced by God’s disdain of Abe’s and Sarah’s little plan to have kids through Hagar the mistress. But by the time we get to Jacob, polygamy enters the picture, and doesn’t seem to leave decisively until we get to the New Testament. I am oversimplifying here, so you can get a feel for the narrative. 

When Jesus comes, he reinforces the one man-one woman model of marriage, saying that only on the grounds of sexual immorality does God allow the husband and wife to divorce (Matt. 5:31-32), because, whereas God patiently allowed divorce under the Old Covenant, it was because of hardness of heart (Mk. 10:6-9). And since Jesus has come, God’s original purpose of one man and one woman, living together as one flesh and enjoying each other sexually (Prov. 5:15-20, 1 Cor. 7:1-5), is recaptured. Jesus then goes further to say that divorce for the sake of remarriage is itself adultery (Mk. 10:10-12). Thus this picture of marriage, and with it, sex, is presupposed throughout the rest of the New Testament. Not every NT letter speaks of marriage/sexual purity, but many of them do, in crystal clear terms. See 1 Cor. 6:12-7:16, Eph. 5:22-33, Col. 3:18-19. Also 1 Tim. 3:2,12 and Tit. 1:6, both passages about leadership qualification in a church, reinforce the norm of healthy family structure. 

But this is not a discussion first about marriage before it is a discussion about sexual sin. I only bring up marriage because, to understand sexual sin in Scripture, you have to understand sexual purity un Scripture. And according to God’s plan laid out in Scripture, sexual purity only happens in relationship to committed heterosexual marriage (that is, a single person can be sexually pure by remembering that sexual activity is only appropriate in hetero marriage). Thus Jesus says that people defile themselves by their sexually immoral thoughts and behaviors, their adultery, and their sensuality, all of which come from within (Mk. 7:21-23; see also James 1:14-15). If one ever looks at another person’s spouse with lustful thoughts, God calls that heart adultery, as much an offense to him as actual adultery (Matt. 5:27-30). There is a good chance that if you’re reading this, I’m not saying anything that you don’t already know. But based on comments like Greear’s and Litton’s, I wonder if people need reminded of what they once knew. Anyway, Jesus also said that if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, and if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; your soul matters more than an eye or hand (Mt. 18:8-9). He is clearly speaking in hyperbole, but the fact that he says the exact same thing almost verbatim when talking about the aforementioned lustful thoughts (see Mt. 5:29-30) must mean that the hand and eye thing is related to sexually impure thoughts that lead to actions. (WARNING: GRAPHIC - SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT.) One application of Jesus’ words is this: If you are stuck in a cycle of watching or looking at porn, you will need to get rid of your alone times, your tv, or your smart phone. You can survive without tv, smart phone, and "alone time," but porn is killing you. Related, if you are stuck in a cycle of masturbation, you will need to eliminate your alone time, internet access during trigger-times, and get married so you can enjoy sex God’s way. Even though you might not realize it, masturbation is also destroying you, too. 

That’s what sin does: It kills you (Rom. 6:23) - you lose a little of yourself with every unconfronted destructive (read: sinful) behavior. Thus virtually all New Testament writers encourage what previous generations called mortification: Killing sin in your life. Here are just a few: 

Paul: “Put to death the deeds of your body (ie, your impulsive, 

undisciplined, and natural indulgences that would embarrass you 

put out in public), or you die” (Rom. 8:12-13). Put to death “your 

earthly members” (Greek): “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, 

evil desire, covetousness,” etc. (Col. 3:5). 

Peter: “Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war 

against your soul” (1 Pet. 2:11). That is, you have natural passions, 

impulses, and behaviors that, left undisciplined, will destroy you.

Hebrews author: “Lay aside the sin that clings so closely” (Heb. 

12:1); “Watch out, that you not be hardened by the deceitfulness of 

sin” (3:13). That is, sin clings to us and deceives us. It lies to us 

about what it is or isn’t, and about how in control of it we are. And 

in the end, we lose ourselves and die. 

The Bible and Homosexuality

Finally, what about homosexuality? I want to be very clear here: I have people close to me who are practicing homosexuals, and I don't want to be insulting. But I am more committed to Jesus than I am to loved ones' feelings. That said, contrary to what my liberal friends (or, based on the sermon clips above, my conservative friends) might want to say about Scripture’s clarity, let me just say unequivocally that the Bible could not be any clearer about how much of a perversion of our God-given sexuality homosexuality is.

 

-Again, the first relationship between humans is between a man 

and a wife. Jesus teaches that as programmatic for sex and 

marriage moving forward (Mk. 10:1-9). Thus any time Jesus 

speaks of marriage and sexuality, he clearly presupposes 

heterosexual practices as God’s norm. See texts above.**

-Yes Leviticus addresses homosexual behavior, calling it “an 

abomination” (18:22). There are two interesting things about this, 

one less interesting and one more interesting. Less interesting are 

peoples’ rejoinders suggesting that we’re not under the Law 

anymore, so that that verse holds about as much weight as “don’t 

eat shellfish.” I say that these arguments are “less interesting,” 

because of the clear teaching of the NT that all foods are clean 

under the New Covenant (Mk. 7:19, Ac. 10:15), while at the same 

time, the NT supports and reinforces Leviticus’s teaching that 

homosexual behavior is abominable (see below). More interesting 

is the fact that that verse is sandwiched between prohibitions on a) 

parents sacrificing their children to foreign gods (18:21), and b) 

bestiality (18:22). Apparently in God’s eyes, these practices are all 

thought of as similarly absurd and evil. And yet we live in a society 

that normalizes both killing babies and celebrating homosexuality. 

Is bestiality next? Maybe.

-When Paul addresses homosexuality, it is always in the negative, 

and always clear. The most blistering is in 1 Cor. 6:9, where, 

clearly, neither partner during a homosexual encounter will inherit 

the kingdom of heaven. Related is 1 Tim. 1:10. In both texts, 

homosexual practitioners are grouped with liars, murderers, 

drunkards, greedy people, etc. (as are all practitioners of sexual 

immorality, heterosexuals included.) You get the picture. But 

Paul’s clearest treatment of homosexuality is in Romans 1:26-27.

After describing humanity’s post-Fall descent from knowing the 

true God, Paul describes the kinds of judgments that God called 

down on humanity as a penalty for their rebellion. The two 

mentioned in 1:26-27 are lesbian activity and male homosexual 

activity. Is Paul being neutral or soft-spoken here, and 

“whispering”? No. These acts are dishonorable (Gk. - atimias, 

dishonoring the body part’s purpose), against nature, and done 

shamelessly (1:27). Those who do such things know—at least at 

first, before their conscience warps (1:21)— that their behavior is 

wrong (1:32).

In other words, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something (forgive me for the backdoor reference to Jeff Goldblum’s famous Jurassic Park line). Is the behavior giving you life, or taking life from you? The God of the Bible demands that you believe that He knows you better than you know yourself, or you can’t claim to know him at all (Jer. 16:17, Dan. 5:23). If He says something is killing you, it doesn’t matter how it feels to you. He’s right. Deep down, you know it.

Closing Thoughts: Could the Bible Be Clearer? 

Not only does the Bible not whisper about sexual sin, but I don’t know how the Bible could be any clearer about it. While, to Greear’s and Litton’s points, there are major texts addressing judgmentalism (Mt. 7:1-5, Rom. 14), greed/covetousness (ie, Ex. 20:17, Col. 3:5), materialism (Mt. 6:19-21, Ezek. 16:49f), and religious pride (Lk. 18:9-14), it seems to me that sexual sin comes up at such a high frequency that, since in God's eyes there are "weightier matters" of his law (Mt. 23:23), sexual sin must be one of them. 

Regardless, if God speaks about something that needs to be repented of in order to know him, he does not whisper. His loving rebukes are divine summons from heaven, us being struck "as by a thunderbolt,"*** so we’d know who He is, who we are in relationship to Him, and how to draw closer to him. As a response to Greear's comments, I would say that if we shirk God's words off as unclear or too quiet, then we’re the ones behaving in religious pride. And frankly, both secularism and progressivism, which are built upon jettisoning the Biblical ethic that made the West the freest civilization in world history, are just as much religions as Christian evangelicalism is. The truth is not that the Scripture is unclear, but that, as late theologian John Webster said, “We refuse to be schooled by Christ. We don’t want to give our mind and affections to what he has to say to us.”*^

I realize that saying all of this in such clear and lucid language might mean that I lose some friends. It’s okay - I’ve lost several friends over some of my views in recent years. While I’m not getting used to it, I do realize that it comes with the territory, not just as a pastor but as a Christian (Jn. 15:20). But if these words can help Jesus gain a disciple, or help a disciple be more sure that in Jesus they have the truth, it is worth it to me. I’d rather you hate me for the truth than for us to have a quasi-friendship based on unclarity at best and lies at worst. Even better would be if we could be friends in spite of our disagreements. Only make sure you’re just as skeptical of yourself and society as you are of me. I’m not demanding that you agree with me. But I am demanding that we stop treating God’s Word as though it is subject to our modernistic relativizing tendencies. The One who’s way is perfect (Dt. 32:4) has a Word that is perfect, too. Not only is it more clear than anything else in existence, but it is a gracious shout of invitation to beggars to come and eat bread. And if one is hungry, that invitation is far from a whisper. 

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**Yet, anyone familiar with the term malakos, used by Jesus in Mt. 11:8 and Lk. 7:25, knows that it is a term that means womanliness. Jesus applies it to men behaving in a womanly way, crystal clear that he does so negatively. 

***Calvin's Commentary on John 4:22, Volume XVII, 500th Anniversary Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), 159.

*^Webster, “Sin Shattered Within Its Stronghold," in Confronted By Grace: Meditations of a Theologian (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press), 36 (Ibook).