Blurts & Spasms

Answer to Quora question: "What are some suggestions to being a Christian and believe in equality of marriage because I love and believe in both?"

Thanks for clarifying your question for me. Here are some brief thoughts:

1) Regarding nonbelievers, I would encourage you to meditate on 1 Corinthians 5:12: "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?"

2)Regarding the marriage of believers, that is a secular tradition. In fact, a careful reading of 1 Cor 7 reveals that marriage is a concession for folks who can't control their sexual urges, and that Christians should (ideally) "remain in the condition in which they were called." That is, unmarried or married, a parent or childless...whatever. At least that is what the Apostle Paul seemed to believe.

3) Regarding the sexuality of other Christians, I think it will depend on how you support your Christian faith. If you believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God in the static form it was canonized back in the 4th and 5th centuries, then you may struggle to justify your compassion, because both Paul and writers in the Old Testament used some pretty harsh language regarding homosexuality. However, if your faith is grounded in an ever-maturing spiritual understanding of Christ and his message - a process that is certainly described and advocated in many New Testament passages - then your compassion is easily defended regarding loving relationships.

Expanding on this third point, here are some passages to consider; once again I would encourage meditating on them as you are able:

- John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

- John 16:12-13 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."

- 1 Cor 3:1-2 "But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready..."

- 1 Cor 13:9-13 "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

- Eph 1:15-19 "For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe..."

- Heb 5:12-14 "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."

- 1 John 4:20 "If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen."

I hope this was helpful.