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5 Myths People Spread About Jesus, Sex and Gay Marriage

4. Jesus reached out to and accepted people into His circle who did not fit the “traditional marriage” model.

Two case-studies of this position are often brought up when talking about Jesus and marriage. The first is the Samaritan woman at the well (see John 4). The second is the woman caught in adultery (see Jn. 8:1-11).

What can we make of these two stories? Is it something like:

Jesus speaking: “Hey, there’s a serial-divorcee, and an adulteress. I’m going to invite them to become members of my circle of people just so I can show people that I accept people like this.”

Yes! The truth is that Jesus was reaching out to them, but not without a call to leave their sexual/relational dysfunction behind them.

It’s true that “Jesus accepted people,” but remember He also called people to accept Him as LORD of their lives, which is initially done through repenting of the sins that pull us outside the bounds of God’s created order for our lives, whatever those sins might be (including adultery and homosexuality).

One need only look at how the first Apostles called people to Jesus in order to affirm this. The first evangelistic message in the Bible culminates with the words, “Repent … every one of you … ” (Acts 2:38).

When it comes to Jesus and marriage, what’s the point here? Simply this: Jesus reached out to two women with similar types of sexual/relational dysfunction in their lives.

He promised that He loved them, He forgave them, He could fulfill them, and that they should turn away from their sin as a true evidence of their desire to be in relationship with Him. This is the opposite of a belief that Jesus wants a church full of people who go on sinning, who embrace their sexual sin as normal and who can comfort themselves by being accepted by Jesus, who does not condemn them.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus called them to Himself, in part, by calling them out of their particular brand of sexual sin (see also 1 Cor. 6:9-11).