Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 26, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases related to same sex “marriage” (SSM): Hollingsworth v. Perry, which seeks to overturn Proposition 8, California’s current ban on same sex “marriage,” and United States v. Windsor, which challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
I’d like to ask you, my readers, to pray for God’s mercy as the United States faces these decisions tomorrow. May He be merciful by allowing all bans on same sex “marriage” to stand:
For His people:
Ever since same sex “marriage” became a hot button issue, and despite the claims of the homosexual lobby that legalizing it won’t harm Bible-believing Christians, there have been numerous cases of Christian bakers, photographers, florists, and even churches who have been sued because they cannot, in good conscience, tacitly endorse same sex “marriage” by providing their services at such weddings.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of SSM, these cases will increase and expand in scope and will affect far more individuals, churches, and Christian-owned businesses. Please pray that God will show mercy to His people and protect their businesses and churches.
For homosexuals:
God established the concept and practice of government for our own good (Romans 13:1). Without law and order, anarchy would reign. Any current local, state, or federal law against same sex “marriage” is a gift from God to those caught in the sin of homosexuality. Just as a fence around a yard is designed to keep children from wandering away, the boundary of the laws against SSM is one of God’s ways of protecting people from their own sin. If they won’t listen to Him, perhaps they will bounce off the brick wall of the law and turn back to Him.
But if SSM is ruled in favor of tomorrow, that boundary will be removed, and, as Christians, that should grieve us for our homosexual friends and loved ones. Although God has always done so on an individual basis, we will begin to see what it looks like for God to “give them up” to their sin on a corporate level.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 1:22-32
The legalization of SSM will be tragic for homosexuals because it will bolster their rebellion against God and separate them from Him even further by encouraging them to stay in, celebrate, and flaunt their sin. I can’t tell you how many times I have thanked God for protecting me from myself and my own sinful desires. I am praying that God will protect the homosexual community in the same way, and I ask you to join me.
What if God says “no”?
What if, in His wisdom and timing, God chooses to allow the Supreme Court to legalize SSM tomorrow? What is to be the Christian response?
Will we grieve for our homosexual friends and loved ones? Our country? Ourselves? Yes.
Should we act out and speak out in vitriolic anger and bitterness? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Our battle is not against people whom God loves and desires to rescue. Our battle is against Satan, who is holding those precious people as his captives and slaves to sin.
And how do we battle him?
With the gospel.
The good news of Jesus Christ –that He took the punishment ALL of us deserve for ALL of our sin– still has the power to save anyone, homosexual, heterosexual, or otherwise, who will repent and trust in His death, burial, and resurrection to save him.
What if God says “yes”?
What if, in His wisdom and timing, God chooses to protect the bans on same sex “marriage”? How should Christians respond?
In humility and gratitude in our hearts to God, and with the gospel.
There could hardly be a less Christlike response on the part of those who claim to be His than to boast and gloat in a snotty “We won! We won!” sort of attitude. Are you kidding me? We didn’t “win” anything. A court decision doesn’t change anybody’s heart. The same people who were lost and on their way to hell today will still be lost and on their way to hell tomorrow unless we share the gospel with them and God saves them.
At the end of the day, it’s not about rights or legislation or which side won or lost. It’s about a King who hung on a cross so that His subjects, held as prisoners of war, could be set free.
Remember that with me, and let’s pray.
