What Scripture says about
same-sex relationships (With Notes from Some Popular
Study Bibles)
Genesis 19:1-11 says, “The two
angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot
was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot
saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed
himself with his face to the earth 2 and
said, “My lords, please turn aside to your
servant’s house and spend the night and wash
your feet. Then you may rise up early and go
on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend
the night in the town square.” 3 But he
pressed them strongly; so they turned aside
to him and entered his house. And he made
them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and
they ate. 4 But
before they lay down, the men of the city,
the men of Sodom, both young and old, all
the people to the last man, surrounded the
house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are
the men who came to you tonight? Bring them
out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot
went out to the men at the entrance, shut
the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you,
my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8
Behold, I have two daughters who have not
known any man. Let me bring them out to you,
and do to them as you please. Only do
nothing to these men, for they have come
under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they
said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This
fellow came to sojourn, and he has become
the judge! Now we will deal worse with you
than with them.” Then they pressed hard
against the man Lot, and drew near to break
the door down. 10 But the men reached out
their hands and brought Lot into the house
with them and shut the door. 11 And they
struck with blindness the men who were at
the entrance of the house, both small and
great, so that they wore themselves out
groping for the door.”
NET Study
Note: Genesis 19:5.
They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who
came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so
we can have sex with them!”
NIV Study
Bible: Genesis 19:5.
have sex with them. Homosexual practice was
open and common among the men of Sodom (see
Jude 1:7). The English word “sodomy” alludes to
the perversions of the ancient city. (see
also “Sodom
and Gomorrah” at GotQuestions.org)
Genesis 19:23-26 says, “The sun had
risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah
sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all
the valley, and all the inhabitants of the
cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But
Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she
became a pillar of salt.”
ESV Study
Bible: Genesis 19:24-25.
The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur
and fire from the Lord out of heaven (Gen. 19:24). These words emphasize the divine
nature of the punishment, the consequence of
which is the total destruction of all the
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and all
the vegetation (Gen. 19:25). The theme of
universal destruction echoes the flood
story. This judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah,
the flood of Genesis 6-9, and the later
destruction of the Canaanites when the
people of Israel entered the Promised Land
(Deut. 20:16-18) all vividly demonstrate
God’s righteous wrath against sin, his mercy
in rescuing the godly from destruction, and
the certainty of the final judgment to come
(cf. 2 Pet. 2:4-10).
Nelson’s NKJV
Study Bible: Genesis 19:23-26.
The rain of brimstone and fire may be
explained in a couple of ways. It is
possible that God used a volcanic eruption
or some similar kind of natural disaster.
Then, the miracle would be in the Lord’s
timing and in the narrow escape of Lot and
his family. See Exodus 14 for a similar
possibility. It is also possible that the
destruction of these cities was an act of
judgment outside the normal range of natural
occurrences.
The Bible Knowledge
Commentary: Genesis 19:23-29.
“With burning sulfur the Lord overthrew the
wicked cities and the entire plain in a
great destruction (Gen. 19:24-25). Some have
suggested that deposits of sulfur erupted
from the earth (cf. the “tar pits,” Gen. 14:10), and then showered down out of the
heavens in flames of fire (cf. Luke 17:29).
Lot’s wife gazed back intently and was
changed into a pillar of salt, a monument to
her disobedience. The dense smoke (Gen. 19:28)
Abraham saw was caused by the burning
sulfur (Gen. 19:24). Though God judged the
sinners in the cities of the plain, He also
remembered Abraham, that is, God remembered
his request (Gen. 18:23-32) and saved Lot
from the catastrophe.”
Leviticus 18:22-24 says, “You shall
not lie with a male as with a woman; it is
an abomination. 23 And you shall not lie
with any animal and so make yourself unclean
with it, neither shall any woman give
herself to an animal to lie with it: it is
perversion. 24 “Do not make yourselves
unclean by any of these things, for by all
these the nations I am driving out before
you have become unclean.”
CSB Study
Bible: Leviticus 18:22.
Homosexuality is clearly prohibited
throughout the Bible (Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:27;
1 Cor. 6:9). The Sodomites were destroyed
because of their sodomy (Gen. 19:5), and the
men of Gibeah were destroyed following their
homosexual rampage (Judges 19:22). Male
prostitution was practiced as part of a
fertility ritual because pagans deified not
just gods but sex as well; ironically, male
and female shrine prostitutes were called
literally “holy ones” (Deut. 23:17).
Homosexuality is called detestable because
it is against God’s order of creation and
against his laws pertaining to the covenant
community. The word occurs 116 times in the
OT in contexts addressing idolatry, magic,
transvestism, and defective sacrifice.
Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man
lies with a male as with a woman, both of
them have committed an abomination; they
shall surely be put to death; their blood is
upon them.”
The Believer’s Study
Bible: Leviticus 20:13.
Homosexuality carried the death penalty in
ancient Israel and is as strongly denounced
in the N.T. as in the O.T. (cf. Rom. 1:24-27,
especially Rom. 1:24; 1 Cor. 6:9-10).
Judges 19:22-25 says, “They were
having a good time, when suddenly some men
of the city, some good-for-nothings,
surrounded the house and kept beating on the
door. They said to the old man who owned the
house, “Send out the man who came to visit
you so we can have sex with him.” 23 The man
who owned the house went outside and said to
them, “No, my brothers! Don’t do this wicked
thing! After all, this man is a guest in my
house. Don’t do such a disgraceful thing! 24
Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s
concubine. I will send them out and you can
abuse them and do to them whatever you like.
But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to
this man!” 25 The men refused to listen to
him, so the Levite grabbed his concubine and
made her go outside. They raped her and
abused her all night long until morning.
They let her go at dawn.” (NET)
ESV
Study Bible: Judges 19:16-30.
Judges 19:16,
old man... sojourning in Gibeah. In a
striking irony—and a commentary on the
degenerate state of affairs in Israel—the
Levite found hospitality, not from the
residents of Gibeah, but from an outsider, a
sojourner. hill country of Ephraim.
Judges 19:22-26, The “hospitality” offered by
Gibeah was no hospitality at all; it was the
“hospitality” of Sodom (cf. Gen. 19), an
outrageous affront to the Levite and
especially to his concubine. This section
closely echoes Genesis 19:4-9; indeed, it is
likely that the author intentionally
patterned this text after the Genesis
account, as if to say, “Things are as bad
now as they were in the days of Sodom and
Gomorrah!”
Judges 19:22, worthless fellows. Literally,
“sons of Belial.” In the OT, the term
“Belial” is used descriptively, speaking of
perverted or worthless people (cf. Judges 20:13;
1 Sam. 10:27; 1 Kings 21:13). In
intertestamental literature, the term was
used of Satan, and this is Paul’s sense in
2 Corinthians 6:15: “What accord has Christ with
Belial?” that we may know him. The word
“know” was the normal Hebrew euphemism for
sexual relations (cf. Gen. 4:1). The same
expression is found in Genesis 19:5, where the
men of Sodom wanted to have homosexual
relations with Lot’s guests.
Judges 19:27-30, The Levite’s matter-of-fact
reaction to his concubine’s death
illustrates his callousness. His gruesome
response was to cut her into twelve pieces
and send them around to the 12 tribes to
rally them against Gibeah. Saul later did
the same thing with a yoke of oxen (1 Sam. 11:7);
a similar practice is known from
Mari, in Mesopotamia. has never happened or
been seen. It is unclear what was being
referred to here (the outrageous actions of
the men of Gibeah or the cutting up of the
concubine), but it is more likely the former
(cf. Judges 20:10).
Fertility
Cult Prostitutes:
Deuteronomy 23:17-18 says, “None of
the daughters of Israel shall be a cult
prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel
shall be a cult prostitute. 18 You shall not
bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages
of a dog into the house of the LORD your God
in payment for any vow, for both of these
are an abomination to the LORD your God.”
Life Application Study Bible:
Deuteronomy 23:17-18.
Prostitution was not overlooked in God’s
law—it was strictly forbidden. To forbid
this practice may seem obvious to us, but it
may not have been so obvious to the
Israelites. Almost every other religion
known to them included prostitution as an
integral part of its worship services.
Prostitution makes a mockery of God’s
original idea for sex, treating sex as an
isolated physical act rather than an act of
commitment to another. Outside of marriage,
sex destroys relationships. Within marriage,
if approached with the right attitude, it
can be a relationship builder. God
frequently had to warn the people against
the practice of extramarital sex. Today we
still need to hear his warnings.
NIV
Study Bible: Deuteronomy 23:17-18.
(See Gen. 38:21; Exod. 34:15; 1 Kings 14:24;
Micah 1:7)
Deuteronomy 23:18 male prostitute. Lit.
“dog”, a word often associated with moral or
spiritual impurity (cf. Matt. 7:6; Phil. 3:2;
Rev. 22:15; cf. Matt. 15:26).
1 Kings 14:24 says, “and there were
also male cult prostitutes in the land. They
did according to all the abominations of the
nations that the LORD drove out before the
people of Israel.”
NIV Study Bible:
1 Kings 14:24.
Male shrine prostitutes. Ritual prostitution
was an important feature of Canaanite
fertility religion. The Israelites had been
warned by Moses not to engage in this
abominable practice (see Deut. 23:17-18;
1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:7; Hosea 4:14).
Israel fell into the same sins as the
surrounding nations before them!
THE NEW TESTAMENT DECLARES
HOMOSEXUALITY JUST AS SINFUL AS THE OLD
TESTAMENT DOES!
All
sex is sinful apart from a marriage between
one (biological) man and one (biological)
woman and is forbidden!
Mark 10:6-9 says, “But from the
beginning of creation, ‘God made them male
and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave
his father and mother and hold fast to his
wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’
So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9
What therefore God has joined together, let
not man separate.”
Life Application
Study Bible: Mark 10:6-9.
Women were often treated as property.
Marriage and divorce were regarded as
transactions similar to buying and selling
land. But Jesus condemned this attitude,
clarifying God’s original intention—that
marriage bring oneness [between a man and a
woman only] (Gen. 2:24). Jesus held up
God’s ideal for marriage and told his
followers to live by that ideal.
Romans 1:18-32 says, “For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain
to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his
eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly perceived, ever since the creation
of the world, in the things that have been
made. So they are without excuse. 21 For
although they knew God, they did not honor
him as God or give thanks to him, but they
became futile in their thinking, and their
foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to
be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged
the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals
and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts
of their hearts to impurity, to the
dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves, 25 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.
26 For this reason God gave them up to
dishonorable passions. For their women
exchanged natural relations for those that
are contrary to nature; 27 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.
28 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. 29 They were filled with all manner of
unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30
slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, 31 foolish,
faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 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.”
ESV Study
Bible: Romans 1:24-32.
Romans 1:24 Three times Paul says God gave
them up (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). In every
instance the giving up to sin is a result of
idolatry, the refusal to make God the center
and circumference of all existence, so that
in practice the creature is exalted over the
Creator. Hence, all individual sins are a
consequence of the failure to prize and
praise God as the giver of every good thing.
Romans 1:25 exchanged the truth about God
for a lie. Paul implies that all other
religions are based on false ideas about the
one true God; they are not just “different
paths to one God,” as some claim.
Romans 1:26-27 Not only homosexual acts but
also such passions or desires are said to be
dishonorable before God. Just as idolatry is
unnatural (contrary to what God intended
when he made human beings), so too
homosexuality is contrary to nature in that
it does not represent what God intended when
he made men and women with physical bodies
that have a “natural” way of interacting
with each other and “natural” desires for
each other. Paul follows the OT and Jewish
tradition in seeing all homosexual
relationships as sinful. The creation
account in Genesis 1-2 reveals the divine
paradigm for human beings, indicating that
God’s will is for man and woman to be joined
in marriage. Consumed (or “inflamed”) gives
a strong image of a powerful but destructive
inward desire. The sin in view is not
pederasty (homosexual conduct of men with
boys) but men engaging in sin with men.
There is no justification here for the view
that Paul condemns only abusive homosexual
relationships. Due penalty could refer to
the sin of homosexuality itself as the
penalty for idolatry. Or, the “and” in and
receiving may indicate some additional
negative consequences received in
themselves, that is, some form of spiritual,
emotional, or physical blight. The “due”
penalty refers to a penalty that is
appropriate to the wrong committed.
Romans 1:28-31 Human sin is not confined to
sexual sins, and Paul now lists a whole
catalog of the evils common among human
beings as a result of turning from God.
Romans 1:32 People do not generally sin in
innocent ignorance, for they know God’s
decree (at least in an instinctive way) that
their evil deserves condemnation. Indeed,
the evil goes further when people give
approval and applaud others for their sin,
probably because having others join in their
sin makes them feel better about the evil
course they have chosen.
God’s desire for us is to live free from
unbridled sinful desires. Being under grace
is not license to sin. Continual sinful
living is a sign of an unregenerate person.
God offers us freedom from all sin!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “Do you
not know that the wicked will not inherit
the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters
nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor
homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor
swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But
you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (NIV)
The MacArthur Study Bible: 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
“not
inherit the kingdom.” The kingdom is the
spiritual sphere of salvation where God
rules as king over all who belong to Him by
faith (see Matt. 5:3, 10). All believers are
in that spiritual kingdom, yet are waiting
to enter into the full inheritance of it in
the age to come. People who are
characterized by these iniquities are not
saved (1 Cor. 6:10). See 1 John 3:9-10.
While believers can and do commit these
sins, they do not characterize them as an
unbroken life pattern. When they do, it
demonstrates that the person is not in God’s
kingdom. True believers who do sin, resent
that sin and seek to gain the victory over
it (cf. Rom. 7:14-25).
* fornicators. All who indulge in sexual
immorality, but particularly unmarried
persons. *
idolaters. Those who worship any false god
or follow any false religious system.
* adulterers. Married persons who indulge in
sexual acts outside their marriage.
* effeminate [male prostitutes] ...
homosexuals. These terms refer to those who
exchange and corrupt normal male-female
sexual roles and relations. Transvestism,
sex changes, and other gender perversions
are included (cf. Gen. 1:27; Deut. 22:5).
Those whom some translations refer to as
“sodomites,” and Paul as “effeminate,” are
so-called because the sin of male-male sex
dominated the city of Sodom (Gen. 18:20; 19:4-5).
This sinful perversion is condemned
always, in any form, by Scripture (cf.
Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26, 27; 1 Tim. 1:10).
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul’s use of the word
unrighteous (Gk. adikos again; see note on
1 Cor. 6:7-8) implies that those whose
behavior is indistinguishable from the
unbelieving world may not be among the
“saints” (1 Cor. 6:1) at all. See also
2 Corinthians 13:5. men who practice homosexuality.
The Greek words malakos and arsenokoitēs
refer specifically to male homosexuals, but
in Romans 1:26-27 Paul also refers to female
homosexuals, and to homosexual desires or
“passions.” Both passages (as well as Lev. 18:22; 20:13; and 1 Tim. 1:10) refer to
homosexuality in general.
1 Corinthians 6:11 “washed.” This refers to
the spiritual cleansing from the guilt and
dominating power of sin that occurs at
regeneration (see Titus 3:5) and that is
symbolized in the “washing” of baptism (Acts 22:16). sanctified. This is a similar
concept, in this instance meaning that an
initial break with the love of sin, and with
the power and practice of sin, occurs at
regeneration (see Acts 20:32; Rom. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:17). However, in another sense
“sanctification” is also an ongoing process
in the Christian life (Rom. 6:19; Phil. 3:13-14; Heb. 12:1, 14;
see also 1 Cor. 1:2). justified. The Greek term
is dikaioō and is the positive counterpart to
the terms “unrighteous,” “suffer wrong,” and
“wrong” in 1 Corinthians 6:1, 7-9. Here Paul uses
dikaioō not in its ethical sense (“be seen
to be righteous”) but in its judicial sense
(“declare righteous”). God has already
declared the Corinthian Christians to be
“righteous” (see Rom. 5:1; 8:1, 33). God was
able to do this because the “righteousness”
that belongs to Christ, due to his perfect
life, has become “our... righteousness”
(1 Cor. 1:30; see also 2 Cor. 5:21). Paul’s
point in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 is that the
Corinthians need to live in a way that is
consistent with this verdict and status.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 says, “All
things are lawful for me,” but not all
things are helpful. “All things are lawful
for me,” but I will not be dominated by
anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach
and the stomach for food”—and God will
destroy both one and the other. The body is
not meant for sexual immorality, but for the
Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God
raised the Lord and will also raise us up by
his power. 15 Do you not know that your
bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and make them
members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you
not know that he who is joined to a
prostitute becomes one body with her? For,
as it is written, “The two will become one
flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord
becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from
sexual immorality. Every other sin a person
commits is outside the body, but the
sexually immoral person sins against his own
body. 19 Or do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God? You are not your
own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So
glorify God in your body.”
The
MacArthur Study Bible: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.
As one
who is washed, sanctified, and justified
eternally by God’s grace, the believer is
set free (cf. Rom. 8:21, 33; Gal. 5:1, 13).
The Corinthians had done with that freedom
just what Paul had warned the Galatians not
to do: “Do not turn your freedom into an
opportunity for the flesh” (Gal. 5:13). So
in this section, Paul exposed the error in
the Corinthian Christians’ rationalization
that they were free to sin, because it was
covered by God’s grace.
1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful...
but not... profitable. That may have been a
Corinthian slogan. It was true that no
matter what sins a believer commits, God
forgives (Eph. 1:7), but not everything they
did was profitable or beneficial. The price
of abusing freedom and grace was very high.
Sin always produces loss.
not be mastered. Cf. Romans 6:14. Sin has
power, and no sin is more enslaving than
sexual sin. While it can never be the
unbroken pattern of a true believer’s life,
it can be the recurring habit that saps joy,
peace, usefulness and brings divine
chastening and even church discipline (cf.
1 Cor. 5:1-13). See 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.
Sexual sin controls, so the believer must
never allow sin to have that control, but
must master it in the Lord’s strength (see 1
Cor. 9:27). Paul categorically rejects the
ungodly notion that freedom in Christ gives
license to sin (cf. Rom. 7:6; 8:13, 21).
1 Corinthians 6:13 Food... stomach. Perhaps
this was a popular proverb to celebrate the
idea that sex is purely biological, like
eating. The influence of philosophical
dualism may have contributed to this idea
since it made only the body evil; therefore,
what one did physically was not preventable
and thus inconsequential. Because the
relationship between these two is purely
biological and temporal, the Corinthians,
like many of their pagan friends, probably
used that analogy to justify sexual
immorality.
1 Corinthians 6:14 Cf. Acts 2:32; Eph. 1:19.
Bodies of believers and the Lord have an
eternal relationship that will never perish.
He is referring to the believer’s body to be
changed, raised, glorified, and made
heavenly. See 1 Corinthians 15:35-54; cf.
Philippians 3:20-21.
1 Corinthians 6:15 members. The believer’s
body is not only for the Lord here and now
(1 Cor. 6:14) but is of the Lord, a part of
His body, the church (Eph. 1:22-23). The
Christian’s body is a spiritual temple in
which the Spirit of Christ lives (1 Cor. 12:3;
John 7:38-39; 20:22; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:9;
2 Cor. 6:16); therefore, when a
believer commits a sexual sin, it involves
Christ with a harlot. All sexual sin is
harlotry. 1
Corinthians 6:16 one flesh. Paul supports
his point in the previous verse by appealing
to the truth of Genesis 2:24 that defines
the sexual union between a man and a woman
as “one flesh.” When a person is joined to a
harlot, it is a one flesh experience;
therefore Christ spiritually is joined to
that harlot.
1 Corinthians 6:17 one spirit with Him.
Further strengthening the point, Paul
affirms that all sex outside of marriage is
sin; but illicit relationships by believers
are especially reprehensible because they
profane Jesus Christ with whom believers are
one (John 14:18-23; 15:4; 17:20-23; Rom. 12:5).
This argument should make such sin
unthinkable. 1
Corinthians 6:18 Every other sin... is
outside. There is a sense in which sexual
sin destroys a person like no other, because
it is so intimate and entangling, corrupting
on the deepest human level. But Paul is
probably alluding to venereal disease,
prevalent and devastating in his day and
today. No sin has greater potential to
destroy the body, something a believer
should avoid because of the reality given in
1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
1 Corinthians 6:19 not your own. A
Christian’s body belongs to the Lord (1 Cor. 6:13),
is a member of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15),
and is the Holy Spirit’s temple. See Rom. 12:1-2.
Every act of fornication, adultery,
or any other sin is committed by the
believer in the sanctuary, the Holy of
Holies, where God dwells. In the OT, the
High-Priest only went in there once a year,
and only after extensive cleansing, lest he
be killed (Lev. 16).
1 Corinthians 6:20 a price. The precious
blood of Christ (see 1 Pet. 1:18). glorify
God. The Christian’s supreme purpose (1 Cor. 10:31).
1 Timothy 1:8-11 says, “Now we know
that the law is good, if one uses it
lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law
is not laid down for the just but for the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and
sinners, for the unholy and profane, for
those who strike their fathers and mothers,
for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men
who practice homosexuality, enslavers,
liars, perjurers, and whatever else is
contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance
with the gospel of the glory of the blessed
God with which I have been entrusted.”
The Believer’s Study Bible: 1 Timothy 1:10.
The first
term in this verse (“fornicators”) applies
to sexual immorality in general, and the
next phrase condemns homosexuality (cf. Rom. 1:24).
Jude 1:5-7 says, “Now I want to
remind you, although you once fully knew it,
that Jesus, who saved a people out of the
land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who
did not believe. 6 And the angels who did
not stay within their own position of
authority, but left their proper dwelling,
he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy
darkness until the judgment of the great
day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the
surrounding cities, which likewise indulged
in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural
desire, serve as an example by undergoing a
punishment of eternal fire.”
ESV
Study Bible: Jude 1:5-7.
Judgment Reserved for the False Teachers.
Jude applies examples of judgment from the
whole of biblical history in his polemic
against the heretics.
Jude 1:5 The Analogy of Egypt. Jude reminds
his readers that they once fully knew about
God’s judgment, but apparently their sense
of its certainty has waned. He refers them
to the Exodus account as a reminder.
Jesus... saved a people out of the land of
Egypt (cf. Exodus 1-15). This may seem
puzzling, because the name “Jesus” is not
applied to the Son of God in the OT. It is a
prime example of the apostolic understanding
of the OT, according to which the Son of
God, in his eternal divine nature, was
active in the world from the beginning of
creation, long before his incarnation (cf.
Luke 24:27; John 1:3; 8:56-58; 12:41; 1 Cor. 10:4, 9;
Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:8-12; 11:26).
Jesus, then, judged and destroyed those in
Israel who escaped from Egypt but failed to
keep trusting in God, and therefore they did
not reach the Promised Land (cf. 1 Cor. 10:5;
Heb. 3:16-19). Instead of the name
“Jesus,” some Greek manuscripts have ho Kyrios, “the Lord,” and some English
translations follow that reading. Most of
the oldest and most reliable manuscripts
have Iēsous (“Jesus”).
Jude 1:6 The Analogy of the Rebellious
Angels. The heart of Jude’s next comparison
is the angels who did not stay within their
own position of authority but apparently
rebelled against God’s authority and sought
to be equal to him. God has kept these
beings in eternal chains ever since. Some
scholars think this refers to the original
fall of angels from heaven. Others think
Jude is referring to the sin of angels in
Genesis 6:1-4 (see 1 Pet. 3:19). This view
is strengthened by Jude’s citation of 1
Enoch 1.9 (Jude 1:14-15), which contains
much discussion on the fall of these angels.
Jude 1:7 The Analogy of Sodom and Gomorrah.
As with the unfaithful Israelites and the
rebellious angels (Jude 1:5-6), so also the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)
received the judgment of eternal fire. Smoke
was still rising from the site of Sodom and
Gomorrah in the first century A.D. (see
Philo, On Abraham 141; Philo, Life of Moses
2.56; Wisdom of Solomon 10:7), and this was
taken as a physical symbol of eternal divine
judgment. Pursued unnatural desire refers to
the homosexual activity of Sodom (Gen. 19:5;
cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1.200-201;
Philo, On Abraham 134-136; Testament of
Naphtali 3.4). The Greek is literally “went
after other flesh,” meaning “other” or
“different” than the sexual immorality with
women that Jude had just mentioned (cf. Rom. 1:26-27).
The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah
in history functions as a “type” (a
foreshadowing planned by God, cf. Rom. 5:14)
of eternal judgment to come.
Revelation 22:14-15 says, “Blessed
are those who wash their robes, so that they
may have the right to the tree of life and
that they may enter the city by the gates.
15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and
the sexually immoral and murderers and
idolaters, and everyone who loves and
practices falsehood.”
NIV Study
Bible: Revelation 22:15.
Dogs. A term applied to all types of
ceremonially impure persons. In Deut. 23:18
it designates a male prostitute.
The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: Revelation 22:14-15.
Judgment is pronounced on those who are
unsaved (dogs refers to people; cf. Phil. 3:2):
those who practice magic arts (cf.
Rev. 9:21; 18:23; 21:8), the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and
everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
As in the similar description of the unsaved
in Revelation 21:8, 27, the wicked works
which characterize the unsaved are
described. Though some saints have been
guilty of these same practices, they have
been washed in the blood of the Lamb and are
acceptable to God. But those who refuse to
come to the Lord receive the just reward for
their sins. Though the world is excessively
wicked, God will bring every sin into
judgment. And the time for Christ’s return
may be drawing near, when this will be
effected.
Leaving Homosexuality:
Jeff Johnston of Focus on the Family
wrote, “Many people with same-sex
attractions choose not to identify as
homosexual, lesbian, gay or bisexual.
Instead, their primary identification comes
from their faith in Jesus Christ. They
identify as Christians, followers of Jesus
and God’s children. And they choose to live
according to biblical truths and values,
reserving sexual expression for marriage
between a man and a woman. We understand
that this may be a difficult struggle,
requiring help and assistance from other
Christians.”
