I think it was Martin Luther who said that faithfulness to Christ will be tested by how clearly we identify with Him in the issues that are the dividing lines today. It doesn’t help a great deal to be strong where no one is paying attention. Of course, it won’t do for us to be one-issue people who see nothing but the one thing that we feel is important. But it’s the places where the world around us is turning against God’s truth that really test us as Christ-followers.

I’m quite certain that a good many of us would prefer that we finally leave the subject of homosexuality and same-sex marriage and the issues around these for more comfortable themes. Why keep coming back to them?

At a time when our culture and courts and government are saying that we ought to embrace and celebrate what a homosexual life represents, it’s not hard to understand that some sincere Christians are wondering whether they have been wrong all along. At the very least, there will be those who’ll say to themselves, “Let’s change the subject and give our attention elsewhere.”

We are quite right to pay attention to many more things, but that does not mean neglecting an issue where we are particularly being tested today. Faithfulness to Christ and His word, I’m convinced, will mean staying true to what the Scriptures teach about homosexual practice.

We ought to be prepared to confess to our world that God has spoken clearly to this way of life. We most certainly must confess that God has spoken very clearly too about sexual faithfulness heterosexually. But the question before us today specifically concerns homosexual practice. Let’s not fail to confess what the Bible says about it—and especially that it speaks a powerful word of freedom and hope.

A writer in Christianity Today in late 2004 related how the words, “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,” reached deep into his struggle with homosexuality and opened the door to his healing. Ultimately, that’s our greatest interest in our desire to remain faithful to Christ.