Who should marry and who should not? Everyone seems to have an opinion. What is marriage? Is it a union ordained and established by God between one man and one woman or is it a state recognized lawful agreement of cohabitation between two people? Is it both? Can it be one or the other without being both? Who can perform marriages? Can a state or federal judge – a pastor or preacher? For a marriage to be lawful, someone recognized by law or by the state must perform it. Churches normally recognize marriages performed by judges and by other denominations. In this country (USA), we are seeing a rash of same sex partner marriages. We are seeing some churches performing the same sex marriages and some churches denouncing them. Where should a Christian stand?
First, we need to be able to separate state laws from God ordained marriage. In like manner we need to separate man ordained churches from God ordained and established. Marriage was first ordained and established by God as a union between one man and one woman. Governments created laws to recognize marriage as a contract between two people. That does not change God’s intent for marriage. The lawful union of two people for entitlements constitutes a lawful marriage; that is not the same as the institution of marriage ordained and established by God. In the same manner, being called a church because of legal documents and charters established by men, is not the same as a church established and ordained by God.
Second, we need to separate the person that God loves from the actions that we see. Jesus came for us while we were not seeking, not ready and not in anyway deserving. Jesus coming into our life made us deserving and then we started seeking and asking and Jesus’ answer made us ready. Being ready is not perfect, but ready to accept Jesus as our righteousness regardless of our actions. God loves us regardless of our actions. You say that God hates homosexuality. Yes, but not the homosexual. God also hates our holidays (Isaiah 1:14 – NKJ: “Your new Moons and appointed feasts My soul hates.”), but we continue to promote them instead of a loving God. Our attempts to be our own righteousness is like filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6). Can we see past the actions of a person to the person that God loves and that Jesus came to save?
It is true that we cannot continue to live in a manner that is ungodly, once we know that it is. But we cannot come to righteousness on our own. While we are doing our own thing, Jesus is our salvation and righteousness so we can come before a loving God. We cannot deny that gift to anyone, regardless of his or her action. We cannot be prejudice in our outreach for God or prejudice when we tell of God’s love. We cannot be prejudice in our prayers and in our giving or receiving. God loves the person – God loves the two people that are man with man and woman with woman – God loves. The attempt to become righteous by joining the union in a lawful agreement does not change the actions, it also does not change the love.
Ministers of God should not perform same sex marriages – they should also not ordain other ministers based on knowledge of church doctrine and/or completion of a study course, but they do. Only God can ordain the institution of marriage and only God can ordain ministers. As men and women that minister for Christ, we can only speak what God has ordained. Saying the words that sound like marriage vows or that sound like we are ordaining a minister may make it lawful, but does not make it true. That does not change the fact that we are to love the person and not the actions. If the true ministers of God start turning their backs on the people that are not perfect (without Christ), there would be no one to minister (we have all sinned and fallen short – even the minister). If Jesus came only for the perfect, we would not have hope and faith would be an empty promise. Jesus came to be our righteousness – regardless of our actions. Jesus giving His life was an act of love. Accepting Jesus as our righteousness is an act of faith – a loving life is built on that foundation. Where should a Christian stand? With Jesus, as a part of the body of Christ, loving the person.