Why is homosexuality a sin? This important question was posed to Pastor John Piper back in 2010, and this is what he had to say. With every sin, there are multiple levels of why it's offensive to God and to be avoided. The simplest is clearly to say, "The Bible says it is." And we should start there, and if we can go deeper, that's good.

I think it's implied clearly, it's spoken clearly in Romans 1, 24 to 29, that it is wrong and to be avoided. And I think Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 10, lists a very unusual phrase about homosexuality, where he says, "Those who do such things," and he lists it along with greed and covetousness and other sins, it's not unique by itself in this, "Those who do such things will not enter the kingdom of heaven." In other words, if you know that it's wrong and you care that it's wrong, care what God says, "I'm going to do that thing," that's an indication that you're not going into the kingdom of heaven.

Now, that's just the "it's wrong, don't do it" authority answer. The question, "Why would the Bible say that?" is also multi-layered. Number one, the Bible sets up at the beginning, a man and a woman become one flesh, and that's God's way of doing sexuality. Sexuality is God's idea, and we should learn from God what it is.

And it's a man and a woman created in beautifully complementary ways so that they form one flesh. And to try to do it another way is a distortion, it's a corruption, it's a dysfunction of the way God made it. That's number two. Number three, and this is probably the only other one I'll give, is that as I reflect on Romans 1 and the way Paul unpacks the problem with homosexuality, it appears to me that Paul is saying something like this.

When you exchange the glory of God for idols, the main one that you exchange the glory of God for is yourself. The idol that you have is yourself. Well, what sex is yourself? Your sex is your sex self. My self is male. If you're a woman watching this, your sex is female.

And he seems to draw out the fact that in exchanging God for our most cherished idol, which is usually self, we are prone to fall in love with the same sex. So, implication, same-sex attraction is a dysfunctional form of idolatry. Now, there are other kinds. You don't hear me saying that homosexual temptations are the only way that kind of self-idolatry emerges.

But I think if you go to Romans 1, 24 to 29, and just think that through yourself. Ask how verse 23, the exchange of God for created things, relates to the exchange. They exchange the nature for the un-nature. These same words, "exchange," are used right through that passage. And so, the deepest thing I've ever hit upon for why God would disapprove of this is not just that the Bible says don't do it, not just that God created male and female, but deep down there is a kind of idolatry involved in same-sex relationships that is very profound.

And I'm sure there are other reasons why it's bad for us, and God loves us, and so he calls us not to do it. So, before I turn away from that question, let me just say to those of you who struggle with this, this is not hard for me to empathize with or imagine.

I just, I don't want those of you who are wrestling with this to feel like, oh, this is just the worst possible thing imaginable. I don't feel that way. What I feel is, if you set your face to say, "My heart is broken, and I'm weeping, that for reasons I don't understand, I am broken in my sexuality.

I'm broken. I wish I weren't." I can choose to turn my brokenness into sin. So I don't think it's sin to be broken. It's the result of sin to be broken. But to just be that way, to feel this way, I don't think is any more sin than my feeling heterosexual.

It's unnatural. It's broken. But now I have the choice of my heterosexuality to make it sin or to make it holy. A person who wrestles with homosexual temptations, desires, has the same choice to sin with it or to be chased and to seek to overcome and to move into something more God-appointed.

So don't hear me isolating it as the worst of all sins. It is part of a brokenness that I share. I think John Piper's personality is broken. I could give you specifics, but they would have to do with anger. They would have to do with self-pity. I'm just wired to like certain sins a lot.

I think it's partly genetic. I saw it in my grandmother and my mother. I think it's partly family-based. And it's just me. I'm broken. So I can choose to let that brokenness govern me and turn it into sins, or I can choose to say I'm going to deal with the brokenness I have and try to steer my way through my brokenness to do as much good for others and avoid as much sin as I can.

That was Pastor John Piper speaking back in 2010. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Pastor John is back home from the Middle East, and we will be back very shortly with all new episodes. Please continue to email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

Thanks for listening.