Is Being Gay A Sin?

Contrary to what mainstream churches teach, being gay is not a sin. Let us explore the facts so that you may find true freedom of living in Christ. Knowing that God loves you and accepts you fully as you are, regardless of your sexual preference or how you identify.

Non-affirming churches teach that homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God and that being gay is a sin. This teaching is rooted in a translation error made back in 1946 of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the bible verse 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, where two words in the original Greek were combined to be interpreted as ‘homosexuals .’ With this interpretation, the Church has added other issues with homosexuality that otherwise wouldn’t be taught. 

Before 1946, the word ‘homosexuals’ was not found in any bible. The translation team of the RSV, which was creating the first ‘modern’ accepted translation, combined two words in the original Greek and rewrote the 1 Corinthians 6:9 verse to include the word ‘homosexuals. Let’s look at how the verse reads if we leave a few of those Greek words in it:

9 Do you not know that unjust persons will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malakoi, nor arsenokoitai,

The word malakoi means ‘soft males’ in Greek and is used a few other times in the New Testament of the Bible in the neuter plural Malaka, meaning ‘soft things.’ When John the Baptist was addressing the crowds, Jesus asked, ‘Why then did you go out? To see a man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing live in kings’ houses.” In the culture of this time period, there was the idea that all rich took advantage of the poor. Because of that, I believe the interpretation of malakoi to be closer to a ‘sleazy rich person’ or ‘someone who is rich and rips off the poor’ and lines up with the ‘thieves, ‘greedy,’ and ‘robbers’ of the following verse. 

Arsenokoitai presents an unusual challenge as the word is a made-up compound word that Paul used. The components of the word are arsen (“male”) + koite (“bed”). A thing to note is that koite is ambiguous in gender, making it either male or female. The lack of gender in koite denotes the compound word as ‘males sleeping around with males’ OR ‘males sleeping around with females.’ But many Bible translators believe this word, with the context of what was going on in society at the time, defines as ‘those who take sexual advantage with younger males (boys).’  

So what happened with the 1946 RSV translation? Well, the translators took the ‘nor malakoi, nor arsenokoitai‘ and combined it. In the 1940s, society thought of homosexuals as mentally perverse and acted like women. They did not in any way see those who identified as gay able to have committed loving relationships. Their thought was that a ‘soft male’ + ‘a male who sleeps around’ equates to their view of a ‘Homosexual’; thus, they made it so in the scripture. This grievous error by the translation team was later fixed from ‘nor homosexuals’ to ‘nor sexual perverts.’ Before the revised translation was published, many other modern translation teams like the New International Version (NIV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB) used the RSV’s incorrect translation as their interpretation. 

The truth is that while God calls immoral sexual behavior a sin, he does not equate homosexuality as a sin; only modern culture has done that. The Church and Modern culture basically said that if a man has sex with a boy, he is homosexual; therefore, all homosexuals are sinful.

Let’s be clear.

The problem is not God, but with some of His people.  Culture didn’t understand what homosexuality was. They falsely defined it as a medical issue or some perverse distortion of sexuality. Then the church just ran with that definition.  Ignore the false doctrine that the non-affirming Church preaches and understand God doesn’t agree with them. Find an affirming Church and join them to learn more about God.