WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION

 

The Bible predicts that “in the last days…men shall be...unholy, without natural affection” (2 Tim. 3:1-3, King James Version).  Is the Word of God up to date and applicable to our day—or what?

 

There can be no mistake as to what “without natural affection” means when one reads the other passage where this _expression is used.  But first, let us review what happened in 2003.

 

The summer of 2003 saw homosexuality take to the forefront.

 

In New York plans were announced that would create a high school for gays and lesbians.

 

Canada gave thumbs up to same-sex marriage.  Then a new gay television show emerged with Boy Meets Boy.  There were even reports that Bravo, the channel carrying it, achieved high marks for doing so--and thus there were plans for another network to carry the show, too.

 

One of the nation’s largest retail employers agreed to give employee benefits to gay “partners.”  And one of the nation’s largest cities has been affording employee benefits to same-sex “couples” for several years.

 

Brides magazine, too, offered its first feature article on same-sex “weddings.”  Of course, a bride used to be exclusively female, but apparently that is no longer a requirement today.

 

Then, too, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the State laws against sodomy were unconstitutional and “an unnecessary invasion of privacy.”  Yet it may be no accident that sodomy takes its name from the city of Sodom, which God destroyed because of its heinous sins--among which was the sin of homosexuality.

 

While the anti-sodomy laws were struck down because of “an unnecessary invasion of privacy,” the same “invasion” could be said for those who are arrested for growing marijuana in their back yards or making methamphetamines in their garages.  Those arrests could be deemed “an unnecessary invasion of privacy,” too.

 

Where will all of this end?  Why has lawbreaking suddenly become acceptable?  Prostitution is mutual consent of hookers and “johns.”  Are laws against prostitution an unnecessary invasion of privacy, too?

 

Topping off the summer of 2003, on September 19 California Governor Gray Davis signed a “domestic partner” bill to give same-sex relationships virtually the same rights and privileges as married couples, in regard to health and other benefits.

 

In contrast, though, the President of the United States explained that he would support a statement or amendment defining marriage strictly as a union between a man and a woman.

 

Even churches have been affected by this change in the moral climate.  One church debated on whether to allow their bishops to openly profess being gay, saying such allowance could cause many more people to join their church.  The quest for more membership appeared to blind many to the direct commands in the book they purport to read and obey.

 

The debate centered around the confirmation of a bishop who was an avowed homosexual—not only whether he should be allowed to remain in the church by unabashedly and blatantly refusing to overcome this so-called “alternative lifestyle,” but whether he should be given the church’s full blessing to remain a bishop while, ostensibly, teaching church members obedience to the laws of God.

 

Why the need for debate here?  Would not such a church read the qualifications for a bishop, found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:7-11?

 

If they applied this section of scripture, would not their decision become crystal clear?  Notice especially “the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:6-7) and “having his children under control” (1 Tim. 3:4, Holman Christian Standard Bible).  And is a gay bishop “blameless” (1 Tim. 3:2 and Titus 1:7)?

 

The analogy here should be simple and obvious..  Compare it to an avowed married adulterer, or an unmarried fornicator, who openly admitted his sexually immoral lifestyle—yet one who would obviously continue with his personal wayward ways while being allowed to “tend the flock.”

 

Would this be tantamount to putting the fox in charge of the hen house?  What kind of example, or model, would this fornicator or adulterer be?

 

Let us quote this passage in 1 Timothy 3 (God’s Word translation), underlining some key words:

 

If anyone sets his heart on being a bishop, he desires something excellent.  A bishop must have a good reputation. He must have only one wife, be sober, use good judgment, be respectable, be hospitable, and be able to teach…He must manage his own family well. His children should respectfully obey him.  People who are not Christians must speak well of him, or he might become the victim of disgraceful insults that the devil sets as traps for him..

 

It is still difficult to have a good reputation if a bishop is not the husband of only one wife—and that wife must not be a man..  The Greek word for wife here is gune, meaning “a woman; specifically a wife” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).  And if his “wife” is a man, it is highly unlikely that he will be well spoken of by non-Christians—or most God-fearing Christian folk, too..

 

As for sodomy, it is true that it can occur between a man and a woman, but it is often associated with homosexuality among two males.  But be it between two males or between a man and a woman, we can get an idea of God’s attitude regarding sodomy through the pages of the Bible.

 

In 1 Kings 14:22-24 we find Israel’s sins and backsliding ways mentioned.  Notice verse 24:  “And there were also perverted persons in the land.  They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel” (New King James Version).

 

This passage will give us an idea of how God views sodomy, as well as prostitution.  The margin says that the Hebrew word here is qadesh, meaning “one practicing sodomy and prostitution in religious rituals”—which is what these “perverted persons” were doing.  In verse 24, then, we see that both prostitution and sodomy are abominations in the eyes of God.

 

“Abominations” are detestable things, according to the margin at Deuteronomy 20:18.  An abomination is described as “anything extremely repulsive to God,” according to the dictionary in the Life Application Study Bible (New International Version).

 

Sodomy is most unnatural and contrary to the way God intended sex to be, and as such it is extremely repulsive to God—an abomination--as is homosexuality itself.

 

In Leviticus 18:22 we read: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman.  It is an abomination.”  Verse 24 adds, “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.”  And this admonition is repeated in verse 30.

 

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).  Nevertheless, a church leader needs to be stalwart and strong and set the example for his flock (1 Tim. 4:12-16).

 

A minister must preach the word, “in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2).  He must speak it continuously and not mince words when it comes to preaching the truth.

 

Without natural affection is used in Romans 1:31, too.  Let us read and underline in Romans 1 in The New Testament: An Expanded Translation, by Kenneth S. Wuest, quoting from verses 24, 26-27, and 28-32:

 

On which account God delivered them over in the passionate cravings of their hearts to bestial profligacy, which had for its purpose the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…. Because of this God gave them over to dishonorable passions, for even their females exchanged their natural use for that which is against nature..

 

And likewise also the males, having put aside the natural use of the females, burned themselves out in their lustful appetite toward one another, males with males carrying to its ultimate conclusion that which is shameful, receiving in themselves that retribution which was a necessity in the nature of the case because of their deviation from the norm.

 

God gave them up to a mind that would not meet the test for that which a mind was meant, to practice those things which were not becoming or fitting…without natural affection..

 

Does this sound like homosexuality is herewith being considered a natural and harmless “alternative” lifestyle?  One would hardly think so, from the reading of this clear passage.

 

There can be no doubt as to what the phrase without natural affection means here.  Read it again, paying close attention to words like unnatural, against nature, and deviation from the norm (deviation from what is natural).

 

Paul told Timothy that being without natural affection in this area of sexual _expression would be a sign of the last days.  Truly, the Bible is relevant for us today.

 

The truth, then, is that homosexuality is a sin that is condemned in the Bible.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10 asks, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites…will inherit the kingdom of God” (NKJV).

 

The margin reference for “homosexuals” here in the New King James Version says, “catamites, those who submit to homosexuals.”  But, obviously, there would be no difference between those who submit to them or those who take the lead part.  They are both guilty of the sin of homosexuality.

 

We saw in Romans 1 that homosexual women (lesbians), too, were “without natural affection,” falling prey to dishonorable passions and exchanging the natural use of sexual passion and _expression for “that which is against nature.”

 

However, in this passage in 1 Corinthians, “sodomites” means male homosexuals, according to the margin in the NKJV.  This is not difficult to perceive when one understands the meaning of the word sodomy.

 

Sodomites are also mentioned in the list of the ungodly sinners spoken of in 1 Timothy 1:8-11.  Clearly, sodomy is not to be coddled and condoned by those professing to be godly folk.

 

Those who purport themselves to be Christians ought to be following God’s Word (1 John 1:5-7).  They need to overcome sin--not rationalize it or flaunt it openly, proudly bragging about it!

 

Let us not succumb to the ways of the world.  Rather, let us endeavor to follow the plain teaching of the Word of God.

 

Let righteousness well up like water (Isaiah 45:8), because “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34, NKJV).

 

The way for the United States to be exalted is to adhere to the Christian principles upon which it was founded.  And churches ought to lead the way and clearly teach the truth as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.