The only same-sex act the Bible condemned was all-male anal intercourse taking place within abusive, promiscuous, lustful relationships. In the Old Testament these were part of idolatrous Canaanite religious practices. In the New Testament these were part of exploitative relationships involving older/more powerful men preying upon younger/weaker men and boys. Homosexual sex within faithful, loving relationships was then virtually never, if ever, heard of. It was therefore not what Paul was addressing. The Bible said nothing at all about lesbian sex, even though it occasionally happened. It also said nothing about same-sex marriage or sex within it, because in those patriarchal times such marriages never happened until Nero’s sham marriage to his slave-boy Sporus about two years after Paul died. Therefore, in condemning homosexual anal intercourse, Paul could not have had in mind intercourse between two men who were married to each other, as happens today. It was like Paul was calling out “gin-drinkers”, if  the only gin then made were 90% proof, which people only drank in order to get drunk. This would not condemn today’s “gin-drinkers” drinking a single gin and tonic to relax after work.

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The complementarian dominant male-submissive female marriage model only resulted from Eve’s curse following the Fall. Christ lifted that curse so that in him there is now complete equality of male and female roles – Paul’s ultimate vision for the church in Galatians. However, it has taken time to get there! The New Testament also removed the requirement for marriages to produce children and encouraged sex within marriage for its own sake. The church is not literally Christ’s bride but his brothers and sisters. Therefore, there’s no need for marriage to involve a husband and a wife to reflect our relationship with Christ. These are the essential biblical purposes of marriage, seen originally before the Fall and, ultimately, restored by Christ (but which took centuries to fully realise!):

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• two equal, compatible life-partners

• serving and supporting each other through life

• in a permanent union

• that is faithfully monogamous

• within which sex can be enjoyed to help cement the relationship

• and discipline and control sexual desires

• providing a suitable place to bring up any children

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The overwhelming evidence shows same-sex partnerships can and do fulfil those purposes.

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Christ told us that he was not just leaving his word to instruct us but also his Holy Spirit to guide us into “all truth.” Christ and Paul also established a higher law of love your neighbour in which all other commands are fulfilled – to do what does good and prevents harm to people. Christ’s test of the good/bad fruit of true/false teaching should lead to the same conclusion. 

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Christ’s higher law of love is Scripture’s ultimate test to guide how we should understand and apply Scripture’s instructions to situations Scripture had not foreseen or where there are alternative interpretations. It’s the same test we see Jesus and his apostles use throughout Scripture. In Acts 10 to 15 we see the apostles, guided by the Holy Spirit, following this same test  led to accept uncircumcised Gentile believers, even though this went directly against previous commands of Scripture. 

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Led by the Holy Spirit, the church has continued the biblical pattern in Acts 10-15 of extending God’s mercy to those previously excluded by fully emancipating women and abolishing slavery. In doing so, it revised previous understandings of Scripture to follow Christ’s higher law of love to do good and prevent harm.

As taught by John Calvin, the church had also followed the same law of Christ's love to re-interpret the strict scriptural ban on all lending with interest ("usury"). Calvin discerned the age-abiding principles behind the usury ban - to prevent commercial exploitation of vulnerable farmers by the rich - and re-applied it to a new context - a more commercial world. He did that in a way that did good rather than harm - allowing lending with interest but banning excessive interest etc. Revisionists are simply applying the same purpose-driven, love-centric approach to Scripture Calvin took with "usury" to same-sex relationships.

 

Accepting same-sex marriage is much less radical than abolishing circumcision or liberalising usury rules, because it doesn’t actually breach any command of Scripture. But that same biblical pattern and that same test and law of Christ’s love compels us to accept same-sex marriages today . That’s because the evidence shows supporting such relationships abundantly meets that test by overwhelmingly doing good and prevent harm.

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They do good by offering the same benefits for LGBTQ+ folk and wider society that opposite sex marriage has always offered heterosexual couples. Just like the apostles welcoming uncircumcised male believers into God’s family, affirming same-sex marriage is part of the biblical pattern of God doing a “new thing” by extending his mercy to new groups of people, even those Scripture had previously excluded.

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The revisionist teaching prevents harm because when the church teaches the opposite it does great harm by encouraging people to live against their God-designed natures. Science now shows our sexuality is nearly always hardwired by biological factors beyond our control, mostly occurring before birth, and it can virtually never, if ever, be changed. Therefore, same-sex marriage is the only means of meeting a gay person’s need for a sexual life-partner. And this is an essential need God recognised in most humans right from the start in Genesis chapter two. The evidence shows that decades of society and church trying to change LGBTQ+ people’s sexuality or gender or requiring them to be celibate or encouraging them to marry an opposite sex partner have caused only great harm.

 

It is the traditionalists rather than the revisionists whose teaching contradicts Scripture – by forbidding marriage and imposing celibacy on gay people they are going directly against both Jesus and Paul’s teaching. They both taught that we should not forbid marriage or impose celibacy on anyone, and this must surely include LGBTQ+ people - for most of whom only marriage with a same-sex partner can work.​

 

Because teaching against same-sex marriage now runs contrary to the evidence of its benefits, such teaching is seen today as unjustly cruel by most of society. Traditionalist teaching therefore now brings the church into disrepute with society and hinders rather than helps the gospel. Just like with the acceptance of uncircumcised Gentiles, God’s approval of same-sex marriage today is confirmed by the evidence of his fruit in the lives of married same-sex Christian couples.

 

There can no longer be any valid scriptural reasons to deny marriage to same-sex couples, so doing this is failing to do what God requires of us all - to “act justly and love mercy”.