Why does God consider homosexuality a sin? Why not live and let live? The answer is deeper than homosexuality itself. It has to do with the heart of man and his desire to rebel against the way God has set things up to work. God fashioned men and women the way He did to create the family structure. The physical characteristics and obvious differences between men and women are not cosmic accidents, but a grand design.
Paul the Apostle
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1, lays out the case: men suppress the truth of God, even though they know He is real; therefore, they are without excuse. They know God, Paul says, but don’t honor Him or give Him thanks. As a result, they become foolish, even while professing themselves wise. That’s why God gives them over “in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,” he concludes. The next passage is focused on one type of impurity:
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Paul then says that such a person has a “depraved mind,” doing “things which are not proper.” He provides a list of other sinful actions as well—homosexuality is just one example—then adds:
. . . and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
That’s where we have traveled as a society: we now give hearty approval to the homosexual lifestyle.