Is God anti-gay?

Tons of people believe Christianity is repressive and unloving when it comes to sex—especially toward LGBTQ folks. And honestly, I get it.

Some Christians have been broadcasted picketing pride parades and gay funerals, holding cruel signs in God’s name. They may say it’s loving to speak the truth, but often their posture tells another story.

Then there are progressive Christians flying pride flags, accusing traditional Christians of weaponising outdated verses to harm sexual minorities.

So if you’re gay, and wondering whether Christianity is safe or good news, I get why you may be confused, or hurt, or wary. But the Scriptures are full of people who come to speak of God as the one who sees them.

God sees you. He knows what you are going through.

And God is not anti-you. As our Creator, and the one who gave his life to save us, Jesus is radically for you, even though what he has to say about our sexual desires and stories is unlike anything our culture comprehends.

So let me share five threads from the Christian story—five truths that, when woven together, tell a better story than our culture on sex, answering a host of questions and common objections along the way. My heart in putting together this video is not to shame anyone. I have no stones to throw. Nor is it to win arguments or police bedrooms. I simply want to share the same life-giving words from Jesus I’ve come to trust. Words that bind together grace and truth. Words that shed light on the mystery of our humanity. And words that invite us to experience a love so strong as to carry the weight of our deepest desires.

First, sex has a sacred purpose.

Scripture reveals that far from being prudish or repressive, God is profoundly pro-sex. Not only does the Bible include an entire book of erotic poetry—Song of Solomon—but it also teaches that sex was God’s idea, designed as a gift.

In Genesis 1 we learn that God made humanity male and female—a sexually dimorphic or complementary pair—and endowed them with passionate desires that, far from being shameful, were part of the creation He blesses as very good.

And God imbues sex with a sacred purpose. As the Bible unfolds we learn the husband and wife become one flesh in Genesis 2:24 for three reasons:

1. Pair Bonding: Sex was designed neuro-chemically to bind two together as one-flesh, and this has a deep theological purpose: to image the Triune God. Just like the Father, Son, and Spirit are three persons indivisible as one, male-female marriage is a unity-in-diversity. Two people. One flesh. One God. Three persons. So sex is designed to echo the mystery of the Trinity.

2. Prophecy: Marriage is also a preview. A trailer for a bigger story. Every human wedding points to the wedding: Christ and the Church. Heaven and Earth united forever. So sex and marriage are like living parables—meant to stir our hearts for the ultimate union to come.

3. Procreation: Love creates. That’s what God’s love did—it overflowed into creation. And in the same way, the love of a husband and wife carries the potential for new life. Sex becomes the seed of a family. And those families help fulfill God’s call to shape and steward His world.

So sex has these rich sacred purposes to tell a bigger story. And this blueprint for marriage and sex between a man and a woman is laid down from the beginning in Genesis 1 and 2, is reaffirmed even after the fall in Genesis 5, and again is stamped by Jesus’ own authority in Matthew 19.

Which leads to our next big idea from the Christian story.

Second, all sex outside of marriage is sin.

You see it is the the sacred purpose of sex, not just the potential for harm, that gives shape to God’s moral boundaries around sex. This is why Scripture only ever celebrates sex within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, and prohibits all sexual activity outside of that bond.

Now no doubt you might have heard mixed messages about modern Bible translations injecting homosexuality into the text, or about ancient context that renders prohibitive passages irrelevant to modern relationships.

So let’s look closely at these verses. Does the Bible really forbid same-sex sex?

There are 6 passages in the Bible that speak directly to gay sex—three in the Old Testament, and three in the New Testament.

Genesis 19 and the sin of Sodom.

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 laying out the Torah’s sexual ethics.

Romans 1:26-27 where Paul diagnoses our sinful condition.

And two of Paul’s sin lists in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and 1 Timothy 1:10.

Now Scripture does not single out sexual minorities. Adultery, by comparison, is denounced dozens of times. So please hear me that there is no deep animus or hatred towards gay people driving these prohibitive passages. But a close inspection of these 6 verses does seem to support the traditional interpretation that Scripture prohibits all same-sex sex.

Let’s start with the Old Testament.

In Genesis 19, the men of Sodom attempt to sexually assault two angelic visitors, whom they mistake for male travellers. Clearly this is a violent and coercive act, with inhospitality and injustice explicitly wrapped up in the reasons for their judgment. See Ezekiel 16. But later Scriptures like Jude 7 make clear that one aspect of Sodom’s sin was sexual in nature, going after heteros sarx or strange flesh. So what does this mean? Ancient commentators were unanimous. Jewish thinkers like Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. Later Rabbinic sources in the Talmud literature. Early Church Fathers. All of them believed the Sodom episode was a blanket condemnation, not merely of sexual violence, but of men pursuing sex with men, contrary to God’s good design.

Alongside Sodom’s condemnation in Genesis 19 the clearest Old Testament prohibitions come from sexual ethics outlined in the Torah: Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. There we find no reference to pedastry dynamics, or of men sexualising boys. Nor of pagan worship practices. No a blanket prohibition is given that a man should not lie with a man as one lies with a women.

Some object that these laws are part of the Torah’s outdated purity code, on par with forbidding shellfish or wearing mixed fabrics. But theologians have long distinguished between the Torah’s temporary ceremonial laws for Israel, and and the enduring moral laws grounded in creation. The prohibition of gay sex falls into the latter category, reflecting a deviation from God’s design for all people, not a cultural custom for Israel’s worship. And this is confirmed by how the Apostles reaffirm these sexual ethics in the New Testament.

In Romans 1:26–27, Paul diagnoses same-sex desire as one symptom of the way sin has disordered God’s good design. Men being inflamed with lusts one for another. Then he describes same-sex sex, both gay and lesbian, as being against nature or God’s created order.

Now some argue that Paul here was only condemning lustful or exploitative forms of gay sex, or perhaps even temple prostitution. But those interpretations seem entirely imported, with Paul’s language clearly referencing men with men, and women with women; not men with boys or women with girls. Neither modern concerns about power dynamics and consent, nor any reference to pagan worship practices, are there in the text.

Paul then twice includes gay sex among a list of sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11 and 1 Timothy 1:10. The Greek term arsenokoitai is relatively unique to Paul. Scholarly consensus is that Paul likely coined the term as shorthand to refer to Leviticus 18:22. It’s a compound of two Greek words found in the Septuagint or Greek translation of that prohibition: arsen, man, and koite, bed. So literally, men who bed men. In the case of 1 Corinthians 6 Paul links arsenokoitai with another work, malakoi, which scholars believe refers to the passive partner or more effeminate person in a male only sexual encounter.

So these 6 verses consistently prohibit homosexual sex.

But what about Jesus? Some argue that because Jesus never explicitly mentions gay sex, maybe He didn’t care. Maybe He’d even affirm gay relationships. But that’s an argument from silence; a logical fallacy. Because silence doesn’t equal consent. Jesus never mentioned genocide either. Does that mean He’s fine with it? Of course not.

Plus Jesus does prohibit homosexual sex. Several times—in Matthew 5, 15, and 19—Jesus prohibits sexual immortality. Porneia in Greek. A catch-all term in Jesus’ Jewish context for the sexual ethics outlined in the Torah. So Jesus doesn’t loosen the Torah’s boundaries around sex; he intensifies them. From behaviour to desire. From actions to the heart.

So let’s be honest: Moses, Jesus, and the Apostles all speak with one voice. Sex belongs in the covenant of male-female marriage. Anything outside is sin.

Now I get it—this is hard to hear. Especially if your desires feel deep and unchosen. Why would God create someone with same-sex desires, but say don’t act on them? It sounds unfair. Even cruel.

Which is why we need to wrestle with another big idea from the Christian story. One that confronts all of us.

Third, sin has disordered our desires.

The Bible tells a sobering story. Back in Genesis 3, humanity fell—and the ripple effects broke everything. Creation is now under a curse. God’s good design is damaged by evil. Romans 1 puts it bluntly: our desires are disordered. Especially our sexual desires.

But this isn’t about singling anyone out. It’s not that gay people are broken and straight people are fine. No one is truly straight. All of us have desires bent out of shape. No one only wants what’s right, at the right time, in the right way. We are all sexually broken—just in different ways.

To borrow Blaise Pascal’s words: we are deposed royalty. Made in God’s image, but marred by sin. We are glorious ruins.

So when someone says, “But being gay is natural—I was born this way.” The Christian story says: of course. That’s the point. Nature itself is disordered. So we can’t take moral cues from the animal kingdom. And we can’t baptise every desire as good just because it feels natural.

Some push back here. They say this view is harmful. That calling our nature “broken,” or our desires “disordered,” is an attack on our identity.

But what if the real harm came not from God—but from sin? What if God’s diagnosis isn’t an insult—but an invitation to healing? Because if something is wrong—and deep down, we all sense it in a thousand ways—then maybe God isn’t against us. Maybe he’s for us in the most radical way.

Which leads to the next thread.

Fourth, Jesus’ gospel is for gay people.

Gay or straight, we all have sinned, with our bodies and our imaginations. So Christianity is a level playing field. No one is singled out, and no one gets a free pass. For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

But here’s the good news: God is not the harsh, condemning judge we often fear. No Scripture says of Jesus that a bruised reed he would not break, and a smouldering wick he would not snuff out. That to those who are humble, not exalting themselves in pride, Jesus bleeds with compassion.

And Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world. He came to save it. Jesus knows us to the depths—every secret, every shadow. Yet Jesus never picked up a stone to throw at sexual sinners. No he took up a cross to bear all of our sin.

Grace is God’s native language. Jesus doesn’t cancel us due to our sexual feelings; nor did He teach that our sexual sins disqualify us from God’s love. But while Calvary proves the seriousness of our sins, it also demonstrates that God’s love towers over our failures. Jesus died to secure for us full and free forgiveness. A clean conscience. And a future with God forever.

So no matter where you are in your story, Jesus bids you come. Believe in Him. Find rest in Him. Experience peace in Him. God loves us so much that He accepts us as we are; but that love doesn’t let us stay where we are. He has bigger plans for each of us to become who we were created to be.

So let me weave in one final thread.

Fifth, sex will be eclipsed in the new creation.

Our culture says: You are your sexual feelings. Happiness means expressing them. But think about what that means. If sex equals meaning, then the single life equals missing out. That’s crushing—especially in a world where more people are single than ever.

Want proof that the cultural script is failing? Check out Louise Perry’s The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. She’s not a Christian. But she exposes the fallout. The rise of casual sex hasn’t led to better sex. It hasn’t brought deeper love, just more loneliness. More regret. More broken hearts.

Sex has become a transaction. Desire has been pornified. And the result? Falling sex rates. Cynical relationships. Emptier souls.

But the Christian story offers a better script. Sex is a gift—but not a god. It’s good—but it’s not ultimate. It’s a signpost—not the destination. You can live a full life without ever having sex. Just look at Jesus. He never married. Never had sex. And yet lived the richest life of love the world has ever seen. Paul too. And a long line of saints, gay and straight, who’ve disciplined their desires, not to repress themselves, but to express something greater. To tell a better story with their lives.

Because here’s the plot twist: In Matthew 22, Jesus says there’s no marriage in the resurrection. Why? Because human marriage points to something greater:

the union of Heaven and Earth. When that day comes, sex will have served its purpose. We won’t lose intimacy. We’ll find its fullness. The ache for connection will be met, not in the arms of a spouse, but in the presence of the One for whom we were made.

So if sex doesn’t define us in eternity, why should it define us now? This unique way of dignifying while not deifying our desires offers so much more to all of us who are wrestling with them in marriage and singleness. Christianity speaks life into both of these situations. Marriage reveals the shape of the gospel—the coming union of Christ and the Church. Singleness reveals the sufficiency of the gospel—that God is enough.

Now don’t get me wrong. This is a costly vision. Especially for gay people whose desires don’t change, and so Christian marriage may never be an option.

But Jesus never hid the cost of discipleship. He just promised it would be worth it. But taking up your cross to follow Jesus is no call to emptiness. It’s a call to fullness.

You gain a God who knows you completely, loves you unconditionally, and will never leave you. You gain a purpose bigger than pleasure, and a joy that suffering can’t touch. You gain an identity not rooted in our passing feelings, but in an eternal adoption as God’s child. You gain a spiritual family in the Church, full of rich life-giving friendships. And you gain a future—one where every unmet longing will be filled. Where every tear will be wiped away. Where every sacrifice will seem small in light of the glory that awaits.

Jesus never promised a life of ease. But He did promise a life that’s rich, meaningful, beautiful—and eternal. He offers nothing less than Himself. And in Him, you gain everything.