Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely
against the LORD.
Genesis 13:13
Seeking to justify their support of homosexuality, some Christians
claim that the story of Sodom really is not about homosexuality at all. Like
many lies, this is a half truth. The Bible explicitly tells us that a reason
for God’s wrath on Sodom was their lack of care for the poor. But that is not
the only sin of Sodom the Bible discusses. God’s Word also makes it clear that
God’s wrath was a response to the rampant homosexuality in that evil city and
its neighbors.
Let’s take a look at the sins the Bible associates with
Sodom and what sins it does not. As we look at this, we dare not treat this as
a merely academic question. It is very relevant to our lives and our neighbors.
In fact, we will see that today America (and other nations like us) is frighteningly
similar to Sodom before it was destroyed by God’s wrath.
The first sin category we will consider is the sin of
inhospitality.
What about “inhospitality to strangers”?
If you haven’t googled Sodom’s sin or heard it discussed,
you may be surprised to find that some people say Sodom’s main sin was
inhospitality to strangers.
There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that we should
be hospitable towards strangers and care for them. By “strangers,” the Bible
seems to mainly mean people from outside the area where we live who are either
passing through our area or have moved into our area. Here are some examples:
You must not exploit a
resident alien or oppress him, since you were resident aliens in the land of
Egypt. (Exod. 22:21 CSB17)
You are also to love
the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.
(Deut. 10:19 CSB17)
You will regard the
alien who resides with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as
yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.
(Lev. 19:34 CSB17)
Don't neglect to show
hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without
knowing it. (Heb. 13:2 CSB17)
Many more verses could be added to these, not to mention
the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Now, there is no doubt at all that the men of Sodom were
not hospitable to the two visiting strangers who were angels disguised as men.
But does this mean we should view Sodom’s sin and the reason for God’s judgment
as being primarily a lack of hospitality? If terrorists walked into a nursing
home and slaughtered all the elderly residents with machine guns, we wouldn’t
categorize their sin as merely failing to honor the elderly. Likewise, it
hardly seems fitting to categorize Sodom’s attempt at mass, violent, homosexual,
gang rape as merely a case of being inhospitable!
We should also note that a lack of hospitality (which is
a vast understatement, to the point of being misleading) is never explicitly
mentioned in verses which later refer to Sodom’s sin.
What about failure to help the poor?
While lack of hospitality is not mentioned in Bible
verses looking back on Sodom, their failure to help the poor is explicitly discussed:
Now this was the
iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food,
and comfortable security, but didn't support the poor and needy. (Ezek. 16:49
CSB17)
Notice the exact
nature of their sin. It is not merely that Sodom failed to help the poor. It is
that even though they were blessed with an abundance of resources, they pridefully
kept it all for their own comfort and enjoyment while failing to help the poor
and needy.
This specific type of
sin is later addressed by Jesus in the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus. The
rich man had abundant resources but failed to help poor Lazarus who was in
great need. Both Sodom and the rich man suffer God’s fiery wrath as a result of
their greed, selfishness, and failure to help the poor.
How does this relate
to us living in American (and other relatively wealthy nations)? To answer this
question, we need to begin by realizing that compared to most of the world, the
average American is rich. You may not feel rich, but that is because you are
comparing yourselves to movie stars and basketball players instead of
considering the billions of people who are much poorer than you are. There is
no simple, precise, easy way to compare the average wealth of people living in
one nation to those living in other nations, but per capita GDP gives a rough
estimate. The following graphic contains some sobering statistics:
The above graphic
tells us that on average people in the US are a little more than five times
more wealthy than the average person in the world. People living in Mexico are
slightly less wealthy than the world average but are two and a half times wealthier
than the average person in Indonesia. While the average person in Indonesia
only has roughly 1/16th the wealth of the average person in the US, Indonesians
are nearly twice as well off as those living in India. But India is doing great
compared to Haiti, which has less than half their GDP, and Niger has less than
half the GDP of Haiti.
I lived with my family
in Indonesia for fourteen years. People living in a nation producing 1/16th
the GDP per person as the US are not, with some tragic exceptions, starving. But
many are not well nourished. Also, most have very simple homes which are vastly
less comfortable than your home. They have a low level of health care that
results in a lot of preventable suffering, poor educational opportunities for
their children, and many live constantly on the brink of not being able to provide
for the basic needs of their families. In a hundred other ways, they suffer due
to the economic reality they were born into. Compared to the average Indonesian,
a middle class American family is very rich.
So, why don’t you feel
rich? Part of the answer lies in the increased cost of living in the US. But another
part of the answer is that many (most?) Americans are constantly buying things
(houses, cars, electronics, eating at restaurants, vacations, and more) that
keep their budgets stretched thin. Many families would be able to give more to
help others if they purchased less expensive cars, lived in a less expensive
house, ate at home more or at least at less expensive restaurants, spent less
on electronics, etc.
Should we feel bad because
we live in a nation that (like Sodom before it was destroyed) is economically
prosperous? No, we should feel thankful. But we should also feel a weight of responsibility
to help others. God has not generously blessed us just so we can use all He
gives us for our own enjoyment:
At the present time
your surplus is available for their need, so that their abundance may in turn
meet your need, in order that there may be equality. (2 Cor. 8:14 CSB17)
Throughout the Bible, God’s
people are encouraged to give to two broad causes: (1) the teaching and spread
of His truth and (2) providing help for the poor and needy. I know that some
Americans are giving generously and some even are giving sacrificially. But I
fear that many give just a tiny amount (relative to their income) and fool
themselves into feeling good about that while they are surrounded by a world of
desperate need. Like Lazarus, the poor are longing for crumbs from our tables.
And like Sodom, God’s fierce wrath may be coming our way.
Sodom’s sin included
neglecting the poor. We should talk about that and be concerned about it. But some
people, wanting to have their cake and eat it too (in this case: they want to go
along with the promotion and celebration of homosexual sins while still
claiming to follow the Bible), claim that neglecting the poor was Sodom’s only
sin and the only reason for its destruction. That’s not true.
What about
homosexual sin in Sodom?
Since the story of the
destruction of Sodom includes men wanting to have sex with other men, and since
this activity is explicitly forbidden by God (see Leviticus 18:22), it seems
obvious to many people that homosexuality was part of the great evil in Sodom
that led to it’s destruction. But some people, reading Ezekiel 16:49 and seeing
that neglect of the poor is mentioned, wrongly conclude that the problem wasn’t
homosexuality after all. They should have read the next verse:
They were haughty and
did detestable acts before me, so I removed them when I saw this. (Ezek. 16:50
CSB17)
The Hebrew word translated
“detestable acts” is toebah (tow-ay-baw). It is the same word that God
used to describe homosexuality:
You are not to sleep with a man
as with a woman; it is detestable (toebah). (Lev. 18:22 CSB17)
Thus, while it is true
that Ezekiel refers to Sodom’s greed in 16:49, he refers to their homosexual
sin in 16:50.
In addition to Ezekiel’s
reference to detestable acts, we have Jude’s inspired comment in the New
Testament:
Likewise, Sodom and
Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions,
and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7
CSB17)
Jude explicitly
mentions sexual immorality and perversions. The most natural interpretation in
light of the story of Sodom is that Jude is referring to homosexuality. He may intend
to include other types of sexual immorality as well, but homosexuality fits
both the story of Sodom and Jude’s description precisely.
Because the term
translated “perversions” in the CSB is more literally “strange flesh,” or “other
flesh,” some have proposed that the problem was not homosexuality, but that the
men wanted to have sex with angels. This view claims support from the mention
of angels in the previous verse in Jude. However there are several problems
with this view. First, there is no indication that the men of Sodom knew that Lot’s
visitors were actually angels. In fact, they ask Lot to send out “the men”
(Genesis 19:5) to have sex with them. Was one of the most severe judgments in
human history executed because of a sin the men did not even know they were
committing? That seems unlikely. Second, God had already seen Sodom’s evil and
was prepared to destroy Sodom before He sent the angels. Third, whatever Jude
means by “perversions” is something that was going on not only in Sodom, but
also in “Gomorrah and the surrounding towns.” There is no indication that these
other locations ever had angelic visitors similar to Sodom’s. Identifying Sodom’s
sin as men trying to have sex with angels does not fit the facts. Identifying
their sin as men trying to have sex with other men fits the facts and the rest
of God’s word precisely.
It’s also worth noting
that Jude does not mention violence as the issue. This doesn’t mean the violent
nature of the men in Sodom who were demanding to have sex with Lot’s visitors
did not make the sin much worse. It does mean that Jude, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, focused on the sexual nature of the sin without mentioning violence. Thus,
while it is not wrong to see sexual violence as part of Sodom’s sin, Jude was
inspired by the Holy Spirit to focus on the sexual nature of their sin. The
Bible teaches that all homosexual acts are sinful, not only the violent ones. Jude’s language of “other flesh” echoes Paul’s
thoughts about homosexual desire in Romans 1, where he describes those desires
as being “contrary to nature” (Romans 1:26). Nothing in Paul’s discussion of wrong
homosexual desires and sinful homosexual acts limits the sin to those cases
where violence is involved.
And proud of it . .
.
There is still more to
Sodom’s sin. God said that Sodom’s sin was “extremely serious” (Genesis 18:20).
In many places and at many times there has been both neglect of the poor and
many types of sexual immorality, including homosexuality. What made Sodom’s sin
stand out so that they became an example of God’s wrath against “extremely
serious” sin for the rest of human history? Perhaps it was that they were not
only committing these terrible sins, but they were actually proud of their
evil. God revealed to Isaiah the problem of Sodom’s gay pride:
The look on their
faces testifies against them, and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin; they do
not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster on themselves. (Isaiah
3:9 CSB17)
We don’t know how Sodom
flaunted their sin. Did they have a month to celebrate homosexuality? Perhaps
they had parades where homosexual pride was on display? Could it have really
gotten that bad? Are we worse than Sodom?
Instead of
discouraging sinful behavior, some of Israel’s false prophets encouraged it. In
doing so, they were acting like Sodom. Jeremiah, speaking for God, wrote:
Among the prophets of
Jerusalem also I saw a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers, and none turns his back on evil. They
are all like Sodom to me; Jerusalem's residents are like Gomorrah. (Jeremiah
23:14 CSB17)
We should notice that encouraging
evildoers in other sexual sins, like adultery, also makes us like Sodom in God’s
eyes. Today many in our entertainment industry, our athletic champions, our teachers
and professors, our government leaders, and even tragically some who claim to
teach the Bible, are encouraging people to go ahead and give in to whatever
wrong sexual desires they have. They especially encourage people to give in to homosexual
desires. God says of these false teachers and ungodly leaders, “They are all
like Sodom to me.”
Jeremiah isn’t the
only one who writes about this. In the first chapter of Romans, Paul paints a
terrifying picture of the downward spiral of humanity in rebellion against their
Creator. It begins with suppressing the truth about who God is. That leads to
various types of idolatry and sin. One sin that Paul especially focuses on in
Romans 1 is homosexuality. The bottom of this downward death spiral occurs when
we are not merely sinning, but applauding those who sin:
Although they know
God's just sentence-- that those who practice such things deserve to die-- they
not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them. (Romans 1:32
CSB17)
Have you seen the
crowds applauding homosexuality? Are greed and materialism celebrated and promoted
everywhere? Are more and more sins of many types approved of and openly
practiced?
God help us.
What should we do
about it?
Don’t give in and don’t
give up!
Don’t give in to the
widespread cultural pressure to approve of homosexuality or any other sin.
Don’t give in to the pervasive
cultural pressure to use every dollar you earn (and many dollars you haven’t
earned – loving those credit cards) in a vain effort to find comfort and
security through material possessions. Give more of your money away to help the
poor and to spread the gospel. Use your time and energy the same way.
Don’t give in to
whatever wrong sexual desires you have. With God’s help resist temptation and
set your mind on the things of the Spirit, not the things of the flesh.
Don’t give up hope.
God would have spared Sodom if there had been just ten righteous people in it.
By choosing to live a righteous life in Christ you may be giving your neighbors
more opportunity to repent and come to the truth. God may yet send us a time of
revival and spiritual renewal.
If you have sinned in
the areas of greed or any type of sexual immorality, know that Christ died for
your sins and you can be forgiven and transformed. That doesn’t mean all your
wrong desires and temptations will magically vanish, but it does mean that your
sins will be forgiven and you do not have to be controlled and defined by
whatever temptations you have:
9 Don't you know that
the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually
immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males,
10 no thieves, greedy people, drunkards,
verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom.
11 And some of you used to be like this. But
you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 CSB17)
Keep praying. Keep
sharing God’s truth. Keep loving your neighbors, both those across the street
and those across the ocean. Stay strong in Christ. Be faithful. Jesus is coming
back. It will all be worth it.
Here are some other posts that discuss sexual sins
and/or resisting temptation and dealing with sin in general:
Jude mentions “the
punishment of eternal fire.” This phrase refers to a punishment that is indeed
terrible, but is often misunderstood. Read more about that here:
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