I was wondering, can you explain loving someone as in I Corinthians 13? My friend I disagree regarding whether homosexuals love each other because the basis of their relationship is sin; there is nothing good about it. They might be nice to each other, get each other things, and be self-sacrificing in certain areas toward each other, but the problem is the base sin is what is the worse. It is like a drunk father who hits his kids but does nice things for them all the time. Does he love them? No, because actions speak louder than words. He loves the bottle more than his kids. I trying to explain this with homosexuality. Something that is based on sin can’t be love. How would you relate that to I Corinthians 13?<\/p>\n\t
Paul’s discussion in I Corinthians 13 deals with the love between Christians. We often use it to also describe the love between a husband and wife, but that is not the original intention of the passage. It can also describe the love God has for us and the love we ought to have for God. In short, it could describe any\u00a0agape<\/em>-type love.<\/p>\n Such love isn’t exclusive to only certain people. Yet, you are correct that there are aspects of\u00a0agape<\/em>\u00a0love that people living in homosexuality cannot obtain. In particular, love “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth<\/em>” (I Corinthians 13:6). Since homosexuality is sin, any love between homosexuals is missing this essential quality. A person in love wants the best for the object of his love. Since sin harms a person and ultimately leads him to eternal punishment, I cannot truly love a person while encouraging him in his sin.<\/p>\n Getting your friend to see this probably will be impossible because he doesn’t accept that homosexuality is a sin, even if God said so (I Corinthians 6:9-10). Perhaps it would help if you point out the exact same thing is true for a man and woman having sex outside of marriage. They will also claim they are in love and they might demonstrate many aspects of love toward each other, but ultimately they don’t have true\u00a0agape<\/em>-type love because what they do to each other is sinful and causing harm to them both immediately and in the long run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I was wondering, can you explain loving someone as in I Corinthians 13? My friend I disagree regarding whether homosexuals love each other because the basis of their relationship is sin; there is nothing good about it. They might be nice to each other, get each other things, and be self-sacrificing in certain areas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1572,35,65],"class_list":["post-20826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-fornication","tag-homosexuality","tag-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50267,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-the-scriptures-apply-to-me-arent-we-called-to-love-each-other\/","url_meta":{"origin":20826,"position":0},"title":"How can the Scriptures apply to me? Aren’t we called to love each other?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I was raised Catholic. After trying out a couple of religions, I've come back to the Catholic Church. I also see myself closely identifying as a pansexual. I read in Romans what it says about homosexuality, but it states things that I am not, so how can the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-only-oppose-homosexuality-out-of-ignorance\/","url_meta":{"origin":20826,"position":1},"title":"You only oppose homosexuality out of ignorance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm sorry if I may sound a bit rash, but what is wrong with you people?\u00a0 I am deeply concerned on your standpoints of the Scripture and the answers you are giving people.\u00a0 We are all made in our own unique way, and the Lord forgives us for our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26755,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-a-lot-of-christians-accept-homosexuals\/","url_meta":{"origin":20826,"position":2},"title":"Why don’t a lot of Christians accept homosexuals?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If the main Christianity rule is 'Love thy neighbor,' why don't a lot of Christians accept homosexuals? Answer: For the same reason, we don't accept murders, liars, thieves, and other sinners while they remain in their sins. Christians understand that sin is harmful to the sinner and those around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50653,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-i-peter-48-defend-homosexuality\/","url_meta":{"origin":20826,"position":3},"title":"Does I Peter 4:8 defend homosexuality?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I found a verse in the Bible that can be used to defend homosexuality: \"And above all things have fervent love for one another, for \"love will cover a multitude of sins\" (I Peter 4:8). In other words, even if it is a sin, the love of these two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-god-condemn-love-between-two-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":20826,"position":4},"title":"How can God condemn love between two people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I might have just not read\u00a0Don't you dare change my mind, but why is homosexuality bad? carefully enough, but it seemed like the only reason why homosexual sex was a sin was that it was for pure pleasure only and without the intention of reproduction. Wouldn't that mean if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6922,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-there-to-repent-for-in-being-homosexual\/","url_meta":{"origin":20826,"position":5},"title":"What is there to repent for in being homosexual?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have just read your article entitled\u00a0What Homosexuals Want and a few questions came up. In the first paragraph, it is referenced that homosexuals, unless they repent, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven ( I Corinthians 6:9-11). However, in referencing the scriptural quote, it says \"homosexual offenders,\" meaning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}