The answer to that question is actually a little bit more simple and straightforward
then we often think it is.
And that is, those who are in homosexual sin need the exact same compassion
as those in any sin.
They need the same compassion that I needed, that that you needed, that we all needed from
the Lord when we were dead in our trespasses and sins.
We have to identify with our neighbor who is homosexual in the same way that we would
identify with a neighbor who is living in a heterosexual relationship that is not marriage.
Or any number of situations that we would not condone as believers because the Bible
does not condone it, and yet we don't treat that person exclusively to the particularities
of their sin.
So let me give you an example.
Just a few weeks ago I was speaking somewhere and a dear old lady came up afterwards and
she explained the situation that she was in.
Her grandson had recently come out as gay and she was trying to minister to him and
to witness to him and to be just a good loving grandma to him with this new revelation.
And I said something that seems shocking to her when she asked me, "how do I best minister
to my grandson?"
I said, "don't make the topic of every conversation, his homosexuality."
She seemed sort of shocked by that.
And I said, "it's not because I don't think homosexuality is sin, that's not it at all.
It's that the main issue that your grandson needs to be saved from is his rebellion and
his refusal to see God as God, homosexuality is just an expression of that."
And so what that helped her do is reframe the priority of what the interactions should
be based on.
So to show compassion to someone in a homosexual lifestyle you need to identify with their
need for God.
That's fundamentally the answer to the question of how we show compassion.
Now, we do have to recognize that the particular unique expression of every individual sin
in the process of repenting and believing the Gospel, being converted to God, those
specific sins do need to be turned from.
I think of Luke chapter 3 when tax collectors came up to John the Baptist and said,
"what does it mean for us to enter the kingdom?" and soldiers, in a separate group, came up
and said, "what does it mean for us to enter the kingdom?"
And to the tax collectors he said, "don't collect more than you are supposed to collect."
And to the soldiers he says, "don't extort other people and be content with your wages."
Those were particular ways in their situations and according to the sins that had captured
their heart, the unique expressions, they had to turn from.
So I'm not saying never talk to a homosexual about their homosexuality, I'm just saying
make sure that you have a biblical priority of why homosexuality ultimately is wrong,
is it's a reject of the Creator.
And there are many other manifestations of that in the person's life and it also helps
us to treat our neighbors who are living in a heterosexual relationship outside of God's
design for marriage in a similar way as we treat our homosexual neighbors.
So if that's our approach, what it allows us to do is say to our neighbors who are in
homosexuality that, "I was as much a rebel as you are.
I just took it in different directions than you did.
And the same Jesus that was abundant and generous in his compassion for me, will be abundant
and generous in his compassion to you, if you repent of your sins
and entrust yourself to his gospel."
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