A Christian Teenager's Relationship With Gay And Lesbian Friends

“The beautiful people of our world are either to be our spiritual family, or they are our beloved neighbors.” -Allen Griffin

Phobia’s

Christians have often created phobia’s out of just about everything.

James 2 is a clear picture of God’s command for us to love everyone equally. The brother of Jesus challenges us to zero partiality. In our relationships. what should be very clear, is that Christians have a responsibility to love everyone. And to see love as the first response in our relationships with people. After all, the response of the church to the sin in this world will determine the response of the world to the grace of the church. We cannot blush or flinch in the face of shame or unrighteousness.

In the words of Allen Griffin, the people of this world are either family or neighbors! This can only be made possible with the supernatural unconditional love of God that removes the fear or judgment from our relationships.

Specifically, in this blog, we are dealing with teenagers and their relationship with Gay and Lesbian friends. A Christian teen’s relationship with gay and lesbian friends should be no different than a Christian teen’s relationship with straight friends. Their relationships with LGBTQ+ are a mix of theology, equality, and a relational commitment.

In other words, I believe we can hold strongly to truth and grace at the same time.

Three Principles

Here are 3 ways to model our relationship as Christians with Gay and Lesbian friends who may not be Christian. Did you catch that? This is not the place for a discourse on the topic, but, I do believe someone could be a celibate gay Christian. If we agree that sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin, then we must address this question. And repentance. If I willfully practice disobedience I cannot inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5.18-22). That is clear. In the sexuality argument or any other issue.

My book coming out in January of 2021 details this fully. More on that in another post in the blog.

Teenagers can model a biblically healthy relationship with their LGBTQ+ friends through these simple principles:

Empathy - the grace of relationships. This is the characteristic trait of believers. Compassion is the identifier when it comes to our relationship with the unbelieving world. No matter the unrighteousness or sin. Our relationship is built on love and acceptance of the person while standing strongly against the unrighteousness of any type.

Ethic - the truth of relationships. We must develop our theology of sexuality so that we can speak to the LGBTQ+ issue with clarity and power. Truth is powerful against the humanism of culture. With a strong sexual ethic comes a confident relationship.

Example - the grace & truth of relationships. This is the importance of building a theology of grace and modeling a practical love. I believe strongly that we can hang on tightly to both truth and grace in our relationships.

We need a compilation of these three responses in building our friendships in the sexual revolution.

Finally

“Corrupt the young. Get them away from religion. Encourage their interest in sex. Make them superficial by focusing their attention on sports, sensual entertainments, and trivialities. By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty, sobriety, and self-restraint.” -Vladimir Lenin, 1921, How to Destroy the West

Corrupt the young. Check. Gen Z has a 4% biblical worldview. Get them away from religion. Check. Only 25% of Gen Z sees attending church as “very important”. Encourage their interest in sex. Check. Cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues like honesty, sobriety, and self-restraint. Check.

We could go on through each of these prophetic statements from Lenin in 1921 and see why America is where it is today. Wildly running free from sexual restraint.

When the church acquiesced to the sexual revolution, we lost the vital authority we needed in our relationship to this world. Our judgment toward the sexual revolution on one hand, and, our ignorance of the movement on the other, created our broken relationship with this world. And now the church has been silenced and irrelevant.

Let me leave you with these texts to help you educate yourself and build a sexuality ethic that will give you confidence to establish a strong relationship with a world that is running free sexually.

Genesis 1-3, 19; Proverbs 5-9; Matthew 5, 15, 19; Romans1; 1Corinthians 6,7; Galatians 5; Jude 5-8; Revelation 2, 18, 21, and 22.