Last week, I saw a man walking around the mall in a skirt. It turned out he worked at a place at the mall called Massage Envy. I figured this out because he was wearing a t-shirt with the Massage Envy logo. His features were very masculine looking; he had short dark hair, bushy eyebrows, a 5 o-clock shadow and was very muscular looking. But he also had breasts – and of course the seemingly out of place skirt.
Then today, I saw another man standing at a bus stop wearing black short-shorts and a lace camisole.
My first thought was that maybe they were going to some kind of party or something. After observing them for a few minutes, it became obvious they were dressed in what was comfortable for them, just as you or I would.
‘They are just so confused and they need God’ was the thought that kept going over in my mind. Oh God, I prayed, keep reaching for them, keep showing them your way and your love. Give them the power to overcome what has bound them.
Now some people who read what I just wrote will be outraged at my suggestion of homosexuality being a bondage. I don’t want to argue with anyone. But the Bible does take a very clear stance on homosexuality . (Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, I Corinthians 6:9, I Timothy 1:10)
Yet, I have friends who have life partners of the same sex. They know how I feel about it, but then my friends who drink know how I feel about that too.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
My job is to love whoever the Lord Jesus puts in my path. To be a friend and to share Christ as it seems appropriate to do so. Is that not what Jesus meant when he said “And they will know you are my disciples by the love you have one for another.”
Loving someone undconditionally does not mean that you agree with all their choices. If we only love when we agree all of someone’s lifestyle choices, we are loving with conditions and this is not the kind of love that Christ spoke of at all.
So I challenge you. Look at the people around you and listen to your heart for prejudices and condemnations that need to be surrendered to God. Then put on Christ (Galatians 3:27) and go out into the world and show the true agape love that Jesus intends us to offer.