EUNUCHS, SEXUAL PURITY, DIVORCE, AND HOMOSEXUALITY

Jesus’ disciples were stunned by His teaching against divorce:

·       “‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:5-6)

God had joined Adam to Eve, making them one. Divorce represented the undoing of what God had done. Therefore, it violated His normative pattern. Consequently, divorce was forbidden.

The disciples were aghast. Moses had allowed Israel an easy divorce because of their hardened heart. To the disciples, marriage only seemed like a viable option if they could be guaranteed an easy divorce. They, therefore, answered that if divorce wasn’t a possibility, “it is better not to marry” (Matthew 19:10).

Therefore, Jesus explained:

·       “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” (Matthew 19:11-12)

Marriage was not for everyone but just for those willing to follow God’s pattern. Singleness was always an option. It certainly was for those who had been born eunuchs, without the ability or the inclination to have sex. Some even chose to become eunuchs. This group likely included those with same-sex attraction or those with gender dysphoria.

There is not a single bit of Scriptural evidence that same-sex marriage would have been tolerated – nothing that violated the male-female pattern God had established. Likewise, any form of male or female impersonation was strictly forbidden. Consequently, even cross-dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5; 1 Corinthians 11; 6:9-10 (“effeminate” in KJV)) was not tolerated. The sexes could not be confused. Men were to remain men and women were to remain women. If they struggled with gender dysphoria, the Biblical faith offered no recourse apart from abstention from sex.

Their subjective sexual preferences or birth defects could not be used as a justification for another form of marriage. A man who claimed that he had absolutely no interest in a woman was not exempt from God’s pattern for a monogamous marriage. Likewise, a husband could complain that he was miserable with only one wife. But even if he was so miserable that he beat his wife, this would not suffice to justify polygamy. Marriage and sexuality would remain as God had designed them.

To violate sexual purity carried heavy consequences:

·       Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20; Romans 1:27)

We need to have compassion for those who do not fit into God’s prescribed pattern for marriage. However, if we truly care about them, we will plead with them to “glorify God in your body.”