Love is NOT Love

Love is NOT Love
By DaVon Alexander & Matt Garris

Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It’s that time of year again. We see parades and people waving their colorful flags. Businesses have signs and banners showing their support. Skylines are lit up, streaming services have special content, and social media is buzzing with gleeful celebration. But you may be surprised to learn that we’re not celebrating Memorial Day, Flag Day, or any other holiday. In fact, we’re not celebrating a day at all. The reason for this season is Pride Month!

Each year, the U. S. dedicates an entire month to celebrating homosexuality, transgenderism, and all the other unmentionable forms of sexual expression. While MLK gets a day, the presidents get a day, and Jesus gets a couple of days, somehow the LGBTQIA+ crew got an entire month!

Interesting.

All the hype around Pride Month should raise some questions for believers.

What does God think about Pride Month?
Is He okay with it because He is love and Pride Month is all about love?
Isn’t all love the same?

NOPE.

That’s what the world wants you to think, but God doesn’t want us to blindly follow whatever the world is doing. He wants everything about us -- our thoughts, beliefs, and actions -- to be radically different from the world.

So what does God think about Pride Month?

His Word actually says a lot about it. When the world celebrates Pride Month, Christians need to know what the Word says about love, lust, temptation, sin, and pride.

The Bible is clear that adultery, fornication, and homosexuality are all sins. But many modern Christians disagree. They think that “love does not have an age, sex, gender, or race,” that “love is love,” and that “people cannot choose whom they love.” Everything is love, love, love. But is it really love?

As the famous singer Tina Turner asked, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”

At the heart of this issue is a misunderstanding of love. The world regularly says “love” when they really mean “lust.”

Love and lust are opposites of one another.
Love is a choice while lust is an impulse.
Love is patient, kind, and selfless while lust only cares about itself. Love is an action while lust is just an emotion or feeling.
Love has boundaries while lust does whatever it takes to get what it wants.
And love--as an immutable aspect of God’s character--reconciles us to Him, while lust--as a sin--separates us from Him.

Lust begins with temptation, but just because something is tempting doesn’t make it right. In fact, we are usually expected to resist our temptations. If you are tempted to have sex with someone who does not consent to it, you are expected to overcome your temptation and not rape anyone. Similarly, it is not okay to act on your temptations to have sex with someone else’s spouse or molest little children.

Why not? Because love has boundaries.

Love has an age boundary, a gender boundary, and a marriage boundary. Violating any of these boundaries is sin, and that includes homosexuality.

It may be popular to repeat “love is love,” but understand that this popular phrase isn’t talking about love. A more accurate slogan would be “lust is lust” or “sin is sin.”

Throughout the New Testament, sexual immorality is always condemned. Not because God doesn’t want people to enjoy themselves, but because sexual sins hurt people. Sexual sin hurts people physically and emotionally, but it does the most damage spiritually. The celebration of sexual sin in Pride Month is particularly harmful because it is an intentional sin. These sinners flaunt their disobedience in their Creator’s face. They take pride in doing what God forbids, and He calls that blasphemy.

Sound familiar? It’s happening all around you.

Perhaps you think that since we’re under grace, and God is love, none of this matters very much. Paul addresses this very question in Romans 6:1-2, “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!”

God didn’t show us His love by celebrating our sin. He showed us His love by sending Jesus to die so we could live free from the power and control of sin. As His followers, instead of supporting people sinning defiantly and blaspheming against God, we should be telling them about the freedom Jesus offers. We should love the homosexual with patience and kindness while despising the sin of homosexuality by telling the truth.

That’s how love wins. One person at a time.