Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18 NKJV) I saw this sign today at a "church" in Austin. The Spirit in me was grieved, and my heart sank, although I'm not sure which of those emotions came first. But I also saw this as an opportunity to say something that needs to be said. Those who have been reading my words for any amount of time know where I stand on the issue of homosexual marriage. My position there is that of the Bible, which is clear: Marriage is between man and woman, for the purpose of producing Godly offspring and glorifying Christ, and all homosexual behavior is sin. But otherwise, I'm not going to go into much detail on those issues here. Instead, this post is about the other part of the "Gay Pride" equation, the part that never gets addressed: P R I D E We should find our identity in Christ, and in Christ alone. Anything else in which we find our identity is an idol, or at the least, a false identity: Race, skin color, nationality, profession, denomination, favorite school or sports team, and yes even, and perhaps especially, our sexuality.
But while any false identity is bad, the concern gets ratcheted up a level when identity spills over into pride. At that point, you've gone from "simply" believing a lie about yourself, to actually engaging in a very destructive sin. And lest you think I'm over exaggerating, let's consider just a handful of things the Bible says about the sin of pride:
And perhaps most importantly, the words of James, from the New Testament: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6) How true are those words today? One of the main things stopping homosexuals from coming to Christ isn't the Bible or the Christians who believe it, but rather their own pride in their "identity" as a homosexual person. And yet, one of the main themes that has been used to unify the homosexual community has also been one of the main issues that stop homosexuals from truly coming to Christ: Gay pride. The very idea of "gay pride" is a trick of the devil, if ever there was one. (And to be sure, there have been -- and still are -- many.) To be clear, the issue of pride is not confined only to the homosexual community, although it is most certainly very prevalent there, in a way that most don't even seem to realize. Both ironically and sadly, what so many push as a source of identity and inclusion is, in fact, a source of sin and exclusion of the worst kind: exclusion from the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). If you liked this post, please like and follow Uncompromising Gospel on Facebook.
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