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1 Cor. 6:9-11: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
If we readily cite this text as proof of God's power to transform, we must ask "What was the dynamic of this early church which brought people out of homosexuality?" Admirable congregation? Model of Christian unity? Selfless and Christ-centered? The answer is no, on all counts. The First Church of Corinth, which exhibited gossip and reeked with litigation, implicitly approved an incestuous affair and wallowed in arguments over spiritual gifts.
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That church, like most today, was similar to Noah's ark. "If it weren't for the storm outside, you couldn't stand the stench inside." Yet something powerful was at work in this church. The APA did not exist. Cross Ministry, which this writer directs, had not been established. Psychoanalytic therapy had not been fashioned.
How is it that a church, 2,000 years ago, could walk people out of homosexuality? Moreover, why can we not replicate it today? It's because the Corinthian congregation had a "hands-on/no outsourcing" attitude to temptation and sin. If we excuse our inability to do now what that church did then because of a well-funded pro-gay movement, we deceive ourselves and empty the gospel of its power.
Across the country I hear preachers dub this group "hard to reach." I submit the very opposite is true. Those who hurt the most are riper for the gospel than those in the 10/40 window. C.S. Lewis wrote, "Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God; the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger." Wrote G.K. Chesterton "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God."
Following my speaking in a Louisiana church, a visibly livid lesbian approached me, fuming about her sister who believed homosexual behavior sinful. (I did not need to side with her sister as I had interspersed my testimony within my message.) I sensed I should exude kindness, keep my mouth shut and listen - all daunting tasks for evangelicals when homosexuality surfaces! After a three-minute rant her tirade ended and tears began streaming down her cheeks. Reaching out, I touched her arm asking "why are you crying?" Her reply, cadenced and concise, did not directly answer my question but spoke volumes "I - cry - all - the time." I sat with her the next hour and listened to her story of childhood sexual and emotional abuse. When she finished, I didn't need to ask her if I could speak; like a budding pianist listening to Van Cliburn, she absorbed my every word because I had won the right to tell her about God's forgiveness.
