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Live Free with Josh Howerton - A Discussion on Biblical Sexuality and Christian Living
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Not all anger is the same. Scripture describes three distinct types of anger: divine anger, human righteous anger, and human sinful anger. Understanding the difference is crucial for living as followers of Christ.
God's anger is fundamentally different from human anger. When we experience anger, something external changes our emotional state. But when God expresses anger, He is expressing His unchanging character and His opposition to sin and evil.
God's anger has three key characteristics:
God's anger is not the opposite of love—it is the expression of His love against everything that destroys what He loves. If God loves children, He must hate child abuse. If God loves justice, He must hate oppression.
God's anger is always perfectly holy and justified. He has never overreacted. Every ounce of His anger is perfectly calibrated to the evil that deserves it.
God's anger is slow. One of the most repeated descriptions of God in Scripture is that He is "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Everything in creation obeys God except one thing—us. Billions of people every day tell God "no," and yet He remains patient because He loves us.
The cross is the best picture of God's anger displayed in Scripture. It simultaneously shows how much God hates sin and how much He loves us. Jesus took upon Himself the righteous, holy, perfect wrath of God that we deserved. Through what theologians call "the great exchange," Jesus's righteousness was given to us, and our sin was placed on Him.
Since God can be angry and God is righteous, there is such a thing as righteous anger. Because we are made in God's image, we can experience it. However, most instances of human anger are sinful. The question becomes: How do I know the difference?
Righteous anger is about God's will; sinful anger is about my will. Righteous anger arises because God is dishonored, people are harmed, or evil is celebrated. Sinful anger arises because I was inconvenienced, embarrassed, contradicted, or ignored—because I didn't get my way. Ask yourself: Am I angry because of God and His righteousness, or am I angry because of me and my pride?
Righteous anger is proportionate; sinful anger is exaggerated. Righteous anger fits the offense. Getting angry at injustice or child abuse is proportionate. Exploding because someone cut you off in traffic is not. One pastor shared a story of becoming enraged at his small dog while trying to get his children out the door to school. When he saw the fear in his children's eyes, he realized he had exaggerated a minor frustration into a major offense.
Righteous anger is slow to rise; sinful anger is quick-triggered. As Christians, we should be responsive, not reactive. God, who is perfect and whose standard we follow, is slow to anger. We should strive to be like Him.
Righteous anger seeks restoration; sinful anger seeks punishment. When God expresses anger in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, punishment is involved, but the purpose is always restoration. God wounds so that people may be healed; He sends people into exile so they may return and repent. Ask yourself: Would I be disappointed if the person I'm angry at genuinely repented and was restored? If so, you probably just want them punished, not restored.
Righteous anger remains controlled; sinful anger controls you. Scripture speaks of being sober-minded and having self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit. Righteous anger is something you possess; sinful anger is something that possesses you.
Righteous anger produces productive action; sinful anger produces destructive reaction. Righteous anger asks, "What should be done? How can this be made right?" Sinful anger asks, "How can I vent? How can I get even?"
Righteous anger addresses the issue and surrenders it to God; sinful anger becomes bitter. Only God can change someone else's heart or handle a situation. When you have righteous anger, you do your part, address what needs addressing, and then surrender the rest to God. Sinful anger holds on, trying to control what is not yours to control, and becomes bitterness.
When it comes to sexuality, Scripture presents four foundational truths:
The one who designs is the one who decides. A right understanding of gender and sexuality begins not with humans but with God. If there is a Creator who purposefully and authoritatively orders reality—including our bodies and sexuality—then we must ask not "What do we want to do with our bodies?" but "What does God want us to do with our bodies?"
Sex is a God-given gift designed for a God-given context. God created sex and decided the context in which it flourishes.
That context is marriage between one biological man and one biological woman. This is established at creation—"male and female he created them." It is reaffirmed throughout Scripture, including in Matthew 19, where Jesus Himself establishes the definition of marriage by pointing back to Genesis: "In the beginning... God created them male and female."
Humans are free to ignore God's design, but not free to reject it without consequences. We can reject God's design, but that rejection carries eternal, temporal, and societal consequences. Just as a lawnmower's blades were not designed to be a ceiling fan, our bodies and sexuality were designed for a specific purpose.
"God's ways and God's purposes are better." —Scripture teaches that obeying God's word brings blessing, while disobeying it results in pain, hurt, confusion, and death.
Data consistently shows that people who identify as LGBTQ+ experience higher rates of depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. This is not merely a result of discrimination. Even in the most progressive countries with full legal equality and high social acceptance—such as the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark—people in same-sex relationships have more than double the suicide rate of people in opposite-sex marriages.
Jesus said, "I came that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). God's design for sexuality is not meant to restrict us—it is meant to bring us abundant life.
Christians are called to do two things simultaneously: hold fast to what is true and love our neighbor. Some Christians ignore what the Bible says about sexuality to love their neighbor, while others hold to biblical truth but fail to love. We must do both.
"You can love and serve someone without approving everything they do. Jesus did that, and we must do the same." It is also true that you can disagree with someone and still love them. Jesus did that, and we are called to do the same.
This argument from silence is a logical fallacy. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Jesus didn't explicitly mention many things—child abuse, incest, bestiality—yet we don't conclude He condoned them.
Moreover, Jesus operated within a cultural context where same-sex acts were universally understood to be sinful. He didn't need to address what everyone already agreed was wrong. He addressed the sins His culture was struggling with. Additionally, if Jesus is God and the Bible is God's word, then everything Scripture says is Jesus's word—including passages in Leviticus.
Finally, Jesus clearly defined what marriage is in Matthew 19, pointing back to creation: "In the beginning... God created them male and female." When you clearly define what something is, you don't have to spell out everything it isn't.
God is love, but love is not God. When we speak of love, we must ask: Who gets to define what love actually is?
The LGBTQ+ movement defines love primarily as attraction, feelings, and desires. But biblical love is not defined by attraction, feelings, and desires—biblical love happens in spite of those things.
When a married man sees another woman and feels desire and attraction toward her, he cannot say, "Love is love" or "I was born this way." We call that lust, not love. Lust is self-centered; love is sacrificial. Lust is driven by emotions and feelings; love happens in spite of emotions and feelings.
"Love is always asking, 'How will this benefit me?' Love is asking, 'How is this true? How is this honoring? How is this glorifying God?'"
What our culture calls love is often actually attraction, feelings, desires, and even lust—but it is not true biblical love.
This is technically true—the English word "homosexuality" did not appear in translations until 1946. However, the concept has been in Scripture since the beginning.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul writes about those who "practice homosexuality." The Greek word he uses is arsenokoites, which he deliberately formed by combining arsen (male) and koite (bed). This is not a word referring to the exploitation of children. If Paul wanted to discuss child molestation, he would have used paidorastia, a word everyone understood to mean sexual abuse of boys.
Instead, Paul deliberately references the prohibitions in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, which explicitly state: "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman." These are clear moral laws, not about exploitation but about the design of sexuality.
Throughout church history, before 1946, Christians and Jews universally understood these passages to prohibit same-sex behavior. The claim that this is a modern invention contradicted by ancient understanding is false.
This objection misunderstands the three types of Old Testament law:
Moral laws are reaffirmed throughout the New Testament because they reflect God's unchanging character. Sexual morality, marriage, and gender are reaffirmed in the New Testament, which is why we uphold these laws while not following dietary restrictions.
In Leviticus 18, the context makes clear that God is establishing a universal moral standard, not just cultural distinctions. He says, "You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt... You shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan." He then lists same-sex practices among the abhorrent behaviors He is rejecting, establishing a standing moral law for all times and places.
Since sin entered the world, every person has been born with a sinful orientation. This is not just about same-sex attraction—it applies to all of us. We are all born with desires contrary to God's design.
Just because you were born with certain desires does not mean those desires are good or that acting on them is right. Since the Fall, people are born with disordered desires. Having a predisposition toward something does not make it righteous.
Coming to Jesus means bringing not only your sins but also your desires to Him and asking Him to change them. The world says, "I was born this way." Christ says, "You can be born again—another way, another life that I want for you."
If you have a friend who is same-sex attracted or celebrating a new LGBTQ+ identity but doesn't know Jesus, your first priority is not to convince them of your worldview on sexuality. Your first priority is to share the gospel.
Say to them: "You were created by God, for God, to be in relationship with God. You and I are sinners who have fallen short of God's glory. But while we were still sinners, Christ died for you in your place. If you trust in Him, He can give you a new life—not just a different view on one aspect of yourself, but a completely transformed life."
Once someone becomes a believer, then you can help them understand their new identity in Christ. They are no longer defined by their feelings. Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that our hearts are deceitful—our feelings are real, but they are not always reliable.
As a new Christian, ground your identity not on something that fluctuates with emotions and culture, but on something that anchors your soul: who God says you are.
You are a son or daughter of God. Your sexuality is not your identity. God has a plan for your sexuality, and His plan is infinitely better than your plan. When you trust that God is your loving Father, your decisions, relationships, lifestyle, attractions, marriage, gender, and identity all flow downstream from that foundational truth.
Every show is a sermon, and every show is discipling your children—whether you approve or not. Your job as a parent is to calibrate the conscience of your kids and teach them how to think biblically.
Talk about sexuality early and often. The world will disciple your children in its views of sexuality, whether you engage or not. Rather than playing catch-up, get ahead by talking about God's good and beautiful design for sexuality in age-appropriate ways. Don't just say what is bad; paint a positive picture of what God designed.
Maintain your authority as a parent. Don't delegate your authority to TV shows, friends, or other influences. You maintain the boundaries of what your children watch and consume. Watch their closest influences. Are they leading your kids closer to God's design or further away?
Teach both truth and love. Disciple your children to know the truth about what God says and why, and to speak that truth with Jesus's love and grace. We don't want young people who know a lot about truth but are jerks about it, nor do we want them to know nothing and be nice. We want them to know truth and share it with love.
Use teachable moments. As you're driving in the car and see a Pride Month mural or your child asks about something they saw on TV, use those moments to ask, "What do you think that means?" or "What does God's word say about this?" in a non-defensive, non-attacking way.
Christians in a confused culture are called to stand firm on truth while reflecting the grace and character of Christ. We are not called to be controlled by anger, fear, or cultural pressure. We are called to know what God says, to love those who disagree, and to point everyone—especially the lost—to Jesus Christ, who alone can transform lives and give us true freedom.
"Truth without love becomes harsh. Love without truth becomes compromise. Jesus calls us to both."
