The term ‘sexual orientation’ drives much of our society’s discussion regarding sexuality. The idea informs countless opinions on which sexual practices are acceptable and even commendable and how people are supposed to think about them. Christians, then, must examine the term’s meaning and submit it to the authority of God’s Word in order to understand God’s will in this important area. After all, God states that “our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19), so Christians need to know how to properly understand and use their bodies.

Sexual Orientation Definition: a person’s sexual identity or self-identification of their sexuality, including heterosexual, homosexual, asexual, bisexual, etc.

Where to Start

The Word of God does not explicitly use the term ‘sexual orientation,’ so some would say that the Bible is silent on this topic and cannot help believers sort out the truth. This way of thinking is untrue. The Bible speaks clearly about sexual behavior and sexual desires, thus informing correct thinking regarding ‘orientation.’

Behavior

The Biblical narrative describes all sorts of sexual behaviors, including depraved actions from some of God’s most devout followers. Only one type is blessed—the marriage (conventional union) between one man and one woman.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

Before Adam and Eve sinned, God designed sexuality in this glorious way, an expression of unity and love between one man and one woman. When sin entered the world, sexual deviancy took over quickly, leading to fornication, polygamy, rape, adultery, etc. After observing centuries of mankind’s sexual promiscuity, Jesus set the record straight by re-stating what Godly union looks like:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matt 19:5).

Over one thousand years after God created Adam and Eve, Jesus maintained the same explanation of true, godly, sexuality: one man, one woman, dedicated to each other, accountable to God.

Desires

What our culture calls ‘orientation,’ the Bible calls ‘desires.’ Orientation implies a fixed, nearly unchangeable state. It is a crucial part of a person’s identity. Desires imply a flame of inclination that a person can either fan or quench based on his own volition. Desires leave a man morally responsible for how he handles them, either allowing them to grow, or killing them.

Two types of desires exist:  desires that are of God and desires rooted in sin. If a desire or intention of a person’s heart is founded upon God’s created design (which can be observed from Scripture), then it is a good desire. If a desire violates God’s moral will, it is sinful and should be replaced by a pure heart toward God.

-A desire to eat dinner, for instance, stems from man’s need for sustenance in order to live in God’s world, so it is a good, acceptable inclination. In other words, God has created people with a need to eat. Eating does not violate God’s character, principles, or any of his explicit laws, so it is a desire that honors God.

-A desire to murder an enemy is evil, however, since it violates God’s explicit command not to murder. Christians can say, then, that this is a ‘sinful desire.’

Just as the Bible calls inward inclinations of all types ‘desires,’ the same concept is true in the realm of sexuality. A sexual desire is either of God (part of his created design) or founded on sin. ‘Orientation’ is a myth in the area of sexuality just as it is a myth in the realms of anger, murder, greed, and theft. A murderer does not have a ‘murderous’ orientation. He simply has evil desires which, instead of repenting of, he acts on. There is no homosexual orientation, pedophiliac orientation, pornographic orientation, or adulterous orientation. There are simply desires. Some sexual desires are God-given and meant to be enjoyed in the context of monogamous, heterosexual marriage, and some desires run contrary to God’s design, and believers must mortify them.

Paul writes in Colossians:

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Col 3:5-6).

Here, Paul mentions no kind of orientation, making, or wiring. Instead, he identifies sinful intentions of the heart that believers must kill. The idea of sexual orientation, then, is a scheme of the devil to undermine God’s Word about sin and pacify man’s culpability for nurturing evil inclinations in his heart.

Hope

Sexual orientation is made up. It is no thing. Sexual desires, on the other hand, are very real, and the Bible dictates how to understand godly desires from evil ones. For anyone and everyone who harbors evil desires, there is hope found in Jesus, who came to make people new, saving them from the clutches of evil. As Paul writes,

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. 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” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

God offers forgiveness for all our evil desires based on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, who paid our penalty before God and earned our right-standing with him, provided we repent of our sin and place our faith in Christ. The most perverted and sick among us is ripe for new life in Christ, who came to seek and save the lost.