In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke about adultery and marriage. (1) His declarations no doubt boggled the minds of his audience. Later, the Pharisees questioned him further. Jesus faced a hostile crowd that day as he frequently did. This time they cornered him regarding his views of divorce.

Moses granted Israelites the right to divorce their spouses. (2) As mankind usually does, the children of Israel stretched the bounds of Moses’ decree. A man could divorce his wife for any reason: the original no-fault divorce.

Jesus expanded his teaching on divorce beyond his comments in the Sermon on the Mount. The Pharisees never imagined what Jesus would tell them on that day. He even caught his disciples off-guard. (3)

Christ's comments not only startled that crowd, but they convey implications for our day as well.

Jesus’ Commentary on Marriage, homosexuality and same sex marriage

Currently, the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community asserts forcefully that Jesus never spoke against same sex marriage nor homosexuality. They allege that since Jesus never spoke against these issues, he clearly found them irrelevant. This group asserts that since Christ found them unimportant, people today should respond favorably to the LGBTQ agendas. They believe that the Church must follow Christ's example of noninterference and indifference toward homosexuality.

When Jesus replied to the Pharisees’ question, he began with God's created order. When God created humanity, he created them male and female. (4)After God created Eve from Adam’s rib, God brought her to Adam and put them together. He made the female as a complement to Adam. Note, he did not create another male to complete Adam, nor another female to enhance Eve. He created a woman for the man.

When God brought them together, he joined them, male and female, in marriage. God used this occasion to give his decree for all future marriages. The man/husband must leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and they would become one flesh. Note, again, the specific order for marriage, a man and a woman. In God's purpose, marriage would last for the lifetime of one or both of the partners.

To say that Jesus never spoke about homosexuality or same sex marriage one must deliberately reject the clear teaching of Christ on this occasion. He did. In fact, He confirmed God's intent for the sexual relationship between a husband and wife, male and female. Jesus specifically ordered marriage between a man and a woman. Therefore, he specifically condemned not only homosexuality but also same sex marriage.

In this same setting, Jesus spoke against the evil that would destroy the marriage of a man and woman. Jesus granted divorce in a marriage for one cause only, fornication. (5) In our day, we typically describe this as sexual intercourse between two people, one of them unmarried, or between two unmarried people. However, in that day, the word carried a much broader meaning.

In Jesus’ day, fornication included every evil sexual relationship outside of marriage. Therefore, it included adultery, fornication (as we know it), prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, and beastiality. (6)Jesus spoke clearly when he used the word “fornication.” He condemned all sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

On another occasion, Jesus again responded to the Pharisees who chided him for not following their prescribed traditions. (7) This time, the Pharisees accused him of failure to follow the routine that they established for cleaning hands before eating. They taught that using unceremoniously washed hands to eat defiled the user. Like the previous occasion, Jesus used this setting to teach the truth about what defiles a person.

Jesus taught that what goes into a person does not defile him/her. The body expels the unused portions of whatever enters the mouth and stomach. On the other hand, what comes out of the mouth defiles the person. Jesus further explained what he meant by this statement. He clarified that the inward spiritual condition of a person reveals itself in outward behavior.

The evil acts one performs which fulfill inward evil desires defile a person. Jesus provided a list of some of these wicked behaviors which proceed from within humanity. As expected, the list contains murder, theft, and false witness. In addition, Jesus included a term that describes sexual perversion, fornication. On this occasion, Jesus used the same word that explained the evil that destroyed marriage. Fornication in Christ's time comprised all variations of sinful sexual practice. (8)

Contrary to the homosexual community’s claims, Jesus unambiguously condemned homosexuality and same sex marriage. He referred to God's created order, male and female, God's decree for sexual intimacy exclusively between a married man and woman, and denounced the evils of sexual perversion, including homosexuality. He could not have stated it more clearly.

Please see part II for conclusion and the list of references to this article.