This past Sunday on January 27, 2019 Pastor, JD Greear of Summit Life Church, preached a sermon entitled How the Fall Affects Us All. In this hour and a half sermon, Pastor Greear addresses the topic of Homosexuality and Same-Sex Attraction (SSA). This sermon is part of his series, The Book of Romans. In this sermon, he is addressing Romans 1:24-32, which he purely mishandles and misappropriates.
In fairness, I want to mention this caveat, JD Greear in his sermon does mention the need for being “born again through Christ,” and that one cannot be a Christian without a rebirth of the heart through Christ. However, there are some major difficulties with some of the equivocations Pastor Greear makes in his sermon. The first being on the degrees of sin God contributes to homosexuality and SSA. At about forty-eight minutes into his sermon, Pastor Greear makes the blunder of stating SSA attraction is “no worse sin than others.” How can a Pastor that is preaching through the book of Romans say this? Especially when the opening chapters in Romans deals with what God calls and thinks about homosexuality and SSA.
Let’s clarify Greear’s “slip up,” God does recognize different degrees or levels of sin and Scripture proves it. Jesus said in John 19:11, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason, he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” The context in this passage is that Judas had betrayed Jesus, and so our Lord was before Pilate who said that he had the authority to crucify Jesus. Jesus said that the one who had delivered him into Pilate’s hands had the greater sin. There are also other verses that show that God does delineate the degree of our sins.
- Luke 7:41-43, “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.”
- Luke 10:11-13, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 “I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. 13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.”
- Luke 12:47-48, “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, 48 but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.
The Bible makes it clear that there are different types and degrees of sin and that God looks upon sin in this manner; which Pastor Greear fails to point out when he equivocates homosexuality and SSA attraction as being to equal to other sins.
At nearly fifty-four minutes into his sermon, Pastor Greear is trying to vacillate on what God calls an abomination in Romans 1:27 by tying this sin to the sin of “greed.” Pastor Greear clearly and unmistakably tries to make homosexuality and SSA attraction seem less of an importance than having a greedy heart. What Greear fails to realize is that he is assigning levels or degrees to sin himself, which he claims God does not do. So is Greear now more knowing than God? Well, I don’t believe that Greear believes that or is even aware that he is doing this, so there is a lesson to be learned from this: If you are going to preach on a subject stick to Scripture. Leave your personal thoughts that are not bound by the Word of God out of your sermon. While Pastor Greear is claiming to preach through the Book of Romans, then he should do that and preach all of it, in its complete context and not cherry pick verses to fit what seems to be an outside agenda.
