4. DOES GOD ACCEPT LGBTQIA+ PEOPLE? DOES GOD BELIEVE LOVE IS LOVE?
God absolutely does accept LGBTQIA+ people! I mean He created them after all. God is Love Himself so of course He believes that Love is Love. However, we first prove this with using the famous passage in Mathew that people love to use to discriminate against gay couples. Directly underneath the passage that says that marriage is between a man and a woman, Jesus Himself says that this teaching doesn't apply to everyone.
'Jesus answered, “This teaching does not apply to everyone, but only to those to whom God has given it. For there are different reasons why men cannot marry: some, because they were born that way; others, because men made them that way; and others do not marry for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Let him who can accept this teaching do so.” '
Matthew 19:11-12
This can also be seen through many scriptures that talk about how God loves people who have been rejected and outcasted for being who they are. The LGBTQ+ community is notoriously outcasted and rejected by almost every church and these verses show that God still loves and accepts this community.
' Surely you have read this scripture? ‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all. This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is!’” '
Mark 12:10-11
'Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.” '
Mark 2:17
The Bible also shows that God accepts the LGBTQIA+ community just in the way it describes love and the way it should be shown to others. God wants our love to be authentic and sincere to one another. He wants us to have a desire to love others. He doesn't want us to force ourselves to enter relationships with people that we don't truly love; and that is shown in many scriptures down below.
'Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. '
1 John 4:7
'Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. '
Romans 12:9
'Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else”—all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law. '
Romans 13:8-10
'I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. '
1 Corinthians 13:1
'My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action. '
1 John 3:18