How the Church Should Respond to the LGBT Movement
The parable of the frog in the kettle is an apt description of the impact of the LGBT movement upon our society, and especially upon the contemporary Christian church. Just recently, a major Christian denomination went through a split over the issue of homosexual marriage and homosexual clergy. Upon losing a good number of conservative churches, the denomination then voted by a sizable majority to condone the LGBT agenda. The kettle was brought to a boil, and the frog was cooked. Are we to affirm what God clearly condemns? Again, it sounds like we are not reading from the same Bible.
This author believes we must revisit God’s instruction to the church regarding how it should respond to the LGBT movement. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians contains a clear teaching to the church in response to anything contrary to that which pleases the Lord (Ephesians 5:10). Paul’s teaching on the conduct or walk of the Christian lays out three responses to anything that is not pleasing to the Lord, including the LGBT lifestyle (Ephesians 5:1-14).
Paul’s warning, “Let no one deceive you with empty words” (Ephesians 5:6), is a wake-up call to the church, a warning he repeats in I Corinthians 6:9: “Do not be deceived.” The LGBT movement has succeeded in deceiving the masses, and even some Christians, about the legitimacy, the naturalness, and the goodness of the LGBT lifestyle.
In addition, by branding Christians as homophobic, “transphobic,” unloving, ignorant, unscientific, archaic, and even unchristian, they have demonized us while parading themselves as angels of light. The church must focus on God’s assessment of the LGBT movement and how it is to respond to it. Here are three responses given in Ephesians 5:1-14.
First Response: The Church Cannot Approve the LGBT Movement as Biblical
The LGBT movement has its rationale as to its legitimacy, but the Scriptures everywhere teach that the movement is neither true nor righteous (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
1. It is a violation of God’s creation
God clearly created two genders, male and female, and created marriage to be between a man and a woman (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:4-5), and thus expects the church to honor biblical marriage (Hebrews 13:4; Matthew 19:4-9). Furthermore, the Scriptures explain that the LGBT lifestyle goes against natural order, is rooted in man’s lusts, and rejects the truth of God (Romans 1:24-27). The result is not “pride,” but impurity, dishonor, degrading passions, unnatural function, and indecency (Romans 1:24, 26, 27). Thus, the church cannot look upon this lifestyle with favor.
2. It is a violation of sound teaching
The LGBT lifestyle is not a new phenomenon; it is as old as the human race and falls under the list of specific acts that God labels as sin and are against sound teaching (I Timothy 1:8-10; I Corinthians 6:9). Sound teaching is that which agrees with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and of revealed religion in Christianity (I Timothy 3:16; 6:3). Sound doctrine is the truth revealed in Scripture (2 Timothy 4:3-4; John 17:17). The LGBT movement is one of those “myths” that an apostate church pursues.
3. It is a violation of the Gospel
The LGBT lifestyle also goes against “the glorious gospel of the blessed God” (I Timothy 1:11). The context in I Timothy makes it clear that he includes the sin of homosexuality (I Timothy 1:10). The message of the church is the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel reveals the person and work of Christ and the believer’s conduct (I Corinthians 15:3-4; I Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:12-14). The church cannot affirm as right what the Scriptures condemn as wrong.
Second Response: The Church Can Not Accept the LGBT Lifestyle as Good
The culture promotes the LGBT lifestyle as worthy of celebration. Yet Paul presents a different picture. He clearly distinguishes between the life lived in darkness and the life lived in the light of the truth (Ephesians 5:7-10). Scripture exhorts us not to be “partakers with them” (Ephesians 5:7). It contrasts what we were in darkness and what we are in the light.
The fruit of the light is “all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). Elsewhere, Paul describes that God’s grace has brought salvation to mankind, “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12). Paul describes that which is not light as darkness and exhorts us to not “participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:9, 11). These are the “deeds of the flesh” he delineates in Galatians 5:19-21.
Isaiah warned Israel about the danger of calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Here, Scripture warns us that because of immorality and impurity, “the wrath of God falls upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6). Scripture mentions the just retribution for those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). The church cannot condone what Scripture condemns.
Further, Paul writes, “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Ephesians 5:5). He tells the Corinthian believers, “Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9-10). He warns the Galatians that those who practice the deeds of the flesh “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21). This is a sobering assessment for all. How can the church look with favor upon a lifestyle that excludes from heaven and damns to hell?
The Church Cannot Remain Passive
The LGBT movement has driven the church into shame and silence and into capitulating to its demands and intrusions into public life. They no longer demand that society simply tolerate their lifestyle; they now demand we accommodate it.
But Paul’s exhortation to the church in Ephesians 5:11-14 is clear: “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). The church cannot celebrate the LGBT lifestyle in the church, marriage, or the pulpits because it can never “bless” what God categorically condemns. (2 Corinthians 6:14; Hebrews 13:4; I Thessalonians 4:3, 7-8).
Instead, Speak the Truth
Instead of adopting a passive attitude toward the LGBT movement, the church must speak the truth of the Gospel. Scripture commands us to expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11). Like a doctor to a patient, we need to make lovingly clear what Scripture says about the LGBT lifestyle.
Evangelize the Person Involved in the LGBT Lifestyle
The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers the same hope to a person involved in the LGBT lifestyle that it offers every other sinner. The Gospel is the demonstration of the love of God for a sinful world, including the LGBT community (John 3:16). Our Lord came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). It is the love and kindness of God that saves us from our sins, all by His death on the cross and by saving faith in Christ (Titus 2:3-7).
The Gospel of Christ is the saving power of God that not only pardons a sinner but also transforms the sinner into a new person through the work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 1:16-17; Titus 3:5-6). Christ can forgive the sins of any person no matter how detestable (I Tim. 1:15). Scripture gives this reassurance to all who come to Christ by faith: “Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11). No one living an LGBT lifestyle should ever feel that they are beyond the grace of God.
The church must lovingly present the truth of the damning darkness of the LGBT lifestyle and then offer with the same love and compassion the full and free pardon for sin in our Savior Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2). In addition, the church must be willing to accept those who find forgiveness and peace in Christ into the family of faith as forgiven, blood-washed children of God and members of God’s household, the church of Jesus Christ.
This is the church’s biblical response. May our Lord find us faithful in obedience to His Word, and may He find the church full of believers from all walks of life, including the gay lifestyle.
©2024 Alex D. Montoya. Used with permission.
About The Author

Alex Montoya
Alex D. Montoya is the senior pastor at First Fundamental Bible Church in Whittier, Calif. He is the author of the book, Preaching with a Passion.