“I’m a Gay Christian” – What’s the Problem?
“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” – Jude 1:4 (NIV)
“What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks—our Scriptures warned us this would happen—who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license, which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master and Lord.” – Jude 1:4 (The Message)
Let’s not beat around the bush, this needs to be said clearly and compassionately, without flinching. The phrase “I’m a gay Christian” might, on the surface, appear to be an honest confession or an attempt to reconcile one’s faith with personal struggle. But in reality, it’s a loaded phrase. Heavily loaded. It blends a biblically defined sin with a God-given identity and presents them as compatible, almost like oil and water trying to co-exist in the same cup.
Yes, the Church is called to love deeply. We should be the first to embrace the broken, the bruised, the lost and the lonely. But love without truth is deception dressed in affection. What’s happening across pulpits, in conferences, and on Christian podcasts under the name of “grace” and “inclusion” isn’t always biblical grace. It’s often a form of spiritual compromise. It’s exactly what Jude was warning the Church about, a version of grace that grants permission to sin rather than offering power to walk free from it.
Let’s be clear: this conversation is not about condemnation, it’s about clarification. Because what’s at stake here isn’t just some theological terminology, it’s the heart of the Gospel, the integrity of Christian identity, and the eternal direction of countless lives.
1. It Redefines Identity.
When someone identifies as a “gay Christian,” what they are really doing, intentionally or not, is stitching together two identities that stand in contradiction. It’s not simply about describing a struggle; it’s about claiming a label. That matters deeply.
Being “in Christ” means more than receiving forgiveness; it means undergoing a complete internal transformation. This is not spiritual self-improvement; it’s a rebirth, a starting over—a divine exchange of the old life for the new.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
“Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Message)
This isn’t a poetic metaphor, it’s the cornerstone of Christian life. The moment we put our faith in Jesus, our identity is no longer defined by our past, our preferences, or our proclivities. It’s defined by Him. We become children of God, heirs of the promise, partakers in divine nature.
To continue attaching a former label of sin to our Christian identity is like trying to drag a corpse into a resurrection. You can’t live in freedom if you insist on wearing the chains. Jesus didn’t save us to be “gay Christians,” “addicted Christians,” “angry Christians,” or “unforgiving Christians.” He saved us to be sons and daughters – fully known, fully redeemed, fully His.
2. It Invites Confusion.
Let’s be honest, language shapes belief. And when we adopt phrases that mix the holy with the unholy, we blur the lines for ourselves and others. Imagine a pastor introducing themselves as:
- “I’m a greedy Christian.”
- “I’m a lustful Christian.”
- “I’m a porn-addicted Christian.”
Would the Church affirm that? Would we say, “How brave! How honest!” Of course not. We’d instinctively feel the contradiction. These aren’t confessions of past struggle; they’re active identities being embraced.
So why does homosexuality/lesbianism and the whole LGBTQ crowd, alone among the sins clearly named in Scripture, get an exception? Get a free pass?
It’s because the culture around us has crept into the Church. We’ve grown hyper-sensitive to the fear of appearing unloving, so we’ve started softening our tone until the message itself becomes unclear. What began as compassion is now compromise. And that compromise is confusing, particularly among the younger generation, who are watching us to learn what it means to follow Jesus.
The Church must not hand the megaphone to culture. We must be lovingly uncompromising in defining what biblical freedom looks like. Not walking the line of sin management, but calling people to radical, whole-life transformation.
3. It Undermines Repentance and Transformation.
The Gospel doesn’t simply forgive. It breaks chains. It shatters strongholds. It transforms lives from the inside out.
When we use language that keeps our sin as part of our identity, we’re sending a message that repentance is optional and transformation is out of reach.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” – Galatians 5:24 (NIV)
“Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.” – Galatians 5:24 (The Message)
Repentance means more than just abstaining from sinful behaviour. It means turning around completely. It’s a mental shift, a heart posture, and a lifestyle of crucifying anything that stands in opposition to God’s holiness.
To keep a label like “gay Christian” is to hold onto the very thing Christ died to nail to the cross. That’s not transformation, that’s rebranding. And Christ didn’t die to rebrand sin. He died to remove it.
4. It Re-centres the Gospel Around Self.
This is where the issue reveals its deeper roots. The phrase “gay Christian” sounds like a testimony at first, but it’s really a reshaping of the Gospel. It shifts the narrative from Christ-centred to self-centred.
This is the heartbeat of woke theology. It says:
- “You are your story.”
- “You are your truth.”
- “You are your identity.”
But Jesus calls us to something far more radical:
“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’” – Luke 9:23 (NIV)
“Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: ‘Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how.’” – Luke 9:23 (The Message)
The Gospel doesn’t come to affirm your truth; it comes to replace it with The Truth. Following Jesus means we lay down everything, yes, even the parts we think are essential to our identity. And that’s where real freedom begins.
5. Jude’s Warning Is Now Our Reality.
What we’re witnessing is not merely cultural drift; it’s spiritual deception. Jude didn’t write to warn pagans; he wrote to warn the Church.
People are entering pulpits, ministries, and Christian leadership with teachings that sound warm and affirming, but which silently neuter the Gospel and reframe the Gospel to accommodate modern sensitivities – It’s grace without transformation. Love without truth. Inclusion without repentance.
And these teachings come cloaked in sentiments like:
- “This is just who I am.”
- “Jesus loves me as I am.”
- “God made me this way.”
But listen, God’s love is unconditional, yes. But His Kingdom is not. And His design for human identity is not up for cultural revision or accommodation.
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” – Romans 1:26–27 (NIV)
“Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.” – Romans 1:26–27 (The Message)
This is not about judgment. It’s about rescue. But no one is ever rescued by affirming the thing that is drowning them.
Final Thoughts.
Yes, this is hard. Yes, it touches nerves. And yes, it deals with real people we love. But if we’re going to be faithful to the Gospel, we must be willing to speak truthfully, even when it costs us approval.
So here it is:
- You are not your past.
- You are not your temptations.
- You are not your feelings.
- You are not your labels.
- You are His.
Let’s stop allowing cultural narratives to define spiritual identities. We don’t need “gay Christians,” “bitter Christians,” or “traumatised Christians.” We need believers who know they are redeemed, restored, and reborn.
The Church Must Stop…
- Applauding labels that Jesus shed blood to erase.
- Dodging difficult conversations in fear of offending.
- Letting cultural language dilute kingdom truth.
- Teaching people to manage sin instead of crucifying it.
And Start…
- Preaching truth, even when it stings.
- Loving people without softening Scripture.
- Redefining identity by the Word, not the world.
- Calling believers into real, lasting, Gospel-powered transformation.
Because the world doesn’t need another watered-down message. It needs Jesus.
And he’s not just offering comfort. He’s offering new life.
“Let those who have ears to hear – hear the truth, not the trend.”
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