The Write Place

It has been oft repeated by many without knowledge, that the sin of Sodom is it’s lack of hospitality. The novel teaching is unfaithful to the text, and serves as a soothing lie to people lost in sin. It is cruel to lie to them and give them a false hope, so let us dive into the truth.

⁴ But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. ⁵ And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

Genesis 19:4-5

What do they mean by “so that we may know them?” They are not trying to have a cup of tea with them, that would actually make them phenomenal hosts. The whole town coming out to get to know them, what a city.

The expression occurs in many places in scripture. It means to know sexually.
They neglect that everything the Sodomites are doing in the section is presented as wrong, neither do they look to the language of the text. Sodom is a city that is morally upside down and backward. The term for “knowing” can be used for sexual knowledge, the men are seeking a sexual encounter with them willingly or not. You can see Lot understands this as he decides to sin differently so as not to dishonor his role as host. He offers his daughters.

⁶ Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, ⁷ and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. ⁸ Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

Genesis 19:6-10

God comments later elsewhere, removing any faux ambiguity.

Ezekiel 16:48-50

48 As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

Ah you may say, social injustice. That was one sin and imports foreign definitions. Poor people can be sinners too who don’t deserve a handout, and Sodom had poor people. God destroyed the whole city including the “oppressed minorities.”

They were a corrupt city bending justice by ruling in favor of those with power one way or another. That would include ruling against the poor in lawsuits. But there is something more to our point here than modern redefinitions would insert.

This is the passage where the term abomination refers to Homosexual practice. The term for “abomination” is also תוֹעֵבָ֖ה (tohuva), a Hebrew expression for chaos and disorder used for homosexuality.

Notice also the following.

Isaiah 3:9

For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,

for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

This should sound familiar to the biblically literate. It’s the sin of all humanity in Romans 1.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 1:26-32

The sins of Sodom may be many, but it is distinctly their embrace of homosexuality. Peter Jones notes this sin is ubiquitous in the ancient world. The Queer movement is simply a return to the ancient sexuality that held the world in poverty.

When you forsake the God who created nature, you forsake nature too. This is why the sin is so egregious, it denies the design (and cosmology) of the body. It takes what God has said and doesn’t just lie but tells a bold lie, using the body of God’s image bearers to do it.

From what I have seen and heard, this teaching about Sodom is merely convenient for those who love their sin or feel helpless to change it.

Unless we confront the reality of the self-effacing sin that is sexual sin, we miss the hope that there is in the Gospel. No sinner is beyond the reach of God’s grace.

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous^[b] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,^[c] 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Don’t be afraid to face the truth, it’s the only safe place there is, and none are too far gone.