LGBTQIA and Other People to Love

I'm pretty conservative.  I vote Republican.  So would you be shocked to know that I have no interest in being an activist against LGBTQIA rights (I think I have that right) such as gay marriage?

This is because our responsibility isn't to get unbelievers to quit sinning.

What happens if we do try to get them to quit sinning?  It doesn't work.
What happens if we try to get ourselves to quit sinning?  It doesn't work either.

Why did you come to Christ?  Because you realized you were a sinner and you could not be healed no matter how hard you tried.  An unbeliever 1. doesn't acknowledge that their sin breaks their relationship with God, and 2. if they try to heal themselves from sin, they will not succeed permanently.

Even as Christians, this is the most common trap we fall into:  to keep trying to heal ourselves.  This is why we daily preach the gospel to ourselves, as if we daily come to God in a "mini salvation" measure as we die to ourselves over and over.

So it's not about getting people to quit sinning.  It's not about getting them to quit having abortions or watching pornography.  Because the action won't change unless the heart changes, and only God can do that - and only if they come to him.  So again, if we focus on telling people to stop sinning, they can't, even if they try really hard.  But if we love people to Christ, listening...encouraging...coming alongside them, then the Holy Spirit changes their hearts and does the work of healing from sin's devastation so they can experience freedom from sin and from guilt.  Isn't it great that we are released from the responsibility to stop unbelievers from sinning?  Even though it grieves us to see people acting in self-destruction, it's pointless to tell them to stop.

Note:  While it's pointless to hold people to standards they don't profess to hold themselves to, we ARE called to lovingly confront each other (within the Christian community, or the church) when sin takes hold.  This is because we profess that we were dead in sin and are now alive, so it is crazy to go back to living as a dead person.  But even then, the sin isn't the focus.  The heart is.  It's the Holy Spirit that changes a heart, and people come to God when they are attracted to his presence in us.