Scripture speaks clearly on the issue of homosexuality: It is sin, in both desire and act.

That should be enough for all Christians. But the Bible also illustrates the devastating effects of homosexuality.

The most stunning image of homosexuality’s destructive capacity is found in Genesis 19. Two angels came to visit Abraham’s nephew Lot in the city of Sodom, which was overrun by sin and sexual perversion.

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house. (vv. 1–3)

Lot undoubtedly knew what kind of gross corruption dominated his city, and the evil intentions its citizens would have for his magnificent, angelic visitors. Clearly, he was eager to protect his guests—the likes of which his neighbors had never seen. However, they had already drawn the attention of the men of Sodom.

Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” (vv. 4–5)

There’s no bashfulness in their illicit demand—they have no shame about their objective, and they make no attempt to disguise their evil intentions. Sexual perversion so dominated the city that a mob of would-be rapists had openly gathered at Lot’s front door, demanding access to Lot’s visitors.

Foolishly, Lot tried to reason with the lustful mob.

But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.” (vv. 6–8)

Lot’s offer of his two daughters illustrates the corrosive influence of such pervasive corruption. He knew the moment these two visitors arrived that they would be targeted throughout the city. He was actually willing to sacrifice his own daughters to the mob to protect these angels from being molested. Sexual sin was so commonplace in that city that he considered his own daughters’ virginity as a potential bargaining chip.

But his offer did not interest the mob. Their lust was fixated on the two angels. “But they said, ‘Stand aside.’ Furthermore, they said, ‘This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.’ So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door” (v. 9). They readily resorted to force—and potentially murder—just to satisfy their illicit craving.

Crushing against the door, the mob’s appetite would not be quelled. Lot’s attempt to spare the angels had failed—now it was up to them to save him from the inhabitants of Sodom. “But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway” (vv. 10–11).

These men were so consumed with lust that even being miraculously struck blind did not dissuade them from their wicked pursuit. Some liberal theologians have tried to argue that the great sin of Sodom wasn’t sexual at all—that it was instead a lack of hospitality. Jude 7 dismisses such nonsense: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

Sodom isn’t just an example of God’s decisive judgment against rebellious sinners. It’s a vivid illustration of the destructive danger of deviant sexual desires. The lust of those men was completely out of control. It drove them to nearly kill Lot and break down his door. It drove them to fumble around despite sudden blindness, still chasing sinful satisfaction. Such is the consuming corruption of unchecked lust.

“Gay” is a preposterous term for describing those who have given themselves over to homosexual sin. They’re anything but gay. It’s a lifestyle of hopelessness and loneliness, expended in a perpetual, fruitless effort to bury their massive guilt under a campaign of self-justification. It’s one endless attempt to silence the cries of conscience in pursuit of evil pleasures that cannot satisfy.

Gay is a complete misnomer. Homosexual is the clinical descriptor. But the biblical term is sodomite, and it identifies the sin for what it truly is: ruinous passion and lust that is utterly out of control.

Romans 1 tells us exactly what this looks like. When people reject God and suppress the truth of His existence, He gives them up to homosexuality (Romans 1:24–27), then He gives them up to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:28). A reprobate mind means you don’t even function. People go from a sexual revolution, to homosexuality, and finally to insanity.

How much more insane can you be than completely ignoring the difference between male and female? That’s exactly what the transgender movement does. But even homosexuality perverts God’s design of male and female and proves that homosexuals have denied reality itself. This is why Romans 1:26 describes homosexuals as people who have “degrading passions” and “exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.” Homosexuality is degrading and literally against nature itself.

Put simply, homosexuality is a self-destructive sin.

As Romans 1 continues, Paul explains that reality in even greater detail as it pertains to both individuals and broader society. That’s what we’ll look at next time.