Orientation Vs. Heart

I think it’s rather easy to agree that a heterosexual man who commits adultery with a woman has sinned — they both have. We get that. A homosexual man, acting on that impulse with another man, has sinned — they both have.

Moving back one step, to the level of desire, a heterosexual man desiring to commit adultery with a particular woman is sinning. A homosexual man desiring sex with one particular man is sinning. Okay.

But then when you work this back one more level, to what is commonly called “orientation,” then the heterosexual man who is attracted to women generally is not sinning, but a homosexual man attracted to men generally remains in a state of sin. Or does he? That’s the debate among Christians. How do you process this debate at orientation level?

I found this short quote in an audio transcript of a talk John Piper had with Sam Allberry. You can find the quote and the rest of the article here. The article was written a long time ago, but I think the discussion is still going on. So, I’m going to say my piece about it now.

The thing I want to talk about is what Sam calls orientation. He says, if we commit adultery, we sin. If a homosexual man has sex with another man, that is sin. So far, so good.

Then he says, if a heterosexual man desires to have sex with someone, not his wife, that is also sin. And the homosexual man desires to have sex with a man, that is also sin. The difference is between doing with your body and doing it inside your head. Again, so far so good.

Now a shift comes into the discussion. So far, we’re talking about biblical things in biblical ways. We’re working out James 1:14 and Matthew 5:27-28. But now all of a sudden Sam wants to talk about a category that isn’t in the Bible— “orientation.” In the passage in Matthew that we are alluding to, Jesus’ next level after action and desires was heart. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:27–28). 

This means that Sam’s next section should have been, “we work back one level to the heterosexual man who is attracted to women generally is not sinning.” That’s true. And what he should have said was, “a homosexual man attracted to men generally remains in a state of sin.” Yes. A man generally attracted to men is still in sin. The desire is itself is sinful.

Instead, Sam interjects the idea of orientation. But notice the Bible doesn’t have that category. It has heart. What is in our hearts is what we think, do, feel, desire, and say (Lk 6:45). If a man desires a man, it isn’t an orientation, it is a sinful desire. It is part of him because it is coming out of his heart.

Someone might say, but don’t the words mean the same thing? They don’t. All words mean something, and it isn’t an accident that instead of using the word heart, Sam is using the word orientation. The word orientation is only a hop skip and a jump from the word identity. But more on that later.

Heart, in the Bible, means who we are at the core of our being. It is the source of who we are. Everything we think, do, and say reflects our heart. When we get angry and sin, it is because that is what is in our hearts. The heart is deceitfully wicked (Jer 17:9). These are all characteristics of the heart. But on the other hand, God tells us to circumcise our hearts (Deut 10:16). He tells us that he will circumcise our hearts (Deut 30:6). He tells us to crucify ourselves and get new hearts. He tells us that he removes our hearts and gives us new hearts (Eze 11:19). He renews our hearts (Ps 51:10). While the heart is spoken of as who we are at the core, there is always hope that we can be changed and become like Jesus at that level. In fact, every place where the heart is spoken of in a negative way, it is spoken of in a context where we aren’t left with a dirty old heart. Instead, we are called to confess our sin, repent, and be transformed into Christ’s likeness, as our hearts are renewed (2 Cor 4:16).

The word orientation means things too. It means that is how we are born. It is our sexual orientation. Where the compass of our passions point. In the way it is being used, it can’t change. We are stuck with it. Because this is true, it is normal and rather than condemned, it should be celebrated.

So, when Sam shifts the conversation from talking about the heart to talking about orientation, he is shifting the conversation from something that gives hope to something that ensures foreverness.

Later, when he is talking about temptation, he rightly points out that temptation is not sin. James makes this clear in James 1:14. He is also right to point out that thinking sinful things according to your desires is just as sinful as acting those thoughts out in real life. 

But what about life before temptation shows up? Can a person be sinful, that is, a sinner, without having any temptation bringing that sin to the surface? Sam says it is wrong to say that “even if you’re not sinning, you’re still sinning, just because you’ve got the capacity to be tempted in a certain way.” I would say that the Bible doesn’t say you are sinning if you aren’t sinning, but you are a sinner, just waiting to sin.

This is exactly why everyone sins in the ways they sin. The Bible teaches that we are sinners from the get-go. After we’re born the only reason we aren’t sinning is because we don’t have the ability and the opportunity. We are sinners from the beginning. We live and move and have our being in sin. The things we are tempted toward is unique to each of us. I was always tempted to throw the things that wouldn’t work the way I wanted them to work. Another person might be tempted to sin by taking everyone else’s toys away. It isn’t an orientation, it is sin. We are sinners. We sin because that’s who we are. It is the expression of our hearts. We are different, so our sin is expressed in different ways.

A short aside, not all desires that Satan uses to tempt us are evil desires. Jesus and Adam were tempted without any sinfulness inside them. So, James isn’t assuming that all temptation is appealing to sinful desires. But what we’re talking about here is our sinfulness being enticed to produce sin.

The reason this is important is that Jesus died for sinners. He died so that we don’t have to sin. Temptation doesn’t come to people who don’t have sinful desires. It comes to people who are sinful before they even have desires. Desires reflect the sinful heart. But God forgives sin and he transforms lives. He takes sinful human beings and causes us to grow in grace so that temptations that came to us five years ago, aren’t even temptations today. We’ve grown out of them. In Christ we’re different.

It is a denial of the Gospel, and thus a different religion, if someone says, “God can’t change my sinful wicked heart because he created me this way.” No! If God says something is sinful and we want to repent, he will forgive us and cleanse us (1 Jn 1:9). It is a promise from God. And to doubt the promise, to not believe the promise, to not throw yourself in trust on the promise is to not believe the Gospel. Which is what “not Christian” means.

The Bible doesn’t talk about an orientation to sin in the way Sam and others use the word. It certainly doesn’t say that someone can’t change, or that he can’t change someone. Sam needs to get rid of his non-Christian, non-Biblical vocabulary and let God change his heart and mind.

I hope this helps.