And not infrequently, more than two. But where our obedience to God is concerned, we are not doing rightly when we disobey. We are **capable of **disobeying - but we are never entitled to disobey.
So far in this thread Iāve not seen homosexual Christians being called apostates - ISTM all sin by Christians is apostasy, as all sin is by a Christian is a turning away from Christ. Homosexual sin is merely more publicised than many: such as hardness of heart, oppression of the weak, lying, adultery, hatred, pride, avarice, gluttony, etc., etc.,. AFAICS, they are all forms of apostasy, because they all bias us away from Christ and back to Self.
As an OP has pointed out, homosexuals are not
uniquely sinful - all of us are sinful, whatever our orientation or temptations or vices or actual sins: & that includes those who engage in homosexual acts. Itās just that they are not the only members of the set āsinnersā - but they are members of it.
There is no room for any shadow of triumphalism or gloating here, as though Christians not tempted in this way could look down on or condemn their fellow-members in Christ who are tempted to engage in homosexual acts or do them. Nor can the latter condemn those who do not. All members of both groups are guilty before God, because all have fallen short of the Glory of God. Godās Righteousness weighs us all, and finds every single one of us wanting - all need mercy and forgiveness, whether we acknowledge our sinfulness or not. What others think is unimportant - all of us are open books to God.
That at least is what ISTM Romans 1 to 3 is saying - God condemns us all, that He may have mercy upon all. Only sinners can be forgiven sin - the righteous canāt. So how can an unadmitted sin that we knowingly do not submit to God for Him to judge, be forgiven ? To hang on to a sin is dangerous - it may become part of āwho we areā; and be all the more painful to remove.
Does Acts 16.31, which you quote, replace obedience to God - or open the way to it ? IOW - was the Philippian jailer, after believing on Christ savingly, āentitledā to do wrong; or does the internal logic of saving faith oblige us to to submit ourselves to God āas beloved childrenā ? Christian freedom is
freedom from sin that we may be
free for God - not freedom to continue in sin, and sin on more
To sin on more, that grace may abound, is anti-nomian: it abuses the priceless grace of God by making of it a means to serve the devil. If we do that, we shall join him whom we serve in Hell.
Shouldnāt the plausibility with which we, being fallen, are capable of justifying our sins, be a warning sign ? If slavery can be justified from the Bible, yet later condemned as unrighteous behaviour, how much are Biblical justifications for homosexual behaviour ? They are very largely arguments from silence: whereas there are many Biblical
data about marriage, that help us to build up a detailed picture of it & what it means in Godās purposes. Ephesians 5 has much to say about Christian marriage and what it means - but Paul has no theology of the Christian meaning of homosexual practice, even though that would have been a very good place for it. This too is an argument from silence - but it is a silence that is hard to account for if homosexual acts are fit for Christians. The silence on the other side of the argument is easy to understand, if homosexual acts are unworthy of Christians.
This is far too long - sorry.
- if it is not a Christian way of living, it cannot be truly loving. Sinning is not a way of loving God.
there are a good many same-sex relationships in Greek Classical literature; but Israel seems not have: Achilles & Patroclus, the Theban Band, the Sybarites, have no Biblical equivalent in their sexual practice.