These texts say that "homosexuals" will not inherit the kingdom of God. Hence, the church cannot affirm same-sex relationships without abandoning the gospel.
1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy address exploitation.
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 · 1 Timothy 1:10
In 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, Paul warns that those who persist in sin will not inherit the kingdom of God. In his list of wrongdoers, he includes two Greek words that connect to some forms of same-sex behavior.
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (malakoi), nor abusers of themselves with mankind (arsenokoitai), nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."
1 Corinthians 6:9–111 Timothy 1:10 also uses the term arsenokoitai in a similar "vice list." Given that many Bible translations since 1946 have rendered malakoi and arsenokoitai as "homosexuals" or "men who have sex with men," it's worth taking a close look at these two Greek terms.
Given that those negative characteristics were unfortunately (and unfairly) attributed to women in the ancient world, the term was also long translated as "effeminate."
Although most uses of the term in ancient literature were not related to sexual behavior, men who took the passive role in same-sex relations were sometimes called malakoi, which is why many non-affirming Christians argue that it represents a condemnation of same-sex relationships.
But even in sexual contexts, malakos was most frequently used to describe men who were seen as lacking self-control in their love for women.
It's only in the past century that many Bible translators have connected the word specifically to same-sex relationships. More common English translations in past centuries were terms such as "weaklings," "wantons," and "debauchers."
The term arsenokoites (the singular form) comes from two Greek words: arsen, meaning "male," and koites, meaning "bed." Those words appear together in the Greek translation of Leviticus 20:13, leading some to speculate that Paul coined the term arsenokoites to condemn same-sex behavior.
That is possible, but the most common forms of same-sex behavior in the ancient world were pederasty, prostitution, and sex between masters and slaves. Pederasty was visible enough that Philo described it simply as the union of "males with males," and it likely loomed large for Paul, as the first-century orator Dio Chrysostom lamented that pederasty was "rife" in Paul's hometown of Tarsus.
Moreover, as New Testament scholar Dale Martin has written, "The only reliable way to define a word is to analyze its use in as many different contexts as possible." After Paul's apparent coinage of the term, most subsequent uses of it in ancient literature appear only in lists of vices. Those contexts indicate that the word likely relates to sexual or economic exploitation. So while it plausibly did refer to forms of same-sex behavior, those forms were most likely exploitative, not loving relationships.
Among the options officially unavailable to a Roman man was a lasting, reciprocal relationship with another freeborn man.
That is possible, but even if Paul had intended to condemn both partners in male same-sex relations, it's critical to remember the major gap between same-sex behavior as it was practiced in ancient societies — where it was based on status, power, and lust — and committed same-sex unions today.
As Craig Williams has summarized of the Roman world, "among the options officially unavailable to a Roman man was a lasting, reciprocal relationship with another freeborn man." The very type of same-sex relationship we are discussing in the church today simply wasn't a possibility in the Roman world.
Some Bible translations render malakoi and arsenokoitai as "homosexuals," but that term wasn't even coined until 1869 in German and 1892 in English. Not only that, the concept that the term describes didn't exist in the ancient world either.
Learn more about the key Greek terms used in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 in chapter seven of God and the Gay Christian — including how their meaning was reconstructed from ancient sources, and how that history reframes the conversation today.
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In order to be faithful to Scripture, we must recognize a distinction between the same-sex behavior the Bible condemns and the desires of gay Christians for love, companionship, and family today.