Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Matt Lawson
Company: GDC

© 2004 Joe Griffin		04-01-11-B.CC02-232 /

Trends of the Lust Pattern: Gravitation Leads to Volitional Assent to Sin, Mental Attitude Sins Lead to Overt Sins; Review of Malakos & Arsenokoitēs
1.	Every person will gravitate toward one or more of these lust patterns and then seek fulfillment unless restrained by the standards of behavior that are found in the soul’s conscience.
2.	To have a trend toward one or more of these lust patters in not a sin but an expression of the sinful nature’s ascetic or licentious affinities.
3.	To be tempted by one of these lust patterns is not a sin and it may be rejected by the volition’s submission to establishment or doctrinal norms and standards in the conscience.
4.	To gravitate, to move toward, or to become attracted to one of these lust patterns leads to volitional assent to the lust pattern and constitutes a mental attitude sin.
5.	One must give mental approval to an idea before he can act on the idea.
6.	Once mental assent is given then a trend is facilitated in the soul.  This is not “sexual orientation.”  This is a decision to permit the temptation offered by the lust pattern to become a reality in the soul.
7.	The lust patterns involved related to homosexuality include one or more of the following: (1) power lust: the desire to dominate another person, (2) the cluster of sensual lusts for pleasure, sex, or social dominance, and (3) approbation lust coupled with a trend for the lascivious.
8.	Once the sinful nature has control of the soul then, minus rebound, the desire to fulfill these lust patterns becomes insatiable leading to homosexual behaviors.
9.	Thus we are all born with trends.  The trends that become dominant are the result of environmental, cultural, and didactic influences.
10.	 From these influences decisions are made to give mental assent to them as acceptable and desirable.  This constitutes mental attitude sins.
11.	To act on these mental attitudes constitutes overt sin in the form of homosexual behavior.
12.	The details of divine disapproval, punishment, and judgment for these sins have been documented in Genesis 19, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.
13.	Two Greek words located in the latter two of these references are among sins that are extreme illustrations of violating the Ten Commandments.
14.	The first of these we noted is found in 1 Corinthians 6:9:
	malakÒj, malakos -	KJV: “effeminate”
The translators obviously considered malakos to be nefandous thus they used the euphemism “effeminate” in their translation.  The exact translation is determined from the etymology of the word as we noted from the lexicons, dictionaries, and expanded translations of the Bible.
15.	These are important to the major points we have developed: involvement in homosexuality is not genetically determined but rather a volitional decision.  Here is what we learned about malakos:
Liddell, George Henry and Robert Scott.  A Greek-English Lexicon.  Revised by Henry Stuart Jones.  9th ed.  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 1076-77:
malak…a.  Softness: hence, of persons, moral weakness.  To be softened or made effeminate.
malakÒj.  Morally weak, lacking in self-control.  To reason loosely.
Thayer, Joseph Henry.  The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.  (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1981), 387:
malakÒj.  Latin, mollis (effeminate), metaphorically: of a catamite, a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness.
Bauer, Walter.  A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.  Translated by William F. Arndt and F. Wilber Gingrich. 2d ed.  (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979),  488:
malakÒj.  Soft, effeminate, especially of catamites, men and boys who allow themselves to be misused homosexually.
Zodhiates, Spiros (ed.).  The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament.  Rev. ed.  (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1992), 940:
malakÒj.  Figuratively it means effeminate or a person who allows himself to be sexually abused contrary to nature.  Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:9, joins the malakoí, the effeminate, with arsenokoítai, homosexuals, Sodomites.
New English Translation Bible.  1^st Beta Ed.  (Dallas: Biblical Studies Press, 2001), 2144, fn 12:
1 Corinthians 6:9: “passive homosexual partners.”  This term is sometimes rendered “effeminate,” although in contemporary English usage such a translation could be taken to refer to demeanor rather than behavior.
(Johannes P.) Louw & (Eugene) Nida [Eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semitic Domains.  (New York: United Bible Societies, 1998)], 8.221 states, “the passive male partner in homosexual intercourse—‘homosexual.’  …As in Greek, a number of other languages also have entirely distinct terms for the active and passive roles in homosexual intercourse.”
A number of modern translations have adopted the phrase “male prostitutes” for malako… [malakoí] in 1 Corinthians 6:9 (NIV, NRSV, NLT) but this could be misunderstood by the modern reader to mean “males who sell their services to women,” while the term in question appears, at least in context, to relate to homosexual activity between males.  Furthermore, it is far from certain that prostitution as commonly understood (the selling of sexual favors) is specified here, as opposed to a consensual relationship.  Thus the translation “passive homosexual partners” has been used here.
16.	The second word we have examined is used in both 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10:
¢rsenoko…thj, arsenokoitēs -	KJV: “abusers of themselves with mankind”
17.	One Greek word considered nefandous is converted into five English words resulting in obscurity.  Lucidity is gained by examining the word from the lexicons:
Liddell, George Henry and Robert Scott.  A Greek-English Lexicon.  246:
	¢rrenoko…thj, arrenokoitēs, “a sodomite.”
Bauer, Walter.  A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.  Translated by William F. Arndt and F. Wilber Gingrich.  109:
¢rsenoko…thj, arsenokoitēs, “a male who practices homosexuality, a pederast, a sodomite (1 Corinthians 6:9).
Thayer, Joseph Henry.  The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.  75:
¢rsenoko…thj, arsenokoitēs, “one who lies with a male as with a female; a sodomite.”
Zodhiates, Spiros (ed.).  The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament.  258:
¢rsenoko…thj, arsenokoitēs, “a man who lies in bed with another male; a homosexual (1 Corinthians 6:9). 
Earle, Ralph.  Word Meanings in the New Testament.  (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986), 226-27:
1 Corinthians 6:9, Effeminate.  Two Greek words at the end of verse 9 seem to refer to much the same thing.  The first is malakos, translated “effeminate.”  This adjective literally means “soft” and was properly used of what is soft to touch.
But, as Arndt and Gingrich note, it was also used “especially of catamites, men and boys who allow themselves to be misused homosexually” (p. 488 [see above, p. 986]).  This was a common thing in that day.
“Abusers of themselves with mankind” (KJV) is all one word in Greek, ¢rsenoko…tai, arsenokoitai [plural form].  It is a compounded of arsēn, “male,” and koitē, “bed,” and so means “one who lies with a male as with a female, a sodomite” (Thayer, p. 75 [see above, p. 988]).  The same sin is described graphically in Romans 1:27.
In much of modern society in America and Europe homosexuality is no longer even frowned upon.  Several church denominations have officially stated that homosexual relations between consenting adults should no longer be considered a crime.  Congregations of homosexuals have sprung up in this country and have even formed themselves into an association like a denomination.  Marriages of two men and two women are not uncommon.  
In the face of all this permissiveness we need to realize afresh what God’s word says about this practice.  In both the Old Testament and the New it is categorically condemned.  Certainly we need to be sympathetic with those who have a psychological problem at this point.  But the Scriptures label homosexuality as a sin.  Sodomy was the sin for which God destroyed ancient Sodom.
New English Translation Bible.  2144, fn 13:
1 Corinthians 6:9: “practicing homosexuals.”  (Johannes P.) Louw & (Eugene) Nida [Eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semitic Domains.  (New York: United Bible Societies, 1998)], 8.280 states, “It is possible that ¢rsenoko…thj [arsenokoitēs] in certain contexts refers to the active male partner in homosexual intercourse in contrast with malakÒj [malakos], the passive male partner.”
18.	From this we may utilize doctrinal rationales to refute the notions that homosexuality is a genetic condition or a “sexual orientation.”

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