Christ Church Leavenworth
Pride Month Postmortem
June 28, 2026
The Sin of Effeminacy
INTRODUCTION
Our text this morning is 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. You will note this is the same text we’ve been using this month for our declaration of pardon. So, why use it now for the exhortation as well? A few reasons: first, it’s June, so, ‘tis the season, right? It’s that time of year when the other deadly sins all sit around and wonder what they have to do to get a whole month dedicated to them. Secondly, and more to the point, there is an important hamartiological distinction made in this text that is often overlooked. Hamartiology is the study of sin and this passage includes a laundry list of dirty deeds because sins, like grapes, often come in bunches.
I will be reading the King James Version for reasons I will point out shortly. 1 Cor 6:9-11, these are the words of God: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 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, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
Every once in a while, you will see clips online of some lady preacher saying something like, “The Bible nowhere condemns homosexuality.” She, of course, cannot be trusted with this text for the same reason that she cannot be trusted with any text, that being that she obviously does not know how to read. If she did, she wouldn’t be pretending to be a pastor. But her point is easily refuted by referring to almost any translation of the text I just read. The ESV says, “men who practice homosexuality,” the NIV says, “men who have sex with men,” the NASB says, “homosexuals,” and the CSB says, “males who have sex with males.” These are the most popular translations of the Bible in circulation and none of them is missing the main point in translation: homosexuality is a sin. So far so good.
But each one of these is still missing something. In the Greek, there are ten separate sins listed in this passage. The Greek word, oute (oo-tuh), which means “neither/nor,” appears ten times in our passage. Why? Because there are ten distinct sins listed. Our most popular and contemporary English translations, however, list only nine. Why? They combine two of the sins from the list into one. They combine the Greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai into the sin of “homosexuality” even though they are distinct sins separated by the word oute.
This is why I read our passage using the KJV. Did you notice how it translated the passage? Instead of one sin, “homosexuality,” the KJV lists two: “nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.” To be fair, the KJV is not the only translation that gets this right. The LSB, the NLT, and the old NASB (1977) also make the same distinction. They keep malakoi and arsenokoitai separated.
The first word, malakoi, is the sin that gets left out. It means “soft” or “fine” and is figuratively used for “effeminate.” It’s like our word “fancy.” It can be used to describe something refined like a fancy party or it can be used to describe something effeminate like a fancy boy. This word, malakoi, only appears a few other times in the NT, Mt 11 and Lk 7, and both refer to the same conversation. Matthew 11:7-8 “As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? No, behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.’” Jesus’ point here is that John the Baptist was not a sissy. Where did he live? In the wilderness. What did he wear? Camel hair. What did he eat? Locusts. How did he talk? With authority. He didn’t have a limp wrist or a lisp. He was not a push over. Prophets are not pansies, but according to Jesus, politicians often are.
The second word, arsenokoitai is a compound word made up of the words arsen = “male” + koitai = “bed.” This is the word commonly translated as “homosexual,” in the NT. One such instance occurs in 1 Timothy 1:9-10, “Understand this, the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”
Did you catch that? Homosexuality is contrary to sound doctrine. Now, for the most part, most of the church still gets this one right. It’s that sin of effeminacy, or malakoi, that often is overlooked. Now, to be fair, maybe it’s overlooked because most of our modern translations don’t mention it... or maybe it’s missing from most translations because modern man no longer considers it a sin in itself.
In many Christian circles, softness is NOT considered a sin, and in some, it is even applauded as a virtue. Many churches teach their men to sweethearts, not bravehearts. They would rather have all of their seats filled with the little old ladies of both sexes than have any one of their seats filled by a real life dragonslayer. But that’s where they are wrong, and not just difference of opinion wrong, but damnably wrong. Softness is a sin forbidden by God; it is not a permissible orientation. Even if it never grows up into full blown homosexuality, it is still a sin in its seed form. Even when it stays in the closet, it is doing something in broad daylight; and that thing must be repented of or it will not inherit the kingdom of God. Effeminacy is a sin. It can grow up and get worse, of course, like any other sin, but it doesn’t have to in order to be condemned, it is a sin from the beginning.
So, why do I bring this up? Why all the fuss about making sure this is pointed out and named as a sin? The Good News is that if a sin can be named, it can be forgiven. If you have been going soft, you can repent and find forgiveness. What you cannot do is try to sanctify softness as some sort of Christian ideal under the guise of “What Would Jesus Do?” as though flipping tables and calling people names were not things Jesus did. We cannot make a virtue out of cowardice or hide behind a shield of softness. Tissue paper cannot survive the presence of God. He is a consuming fire and flamboyance, as it turns out, is very flammable.
So, we must call things what God calls them. That is what confession means. The English word “confess” is from the Greek word homologeo which means “same words.” (homo + logos) So, in order to confess our sins we must call them what He does. And in this case, that means calling effeminacy what God calls it – a sin. The effeminate will not inherit the kingdom of God… unless they repent. That may come as a shock to some, but sometimes a good shock is exactly what we need. Douglas Wilson said it this way, “What does shocking language do? One of the things it accomplishes is that it wakes people up. It brings them to their senses. It smells like burnt Marsh-wiggle.”
Niceties and sweet nothings can gloss over a good deal of gross, but one hot word can burn off the fog. The smell of burnt marshwiggle sobers you up real quick. It’s like the Febreeze spray some people have in their bathrooms. Those aren’t fooling anybody, right? The more of that spray you smell, the more you know just how bad it was in there a little bit ago. This is like that: a good, clear, hard word clears the air better than a bunch of flowery language. As Spurgeon once said, "Do not give fair names to foul sins; call them what you will, they will smell no sweeter."
If you call bad things nice names, you do everyone a disservice. The sinner does not feel the need to repent, the onlooker does not understand the seriousness of the situation, and the Lord is misrepresented as a moral guidance counselor whose law can be taken or left at leisure. But call a sin what it is and everyone knows that things just got real.
Chesterton said it this way, "Nine times out of ten, the coarse word is the word that condemns an evil and the refined word the word that excuses it." There isn’t much wiggle room in calling effeminacy a “sin.” That is pretty straight forward, no pun intended. But call it “diverse,” or, “unique,” and it sounds more like a difference of opinion. Make no mistake about it, the Bible words condemn what the politically correct terms excuse. So call things what God calls them: effeminacy is a sin. So, if you’ve been going soft, brother, repent. Confess your sin and be forgiven; then rise and walk a little bit straighter and whole lot bolder knowing that God is with you.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Well, since we’d rather make excuses for our sins than call them what they are and since we often use nicer words than our sins deserve, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be related to this or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.
CORPORATE CONFESSION
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Cleanse me, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
DECLARATION OF PARDON
Arise and hear the Good News!
The assurance of pardon today as we mentioned before is 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 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, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
We are not saved from our sins by calling them something else. We cannot call our evil “good,” and get away with it. But if we call our sins what God calls them and ask Him to forgive us for them, as we just did, we get away from them. Such WERE some of you. Some of you have seen some stuff, but now you see Jesus and because of Him, it is my you and my privilege to declare to you that you WILL inherit the kingdom of God because in Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!
Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.
