As Christ's followers, it is our duty to love as God loves. We will never be completely successful in this, but we should try. In fact, the love of Jesus ought to be a natural outpouring of our relationship with Christ. In Galatians 5 we read that the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace..." Notice that the first mentioned is love. As God regenerates our hearts and we respond to him in faith, something amazing happens. He turns our hearts from stone to flesh. This enables us to truly love in a Christlike manner. Christlike love is compassionate, sacrificial service.
As we read through the bible, especially the New Testament, we see God's expectation again and again that we will be loving people. God does not give loopholes for those we are allowed to not love. As difficult as it is, we're even expected to love our enemies. In Matthew 5 we're instructed by Jesus, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." This is only something we can do through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing we do matters apart from love. I Corinthians 13:1-3 says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Love is the number one characteristic of the Christian.
In light of all this, it is clear that we should love homosexuals. Regardless of how we are treated in return, our response must be the love of Christ. Many homosexuals are kind people. Some are not. It doesn't matter. As Christ's people, the way we interact with others does not depend on how they treat us. Our attitudes and actions depend on our relationship with Jesus. He loves homosexuals. God has changed our hearts so we can do the same. Now we must. There are no loopholes.
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