In the ancient world, homosexuality was predominantly a pagan phenomenon. You won’t find any evidence of the practice by Jews in Roman occupied Palestine in the first century. Paul’s letters reveal the typical attitudes of Jews to sexual immorality in the Second Temple period. His letters, it should be appreciated, were addressed to mixed communities of diaspora Jews and converts from paganism. And when Paul addresses sexual immorality it is to emphasize that the essence of salvation is to free the people of God from the tyranny of sin in order to live righteously while awaiting consummation of the Kingdom of Christ. This message was more urgent in a gentile milieu. The mission of Jesus, by contrast, was to Israel and the needs of Israel - to bring the heirs of the “law and the prophets” into a renewed and deepened understanding of God. Only in light of this call to personal reformation could they “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with [their] God.”