For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
Christians often cite these verses as meaning that God’s thoughts and ways are so transcendent and inscrutable, we cannot know them. This is, we are told, a reason for comfort for the Christian, especially when circumstances around us are confusing and painful. Some even use these verses to defend a kind of Christian anti-intellectualism. After all, if God is unknowable, why study theology at all? When having a “childlike” faith is confused with a purely emotive faith, there’s no sense in stewarding our minds to the knowledge and worship of God. Unfortunately, this way of approaching God has further devolved into the idea that if God is unknowable, we can’t really know His moral will when it comes especially to certain behaviors and lifestyles. 
Of course, it is true that God is omniscient, and we are not. He not only knows vastly more than we can imagine or comprehend, He is the source of all knowledge. Because there is so much He has not revealed, there is no sense in which humans could ever know God exhaustively. All of which is why my friend Greg Koukl often says that Christians should never read a Bible verse. What he means is that Christians should never read only one verse by itself.  
In the context of the verses before and after, Isaiah 55:8-9 does not suggest that we cannot know God’s thoughts and ways. In fact, Isaiah is saying the exact opposite. 
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Envy is the recoil of comparing ourselves with others. We see something beautiful in the life of another person and lament because the good belongs to them, not us. Now, when it comes to identifying a good in someone else’s life, we should always ask an initial question: Does the good that I perceive do anything to amplify the glory of Jesus? Often the answer will be ‘no’. In many cases, envy is built on a covetous desire for something that has little or no spiritual value – or perhaps even negative value. 

We aim at God’s glory when we are content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem (Thomas Watson).

Envy is a weed that readily grows in my heart. If I go on social media, my first look is a casual scroll through pictures and memes shared by friends. But if my eyes alight for more than a second or two, it is usually because I’ve spotted some point of comparison. Like a tilted bottle of water, I feel my emotion shift from a settled disposition of contentment to a sullen mood of disappointment. A sadness ebbs into my heart. It’s a sadness so ugly and shameful that I’m embarrassed to admit the truth in public. Deep down I feel a self-pity that someone else has experienced a dollop of blessing instead of me. Rather than rejoicing in the happiness of a friend, the beauty of her life triggers a bitter taste of disappointment.
My guess is that I’m not alone in needing to combat the sinful passion of envy. Many others will be familiar with the resentful sensation that a neighbour’s slice of cake is bigger and better than ‘mine’.  The question I want to raise is this: What should we do when envy spring up like a thorn in the heart? What steps can we follow to keep unequal scales from spoiling our contentment and joy?
The place to begin is to drill down into the core of the Christian heart. Deep down, regardless of how we feel in a passing moment, the bedrock of the heart of a Christian is a passion for the glory of Christ. We long for Jesus to be made preeminent in everything. On the one hand, the more he is exalted, the less room there is for sin, for suffering, and for death. On the other, anything that detracts or distracts from the glory of Christ is an obstacle to human happiness which needs to be demolished and removed. We need to keep this subterranean love in mind as we grapple with our more superficial passions.
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There is so much more to this conversation than Mason’s article lets on. There are serious, glaring theological problems with “Side B Christianity,” but Mason doesn’t address them. Rather, she caricatures and straw-man’s the sincere biblical and theological issues raised by those to her right. Nevertheless, these problems with the Side B paradigm endure, and Christians must engage them head-on with biblical discernment.

Christianity Today has published an article by a “Side B Christian” named Bekah Mason. For those unfamiliar with this terminology, so-called “Side A Christians” are those who believe that they can follow Christ while affirming homosexual identity and practice. “Side B Christians” are those who believe that following Christ means affirming gay identity while eschewing gay sexual behavior. Mason’s article is about the plight of “Side B Christians” who feel rejected both by LGBT folks on their left and by “orthodox churches” on their right. Mason argues that “Side B Christians are not a threat but an asset to orthodox churches.”
Readers would do well to reckon not only with the article’s argument but also with its problems. For example, Mason treats “Side B Christianity” as if its theological framework were uncontroversial. On her account, Side B Christians are simply people who are trying to be faithful to Christ in the face of “acerbic” conservatives who won’t let them be. But that is a caricature of the debate that has unfolded over the last 8 years or so.
“Side B Christians” treat homosexual orientation not as sin to be lamented but as an identity to be affirmed. Yes, they agree with Christians to their right that homosexual behavior is sinful and fallen, but they nevertheless don’t want to consign homosexual identity to a similar category. From Wes Hill arguing that being gay is “sanctifiable” to Grant Hartley‘s “Redeeming Queer Culture” to Gregory Coles‘ suggestion that gay orientation may be an aspect of God’s original creation design, it is clear that “Side B” folks aim to convince Christians that at least part of homosexuality ought to be redeemed rather than repented of. I don’t believe that Mason’s article is forthrightly dealing with these problems. Rather, she writes as if the debate is mainly due to the irrational rigidity of conservatives.
Mason also caricatures those to her right by claiming, “From conservative commenters, we hear that any acknowledgment of same-sex attraction is sinful.” I am one of the primary drafters of The Nashville Statement, and I know personally all of the other primary drafters. I can’t think of a single one who would agree with that statement. No responsible pastor would ever make such an asinine claim. The truth is that those of us who affirm Nashville believe that Christians should acknowledge and confess their sin no matter what it is. They should be honest about and face their own temptations and find help and strength from Christ to be faithful in the struggle. No one that I know of has argued anywhere that “any acknowledgement of same-sex attraction is sinful.” That claim simply isn’t true of any of the major parties to this conversation.
What we have argued is that same-sex sexual desire is sinful and that faithful Christians should repent of those desires whenever they experience them. They should not found an identity on such desires as though they were to be affirmed or commended. If gay orientation is any part of human identity, it would simply be an expression of the flesh. But the flesh is nothing to affirm or to celebrate. On the contrary, it is something daily to be put to death. The remnants of our sinful nature will be eradicated at the new creation, and that is why we must mortify our flesh even now (Romans 8:13).
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