It is common in Christian circles to hear admonitions to “Love the Sinner; hate the sin.” <\/p>\n
More and more I hear this said in the context of LGBT people and gay marriage. <\/p>\n
“Oh, I don’t hate gay people, I just hate the gay lifestyle. … You know, I love the sinner, but hate the sin.” <\/p>\n
There are so many things wrong with the “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin” statement, I hardly know where to begin.<\/strong> So let’s begin with a laugh:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now… on with the post…<\/p>\n
There are several things wrong with the statement, “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin.”<\/p>\n
The simple fact that we label the person we are talking about as a “sinner” indicates that we do not have love for them in the first place. <\/p>\n
To label someone a “sinner” is to imply that they are outside of God’s grace and unless they clean up their act, cannot be forgiven. <\/p>\n
To label someone a “sinner” reveals an “us vs. them” mentality, where you are the “righteous” person looking down your nose at the poor, wretched, ignorant “sinners” down below who just cannot get their act together. If only they would listen to what you tell them to do…<\/p>\n
We Christians pay lip service to the idea that “We are all sinners” but we reveal that we do not really believe this when label someone else a “sinner.” <\/p>\n
By labeling them a “sinner,” we condemn the sin of someone else as worse than our own. <\/strong><\/p>\n
When a watching world says Christians are full of hate, it is not a good strategy to tell them that we don’t hate them<\/em> we just hate their sin. <\/p>\n
Why do we have to “hate” anything? <\/p>\n
Is it because God “hates” sin?<\/p>\n
Well, there are some statement like this in the Bible, but such statements require great care in understanding and applying them to life. <\/p>\n
We have to understand why<\/em> God says what He says. <\/p>\n
We also have to recognize that even if God does “hate” (which I don’t think He does … at least, not the way we understand it), He doesn’t anywhere tell us to hate. <\/p>\n
Furthermore, we have to recognize that when God uses this sort of language about certain sins, it is not because He that upset at the person for committing the sin, or even at the sin itself for being so “terrible.” God isn’t nearly as worked up about sin as we are. God is not in the sin-management business.<\/strong> <\/p>\n
The reason God says some strong things about certain sins in the Bible is because these sins hurt us, and He loves us, and doesn’t want to see us hurt by sin.<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n
“Because it destroys families!”<\/p>\n
“Because it destroys the definition of marriage!”<\/p>\n
… If this is how you express your concern, I think they don’t need it. <\/p>\n
I could say so much more about this, but I must move on. Here is a post which says more: Love the Sinner, hate the sin is really just hate<\/a><\/p>\n
Yes, yes, “sin” is a biblical word. No, I don’t want people to stop talking about sin. <\/p>\n
But here is what I have noticed in my own life, and among the majority of Christians. <\/p>\n
We all have our “favorite sins” we commit.<\/strong><\/p>\n
We have sins we ourselves commit all the time that we don’t bat an eyelash at. And when someone point out to us the sin in our own life, we say, “Well, Christians aren’t perfect<\/a>, you know.” Or maybe we say, “Thank God for grace!” Or possibly, “Yeah, I know that’s an issue, but God is working with me on that.” Occasionally, we may even justify our behavior and says, “What?! No, that’s not a sin! Stop judging me!”<\/p>\n
The sin of pride is called “healthy self-esteem.” <\/p>\n
The sin of gluttony is called “Respecting the wife’s cooking.” <\/p>\n
The sin of laziness is called “relaxing after work.” <\/p>\n
The sin of greed is calling “planning for the future.” <\/p>\n
The sin of national idolatry is called “patriotism.” <\/p>\n
The sin of hate is called “warning them of the fires of hell.”<\/p>\n
The sin of anger is called “standing up for what I believe.” <\/p>\n
And then we have our “favorite sins” we like to point out in others.<\/strong><\/p>\n
So why have we picked out this one “sin” as the one to focus on? <\/p>\n
So to bring this back around… <\/p>\n
If you just take the statement as a whole, it makes no sense. <\/p>\n
People are complex creatures, and psychologically and emotionally, it is nearly impossible to separate what a person does<\/em> from who a person is<\/em>. This is especially true when a person is the way they are because they were born that way. <\/p>\n
Forget homosexuality; take obesity as an example. <\/p>\n
Many people who are overweight say that they were born with a slow metabolism, or they have some sort of disorder. Or maybe they went through some difficult times in life that were out of their control and psychologically turned to food for comfort. Or maybe they were just born with tastebuds and a stomach that really liked to eat good food. <\/p>\n
Now imagine going up to such a person and saying, “Overeating is a sin. I love you, but I hate your fatness.” How will such a person respond? <\/p>\n
I believe that person will be rightly offended. <\/p>\n
Here’s the bottom line: If you love someone, you love all of them — even the lifestyle choices that might have resulted from sinful actions and behavior. <\/strong><\/p>\n
This does not mean you have to agree<\/em> with what they do, but instead, you simply view the things in their life that you don’t agree with<\/em> the same way you view all the sinful habits and choices you make in your own life.<\/em> <\/p>\n
And how do you want people to view you and your sin? You want to be loved while others withhold judgment. <\/p>\n
This also is how you should view others who do things, say things, or live in ways that you think are “sinful.” Just love them, and withhold judgment. <\/p>\n
And look, if you really want to start judging some sin somewhere, start with the whole mess in your own life first. Stop pointing out what you think is the sinful behavior in other people, and instead, work on the stuff in your own life. <\/p>\n
I think Jesus said something about that… (You know … something about specks in their eye and a log in your own?) And when the Bible does talk about the relationship between love and sin, it says that love covers a multitude of sins. Hmmm…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So when it comes down to it, the only part of the “Love the Sinner; Hate the Sin” statement that I like is the word “love.” <\/p>\n
And why can’t that be enough? When we see someone else behaving in ways we don’t approve of and which we think is sin (and as long as it’s not illegal or harming someone), why can’t “love” be the only word that comes to our mind? <\/p>\n
Apparently, Jesus loved this other person enough to die for them. And if He loved them, why can’t we?<\/p>\n
So the next time you are tempted to say you “Love the Sinner; hate the sin,” just stop at love.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The only part I like about the ‘love the sinner – hate the sin’ statement is the word ‘love.’ Next time you are tempted to say you ‘love the sinner but hate the sin,’ stop at ‘love.’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2245,2231],"tags":[1244,1410,1680,1301,1608,1183],"class_list":{"0":"post-39253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-redeeming-life","8":"category-redeeming-theology","9":"tag-forgiveness","10":"tag-homosexuality","11":"tag-looks-like-jesus","12":"tag-love","13":"tag-love-like-jesus","14":"tag-theology-sin","15":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n