Love the sinner. Hate the sin.
If you've been a Christian for any amount of time, I'm sure you've heard the phrase.
If you aren't a Christian, I'm sure you've heard the phrase too, and I would like to personally apologize to you for how Christians use it.
When Christians say "Love the sinner, hate the sin." it's usually in a context where we're belittling the actions of a non-believer. We're usually on the outside looking in, judging him or her for whatever situation is going on in their life, and we essentially put our hand over our heart and say with our big doe eyes and thick southern accents "Bless their heart...don't hate who they are, just hate what they're doing." And then we puff up our chests, fill ourselves with pride, and put a metaphorical gold sticker in our good deed book for the day. Then we walk around as if we have a blue ribbon on our shirt that says "Ooooh! Look at me! I loved someone hard to love today."
And we wonder why nonbelievers think Christians are hypocritical and judgmental?
The phrase itself holds some validity. We should love sinners, and we should hate sin. But we shouldn't just hate the sins of nonbelievers. We should hate all sin. Right? Unless I'm missing something.
We shouldn't say we hate violence when we aren't grieving over the ill thoughts we have towards others in our lives or on the news.
We shouldn't hate the sin found in homosexual relationships portrayed in the media without despising the gossip that takes place in our church lobby.
We shouldn't hate the sin of premarital sex without being disgusted by the sin of our own lustful thoughts.
Somehow loving sinners and hating sin became this wedge that created a barrier between "Us versus Them" "Christians versus Non-Christians" and it makes me so sad.
I refuse to believe that I am above any sinner just because I'm a Christian. I have hope for my future because of who Christ is and what He has done in me, I have joy than can exceed all of my circumstances, and I have a relationship with my heavenly father who is the king of heaven and earth. A non-believer doesn't have hope for what's to come after death, will experience sorrow without having the peace that comes from an eternal joy in who Christ is, and doesn't have a relationship with Christ.
That's the difference between a believer and a non-believer.
Who made up this bogus story that Christians are out there in the world leading these perfect lives without struggles, without failures, without sins and that we are somehow better than the people who openly have issues or battles that they're fighting?
Tell them to go sit on a cactus.
Today alone I know I've gossiped, I've probably lied, I directed a very mean word...or maybe string of words at a guy who cut in front of me on summer avenue, I thought extremely judgmental things about people around me, I've said the Lord's name in vain, and who knows what else. :( That's just TODAY! I don't want to think about the past couple of days, or the past couple of weeks. You'd be reading about how awful I am for the rest of your three day weekend. And I would hope and pray that if people were praying for me they wouldn't say "Love Melissa, but hate everything that isn't perfect about her." in a cruel, judge-y, malicious way. I hope they would say "Love Melissa. Pray for Melissa. Ask Melissa how we can help her. Hold Melissa Accountable. Help Melissa overcome what's going on in her life. Ask God to move in mighty ways and help Melissa overcome some of the battles she's facing in her life."
Love the non-believer, love the struggling christian. Love the agnostic. Love the strongest believer you know. Love the atheist with a heart full of cynicism the same way you love your pastor with a heart full of sharing the gospel and reaching lost souls. Love the people in your life that you don't understand, love the people in your life that you're with all the time. Extend grace over and over again, and thank God for extending that grace to you. Begin each morning with a new outlook on the people around you, and remain thankful for the mercies that our new each morning from God.
We know sin is bad. We don't need high and mighty people pointing their fingers around and ranking how poorly everyone is doing. That's not helpful to anyone. Actively pursuing relationships with people and choosing to go out of your way to love them? If we all did that then we would have to shut down the news stations, because the news would have absolutely nothing to report on.
