We've all heard "Love the sinner, hate the sin."
And the first half definitely seems on target: God absolutely calls us to love the sinner.
But who says we need to hate the sin?
I guess "hate the sin" sounds good and righteous in theory, but in practice it amounts to "judge the sin", which isn't even a hop, skip or a jump from "judge the sinner".
Maybe "hate the sin" would be passable advice if it wasn't for the fact that we all have a huge self-righteousness problem. (Have you ever noticed how other people's sins are so much worse than your own? Me too!)
Jesus says, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37)
If we harbor some self-righteous hatred of another's sin, we are in dangerous territory.
It seems to me a lot hinges on how we define the word "judge." How do you reconcile the verse you quoted with John 7:24 ("Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment") or Revelation 2:6 ("Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate").
ReplyDeleteLet me chew on this in a separate post. To be sure, I am still trying to sort this stuff out in my own head. I really appreciate your comments and questions because it helps me work out the nuances and, hopefully, avoid going off the rails in a wrong direction.
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