Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin
Posted here is an essay I wrote about a year ago. You can agree or disagree with my line of logic, but don't miss the message in the last two paragraphs. The conclusion therein was really groundbreaking for me.
If we are striving to live a Christ-like life, then our desire is to respond as Christ responded to both sinners, and to their sins. The worn-out phrase, which is not found in the Bible, is, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Simple enough. But is this what Christ did? And if so, how and why?
Very few Christians will argue that God hates unregenerate sinners. (Except for this guy.) However, the orthodox view, and the one that is supported by the preponderance of Biblical evidence, is that everyone is a sinner, God loves everyone, therefore, God loves sinners. Why does he love sinners? Because He created us in His image to love us, and our sins (though they have ruined many things) have not thwarted His love for us. This is known because “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
So we, too, should love the sinner. We should strive to love saved sinners and unsaved sinners, just as Christ does. But does God hate our sins? It is pretty clear that He does, but why? The answer to that may be different depending on whose sins are in question: the believer’s, or the unbeliever’s?
First, why does God hate the sins of the believer? Two reasons: 1) They injure people. It is dangerous and can cause harm both to the guilty and the innocent. They distance the believer from God and threatens to strip him or her of heavenly reward, and 2) They injure God. They are what nailed Jesus to the cross, and separated Him from the Father. They do real damage to God’s glory on earth, and to the reputation of His Name.
Second, why does God hate the sins of the unbeliever? (By the word “sins” I do not include the sin of rejecting Jesus.) Certainly they are equally injurious in an earthly sense as the sins of the believer, and God hates to see the people that he loves being hurt, and hurting others. But what about #2 above? Do the sins of the unbeliever injure God? I believe the answer is no, because, although Jesus died for all mankind, His death ultimately covers only the sins of those who accept His atonement. Therefore, the unbeliever’s sins are not responsible for Jesus’ death (since no transaction occurs.) And since unbelievers do not carry His name, they do no damage to His reputation or His earthly glory when they sin.
Therefore, God hates the particular sins of unbelievers only because of the damage being done to them. And it is precisely because God loves them that He hates to see such things happen to them.
Do you think the world has noticed that we, the Church, hate their sins? Probably. We are often quite vocal about it. We make a point out of being shocked, offended or repulsed by the things unbelievers do. But if we are going to hate their sins the way God does, then we must recognize that we hate their sins not for His sake, or for our sake, but for the world’s sake. We hate their sins because we love the sinners, and we can see what their sins are doing to them. We therefore have no reason to show the world our disgust, only that we love them and we are driven to save them from the impending consequences of their sins.
If the world does not see our love for them, they will be certain that our hate for their sins is perfect evidence of our own self-righteousness. And they will be right.
Labels: doctrine, spirituality
Posted at 11:57 AM
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good stuff :) I try to think of it this way "God hates MY sin" i.e. I'm responsible for my sin, I'm not reponsible for the sin of another...I'm responsible to love. If I keep that as my focus, when/if the issue of sin comes up with another, I will always be approaching it from that perspective.
But how do you think we, as the church, should be reacting to the bad things the world does? Typically, when confronted with the drugs, sex, and violence we either (a) ignore it entirely, or (b) make a stink. But how do we love the world while hating what they do?
one relationship at a time :) I honestly don't really see an "issue" present in your question. what do you mean "we as the church"? are you asking if we should take some public stand against sin?
Yes... by "we the church" I refer to the public stand against sin that our leaders often take.
I'm curious about a couple of things. First, why do you exclude the sin of rejecting Jesus in your exposition of "sins", other than to prove a point? You don't do your point justice (i.e. your point isn't coherent) when you try to include this caveat.
Second, what gave you the impression that God loves humanity for any other reason than for His glory? And therefore, how can we be motivated to love others, except that we are motivated by glorifying Him? I am merely giving you opportunity to do some defining of your statements, in case we are actually agreed.
I won't assume that you disagree with this (since i know you so well), but for the sake of all participants in the blog, i'd like to clarify my POV:
Everything that has been created, both physical and spiritual, exists for one purpose only: the glory and majesty of God. He did it to demonstrate how holy and awesome He is. Therefore, every value we hold, and thus every decision we make, must be informed by this perspective. I should reemphasize that God's glory is often at odds with humanistic values. Humanism places the human being as the a priori being of value. Christianity (and, in the past, Judaism) places God at this level.
I often hear people speaking on this subject who "agree" with this theologically, but whose values espoused do not reflect this paradigm. Loving God is indeed integrally linked with loving others. But the minute the aim of our love to others stops at those others is the minute the love of God is absent from us. It's like sunlight shining through a window. The goal is not for the light to illuminate the window. The goal is to illuminate what is inside the structure.
As to the question you posed to Makeesha, i think the answer is fairly clear. God uses human beings to instruct and direct other human beings in righteousness, even though no individual is perfect. (Our authority to do so is not from our righteousness, but is imparted by Christ because of His righteousness). Righteousness involves two parts: avoiding wrong and doing right. Therefore, one of our roles as Christians is to clarify, both to sinners and saints, what is right and what is wrong. And this is done because of love. :)
The reason I exclude the sin of rejecting Jesus is because I am proposing that that is the unbeliever's only particular sin that God is really concerned about, from the standpoint of His glory, and the sinner's eternal destiny. Every time an unbeliever lies, cheats or steals, I don't believe God is in heaven, getting all upset about these individual sins. What concerns Him is the sin nature and how, without Christ, the unbeliever will carry that nature to the grave.
I exclude it also because that is the world's one sin that I think should really concern us, spiritually. We can teach unbelievers to save sex for marriage (for example) to avoid unwanted pregnancy or STD's or emotional and relational woes, but we cannot urge them to be righteous, or get upset when they're not, because where would each of us be without the imputed righteousness of Christ?
This diatribe of mine stems from the insistence of many Christians to "love the sinner and hate the sin," while very few who say that are doing anything to actually love any of these sinners that they're talking about. They seem to see this rhetoric as merely an excuse to disapprove of someone's behavior without seeming judgmental.
I absolutely agree with you coreman. as for the "pulpit voice" regarding sin, i'm really not so concerned with having that voice or thinking the church universal needs to have a sin bullhorn to the world
Hey guys and gals. I just espoused a bog of commentary on the blog that was most recently focused on the disciplinary issues. I almost like having two different strains for different topics, rather than merging them into one, b/c i think you lose the coherence of the dialogue.
That said, i also couldn't agree more with you, Coreman. Just making sure i understood. :)
Makeesha, i take it you're a Nooma fan... i thought the Bullhorn video was great. You may or may not have heard of our group of Mennonite "friends" who use the bullhorn approach downtown, and stir up all kinds of strife, with Christians and non-Christians alike. It's safe to say that they are not participating in drawing anyone closer to Christ through their big signs and pushy approach.
On the flip side (sort of), there are a couple of reasons we should clarify what is and is not sin to lost people. For one, they can't turn to God for forgiveness and repent unless they first recognize their sinfulness. And secondly, all sin causes destruction ("the wages of sin is death"), and so our love for lost people should compel us to want to save them from the future reprocussions of their decisions. Many people, after becoming Christians, still suffer the terrible consequences of their pre-Christ sin, even once they've embraced Christ's forgiveness. I always hope that i can help another person avoid future suffering for him/herself and others by pointing out potential pitfalls.
And, of course, it's important that the world understand who and what Christ has called us to be, so that they have a clear picture of who He is. In a world where so many non-Christians call themselves Christians, and so many non-Christian churches claim the name of Christ, there has to be a distinction between the true and the untrue. That can only be done if the world understands the True Church's position on particular sin issues.
HOWEVER, this obviously is not the whole picture. Jesus said that "they will know you by your love for one another". We have to exemplify as many of the paradoxes of God as we possibly can-- such as His holiness, and His love.
Word out.
Sorry for the confusion... I misplaced a commment earlier, but I think you guys figured me out anyway. :-) As you can see, I've now deleted it.
I've been reading some really good stuff on atonement by Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed who is commenting on a book by Mark Biddle called Missing the Mark. This book, along with Alan Mann's Atonement for a Sinless Society would be good reads for you guys. Part of what is addressed is how do you communicate atonement to a society/culture that is post Christian and has no concept of or concern for sin?
oh and a bit off topic, David and I are reading Mustard Seed Vs. McWorld and are really enjoying it...very good stuff.
Re: the book:
Dang... prepare to have your worldview shaken, is all i have to say. Did you take my recommendation, or hear of it from someone else?
well so far it's pretty consistent with things we've talked about - we're a little over half way through. But some of it is really good new insight for us and we're getting lots of good ideas. and yes, I got it upon your recommendation
Word. After reading that, i was inspired to read George Ritzer's "The McDonaldization of Society", from which Mustard Seed got much of its basis. If there's ever a PRACTICAL postmodern theory, it's McDonaldization. It's changed the way i inhabit my world, at least... for the better, i believe.
:)
I believe that God hates sin because He is holy. He is completely separate from sin and cannot abide sin in His presence. Sin always causes death (separation). We are separated from God because of our sins.
Sin exists in the world. We are commanded to walk like Christ walked. Where did He go? Where the sinners were. He walked right into their confusion and chaos and revealed Himself to them.
He hung out with sinners. He ate with them and drank with them. We need to do the same thing. Christians have created a subculture. We are in the world not of it. We need to remember that we are IN THE WORLD. We cannot be salt and light if we are not in the world. We just need to be accountable and careful not to conform to the patterns of the world.
You cannot say you love sinners when you do everything in your power to avoid them. We have Christian book stores, Christian radio, christian TV, Christian language, Christian clothing lines, Christian computer companies, christian music, christian schools, christian colleges and Christian breathmints. We've become a Christian consumer society and it's a billion dollar a year business. We've taken the light and the salt out of the world and most Christians don't have one "unsaved" person as a close friend. The salt has lost its flavor... the light is under the basket... shame on us.
That is absolutely what I'm talking about!
I can't stand it when people talk about loving the sinner and hating the sin, but are making no discernible effort to love any actual sinners.
Amen. And those outside Christianity are getting the message. They don't hear the "love the sinner" part because our actions are speaking louder than our hypocritical words
Maybe i'm one of the few Christians whose convictions don't fall into either of the current polarized viewpoints (the stereotypical "consumer-Christian" and the "culturally relevant Christian"). Actually, i find merit in both camps, but find both short-sighted. Let me explain.
Like you all, the consumer-Christian makes me sick. When i go into a Christian bookstore, i go in to get what i need and then get the heck outta there as soon as i can. I despise the fact that Jesus Christ has become little more than a product on a shelf, a slogan on a t-shirt, or a sticker on a car bumper. However, i am thankful that there are musicians and authors and artists who have continued the traditions of producing music, literature, and art that reflects the greatness of God.
This is not a new thing, by any stretch of the imagination. As Matt Redman says in "All Over the World", "His people, they have always had a song they must sing." I would add that His people have always had a picture they must paint, or a book they must write, or a sermon they must preach. These are merely expressions of God by His people, and i think we would all agree that this is a positive, God-pleasing thing.
I will take that a step further and say that i am thankful that God-centered music, art and literature are available to me via Christian record companies, book publishers and distributors of all of it. At the same time, i realize that a good majority of Christian music, art and literature is not only worthless, but counterproductive.
So i'm not really polarized on this particular subject. On the subject of "sin" and "worldliness", i also digress from the two prevalent polar view points. I neither agree with the Christian bubble ideology, nor the bullhorn ideology, nor the cultural conformity ideology. I believe that Jesus is the one who modeled (and preached) the proper ideology on "in the world, not of the world". It's really quite simple, yet quite difficult.
The paradox is that Jesus was with sinners very often, yet He remained sinless. Jesus didn't relate to sinners by sinning, but just by spending time with them and communicating His love to them. Of course, the entirety of Scripture elaborates on how we are to live in light of God's holiness and mercy. We are commanded to "set our hearts on things above" and to "think on things that are good and pleasing to God" and to do whatever is necessary to leading our brothers and sisters astray, even if that means abstaining from something that is otherwise good.
Of course, this puts a great deal of responsibility on us to determine what this looks like in each cultural context. But it does not give us the freedom to give up on holiness because determining its form in our culture is difficult. This, however, is my beef with the Christians who are in the world and of the world. The problem I see is of hypocrisy on both sides. Consumer-Christians tend to neglect the poor and be patriotic, which is often anti-Christian (if those governments function in ways opposed to Christ’s new covenant). Culturally-relevant Christians (forgive my lack of a better name) tend to ignore God’s call to holiness and are oblivious to the ways in which they allow culture to shape their character and worldview.
Both of these are dangerous to the Kingdom of God and the witness of Christ. The call of Christ is both to be holy and to do whatever it takes to love others. While this does require understanding culture and communicating in ways people understand in each culture, it does not mean living in ways that they relate to (in terms of ungodly behaviors).
I hope that makes sense. Don’t read into this anymore than I have actually said, as you may be tempted to do.
Blessings to you. :)
Forgive my omission: I meant that we must do whatever we can to KEEP from leading others astray.
:)
yup. be holy. be real. be in the world. don't be of the world. it's all good.
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