Christians should “hate the sin but love the sinner.” It may be a cliché, but I can’t find anything wrong with it. Activists have no problem with the suggestion that Christians ought to LOVE THE SINNER. Jesus LOVED THE SINNERS. He ate with sinners, visited the homes of sinners, surrounded Himself with sinners.
It is harder to hate the sin. We hate murder, rape, and pedophilia. We hate seeing the rich and powerful take advantage of the poor and helpless. We hate obvious, egregious sins.
We also hate the sins that do not tempt us. It is easy to hate gluttony if you have never been tempted by food. It is easy to hate lust if your real problem is greed. It is easy to hate pride if your secret sin is an addiction to wine.
But God calls us to hate ALL sin. To hate our own sin. Can you hate your tendency to gossip? Can you hate your selfishness, ego, greed, lust? Are you willing to hate those times when you are judgmental? When you “write off” those who sin in areas where you believe yourself to be strong? We ALL sin. We ALL cross the line. Can you see that sorting people into “acceptable” and “unacceptable” based on which lines they cross is sinfully placing yourself on God’s throne, as though you were the One True and Holy Judge?
The Christian life is not about staying within Christian lines, or adopting the right beliefs. God is not PRIMARILY interested in your politics, your religious doctrine, or your views about pop culture, though those things matter. The Christian life is PRIMARILY about becoming conformed to the image of Christ, Romans 8:29.
Are you becoming more like Jesus? Does it show in your heart and your actions? Do you hate your own judgmentalness enough to be kind?
“Hate [your own] evil, you who love the Lord” Psalm 97:10.
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Household Words: 