Today’s a new day! There is a saying in the Church and the Christian Community that has always bothered me. Maybe it’s rubbed you the wrong way too.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
Not a fan.
As Christians, we can repeat that phrase quicker than we can recite John 3:16, Romans 6:23 or Psalm 137:9. I encourage you to check them out.
Here’s the problem. Jesus never said it. The Apostle Paul never wrote it in any of his letters. Moses never carved it into a tablet. King David never used it in a song.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin” is not a Bible verse. Surprise! Surprise! You can look from Genesis to Revelation, but you will never find it.
To be fair, maybe the phrase draws on some different scriptures. But you will never find the phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”in the Bible.
I guess somewhere in church history, the phrase evolved into being a neatly packaged quip ready for quick and easy use.
It is like opening a packet of instant hot chocolate or preparing a cup of instant coffee; here, though, we have instant judgment.
Yes, of course, I love you, but … And off we go on the long judgment train.
It appears some Christian’s consider the saying more authoritative than what Jesus actually does say in the Bible (things like not judging others. Check out Matthew 7:1-5).
One of the issues with “love the sinner, hate the sin” is that the second part of the saying always gets in the way of the first part.
The second part of this phrase gives people the license to judge others, to hold something against someone else. That doesn’t seem like love to me.
When people use the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” it blocks their ability to love people God loves. This phrase brands someone as less than, not good enough or worthy enough for God’s unconditional love.
The phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” puts condition on our love for others. I will love you, but only so far; there are limits. It makes people unable to see beyond what they consider faults or sins in someone else’s life. It makes people unwilling to see anything more than what they do not like about an individual or groups of people.
In my flawed Christian life, I will never be able to love people as God loves them, or as God loves me.
But something that Jesus really does say is, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Luke 6:37-38
In the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke, Jesus says we should pay attention to the big oak tree growing in our own eyes and distorting our vision.
We get all worked up about something that looks like a speck in someone else’s eye, but, truthfully, we cannot see much of anything with that big ole red wood tree sticking out all over our face and blocking our view.
If we actually looked at our own lives, we might discover that what we thought was a horrible speck of dirt in another person’s eye in need of removal was really just a harmless eye freckle.
So today, let’s not get so fixated on the things we do not like and make a conscious decision to just love people. Warts and all. ~OC
