Hate the Sin

You know what I hate?  I hate that saying.  "Hate the sin, love the sinner."  Number 1, it's not biblical.  It's a nice saying, but it's not from scripture.  Number 2, it's not practical.  How do you even do that?  How do you love your neighbor as yourself but hate their gossiping?  Their stealing, their murdering?

See what I mean?  How do you separate the sin from the sinner?  A gossip gossips.  A liar lies.  A murderer murders.

I'm not saying that we should get that backwards.  We are certainly not called to hate sinners.  That would mean hating even ourselves!  And Jesus definitely modeled this behavior when he spoke to the Samaritan woman.  When he ate at the home of the tax collector.  When he forgave the thief, right at the very end.

But scripture is not "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training" if it's not applicable.  And we should know the bible well enough to know what is real, what is in there, and what is just a Christian cliché. 

My frustration is that to hate the sin is at the same time, too easy and impossible.  How can I truly hate someone's sin?  And yet love them?  This saying, unfortunately, has given us license to just hate, without separating the person from the behavior.  And do you see the paradox?  I don't know how to do that, how to separate, because where sin truly is . . . is the heart.  And how can I hate someone's heart?

Here's what Christian comedian, singer, author and speaker Mark Lowry said:

 “Love the sinner, hate the sin? How about: Love the sinner, hate your own sin! I don’t have time to hate your sin. There are too many of you! Hating my sin is a full-time job….How about you hate your sin, I’ll hate my sin and let’s just love each other!”

You know what?  I agree.  Let me be more consumed with eliminating the sin in my own heart than focusing on yours.  I'd much rather be stronger for taking on the challenge of my own sin, and dealing with it, and putting it behind me, through the power of Christ.  That sounds like a full time job to me.