Love the Sinner, but Hate the Sin?

Love the sinner but hate the sin is a tired cliché within evangelical circles. Marsha Stevens has an alternative way of expressing this:

I like Mark Lowry's take on the old saying. He says, "What if we said 'Love the sinner, hate MY OWN sin?' Wouldn't that be a good thought?" We all spend such an inordinate amount of time mote-plucking. Figuring out EXACTLY which sin to hate, who's doing it and precisely how we "should" react to it. Wouldn't it be great if we spent that much time and energy looking into our own hearts and bringing our own failures and wounds to the throne for healing?

Hat Tip: Ex-Gay Watch.

Let's explore what the Bible has to say concerning judging other people's sin and see how true the cliché really is.

First, we need to deal with a limitation of human understanding. Man's judgment often is superficial:

1 Samuel 16
⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Second, Scripture puts up many barriers against people taking it upon themselves to judge others.  One barrier is found in Matthew 18:

Matthew 18

A Brother Who Sins Against You

¹⁵"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ¹⁶But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Note this deals with someone who sins against us personally but it also shows a gradual and deliberate approach. We don't treat someone as as a pagan or tax collector immediately.

Scripture also limits who can judge.  Only the "spiritual" and this must be done gently and circumspectly:

Galatians 6

Doing Good to All

¹Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ²Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Scripture limits who can be judged. We can only judge those inside the church.

1 Corinthians 5

¹²What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³God will judge those outside.

Scripture limits how people are to be judged. We are to be merciful.

Jude 1

²²Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Last and most importantly, we need to follow Christ's purpose for which he came. Jesus gave his purpose here in John 3:

John 3

¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

If the purpose of God the Father was that the world would be saved, how can our purpose be in condemning the world by judging people? Hating the sin without hating the sinner also is difficult at best and impossible at worst. Given the passages above, Marsha Stevens and Mark Lowry have a good rewrite of the cliché.  Mine is a little different:

Love the sinner. PERIOD.

Comments

[*** Dave]

Nicely said, Rich.

[Tom]

I have a question about love the sinner hate the sin....
Exactly how do you do that? I mean is seems in possible.

[Rich]

Tom, that's my point. The ultimate expression of hating the sin and loving the sinner is the Cross. God showed his hatred of sin by placing the penalty for our sin on his Son, showing His love for sinners. The problem is that we don't have the same capacity for love that God has. Therefore, the best we can do is embrace the Cross and share the Good News with others. Have a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

[Laura]

If you loved someone with a terminal illness, you would hate that illness because it is destroying their body. Sin destroys not only their body, but their soul, their very being. How could you not hate it when you see it taking from who they could be, who God created them to be? It is precisely because you love the sinner that you hate the sin.

[Chuck Norris]

Here is my concern, if God can seperate the sin from the sinner, then why is the sin only sent into the pits of Hell instead of the sinner with the sin.

[Rich]

Chuck, excellent question. God can seperate sin from sinner but he does it through the Cross. Sin must adhere to someone. There the wrath of God is poured out on Christ on our behalf. Thus, the sin is separated from us but Christ became sin. Sadly, without Christ sin is not separated. As for our attitudes, if we want to truly hate sin in a righteous fashion then we should look to the Cross rather than individual sinners.

[Chris]

Exactly! That's it! It is all done IN CHRIST, what is usually forgotten is that it is HE who has done the work for us. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

also, it in interesting to note that usually it is the biblical literalists who toss the phrase "love the sinner, hate the sin" around but it never appears in Scripture.