We’ve all heard “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
And the first half definitely seems on target: God absolutely calls us to love the sinner.
But who says we need to hate the sin?
I guess “hate the sin” sounds good and righteous in theory, but in practice it amounts to “judge the sin”, which isn’t even a hop, skip or a jump from “judge the sinner”.
Maybe “hate the sin” would be passable advice if it wasn’t for the fact that we all have a huge self-righteousness problem. (Have you ever noticed how other people’s sins are so much worse than your own? Me too!)
Jesus says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)
If we harbor some self-righteous hatred of another’s sin, we are in dangerous territory.
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