"Hate The Sin, Love The Sinner" - Is it time to move on?
So I’m scrolling through social media, and one of the current trends going on is highlighting red flags in situations, and obviously these posts have little red flags on them. Most of the time I look, and I’m like… yep… Thats a red flag….Oh, you weren’t healed because you didn’t tithe enough last month”. Totally a red flag, get out of there now! But then I saw this one: Hate the sin, love the sinner… I was like, I’ve heard that in the church a lot of times! But…. Is it truly a red flag? Is that statement biblical at all? Let’s open that door.
Before we start using too many churchy words, or Christianese, let’s break down this saying into a more commonly understood phrase, then we can move on to wether this is actually a biblical principle to begin with. “Hate the sin” is the same as hate the act, hate the action that has been taken, hate the habit, hate the decision. These are all results separated from an individual. “Love the sinner” is the same as love the person despite the act, love the person despite the result of their actions, love the person despite their habits, love the person despite the decision they made. So lets look at an example. My son decides to become a drug dealer. In this situation, am I able to love my son despite his decision to be a drug dealer? I think so. Does this also mean I love the fact that he has chosen to break the law by selling drugs to other people? I don’t think so. Does not loving his decision mean I do not love him anymore? No. Loving him does not mean I am affirming his actions.
Look, I hope we can all agree that no one is perfect. We are all sinners. The Bible says (1 John 1:8) that if we think we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and that the truth is not in us. We all make varying degrees of constant mistakes, but I also believe we all have varying degrees of grace that we show to those around us that make mistakes, because our identities are separate from our actions, wether they are good or bad.
Let’s be honest about this phrase for a minute. Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with the actual phrase. The problem with this phrase is how it has been used especially more recently against the LGBTQIA+ community, with a shallow sense of understanding what is actually meant by that phrase. The phrase highlights virtues of one person against the sinfulness of another. It places the “lover” in a position of moral superiority over the “sinner”. Let me say that again, it places the “lover” in a position of moral superiority over the “sinner”. That is why it is easier to say it to someone else, than to hear it from someone else being said about yourself. Reality check, we are all sinners. None of us are without sin, as we see in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. We are all in the same boat. In this regard, I can understand how this is a red flag in the church today, because within our society, this phrase is neither compassionate, nor graceful.
Let’s see if this phrase is biblical. Sorry to say, but this specific phrase is not in the Bible. That does not necessarily mean it is not biblical. Being a Christian means to imitate Christ, and we see in Matthew 5:43-44 that we are to even love our enemies, and pray over those that persecute us! If we are to imitate Christ, what exactly does that mean when it comes to love? What should our authentic actions be in “loving the sinner”? 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 says “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” To imitate Christ means to do all that we do in love (1 Corinthians 16:14). It means to do everything in the manner that we just read! John 13:34-35 says: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Romans 12:9, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”
What about “Hate the sin”? Sin is contrary to God’s nature. We hate sin by recognizing what it is, and refusing to take part in it. Sin is to be hated, not excused. Is it loving to let your neighbour remain stuck in sin? Is it hateful to tell a person if they are stuck in sin? If we are to speak the truth in love, as we previously listed should be done, then Ephesians 4:15 tells us to do so. Why? Because sin leads to death according to James 1:15, and in loving our neighbours, we want to allow Jesus Christ to work in and through us to save those who are leading to death.
We need to first check our hearts. First look at the log in your eye before removing your neighbours speck in their eye. Are we truly loving our neighbour?
Joe Forrest wrote the following, which is so true today.
““Hate the sin, love the sinner” sabotages grace because it trains you to see people who think and live differently than you as sinners, rather than neighbours. Instead of seeking out sinners to love, we gradually become predisposed to be on the lookout for sin to hate.”
Is the phrase biblical? Yes. Is the phrase a red flag? I think it just might be. We need to really search our heart, and remember what it means to truly love like Christ taught us. Christians are supposed to be the most loving people on this planet! Loving our neighbours, brothers, sisters, does not mean we affirm the sin. A person is different from their sin. We all have sin. The Gospel is not the “Gospel of Sin management” as Dallas Willard puts it. I’m going to leave you with a thought from Joe Forrest. “Maybe it’s about time we start saying “Love the sinner, forgive the sin”.
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