Many, like myself, will testify to loving the sinner but do we really hate the sin? Of course the phrase “love the sinner and hate the sin” is not found in Scripture but the idea behind it is. While some of us feel that we are pretty decent at loving the sinner, have we any idea what it means to hate the sin? I am not sure we do.
I feel that the consequence of not knowing how to hate the sin results as a defect in the genuineness of our love for the sinner. Opposites—love & hate—must operate in a kind of unity through our activity in this world. We are to love what God loves and hate what He hates. If there is anything that God hates, it is sin. And if there is anything that God loves, it is the sinner.
The love and hate of God for the sinner and his sin is beyond my ability to comprehend. God does work in mysterious paradoxes.
If I only love the sinner and have no hate for her sin then what motivation or hurry has my love to want to see her changed? Or what if I only hate the sin but have no love for the sinner? Without love my hate would turn its eyes from the sin to the sinner. All would be lost.
God is love. And I am inclined to think that godly hatred is really just another expression of love. Nevertheless, we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us hate sin as He hates it and love the sinner as He loves him/her.
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2 comments:
Interesting thoughts. Good thoughts. Another question...do we really hate our own sin? In loving others, are we committed to loving them even if they do not change? Is our desire for them to change truly based on a hatred of sin? Why do we want them to change? Why does God want us to repent from our sin? Yes, God hates sin, but why? I submit He hates sin (and we should hate it) because it is harmful to us. It damages us and keeps us away from true love of God and others. I believe it is God's love for people that brings change...and our desire for their well-being motivates us to want them to turn from sin.
Good point. The fact that God is love, perhaps implies that His hatred toward sin is based on His love to see the sinner changed.
Thus if God is love then nothing He does is outside of it-of who He is. All His actions are loving--even the most painful.
I have so much to learn about His love.
Thanks for commenting.
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