Monday, January 27, 2014

Loving the sinner and hating the sin is absolutely possible

Okay, okay, I'm going to swim up stream, again.

I read a blog yesterday that was well-written, well-done. I believe it was five things not to say to a millennial, as the topic I mean.

I didn't share it, because I want to talk about one of the points.

They were:
5. That's not Christian
4. I love the sinner, but hate the saint
3. You need to surround yourself with some good Christian people
2. You just have to do God's will.
1. It's all in God's plan

I've actually had an internet class about what not to say in a sermon, and some of these were in that. I could respond or add on to each of these, but I want to spend just a few special minutes of your time to talk about one that receives a lot of dialogue.

And the contestant on Jeopardy says, "I'll take No. 4 for a million."

I love the sinner, but hate the saint. Oh, I could go off on No. 2 and you don't want me to start on No. 1. But I digress.

The blogger, whose name I didn't save unfortunately, wrote this: "See, the problem I have with this phrase is that it assumes that "sin" is a specific action that is done/can be undone. If that's the case, name the specific action that you hate.

"I love you, Tommy, but I don't like it that you break my glasses."

"But really, I haven't heard this phrase used in those ways. I've only heard it used when people are talking about identity. 'I love gay people, I just hate that they act on their homosexual orientation ...'

"There we go. There's an honest statement. And an unhelpful one. It's unhelpful because you can't love me apart from my sexuality. I really don't think you can. It's part of what makes me who I am, even if it's not the whole of my definition. So, if you were to say to me, "I love you, but I hate that you're heterosexual...' I would probably stop listening right then and there because, well, I wouldn't believe you. You can't love me and yet hate an essential part of me."

Let's talk.

First, hate is the wrong word. I don't believe God hates any sinner, of which I am the greatest. But one of the biggest mistakes we can make is to think that because we believe or don't believe something makes it correct in God's sight.

Esau hated Jacob; his brothers hated Joseph; the Israelites hated manna;

Second, God is ultimately responsible for "hating" the sin.

The Bible says of this in Deuteronomy 12:31 -- "You must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods."

God hates ... actions. It wouldn't be a stretch here, I don't think, to read that as God hates the actions but it doesn't say He hates the nations when it easily could have. Furthermore, in the Psalms, God is said to hate those who love violence.

There's also the famous proverb about what God hates. It says, "There are six things the Lord hates—    no, seven things he detests:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lie, a person who sows discord in a family.

We want even get into all the dozens of times the Psalms writer uses the word hate.

Those, to me, are all actions except the last, and even that person performs an action.

He hates robbery and wrongdoing, He hates new moon celebrations that became meaningless in the way they were performed, He hates evil, He hates fortresses Israel had built instead of trusting God, and He hates our scheming against each other.

He hates, it tells me fairly much over and over and again. God hates, many actions, and even on occasion according to scripture, persons who do those actions. As startling as it seems, hate is a part of the equation, again according to scripture. The key phrase, to me, however is according to scripture.

See, what the blogger doesn't take into account is...scripture." His point is more about what his feelings about the matter is, and I get that, too. Many is the time when I would just as soon point out to God that what I'm doing wrong at the particular time (which would still be called sin by the way) doesn't hurt anyone so how on earth can it be wrong.

I do this, too often as well, but his biggest problem is I...I think, I, I, I. He begins with the statement, "See, the problem I have with this phrase is that it assumes that "sin" is a specific action that is done/can be undone. If that's the case, name the specific action that you hate."

Well, uh, uh, yeah. That's right. (And by the way anytime someone puts quotation marks around the word sin, you have my permission to start questioning the rest of the piece) Sin is a specific action that is done... and with Christ's help, it can be undone.

I (for like of a better word even though I wished there was one) hate alcoholism, but I sure love the alcoholic.
I hate murder, but by God's grace and power I must love murderers.
I hate abortion, but by God's grace and power I must love the abortion choosing mother and even the abortionist doctor and nurses.
I hate gossip, but by God's grace and power I must love people who gossip, even if it is directed at me.
I hate liars, but ... you get the idea, I think.
And yes, that includes gay persons, and do not make the huge mistake that I'm lumping homosexuals with murders. That's not me. Again that's scripture, which does not say one sin is greater than another. It clearly (I believe) says that if I fall short with one sin, I've fallen short of all the law. So my tinsy, winsey misstep is no different than any other.  ANY. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Me.  You. Them, whomever them is. Near as I can tell, we don't get to throw out the ones we want to because we love the sinner, because we're supposed to love all the sinners, in all their sins.

I actually don't even know why this is so difficult to understand, until I think that if I was an unbeliever, I might well not want to be told that what I've chosen to do, and every action begins with a choice, that which has been so much of a part of me that it all but defined me as a person, all but gave me my identity, is a sin and must be dealt with. That I must ask for forgiveness for what seems to be the way I was created by God since I never chose this in the first place. That I need someone to save me from MYSELF.

I get that. I also get that it is my duty to show that unbeliever how much God loves them, enough so that He actually sent his son to die for them, just so that even defining sin, even identifying sin, may be taken away and the wall of eternal separation from God would be ripped apart and brought down by that death, well, I would assume that over time that would make a difference.

It did with me, and my mother (who prayed for me for 22 years) hated my sin of drinking alcohol  as if it might all run out tomorrow but loved me enough to continually pray for me. I was labeled as the guy who drank too much at parties, and that was my genetic makeup, my DNA. I had some blood in my alcohol-system. I was once even asked about it on a job interview. People knew. It was an identifying sin.

And in a flash, in a moment, I no longer drank because I surrendered to the one true King. Now, if I drink, I will be that person again in about, oh, five minutes, maybe less. But I don't, because he has called me his child, and I believe Jesus died, was buried, and the third day he rose from the grave. I have been set free from who I was and who I am, again the worst of sinners, daily am washed clean.

We can sugar-coat that, put "sin" in quotation marks, but the bottom line for me is it is entirely possible to love the sinner with all that Jesus empowers me to do (and sometimes that includes even enemies) and hate the sin, heck all of the sins. Saying I can't love someone apart from their sexuality is wrong on about every level it can be wrong in. Saying I can call adultery adultery is Biblical, and seeing that I can separate the adultery from the adulterer is simply logical.

I have read a lot lately that we must love everyone without reservation because Jesus would. But I am reminded that Jesus said, "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple."

Sin separates, no matter how we want to put it in quotations. And hate, like love, must be understood as not being an emotion but a choice.

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