A phrase often heard commands, “Hate the sin; love the sinner.” I’ve mostly heard the phrase pointed at homosexual people. But it applies, of course, more broadly.
I thought, how can one separate the two?
Does repeating that mantra imply that we have no sin? Since I am not a sinner, or maybe just brush aside my few feeble sins, do I now have the ability to judge others’ sins?
One interesting lesson from reading books from different eras involves seeing how other people think of themselves. Literature from the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Century European point of view often talked of hatred of self. They beat upon themselves about how great were their sins.
Contemporary American literature more often tells us how great we are and how we can be even better. Maybe that is supposed to help us “hate the sin, but love the sinner.”
And, yet, depression is almost pandemic among our people.
This writing came from an anonymous source, but its message resonates with me. I think we talk too much of other people’s sins and not enough of God’s grace.
For the same reason, we are required to hate other people’s sins, but love themselves. It is easy to say that, and to point [out] the distinction in words, but very difficult to do it. You cannot separate a person from his faults that perhaps hit you in the eye, as maybe yours do him. How then is it possible to hate the one, and yet to love the other? We have to “see the Lord” in all people.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 