I was thinking about a saying I hear where it says to, “love the sinner and hate the sin.” It came to me that it isn’t easy to do that. Separate the sin and the sinner. I am not sure who came up with that phrase. I think it was meant to tell people to love people who are sinning and not judge them. But there is a huge problem in society where laws are made to protect people’s sinful behaviors. Abortion is one that comes to mind. People who are having sex outside of marriage and want to hide or kill the result of their immoral actions. People don’t want to be accountable for their behavior.
So even within the body of Christ people are condoning these acts. It shouldn’t be that way. Parents should teach their children that it isn’t right to do these things. It is the responsibility of the parents to raise their children with good moral values. They should know right from wrong. Today, the schools or the government have become the parents of the children. Laws are made to hinder or block parents from raising their children with good values. The laws of the land should be the biblical laws. Yet many Christians don’t fight for these, until it affects their rights.
It is like people who don’t take care of their own bodies until they are in such pain or misery that they need to go to the hospital. People who let these things fester often have to have a major operation or go through a major treatment in order to stop the disease or infection from spreading to the rest of their body or they will die.
If the body of Christ is to thrive in a healthy society we need to live righteously and oppose wrong behavior and laws that foster sinful behaviors. I have often noted how in history where the world falls into darkness, it is where the children are treated like adults. When you look at renaissance art before the dark ages, the children are dressed like the adults in the paintings. God gave an order to the family and society. God is the head over the man, the husband over the wife, the parents over the children. It isn’t difficult to follow God’s order. But many families fail to observe this simple rule.
We don’t need to love the sinner or the sin in the sense of allowing the behavior. God corrects His children out of love. And sometimes His correction causes us to suffer for good reason. As the Bible tells us we don’t like it when we are being disciplined. No one likes it, I don’t. But accepting God’s love is the best thing we can do. So loving one another also includes not accepting the behavior of sinners. How about changing that phrase to love and correct the sinner and hate the sin?
Lord, I pray that we will love and correct the sinner and hate the sin that you hate. I pray that we will use wisdom in doing this. And we will do it out of love and not anger or spitefulness. I pray that our society will be able to accept correction and not hate it when it is done in love and righteousness. Lord, help us to live out your word in Spirit and truth. Amen.
