Love the Sinner... Hate the Sin

I'm pretty sure we've all heard the phrase, "Love the sinner, hate the sin" - or some variation of it.  At first thought, I went along with this completely, but then I started thinking about it... analyzing what it means.  I really have a problem with that phrase.

First of all, hate is a very strong word.  I'm not saying we need to embrace sin or even justify it, but just having hate in your heart for any reason is probably not a good thing.  I have noticed that when people carry hatred around with them, they start to think negative thoughts about everything.  You can't just switch the channel from hate to love.  Mentally, emotionally and spiritually... it cannot be done by mortals.  Hatred breeds anger and resentment.  Even though you may be directing your hatred toward an inanimate object or activity, that hatred and anger spills over into other areas of your life.  Maybe it is healthier to replace those negative feelings with something other than hate... say, maybe compassion.

Secondly (and this is closely linked to what I mentioned at first), we have a tendency to categorize sins and attach them to the sinners that they belong to - for instance, "See, John over there... John the adulterer."  Even though we "love" John, we just can't get past his sin that we hate so much.  We can't forgive and we can't show compassion for him - ever.  John will forever be stigmatized by his sin that he is known for.  This is the reason why we confess our sins in private, because many of us cannot separate the act of the sin from the sinner... the person.

One of things we should all realize is that we are all sinners.  None has escaped falling for temptations and succumbing to weakness.  We tend to judge other people by the sins they commit.  If the other person has committed a sin that is one that we are not currently guilty of, we may tend to condemn that sinner.  We may claim that we love the person, even though we carry around our own sin of being unforgiving.

I have also noticed that we tend to grade different sins, according to our own scale of guilt.  Some may not even be sins at all, but simply things that annoy us or maybe they are arbitrary rules and guidelines that for some reason or other (whether it be upbringing or personal opinion) have been ingrained in our brains that are "inappropriate" or "unworthy."  I have personally witnessed how some sins and indiscretions have been dealt with by severe punishment and abuse - a much worse sin than the original offense.

In the end, one sin that we may all be guilty of is being dishonest.  Whether we are dishonest with ourselves or other people or dishonest with God - I believe we are all dishonest to a certain degree.  It would be well with us to look into our own hearts and ask if we truly are honest - or rightly, to ask God to make us aware of areas where we are dishonest so we can be humbled and make those corrections.  If we love a person but hate his or her sin, and therefore withhold compassion, we are being dishonest.  If we justify our own sins and indiscretions, but never fail to see the faults (no matter how petty) of other people, we are not truly being honest with ourselves or fair to other people.  Once we can truly begin to be honest and see our own faults and beg forgiveness for them, our ability to see the faults of others will diminish and we will see the beyond their weakness and truly see the beautiful people they are.  We will also be able to accept ourselves and work on our own weakness because it will be a lot more in focus.  It will truly be a humbling experience to do so.

I would recommend that we continue to love our brothers and sisters and rather than hating the sin, we just avoid sin and seek repentance for our misdeeds and we forgive one another and have true compassion.  We work on lifting others and helping and sustaining others, rather than categorizing them for the sins they have committed.