Doc110 Loc: York PA

07/09/2015 Hate the Sin Love the Sinner: So How Do I Do That ?

Fr. Dwight Longenecker
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2015/07/hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner-how-do-i-do-that-2.html
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner-how-do-i-do-that

I’ve been troubled recently while pondering the spiritual bromide “We hate the sin, but love the sinner.”

Here’s the problem:

How do you separate out the sin from the sinner?

Isn’t that a kind of dualism we don’t really believe in?

We say, for example, that the human person is a unity of body, mind and spirit.

Our bodies are not simply vehicles for our souls.

We’re not pots with souls inside.

We’re a body, mind and spirit unity.

We acknowledge that what we do with our bodies affects our soul’s salvation and what we do spiritually can affect our bodies.

So, on the negative side, if I commit adultery with my body I am in danger of losing my soul’s salvation.

Furthermore, should I lose my soul’s salvation I also lose my resurrection body.

Furthermore, at the Last Judgement we don’t “condemn the sin but save the sinner.” Huh uh.

The sinner is condemned to hell for his sins.

The distinction is no longer made between sin and sinner.


On the positive side, we also say that the good actions we do with our bodies can contribute to the necessary co operation with God’s grace for our salvation.

We are saved body, mind and spirit.

The physical mortifications, the corporal works of mercy and the sacrifices in the physical realm all contribute to our salvation.

This was hammered home to me when I heard a person with same sex attraction criticize “Hate the sin.

Love the Sinner” by replying, “The way I love is the way I am.

How can you say you accept and love me when you condemn the things I do?”

He had a point.


So if “Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner” doesn’t really work does that mean we have to either “Love the Sinner and Love the Sin” or “Hate the Sin and Hate the Sinner”?

Maybe it depends on what we mean by “hate”.

We are required to resist evil. It is legitimate to feel revulsion and hatred at the destruction and waste that evil brings.

Let me give you an extreme example:

When you saw pictures of children in Auschwitz did you not feel revulsion for what was done?

When you saw the hard faces of the Nazis who carried out the atrocities did you not feel hatred toward them?
Was that emotion not justified?

If you saw the corpse of a ten year old girl who had been kidnapped, tortured, raped, murdered and thrown into a ditch did you not weep tears of rage and revulsion?

When you saw the sick and unrepentant face of the killer did you not feel a surge of hatred and disgust?

Were those feelings not justified? I think so.

Therefore I think it is possible to extend these feelings and admit that we feel revulsion, disgust and hatred toward both the sin and the sinner.


However, we are called to go one step further.

We are called not so much to hate the sin and love the sinner, in a sentimental and superficial way, but to hate the sin with a perfect hatred and love the sinner with a perfect compassion.

This kind of “love the sinner” is not an easy and careless case of being nice to him, but a deep Christian compassion which sees the sinner as a poor, wounded child of God who has got caught up in the snares of Satan and may be headed to hell.

This is the compassion of Christ and his saints, and is a true love for the eternal soul of the sinner.

Finally, this kind of compassionate love is how we should see all people;

Not just the ones guilty of sexual sins–each one of us are wounded children of God who are lost in the desert and are desperate to find the way home.

We should have this compassion on all of God’s children and pray for their happiness, peace and forgiveness, and the first person we should look on with these eyes of perfect hatred and perfect love is the person we see in the mirror.

plainlogic

As I see it, the sin is like the side car of a motorcycle.

The side car is an ugly attachment but the motorcycle is beautiful.

Detach the ugly sidecar and enjoy the beautiful motorcycle.

The sin is attached to you by choice.

You can detach the sin, through Christ, and become new ( born again).

Once you get back to following the righteous side of the road, you are free of sin.

As Jesus said, go and sin no more.

Doc110 Loc: York PA

plain logic,

It's defiantly not a born again statement. But I do like your analogy of the side car of a motorcycle.

But it is more than that it's the sin of prejudice, that is through-out the body, mind and soul.

and that sin sinks into our core mentality, and it is a sin-taint that is always there, and truly never goes away.

As a child soaks up vast amounts information it is retained in the mind and soul.

I spoke to my niece a three year old. I said one day "What the Hell is going on here."

She repeated that statement a few days later to my sister.

Did I catch holy hell. . . Do you see my point.

The sin remains and taints.

And that is a hard righteous side of the road to journey traveled upon.

Doc110

son of witless

None of us know what moment we will die. In the moment of the sin the sinner is lost. Later on he may repent and be saved. What if he would have repented but died before he could ? Some sins such as the Nazi actions you mentioned are not forgivable. Unless you wish to split hairs very fine and say a young low level guard who took part is salvageable while his bosses are not. How about the Nazi Youths who fought in Berlin almost to the death against the Russians ?

Doc110 Loc: York PA

son of witless,

Not splitting hairs at all.

We can strive for repentance of our sins and pray for the best when we pass.

But to those that do not repent, is there salvation ?

I'm not the judge of that.

God Is . . . the Judgement in all things.

debeda

What a great post! Thanks!

son of witless

Arrogance is the greatest sin. Some will be arrogant up until they pass through the gates that say " Abandon all hope ye who pass through here. "

Doc110 Loc: York PA

And your retort ? mean's what to the Post Article ?

Hate the Sin Love the Sinner: So How Do I Do That ?

TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!

This is my simple answer........ A sin is an action, intended or not intended, known or not known! A sinner is each one of us. Every person is a sinner, whether we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior or not. He left us a book that teaches us how to live, things to do and things not to do, things to believe and things not to believe. He commands us to not sin and to love each other. There are different kinds of love spoken of in the Bible, this love is the kind that I am to feel for you, a complete stranger. I am to want for you the very best, not to feel hate or undue anger! You get the picture! The most important aspect of that love is for me to want each person to know and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. That is how I think the Bible teaches us to hate the sin and to NOT sin and to love each other even though we are all sinners. Have a wonderful Sunday Doc! It's cold here on the coast of sunny Alabama! No fishing today! 😢😢😢😢

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

Jesus is the Just and Justifier. Thank God we are not the judge. 2 Cor. 4 tells us that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who are perishing. That is where the spiritual battle rages. As a man thinketh so he is. Try ice fishing.

TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!

If it gets cold enough to go ice fishing here on the coast of Alabama, something is very very wrong!!! I guess that would prove global warming is over!!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

son of witless

Oh yea of little faith. If it got that cold there that would prove global warming because global warming causes anything that deviates from the average temperature either colder or hotter. Before Global Warming the earth never varied from the averages. There were never droughts, heat waves, cold snaps, or floods. It was always the way it always was. Those historic records of stronger than normal storms, floods, droughts, blizzards, frosts, and heat waves are all lies.

TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!

Well my faith is alive and well and I don't believe in global warming. The earth has always gone through different cycles. The Bible teaches that the Lord has always used weather as a means of judgment or to get our attention. The closer we get to the end times, the more dramatic the weather and other catastrophes will become. We're already having record fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, rain and the list goes on! I believe that we are the generation to see the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! IMHO

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

Well, the deep south had snow last week.

(Global Warming )

son of witless

If these Global Warmers ever bothered to research the historical record they would find evidence of Global Warming many times in the past when humans were not burning fossil fuels. There were many climate shifts that wiped out various civilizations.