Hate the Sin

It’s one of those pious statements church people often say. It has been repeated frequently in the splintering of The UMC over the LGBTQ+ issue. “Love the sinner; hate the sin.”

On the surface, it sounds right, but beneath the surface, it is deeply flawed.

On the surface, the statement appears to pass all of the theological tests. It proclaims love for the person while maintaining a strong moral stance against behavior labeled as sinful. It refuses to compromise a moral posture. In reality, the statement reflects the thinking of Western Evangelical Christianity rather than the spirit of Jesus.

Western Evangelical Christianity emphasizes belief and behavior. A Christian is someone who believes the right things about Jesus, the Bible, sin, etc. That belief is expressed in moral living coupled with faithful church involvement. This emphasis has at least one major flaw: it focuses upon externals, overlooking the heart — the interior realm — that was central to Jesus’s thinking.

“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come,” Mark 7:21. Jesus rejected the scribes’ and Pharisees’ focus upon behavior, calling attention to what was in the human heart. The condition of the heart was the problem to be addressed, not behavior that failed to conform to a religious or moral standard — the tradition of the elders (Mark 7:1-23). The attitudes and spirit with which we live — the condition of the heart — are what needs to be changed.

Focusing on externals — belief and behavior — allows us to criticize and judge those whose behavior fails to conform to our religious-moral standards just as the Pharisees criticized Jesus’s disciples because they “ate with defiled hands” (Mark 7:2). When we hate the sin, we are criticizing and judging. We say we love the sinner so we won’t think of ourselves as judging. We blind ourselves to what is in our hearts. A critical, judgmental spirit is a heart issue — the very thing Jesus said was the problem.

Focusing on externals — belief and behavior — appeals to our ego-centric nature. Every time we criticize and judge another person, we unconsciously say “I’m not like that.” Our critical, judgmental spirit expresses a not-so-subtle sense of “I’m better than them.” It looks down on the other as inadequate and less than. The word for such an attitude is arrogance — an issue of the heart.

Focusing on externals — belief and behavior — reflects merit-based thinking. We profess to love the sinner, but our love is limited. We do not love them fully or freely. We do not accept them unconditionally. When we say “hate the sin,” we condemn their sin, viewing it (and them) as unacceptable. Our authentic acceptance of them is reserved for when they no longer sin. Our love is conditional — merit-based.

Focusing on externals — belief and behavior — repeats the very thing Jesus rejected in the Pharisees.

To be a follower of Jesus is to allow the things Jesus taught to shape how we think and live. Jesus related to every person with grace and forgiveness. He did not indulge in the emotional games of criticizing, judging, and condemning. To be a follower of Jesus is to embrace his spirit of grace and forgiveness, laying aside our inclination to judge, criticize, and condemn. Jesus viewed and valued, accepted and embraced every person as a beloved child of God and as a member of the covenant community. His acceptance was unconditional. The other person’s conformity to or failure to measure up to a religious-moral standard did not impact how Jesus viewed or treated him. To be a follower of Jesus is to embrace that spirit of unconditional acceptance that sees beyond our differences to embrace the other as someone that God loves.

To be a follower of Jesus is to do what Jesus taught. It is to love as Jesus loved. Loving as Jesus loved does not involve “hating the sin.” In fact, loving as Jesus loved focuses on the person, not on sin.

Our pride in “loving the sinner, hating the sin” reflects our struggle to love as Jesus loved. It reflects a heart problem.