Hating the Sin

I sometimes find myself being judgmental. I see someone doing something that I believe to be sinful or foolish, and for a moment, I change the way I think about them. Yet, I then have to remember something: I'm no better. Sin has caused me to stumble just as it has done to others.

I find myself justifying my sins and condemning others, as though there is an understandable excuse to my mistakes, and the mistakes of others are simply due to their own bad decisions. No, a sin is a sin, and each one does the same thing: it separates us from God.

There is sin all around us. Each person we meet will have a sinful past, and each one will be struggling with things in the present. If we look at each other based on our mistakes and shortcomings, then we should all have terrible opinions of one another. Yet this is not how God sees us. If we have accepted Christ as our savior, then we have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, and our sin no longer defines who we are. We are dead to sin, as the Bible says.

Hate the sin, not the sinner. We are to treat one another with love and compassion. Confront the sin: fight it, resist it, remove it. But don't push the sinner away. If each sinner was condemned for their sins, we would each be where we deserve to be: Hell. Yet each one of us has been given the gift of eternal life. We have each been forgiven for all the sins of our life: past, present, and future. Instead of Hell, we are here, and we need to see each other as God sees us: forgiven people, and children of God, no matter our sins.

As Jesus said, "May the one without sin cast the first stone." Put down the stone and love each other as Christ has already loved you.