Love the sinner, hate the sin!

Love the sinner, hate the sin, is not found in the Holy Text of the Bible! However the principle is most assuredly forth right. “1John 3:6-9 No one who lives in him (Jesus) keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” If we who follow Jesus in thought, word and deed, we must despise and reject everything that is sinful and evil! At the same time we are to love the person who is sinful. As the Holy text has just said the Son of God has appeared to destroy the devil’s work, which is everything that is evil! Everyone has sinned. Everyone has the stain of sin in their lives. Everyone has a need for Redemption and forgiveness of sins. That is why Jesus came and died on the Cross. If Jesus loved men and their sins, then why did He have to die? Jesus love’s those who committed sin but died to Atone for them to wash away their sin, that men may be declared righteous in God’s eye! A lady recently argued with me concerning the statement, “love the sinner but hate the sin.” She says Christians are taught to hate. Homosexuals, drunks, liar’s, blasphemers...are all to be hated by Christians. She was somewhat confused about this concept so I explained it this way; If you love someone and they told you a lie, do you love that lie they told? No. But you still love the person, don’t you? Yes she said. So it is with our Creator! He loves all whom He Created but hates the sin and therefore sent His only Begotten Son, Jesus, to die to pay the debt for our sins. Love the sinner but hate the sin is indeed the message of Christianity! A quote from an old time preacher “I have no hope beneath the canopy of heaven, neither in time nor in eternity, save only in this belief-that Jesus Christ, in my place, bore both my punishment and sin. There may be some sins of which a man cannot speak, but there is no sin which the blood of Christ cannot wash away.” -Spurgeon