Love the Sinner

Love the Sinner

“Jesus has not come to make the prison cell of sin more comfortable for the prisoners – He has come to set them free. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a Gospel of renovation or decoration, but of liberation!” - Reinhard Bonnke

A terrible problem the Church has had over the centuries is a pharisaic spirit about sin. The “holier than thee” attitude, which so hall-marked parts of the church for so many years, was perhaps the greatest sin of the church for centuries, and has only recently been replaced by the rebellion of un-belief.

Loving the sinner is one thing, but not at the expense of condoning his sin. Sin has to be confronted and repented. Jesus confronted sin; He exposed it and always led or pointed the sinner in the way he or she should go. Most times, He did so with great love and compassion, but occasionally, as when driving traders from the temple, He got righteously angry. Jesus risked the wrath of sinners too, because most people don’t like having their faults pointed out to them at all, let alone publicly as Jesus so often did. Yet having done so, he never judged or rebuked as such. He simply forgave them and told them to “sin no more”.

If I may quote a friend of mine, Geoff Taylor from Sydney Australia, “Sure, keep loving sinners but also risk the offence and call out the sin; for if a hundred sinners hear your plea and ninety-nine are offended, there will still be one hugging you ever-so tightly for a mighty long time.”

Paul wrote this - “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2) – so much for the so-called “hyper-grace” movement. So much for an easy, non-repentant gospel that requires less or even no repentance at all. Both sins in themselves by the way. Both hyper grace and easy gospel are simply watered down, self indulgent versions of Jesus teachings. Yet don’t judge nor condemn the sinners. Point out their sin and call them to repentance, then leave Holy Spirit to do His job. What happens next is between them and God – maybe they will tell you about it, and maybe they won’t.

One word of warning about casting the mote out of your brothers eye when there is a plank in yours. Just make sure you are not being even slightly hypocritical in pointing out another’s sin if you too are in any small degree guilty of that same sin. Rather, go together to the altar and repent so you’ll both be clean. In any case make sure you clean yourself whatever your brother or sister may decide to do.