re hate the sin in article may athos rutgers edu scott prism gatech edu scott holt writes hate the sin but love the sinner i ve heard that quite a bit recently often in the context of discussions about christianity and homosexuality but the context really isn t that important my question is whether that statement is consistent with christianity i would think not hate begets more hate never love consider some sin i ll leave it unnamed since i don t want this to digress into an argument as to whether or not something is a sin now lets apply our hate the sin philosophy and see what happens if we truly hate the sin then the more we see it the stronger our hatred of it will become eventually this hate becomes so strong that we become disgusted with the sinner and eventually come to hate the sinner in addition our hatred of the sin often causes us to say and do things which are taken personally by the sinner who often does not even believe what they are doing is a sin after enough of this the sinner begins to hate us they certainly don t love us for our constant criticism of their behavior hate builds up and drives people away from god this certainly cannot be a good way to build love i don t agree but i can only speak for myself i have a good friend whose lifestyle is very sinful do i hate the things she does to herself and others yes do i hate her absolutely not in fact she tells me repeatedly that i am the best friend she has in the world i care about her very much despite the fact that i hate how she lives her life it s very easy to fall into the progression you describe above i ve felt it with my friend more than once there is a very important part of christianity that you ve overlooked above and makes it possible to love the sin but hate the sinner before i look at someone else s life and sin i look to myself and am as disgusted by what i see in me as i see in others probably more self righteousness is contradictory to christianity and is what makes the progression you describe happen if a christian can truthfully quote paul and say wretched man that i am romans nasb that christian will be able to love the sinner and hate the sin if we have the attitude of the pharisee who said i thank thee that i am not like other men luke nasb we will hate both scott at brandeis but god demonstrates his the lord bless you and keep you own love for us in that the lord make his face shine on you while we were yet sinners and be gracious to you christ died for us the lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace romans nasb numbers nasb
