A tender heart toward sinners

I grew up in a fundamentalist church that championed the phrase, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Although it’s arguably biblically based, there are potential problems with this platitude.

First, our sense of sin tends to be distorted by our biases. The church I grew up in viewed sin through the lens of personal purity and holiness. They focused primarily on hating homosexuality, abortion, sex outside of marriage, drinking, dancing and smoking. They also frowned upon murder, theft, failure to tithe, laziness and dishonouring God-given authority. That was about it. Many sins named in the Bible were rarely or never addressed.

This focus also tends to foster judgmental attitudes toward the people we view as sinners. The line between sin and sinner easily gets blurred. I didn’t feel love toward “sinners” in my childhood church. In fact, we tended to despise certain kinds of sinners, not just their perceived sin.

The circles I reside in today focus on social sins, such as racism, discrimination, inequality and injustice. We rarely use “sinner” language, preferring terms like fascist, toxic or Nazi, but despite this and despite our focus on different sins, our judgmentalism feels similar to that of my childhood church. I don’t feel a lot of love for the people we view as “sinners.”

We’re facing grave threats to truth, justice, peace and common decency in our world today, threats we can’t ignore. However, I’m concerned that some churches and Christians seem to be abandoning Jesus’s mandate for us to love God and our neighbours as ourselves. I frequently hear Christians at all points of the political and theological spectrums expressing frustration with the call to love “sinners” and enemies, dismissing the idea as naive, simplistic, unbiblical or complicit with sin.

I disagree. As problematic as “love the sinner, hate the sin” can be, I believe Christ calls progressive Christians to love the fascist and the prejudiced, while confronting fascism and prejudice. I believe God’s Spirit calls conservative Christians to see Jesus in the “woke” people and to discover the image of God in people in the LGBTQ community.

I’m not suggesting we ignore our biblical understanding on certain issues; I’m inviting us to prioritize the two commands Jesus said were the greatest. I’m also not saying we should ignore power dynamics. Sins committed by those with power need to be addressed differently—and with accountability—than the sins of those who are marginalized, persecuted and neglected. We must challenge and confront systems and people with power that cause harm to others. But not only when it fits our narrative.

For example, when the trucker convoy approached our nation’s capital, those in political power marginalized them with one sweeping stroke, painting them as racist, abusive and violent. I didn’t hear many liberal Christians (including me) confronting the political powers that maligned this group of people. I didn’t hear many progressive churches (including my own) calling us to love the truckers, while challenging the harmful ideas and behaviour we observed. I sensed mostly contempt toward these “sinners.”

I’m concerned I’m losing my capacity to see the image of God in all people and that I’m losing sight of God’s love for them. When I sense contempt developing in my own heart, I’m part of the problem, not God’s solution.

Hatred and contempt—no matter whom it’s directed at—only increases what’s wrong in our world. I’m called to demonstrate a different way of treating people I perceive as “sinners.” We cannot speak truth to power effectively, redemptively, without loving the people we’re confronting.

In Ephesians 4:32, Paul reminds us, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

I can’t do this on my own, but, thankfully, God says, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

I’m asking God to transform my heart and to give me a renewed spirit that’s sensitive to God’s Spirit and loves all kinds of sinners, while I continue to challenge sin—including, first and foremost, my own.