“Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner” Doesn’t Work

A commonly heard phrase in Evangelical churches is “Hate the sin, love the sinner;” or at least it used to be. But we live in a new day when sin is embraced in ways never before seen in America.

Such a phrase only works when the clean distinction between sin and sinner is accepted. In that case, the phrase will freely roll off the tongue. It will continue to do so as long as that tongue knows it should not sin. But what if the clean distinction between sin and sinner is not accepted? What if a person loves to lie and builds their whole life on lying? What if the ability to lie is stated as the evolutionary design for their brain, making their survival dependent on how well they can lie? How will they, or the Christian using it, feel about such a phrase then? What about other so called “sins?” What about homosexuality? Ah, yes. Now we have some cultural traction. Homosexuality is becoming the issue that is bringing about the death of “hate the sin, love the sinner.” Why does it not work when seeking to deal biblically with the homosexual; and any other sinner for that matter?

Essentially, this phrase doesn’t work because it is not biblical. Not only is the phrase not found in the Bible, the very opposite is stated. From beginning to end, the Bible is clear that you cannot separate sin from the sinner. Sin is not only what people do, it is who they are. In Proverbs, it is not mainly that people do foolish things; it is that they are fools. “But the folly of fools is foolishness.” (Prov. 14:24) In Psalms, it is not mainly that people do wicked things; it is that they are wicked. “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” (Ps. 1:5) The same is true in the prophets. “For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.” (Hab.1:4) Jesus said that the main thing is not that there is bad fruit, but that the tree is bad. (Matt. 7:17). In Romans, Paul says that God has given people over so that they became fools, and as such “they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, arrogant, insolent, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents…” (Rom. 1:29b-30) In 1 Corinthians, Paul doesn’t say they did certain things, but that they once were fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, covetous, etc. (1 Cor. 6:9-11). In 2 Peter, Peter says that false teachers are “stains and blemishes,” and “springs without water and mists driven by the storm.” (2 Pet. 2:13, 17) In Revelation, hell is prepared for those who are, in their person, cowardly, abominable, immoral, liars, etc. (Rev. 21:8) Everywhere we see that sin comes from who you are, not something that shows up for some reason disconnected from the heart.

Additionally, God does hate sinners. As anathema as that is to say in today’s watered down, feel-good churches, it is repeated over and over again in scripture. (Psalm 5:5-6; 11:5; Prov. 6:16-19; Malachi 2:16). Also David, as a godly example, hated sinners. (Psalm 31:6; 119:13; 139:21) At this point we can say that there are complexities to be reconciled. How can God hate the wicked and yet so love the world that he sent His Son? How can we hate the evil person and yet love our neighbor? Clearly, this biblically defined hate is more complex and qualitatively different than then hate commonly thought of. That will have to be for another blog post. Nevertheless, the point is that scripture does not separate sin from the sinner resulting in the godly hate directed to sinning sinners.

What is the main problem with our phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner?” The main problem is it misses the reality of identity. If you miss what identity is, then you are going to miss the very heart of the gospel. Identity is the essence of who you are. It is your name. It is your being. Before a person is in Christ, sin is their identity. They are a rebel against God, however their rebellion manifests itself. The gospel is about remaking who you are, giving you a new name, and renewing the true image of God in you. The gospel is not about getting people cleaned up and socially acceptable. It is not about making an improved you. It is about making a completely new you. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature…” (2 Cor. 5:17) The gospel is about removing a heart of stone and putting in a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26). It is not attaching good fruit to a bad tree; it is about making a new tree, a good tree, that produces good fruit.

Our misguided phrase seeks to give guidance for our interaction with people living blatantly in sin, but it has nothing to say to those who claim their sin is who they are. That is where we are now. We are living in an age where people simply embrace who they are in their fallenness, and are encouraged to do so. The homosexual does not accept the sin/sinner distinction, and therefore if you hate the sin then you hate them. If that phrase is the Christian’s main principle of engagement, then the homosexual is right. The phrase should be dropped because it misses the reality of identity, sidesteps the gospel, and does not address people as prisoners of the fallenness that made them who they are.

Instead of hating the sin and loving the sinner, why don’t we hate the sin, hate the sinner, and love the sinner enough to tell them how their identity can be changed. By hating the sinner, I mean that you recognize and proclaim that being a treasonous hater of God truly is horrendous. We all once were that very thing. We hate what we once were and we hate what they are now. But this hate does not exclude love. In fact, we couldn’t love them unless we hated the defaced image of God in them. But in response to this hated position, just like God, we are to love them enough to show them how they can be changed. Through the gospel, they can become a saint who daily puts sin to death. Christ can forgive and transform. The gospel is the power of God for this transforming miracle that changes a person’s very identity.

What I am trying to do is to speak biblically. I think the reason the church recoils from this is that they have become fearful of the world’s rejection and have become unwilling to address complexity. God both hates and loves. God’s people both hate and love. If we are unwilling to speak in biblical terms, we are left with “good news” that is so simplified it is gutted of the truths needed to save a person. When that happens, you open the door to false conversions. The resulting “mixed” church is all the more fearful of the world’s rejection and all the more unwilling to speak the difficult truths. We need to repent of this. In obedience to 1 Thess. 5:21-22, let us “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”