We ask a lot of questions in life, don’t we? Some aren’t so important. Others are of utmost importance. Like this one:

Why are so many Christians separating the sins OF people and pointing them out… instead of separating the sin FROM the person?

I’m not just talking about the over-used but under-followed “hate the sin but love the sinner” statement. Yes, we are supposed to hate sin. But so many stop there and never look into the eyes of those that they’ve called out as “hating their sin”. They never connect on a heart level.

More questions:

Why stop there? Why is it so hard to love the sinner?

We all sin. We have no problem forgiving ourselves most of the time. Yes, we can get hung up on some sin because it produces a great guilt. But we certainly don’t ignore ourselves, alienate ourselves from our inner circles, or verbally attack ourselves in “light hearted FB meme manner”… do we?

Sure… guilt sometimes rides in on a dragon and swallows up our thoughts. But guilt isn’t from God. And we can, with His help, control those thoughts and our actions. We learn to accept His forgiveness and our own.

The Truth is that we can forgive others that same way. We should forgive others in that way. It’s what we are supposed to do.

I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m just saying it’s doable. God says so. We can forgive others and separate sin from the person we walk that path with like our family and close friends. And we can do the same for all others.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ~ Romans 8:1

So why do we choose to condemn?

I understand that we can get passionately fired up about things. But are they always, or even most of the time, the right things? Are the things that get us worked up a righteous thing? And if they are, are our methods God approved? Would God cheer on the ways we voice our concerns over sin?

I’m guilty too. But I have literally prayed my way to forgiving others even when it has been difficult.

The only true things to get people passionately fired up about are the things that are Godly to humanity. So as God’s people we should stop separating sins and pointing out one over the other on a whole. We must love people no matter what sin we see in their lives. We can all grow together.

What sin do they see in our lives?

We’ve got to love people to Christ, not point out the sins of a group with a big Scarlet Letter.

Don’t misunderstand me, please. I’m not saying condone or make excuses for outward sin… not even in your own life. It must be addressed. What I’m talking about is leading people to Christ instead of pointing out mass wrongs in an unloving way.

It has to be a heart level thing, not a hurled out life-leveling thing. We are supposed to lift people up.

Yet, another question:

If all they hear is what we think is wrong with them, how long are they going to listen?

We’ve got to come together.
It is every heart coming together in common cause… to love God and love people… that will make them want to listen.

Then, and only then, will they listen. And they’ll want what we have in Christ.

Let’s do a heart check and think long and hard about what this really means:

Hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. ~ Matthew 7:5

I think it means… we need to lay our stones down.