SHOULD WE HATE SIN FOR GOD OR MAN OR BOTH?

 

Christians say we are to serve others but only and totally for God's sake.

 

Is that because they are not worth it?

 

Is that because God says so?

 

Is that because God deserves it?

 

Is that because we will get a heavenly reward for obeying God?

 

People may have more than one reason for it.  And if they just want the reward then they are not going to admit that.  So you never know how loved God really is.

 

If God is just a projection of what you want him to be then loving God alone is just another way of rewarding yourself and glorifying yourself for you are making your devotion about you and what you want.  It is wise to suspect believers.

 

Believers might agree that love the sinner and hate the sin is impossible but say it only becomes possible if you make it all about God.  If you are full of love for God then you will not hate the person he makes for it is his child.

 

THEREFORE WE SHOULD NEED EVIDENCE AND PROOF BEFORE BELIEVING ANYBODY WHO SAYS THEY LOVE GOD ALONE WHICH IS WHY THEY CAN HATE SIN WITHOUT HATING THE SINNER.  IF LOVE THE SINNER AND HATE THE SIN DEPENDS ON LOVING GOD ALONE THEN IT NEVER HAPPENS MUCH IF AT ALL!

 

Another reason that loving God is able to prevent you hating the sinner is that God is good so his goodness attracts you and inspires you.  You relate to him for he is good and that develops the goodness in you.  It stirs it.

 

Is God good because he has good properties such as being fair and intelligent and loving etc?  Or are these properties good because they are God’s?  So God may command but it is not the commanding that makes the moral commands good. The commands are good not because they are commanded but because God is good. We value fairness and intelligence and love.  Value is not something we make but something we discover and perceive.  So it is God being a channel, as it were, for those properties and powers that matters - not God as such.  God and good are not the same thing for if there were nothing at all that would be good in the sense nobody suffers.

 

Even if God and good could be the same as opposed to good flowing through God as if it is real whether God exists or not, we are made to see him as a conduit.  That is the attraction.

 

God then and the worship of God is a hindrance to loving sinners and hating sins.  It is a miracle if any believer really manages such love and it is done in spite of faith not because of it.

 

To say I must love others for God is to say I love them conditionally. I will not love them if there is no God. I need to believe in God to treat them okay. I need to accuse non-believers of being moral curses. If I say I love the sinner and hate the sin, how can I really mean that? If I use God to subliminate my hate for my neighbour and particularly my sinful neighbour, who do I think I am trying to fool by claiming to love sinners?

Christianity says that if we truly love other people we will see their sins as detestable for their sins degrade them and legitimise their punishment.

Sin means an offence against the law of God. God is said to be entitled to all our love. Jesus commanded us to love God with our entire being and strength.

Why should we hate the sin? Because it hurts the sinner? No if God comes first then we should hate the sin chiefly because it mocks God. And as Jesus said we must love God with all our powers the only real objection to sin is that it offends God. The person in themselves does not matter. If they matter it is only because of God meaning the person does not matter and only God does. Nobody wants to listen to or be influenced by people who oppose their sin without any real concern for them.

A person listens best if you tell them that their lifestyle is going to bring them harm. A person will be turned off if you tell them that you wish to see them change for God.

We know that if anybody who does not truly care for us hates our sin then it is really us they hate. They are being polite about their rancour! They are passive-aggressive.

If you love God most, then trying to love those who hate him and who sin will be a struggle. Also the Church says it expects us to fall often. That is why the Church preaching that it is a religion of peace is not a reason for saying it is not to blame if you carry out hate crimes. The clergy and teachers of religion are as much to blame for what the IRA and sectarian bullies do. Some would say that as they condition people to believe in God and hate sin they are far more to blame.

 

If you see somebody as a threat even if they are insane you will fear them and hate will happen.  Hate and fear are partners.  If you hate the obnoxious insane imagine how you will hate the person who is responsible for what they do.  To even notice that somebody is a sinner is calling them a threat even if the threat is not about you.  Hate can be protective in the sense that you feel it driving you to protect yourself or your community. 

 

God creates all and is said to be infinite good.  Thus sin attacks him - "Hypothetically if I could have my sin and destroy you God I would." So sin is incredibly bad, more than we can imagine.

 

A sin is not the problem, the person is.  There is no sin as such.  There is only the sinner.  People telling you they love you and hate your sin are encouraging you not to own your sin but to disassociate from it psychologically.  That would amount to getting you to develop a psychological dissociative disorder. A person who would never murder could eventually become one for they don't connect themselves to their sins.  Saying God loves you and hates your sins then has a dangerous effect too.

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