Confronting Clichés:
Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin
Matthew 7L1-5, 12
Catherine E. Foster
Shallowford Presbyterian Church
Atlanta, GA
June 12, 2016
If we’re honest, we all have our list. It’s probably not written down or numbered, but it’s frightening
how quickly we can rattle it off. I’m talking, of course, about our list of sinners.
Now, it may sound harsh or unpleasant, but just take a moment to think about it. I’ll offer some
examples from my own ‘list of sinners’ to jog your memory:
 Those people who will not let you merge on I-85
 Cable and Internet service representatives who put me on hold forever, only to gouge me on
pricing
 My “friends” on Facebook who post crazy, incendiary comments
 Anyone who looks at their phone while having a face-to-face conversation
 People who complain about politics, but then are too lazy vote.
 And as an umbrella category, mean people—for whatever reason
Now, admittedly, these "sins” are on the lighter side. Sin can encompass a whole range of actions. Both
the Hebrew word for sin, chata, and the Greek word for sin, hamartia, carry the meaning of “missing
the mark” or “straying from the path.” The “mark” is God’s will for us. And the “path” is God’s intention
for our lives. So, sin is any thought, word or action that goes against God’s will. And it also includes
failing to perform any thought, word or action that God wills.i
And no one is exempt from missing the mark. The Apostle Paul assures us that “…all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.”ii Much of the time, our sins are involuntary: we think we’re walking on
the path and we’re shocked when we look down and realize we’re out in the underbrush. Paul laments,
“I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”iii
Sin is frustrating and embarrassing and relentless. It’s so unpleasant that many Christian churches in
America today have just stopped talking about it. After all, who wants to be reminded of their failings,
the things they haven’t done, or the people they need to talk to? Sweeping sin under the rug,
especially our own sins, sounds nice, except for the fact that sin is real. We are broken people living in
a broken world. Others hurt us and we hurt others. Sometimes it’s intentional, but usually it’s not.
Presbyterians, as a denomination, have never suffered from guilt aversion. Rather than sweeping sin
under the rug, we take it out and place it front and center. Every Sunday, we call ourselves to worship
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God; we sing a hymn of praise and then we lay out our sins. We confess communally, because sins
affect the community. Sin affects our horizontal relationships with one another, as well as our vertical
relationship with God.
For people who take sin seriously, today’s cliché is particularly attractive. Love the sinner; hate the sin.
It sounds so right. It divides people from the obnoxious and hurtful things that they do and say. It
allows us to love everyone because, after all, we are ALL sinners. All the while, we can also maintain
the righteousness of hating sin. And, as Christians, we are all supposed to renounce evil. It’s so neat
and tidy. It keeps our hands clean. It makes sense. But it just . . . it’s just not what Jesus commanded.
It’s not even in the Bible—Old Testament or New.
As best we can tell, the expression comes from the late 4th or early 5th century. St. Augustine, a bishop
from North Africa and prolific Christian theologian, wrote a letter to a group of nuns. “In the letter, he
called them to have a ‘love for mankind and hatred of sins.’”iv It’s unlikely, however, that St. Augustine
was trying to coin a phrase that described our disdain for other’s sins.
You see, “love the sinner; hate the sin” is almost never used in reference to ourselves. It’s employed to
condemn someone else’s actions that we have deemed sinful. If only Jesus had said “love the sinner;
hate the sin,” but, instead, as he drew the Sermon on the Mount to a close, he commanded: “‘do not
judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the
measure you give will be the measure you get.”v
Ouch, Jesus. Those are some tough words. Hoping that the original Greek might mitigate the meaning
a little bit, I dug into the passage. But the Greek word for judgment carries the same broad spectrum
of meanings that the English word does. So the judgment Jesus forbids includes “arriving at a
decision,” “pronouncing a sentence,” or “denouncing something or someone.” In other words, we’re
not supposed to do anything from being critical of someone to out-and-out condemning them.vi
And the Apostle Paul concurs. Early in the Letter to the Romans, Paul says: “Therefore you have no
excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn
yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.”vii It’s not that Jesus is ignoring a
wrong that has been committed. It’s that Jesus has to point out that we’re sitting in the wrong chair if
we assume the seat of judge. To hate someone else’s sin is to quickly forget where we came from, to
forget what God has already done for us.
Theologian Andrew Purves puts it like this: “We who follow Jesus already know how Jesus has treated
us. Between us and God’s law stands Jesus as the one who has fully fulfilled the law on our behalf and
called us to share in that righteousness.”viii In other words, the righteousness we’re so valiantly
defending when we judge someone’s sin is not our righteousness—it belongs to Jesus. Jesus fulfilled
the law for us when our thoughts, words, and deeds fell far short. And when we know the grace that
God has given us when it comes to our shortcomings, how can we have the audacity to stand in
judgment of others’ shortcomings?ix
But Jesus didn’t lord his righteousness over other people. He invited them to think differently. And he
used my favorite pedagogical method: humor. He said, when you judge other people, it’s like you have
this load-bearing rafter lodged in your own eye, but you’re still trying to daintily approach another
person to remove a tiny particle of dust in his eye. It’s funny, because we can all see how cartoonish
the metaphor is. And it’s amusing, because we can appreciate the hyperbole of the difference in size
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between the objects in their eyes—the log and the speck that represent their respective sins. But, ever
so gently, Jesus is trying to make a point about our perceptions of others. In just 3 verses, Jesus uses
the word “eye” six times. That’s not a coincidence. Jesus wants the disciples and each of us to think
about how we regard sin—our own and other people’s. The metaphor suggests that we cannot see or
judge others clearly until we have invested some serious time examining ourselves. Too often, we dive
into “operation particle removal” on someone else before we’ve begun “project log evacuation” on
ourselves.
Gigi Graham, Billy Graham’s oldest daughter, tells the story of attending Time magazine’s 75th
anniversary party in Washington, D.C. with her farther. It was the late 90s and President Bill Clinton
spoke at the event. The House of Representatives had just impeached the President for perjury and
obstruction of justice during the investigation of his relationship with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky. Gigi and her father sat with the Clintons and Dr. Graham was warm and gracious to the first
couple. After the event, the Grahams were riding back to their hotel together and they discussed how
difficult it must be for the President and First Lady to have so many people gossiping about and
judging them. Gigi remembered her father simply stating: “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict; it’s
God’s job to judge; and it is our job to love.”x
“It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict; it’s God’s job to judge; and it our job to love.” Again and again,
Jesus modeled that love for us. Jesus befriended prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, and all sorts of
unsavory types. He healed them and broke bread with them and even called them to be his disciples.xi
Jesus spent so much time with these folks, that his critics called him a “friend of sinners.”xii And these
sinners did not respond to Jesus because he sat down at table with them and said, “Zacchaeus, I love
you so much, but I hate your sin.” Or “Matthew, I think you would make a great disciple, but first you
need to stop cheating people on their taxes.” No, Jesus came to be God with us. He came teaching
and preaching about the Kingdom of God. He came to be a guest in homes and at weddings. He not
only challenged us to love our neighbors; he pushed us even further to love our enemies.
Everyone’s favorite Presbyterian pastor, Mr. Rodgers, lived his life trying to treat people like Jesus
treated people. And I like to think that’s why he always carried a slip of paper in his wallet that read:
“Frankly, there isn't anyone you couldn't learn to love once you've heard their story.”xiii Maybe Jesus
knew that it would be harder for us to love other people if he labeled them sinners.xiv Absolutely,
Jesus loved sinners, and, no doubt, we are all sinners. But maybe he thought we would care about
their stories if we saw sinners like Jesus saw them—as neighbors. Maybe Jesus hoped we would stop
judging our neighbors and start loving them, when we remembered that their story is like our story—
that we were once lost and are now found; that we owe our lives to the goodness and mercy of God.xv
You see, unlike “Love the sinner; hate the sin,” the Golden Rule is not a cliché. It’s not even a proverb
about politeness, like, “If you cannot say something nice about someone, then do not say anything at
all.”xvi The Golden Rule is a radical call to discipleship.xvii
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”xviii
With that one phrase, Jesus banished the line between “us” and “them.” If we do unto others as we
would have them do unto us, there is no space to judge their sins. And the Golden Rule is directly
connected to the second part of the greatest commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.”xix
When our neighbor’s wellbeing is as important to us as our own wellbeing, our focus shifts. Our eyes
are no longer seeking out the speck in our neighbor’s eye. Instead, we are focused on our neighbor’s
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welfare. The sins that matter to us are those that harm or oppress or do evil to our neighbor.xx In
other words, when our priorities match God’s priorities, we “exchange judgment for justice.”xxi The
Golden Rule enlists those of us who would follow Christ to use our energy working for the shalom of
all of God’s children.
As we gather this morning, 70 of Shallowford’s youth and a handful of brave chaperones are on choir
tour in Scotland. Their theme this year is We Walk in the Light, and you should absolutely plan to be
here next Sunday at 4pm for their homecoming concert. This past Tuesday, the youth offered a
preview concert at King’s Bridge Retirement Community. My row consisted of the Adams, the Yorks
and the Popes, so together we represented people of almost every age. We watched 70 youth sing—
youth who come from a generation of which a quarter of their peers have rejected religion entirely, a
generation that sees Christians as judgmental and hypocritical. And our youth, Shallowford’s youth, in
beautiful harmony, sang these words written by Mark Miller. May their song be all the invitation you
need to let go of the label “sinner,” to judge not, and love more:
No matter what people say, say or think about you, you are a child of God.
No matter what the church says, decisions pronouncements on you, you are a child of God.
And there is nothing, or no one to separate or terminate the truth
that you are, you are someone, you’re family; you’re meant to be a child of God.
You are a child of God.xxii
Hallelujah and Amen.
i
Adam Hamilton. Half Truths. (Nashville: Abingdon, 2016), 143.
Romans 3: 23.
iii
Romans 7: 19.
iv
Hamilton, Half Truths, 142.
v
Matthew 7: 1-3.
vi
Leander Keck. “Matthew 6:19-7:12.” New Interpreters Bible: Matthew-Mark, Vol. 8. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 211.
vii
Romans 2: 1.
viii
Andrew Purves, “Theological Perspective: Matthew 7:12,” in Feasting on the Gospels Matthew V. 1, eds. Cynthia
A. Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson. (Louisville: WJK, 2013), 166.
ix
Douglas Hare, “Judge Not!,” in Interpretation: Matthew. (Louisville: WJK, 1993), 77.
x
Hamilton, Half Truths, 159.
xi
Hamilton, Half Truths, 156.
xii
Matthew 11: 19.
xiii
Diana Burk. “12 Beautiful Life Lessons Mr. Rogers Taught Us.” On www.goodhousekeeping.com. 4 December
2014.
xiv
Hamilton, Half Truths, 151.
xv
Perves “Theological Perspective: Matthew 7:12,” 168.
xvi
Timothy Cargal, “Theological Perspective: Matthew 7:12,” in Feasting on the Gospels Matthew V. 1, Eds. Cynthia
A. Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson. (Louisville: WJK, 2013), 164.
xvii
Keck, “Matthew 6:19-7:12,” 209.
xviii
Matthew 7:12.
xix
Matthew 22: 29b.
xx
Hamilton, Half Truths, 159.
xxi
Leah Schade, “Theological Perspective: Matthew 7:1-6,” in Feasting on the Gospels Matthew V. 1, Eds. Cynthia A.
Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson. (Louisville: WJK, 2013), 156.
xxii
Mark A. Miller, “Child of God.” CGA1425, 2014.
ii
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