Modern Christianity has a lot of connotations with it. They can range anywhere from loving, compassionate, God-fearing people to angry, homophobic, racist religious neighbors. Just like with any group, Christianity is often wrongfully defined by the more radical members. It makes my heart break when I see my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ preaching a gospel of hatred toward other men and women. Sometimes it's obviously hateful speech, but often times it is hidden behind a veil of religion that is used to excuse their behavior. Too often have I seen a fellow believer casting judgement upon an unbeliever for their sin, yet they seem to neglect that they are just as sinful and fallen. Let us not forget, friends, that Jesus died for the Jew and the Greek. We are all sinners and have all fallen short of the glory of God, both believer and non-believer alike and we all desperately need Jesus. So, who are we to cast judgement on one another?
As Christians, we are called to love our neighbor. Kierkegaard analyzes this calling in his book "Works of Love" and says that loving our neighbor is not just a mere suggestion, it is a command. We are commanded to love our neighbor with unconditional love because Christ first loved us. This doesn't mean we love when we want to, when it's convenient, or when the person is being lovable. We are called to love even when they are utterly unlovable because Jesus loved us when we were unlovable. This also doesn't mean we can love some people yet not others. We are called to love every single human made in the image of God. So with such a clear commandment of love, why is there still a connotation of hate with Christians?
I think it comes from this idea of "hate the sin, not the sinner." That phrase isn't working, hasn't worked, and it is not going to. Why? Look at the first word in the sentence. Hate. It starts out with hate and that is the first word latched onto your brain. The problem with that kind of thinking is this: It's very hard to separate the sin from the sinner. Although people say they are loving the sinner and only hating the sin, is that really what is going on? I have fallen prey to this too. It is very easy to start with hating the sin and slowly start hating the sinner before you even realize what has happened. What if we approached this in a new way entirely? What if we started with Jesus' message of love? What if we said "love the sinner, not the sin?" We must not forget Jesus' command of love.
It is so easy to get swept up in our own religious acts of "holier than thou" and project a hateful message on our fellow men and women, but it is in these times when we must remember love. It's going to be hard and sometimes you're not going to want to do it. This is the life we have been called to, though. Let us not forget that Jesus hung around tax-collectors and prostitutes and washed the feet of his disciples. If we truly believe we are called to live by his example, we cannot forget his message of love to all people. Instead of building walls, we should be tearing them down. Instead of shutting out, we should be letting in. Instead of setting ourselves apart from the world and looking down at the sinfulness, we should be immersing ourselves in the culture and showing them what the love of Christ looks like. We should be fostering community in love with all our fellow man, not just the ones that are easy to be in community with. They shall know us by our love, after all, not our hate.
