June 29, 2008
Sermon Video
Sin & God's Necessary Aversion to It — Romans 1:18
Sermon Recap
2. Loren Bumbalough says:
No wonder people walk out of your sermons. I find your honesty refreshing, and the questions I have struggled with about Christianity (even though I’ve been a Christian for 10 years) can be answered! Study the God of the Bible…not the God of American Christianity. So simple, and yet life changing.
Thank you for taking the risk to teach the Truth.
Question: Since we are to hate sinners like God does, and love sinners like God does…what does this look like practically? Do the Christians with signs protesting gay marriages have it right? Do those who think, “it’s a sin, but not something the government should restrict” have it right. In a practical sense, how do we rid ourselves of “hate the sin love the sinner” and begin to hate the sinner as God does, and love the sinner as God does?
3. Jeff Scattareggia says:
Hi Loren,
As you are, I am so thankful that God’s Word is honored here at CBC, and God is presented as he truly is. Praise be to God, for raising up men and women who do that very thing each week here at CBC in all our ministries from the pulpit to the nursery.
Just to give my thought here, I don’t know where in God’s Word we are ever exhorted or told to hate the sinner. I might be wrong about this, but I don’t think that Mike ever said that we are to hate the sinner; he was presenting a perspective about God. In fact, for us, the opposite of “hating the sinner” is true; we are told to love our enemies in Luke 6:27,35. Moving from the greater case to the lesser, if we are to love our enemies, then we are certainly to love our friend who is a sinner in the lesser case.
I am just guessing at the reason why this is so, but perhaps it is because of our nature. God is perfect, and we are not. He can both love and hate perfectly; we can do neither. God’s expressions of hatred and love are not tainted with sinful emotions as ours are.
Most certainly, we are to understand God as he reveals himself (he can both hate and love at the same time), but we cannot go beyond His Word. In Romans 12:9, we are told to understand that sincere (true or real) love will hate evil and cling to what is good (also Ps. 97:10). So we are told two things; first, to hate evil and second, to love our enemies. While the phrase “love the sinner and hate the sin” is nowhere to be found in Scripture, and has become a “Christian mantra”, I think it is right in principle for Christians (but not true of God), because we are told by God to do both; hate evil and love our enemies.
The problem is if/when Christians do not understand that God does indeed hate sinners (Ps 5, 11) while loving them in many ways; that is, through his common grace and goodness towards his creatures and creation). And it is important to think of God as he reveals himself to be, and not create idols in our mind of who he is.
4. Pastor Mike says:
In Matthew 5:44 Jesus tells us to extend kindness to those who hate us, which we assume in context are sinners (remember love is a verb, an action, not primarily a feeling). It is not mine to take revenge on sinners (Rom.12:19). Instead, if I find my enemies hungry, I am told to feed them (Prov.25:21).
These commands are not done with emotional passivity – as though their sin or hatred toward us is irrelevant. Even Romans 12 and Proverbs 25 show us that there is an underlying motive and desire to see the enemy changed (“In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head”). Our prayers for them (Mt.5:44-45), like our required restraint (Rom.12:19), should reflect God-likeness. In other words, we should want what God wants for them – repentance (2Pt.3:9)!
This not a rosy picture of the righteous joining hands with sinners singing, “let’s let bygones be bygones, our differences don’t matter, now I like you!“ Actually there is an underlying expectation that our hearts will be repulsed by sin and those who continue in it. Several “worship song” of Israel make that clear. Consider Psalm 15 where we are told not to slander or cast slurs, but, at the same time we are shown that those who are intimate with God are to have an appropriate repulsion for the “vile man”.
“Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD” (Ps.15:1-4)
The lyrics of Psalm 31 say “I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I trust in the LORD.“ (v.6)
Psalm 26:4-5 reads “I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites; I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.“
Consider the first words of the first Psalm: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers” (Ps.1:1)
“Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil” (Psalm 101:4)
“I hate double-minded men, but I love your law” (Ps.119:113)
These are just a few examples from Israel’s inspired song book that God ordained for his people to sing, memorize and mediate on.
We are not asked to “feel good” about sinners or just “hang out” with them. We may be called to be respectful but we are certainly not asked by God to esteem them (“No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected” Is.32:5). We may need to be friendly, but not intimate friends (Pr.22:24; 13:20). And of course we want to share the gospel with them “snatching them from the fire” while “hating even the garment that is stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 24). We want to be sure to “have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” calling unrepentant sinners to “wake up, rise from the dead” and “have Christ shine on” them (Eph.5:11-14). We are asked by God to refrain from any personal retribution (that’s God’s job, and the government’s Rom.13:1-5), while we pray for repentance and for them to “come to their senses” (2Ti.2:25-26).
This may be a difficult balance, but one that God’s Holy Spirit certainly helps us maintain when we encounter those who disdain him and his truth.
– Pastor Mike
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1. Kristen says:
As always, Pastor Mike is on fire with his passion for preaching the gospel honestly so that we may fully understand the importance of knowing the REAL God and celebrating our salvation through Jesus Christ. Thank you for boldly teaching the whole counsel of God’s word and presenting Him in His true light!