I just found out that the origin of the quote, “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” came from Gandhi. Makes you wonder how much of cliche Christianity is counter-scriptural, doesn’t it?
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God hates the sin, but loves the sinner?
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It is interesting that this quote comes from Ghandi… but I think it’s also weird to write it off as being counter-scriptural, just because it can be applied in ways that are contrary to the Gospel… There are tons of verses from the Bible that are applied in ways that are counter-scriptural, but the problem is with the application, not necessary the words themselves…
mark d equates this Ghandi quote as meaning that people are inherently good, they just do bad things… While that is certainly not what the bible teaches, I never took this quote to mean that… I always understood in light of verses like these:
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
So in a sense, if taken with the broader context of the true gospel, as taught by all of scripture, it seems to me that it could be said that “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner”, because He loved everyone of us enough to die for our sins, even while we were still sinners. God didn’t love us because there was anything about us worth loving, He loved us because HE IS LOVE!
my two cents anyway….
Good point, Daniel. This quite is not all bad. I am just in the process of rooting out all of my cliches and learning to use only Scripture. After memorizing creeds and catechisms my whole life, this is a tough process – but a fruitful one. While there is certainly some truth in the statement, it is not Scripture – and I’m trying to find Biblical ways to express similar sentiments. Thanks for those verses – that’s a great help!
The statement God hates the sin but loves the sinner– is very very wrong. It is I truly believe a doctrine of the adversary– specifically designed to destroy the works of Justice and Deny the Atonement of Christ and the terms and conditions of Repentance declared by Christ and God through his prophets in the scriptures. Its message is that sin does not change the person who sins. If So– this means no evil you do changes your nature– and thus God must or is allowed to extend love and continue to have ‘The Spirit Strive with man”. This is false. The theft of a candy would be the same as murder or rape. How completely absurd is that. Ghandi did not have the Truth of Christ!!! This is an evil and dangerous doctrine/saying. It is as destructive to Justice and the Plan of Salvation as is the abominable heresy of “Unconditional Love”. Both destroy any consequence for actions which are contrary to the Will of God and His Sacred Commandments.
Gruss Gott
Kevan S.
Kevin… I don’t think to say “God hates sin but loves the sinner” necessarily equates to a doctrine which denies a sin nature. You can’t really make assumptions like that from a single phrase, you’d have to learn more about the person using such a phrase, and what they really meant by it.
But since you mentioned it, I would have to agree with the idea that “no evil you do changes your nature”, because it is the other way around… “Your evil nature affects what you do” would be more accurate.
The very reason that God wants us to repent, is because He loves sinners. Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners…”
Maybe Ghandi didn’t know what Jesus was talking about, but that does not necessarily make the statement altogether false, just because he said it…
This article by Dr. John Gerstner may help clear up this discussion;
http://www.the-highway.com/lovesinner_Gerstner.html
Actually, the original quote is from St. Augustine.
Hey Robert, can you please send me a source for that information? I haven’t found it….