I Don't Hate You: Trying to Live Christ's Example.
After the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage this past week, I have had an array of thoughts and emotions concerning the moral state of this country and what all this means to me as a Christian. I have been hesitant to put anything down into words other than in my personal journal for several reasons. One of those reasons is that most of those closest to me already know my stance on homosexuality and same sex marriage. At some point repeating those views becomes as ineffective as using a bucket to bail water out of the Titanic. Another reason is that I am simply not sure how I should react. I know what the Bible says about God's design for marriage (one man, one woman; simple enough) and what God says about sin (which homosexuality is). I also know that I am a sinner as much as anyone else and I truly believe that God sees all sins as equal; save one, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29). I have thought long and hard about what I want to express about this subject and have read a few articles about how Christians should proceed
in this day and age, some worth remembering, others which should be readily dismissed. But ultimately I decided the following is what I want to say.
The first thing I want to make perfectly clear is that I believe with all my heart that what God calls sin is sin regardless of what the Supreme Court or any one else says. This is as true for homosexuality as it is for lying, stealing, murder, and adultery. We must remember that marriage was God's design and it was the fall of Adam and Eve that caused corruption to come into the world. The fact that we will always struggle with sin because of what happened that day, does not mean we should simply give into sin. And I am not just talking about homosexuality here, I am talking about other temptations to sin such as cheating on one's spouse, stealing from your company, lying to someone. We should never simply throw our hands up and say "Oh well, we are born into sin, why fight it?"
Now that that is out of the way, I want to get to what is a more important thing I want to say. Despite what people may think about my views on this subject, I do not hate anyone. As I tell my children when they do something wrong "I can never hate you, but I hate some of the things you choose to do." I have said it over and over again but clearly some people don't get the message; just because I disagree with someone does not mean I hate them or am even judging them. It means that I choose to think differently, period. I will not go as far as to say that I love everyone, sadly that is one of Jesus' commands I still struggle with but I do try.
My last point is the most important thing I want to say. No matter how anyone feels about this Jesus still love us, all of us. I know I have used the example of Jesus and the adulteress in my blog before but it is one of the best examples of Jesus demonstrating love to an individual sinner. Here is woman who has been accused of adultery as she is prostitute and a group of men has taken it upon themselves to stone her to death. This is what Jesus says to those men, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her" (John 8:7) Of course none of the accusers could claim they were without sin so they all dropped their rocks and went home. When Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were and who was there to accuse her, she simply stated that no one was there to accuse her. What Jesus said next is simply miraculous He said to her "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. (John 8:11). Here stood Jesus, God in flesh, who knew all the sins of this woman, even beyond what the men who would kill her knew, and He refused to condemn her. If that isn't love for the sinner, I don't know what is except this ROMANS 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So as the war of words continues on the subject of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, I think we should all stop and think about Jesus' words in John 8:1-11 "He who has no sin, cast the first stone at her." and "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more!" We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), which means we do not have the right to cast stones at anyone. We can encourage people to live a life that is pleasing to God, notice Jesus does not say "I don't condemn you,, keep living the way you always have, He specifically said "Go and SIN NO MORE," but we must do so in love. And we would all do well (myself especially) to remember that God loves all us despite our sins! So, to those who I disagree with, please remember, I don't believe I am perfect, I don't hate you, I am not judging you, and I earnestly believe that Jesus hates all our sins but He still loves us all!
in this day and age, some worth remembering, others which should be readily dismissed. But ultimately I decided the following is what I want to say.The first thing I want to make perfectly clear is that I believe with all my heart that what God calls sin is sin regardless of what the Supreme Court or any one else says. This is as true for homosexuality as it is for lying, stealing, murder, and adultery. We must remember that marriage was God's design and it was the fall of Adam and Eve that caused corruption to come into the world. The fact that we will always struggle with sin because of what happened that day, does not mean we should simply give into sin. And I am not just talking about homosexuality here, I am talking about other temptations to sin such as cheating on one's spouse, stealing from your
company, lying to someone. We should never simply throw our hands up and say "Oh well, we are born into sin, why fight it?" Now that that is out of the way, I want to get to what is a more important thing I want to say. Despite what people may think about my views on this subject, I do not hate anyone. As I tell my children when they do something wrong "I can never hate you, but I hate some of the things you choose to do." I have said it over and over again but clearly some people don't get the message; just because I disagree with someone does not mean I hate them or am even judging them. It means that I choose to think differently, period. I will not go as far as to say that I love everyone, sadly that is one of Jesus' commands I still struggle with but I do try.
My last point is the most important thing I want to say. No matter how anyone feels about this Jesus still love us, all of us. I know I have used the example of Jesus and the adulteress in my blog before but it is one of the best examples of Jesus demonstrating love to an individual sinner. Here is woman who has been accused of adultery as she is prostitute and a group of men has taken it upon themselves to stone her to death. This is what Jesus says to those men, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her" (John 8:7) Of course none of the accusers could claim they were without sin so they all dropped their rocks and went home
. When Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were and who was there to accuse her, she simply stated that no one was there to accuse her. What Jesus said next is simply miraculous He said to her "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. (John 8:11). Here stood Jesus, God in flesh, who knew all the sins of this woman, even beyond what the men who would kill her knew, and He refused to condemn her. If that isn't love for the sinner, I don't know what is except this ROMANS 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.So as the war of words continues
on the subject of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, I think we should all stop and think about Jesus' words in John 8:1-11 "He who has no sin, cast the first stone at her." and "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more!" We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), which means we do not have the right to cast stones at anyone. We can encourage people to live a life that is pleasing to God, notice Jesus does not say "I don't condemn you,, keep living the way you always have, He specifically said "Go and SIN NO MORE," but we must do so in love. And we would all do well (myself especially) to remember that God loves all us despite our sins! So, to those who I disagree with, please remember, I don't believe I am perfect, I don't hate you, I am not judging you, and I earnestly believe that Jesus hates all our sins but He still loves us all!
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