The sinner and his sin
It is said we have to love the sinner but hate the sin. I suppose that's because what is wrong is sin itself. The one who committed it, though guilty, is still a brother or a sister whom we have to love and help to get back to the right way.
This is easier said than done. What usually happens is we are easily overtaken by feelings and emotions and throw the baby out with the bathwater. That is, while we hate the sin for the inconvenience, damage, and other evils caused, we end up hating the sinner also.
We have to distinguish the sinner from the sin. But the basis for this effort to keep loving the sinner despite his sins is the example of Christ. We need to meditate often on Christ's life and death, because it is where we are shown how to love the sinner while hating the sin.
The example of Christ is clearly that of proclaiming the truth about what is right and wrong, good and evil, and forgiving everyone even if the requirements of justice are not met. With what we owe Christ, we can never fulfill the requirements of justice.
This is something we have to learn as early as possible. We have to deepen our knowledge of what is right and wrong, good and evil, and conform our life to it. And then like Christ, let us be quick to forgive, or offer forgiveness, just as we have to be quick to ask for forgiveness.
We should also be interested in living as best we can the requirements of justice. But we should also realize that no matter how much we try to live justice, we can never have it perfectly. And the last word we have to give is mercy; the ultimate expression of justice.
Like Christ, we have to be willing to bear the burdens of others. Yes, Christ bore all our sins to save us, bring us back to God. He had to forego the requirements of justice to reconcile us with God. That was why he just kept silent when he was tried and sentenced to death in the most unfair trial of all times. He did it to save us.
That is the attitude we ought to have when faced with the sins of men. While sins will always be sins and should be condemned, we have to do everything, including foregoing justice and giving mercy, to save the sinner.
We may even have to find excuses for the sinner. Not only that, we can and should take the initiative to bring the sinner back to the right path, even if that meets resistance and hostility.
In other words, let's have the magnanimity of Christ, his heart that is full of love and compassion. Otherwise, if we just get stuck with our concern for justice, we will never end in our wrangling, quarreling, and animosities.
Remember, the sinner is still our brother or sister, a child of God.
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