I was reading this morning from the book, Death by Love, and came across an interesting point. The phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” actually has its origins in the Hindu Gandhi’s 1929 autobiography, yet Christians toss about the phrase as if it comes directly from the Bible. (Before you jump to a conclusion about what I’m saying, please read on.) However, in contrast we can find several places in Scripture where God clearly says that he hates certain individuals or people groups.

“The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” Psalm 5:5

“The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” Psalm 11:4-5

“Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.” Hosea 9:15

(NOTE: I’ve heard people say that “hate” means “to not prefer”, and that almost always is used in the context of Jacob and Esau. Without outright denying that interpretation, I will say you cannot apply that particular translation of the word “hate” every time the Scripture says God hates something or someone.)

How do we reconcile our use of this phrase “love the sinner and hate the sin” with the Scriptures? If we are going to so freely toss this phrase about, then we must build a case from Scripture that will help it stand. I find it troublesome that Hindu wisdom has crept into the vocabulary of the born again church.

The trouble is that most people, when attempting to build a Scriptural case for “loving the sinner and hating the sin” will turn to places in the Gospels where Jesus fellowships with sinners and tax collectors, and yet ignore the places in the same Gospels where Jesus speaks very harshly to the Pharisees and chief priests. We can’t build an argument for loving sinners without taking into account the fact that for some sinners Jesus reserved some very harsh judgments (woes). Even in Jesus’ ministry, there seems to be some sinners upon whom he poured out love, and some sinners upon whom he poured out anger.

The importance of this question is actually huge. It’s not that we become hateful in our demeanor toward the person sinning, but if we see someone sinning, we do become angry about the sin and toward the person who is committing the sin. What’s the difference between rape and the rapist; murder and the murderer? Can the person sinning be completely extracted and separated from the sin they are committing and be treated as two separate entities? So in the church, when a person is living in open sin, do we say to the person in sin that we don’t agree with what they’re doing, but continue to treat them as if they were doing nothing at all? That’s called a passive condoning of the behavior and actually makes us accomplices to the sin because we enable it to continue. That’s what happened in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 5 when they continued to fellowship with the guy who was sleeping with his step-mom. And in their passivity they too were sinning.

I may sound like a warmonger, but I assure you I am not. I’m just kind of tired of hearing Christians say that born again people should never become angry over sin. And in part, I attribute it to the acceptance of worldly or pagan philosophy, like “love the sinner, hate the sin.” I readily admit that ultimately our anger should always be a motivator to see that justice and righteousness prevails, which is the most loving thing that could happen to the person in sin, thereby in a sense, making Gandhi’s statement applicable. But due to bad teaching in the church at large, we have redefined love to mean the absence of hate. Any parent should know, if I don’t hate the things that would harm my children, then I will eventually allow those things to bring harm to them simply through my passivity.  So even though I have hate in my heart toward certain things, I am still a loving father, and I am more of  a loving father because I allow myself to hate certain things.

“What about my own sin?” Some people, when confronted with the sin of another person, may begin dwelling upon their own sin and thereby feel condemned because they have exhibited self-righteous anger toward another person for sins that are just as damning as their own sin.  I understand why someone may think this way.  We must remove the plank from our eye before removing the speck from someone else’ eye.  I firmly believe this needs to happen.  But let me be clear about this.  Satan will attempt to diffuse your righteous anger over sin and injustice by sort of “blanket condemning” you over your own sins.  If he can successfully diffuse your anger, then the motivation to hold anyone accountable will be quenched.  This type of general conviction over your own sin is not from God, but rather is condemnation from Satan.  Conviction from the Holy Spirit is specific and tells you exactly what needs to be repented from.  The counterfeit conviction from Satan is often vague and non-specific as if there’s a mystery sin issue you need to deal with, but you just can’t finger it, or it maybe just a general sick feeling about your sinful condition as a whole.  This is what will entangle you and could even cast you into a kind of spiritual depression.  And it is this sort of non-specific spiritual malaise about our sins which Satan will cast upon us to attempt to derail the healthy, righteous anger which we should have about sin.

I admit that what I am proposing here walks a knife’s edge.  If we allow anger to rule over us, we fall into sin.  But if we do not exhibit anger and stifle it when it is the appropriate respone, we also sin.  Jesus never said that trying to live like him would be without difficulty.  So after all of that, let me refocus and ask you all this question: Can a solid Biblical argument for “love the sinner, hate the sin” be built which takes into consideration healthy, righteous anger against sin and those who commit it willfully?

Here is the only kind of violence specifically condoned by the Scriptures.

I had to listen to this a few times to really soak in the absurdity, the horror, and the eschatological undercurrent in what this guy says. I still am in disbelief at what I’ve heard. This reporter from Newsweek (Evan Thomas) says that President Obama is “sort of god.” Scary, yet not totally unexpected.

I’ve recently read through 2 Corinthians 7. It has been very timely. I find it curious that I’ve arrived at this place during this time in the life of our church. It has brought me great cause for searching myself to see if there be any offensive way.

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-10

What kind of sorrow is being stirred in our midst? Who is feeling sorrowful through this situation? It is my hope that any repentance demonstrated in the midst of this ordeal is not only genuine, but contagious. Perhaps we have too often characterized revival as something joyful. Perhaps we’ve been wrong all along. If revival begins with true repentance, revival will be utterly and deeply painful because no one enjoys true repentance. Too often true repentance has to be brought on by traumatic circumstances. Have we not been praying for revival? Have we not been singing songs asking for God to revive us? Is the situation we find ourselves in as a church the answer to our prayers and our longings? Will God break us so that he may start anew with us? If so, then God’s light will continue to expose the darkness of our hearts, and we will see more brokenness and more sorrow before we see the light and joy that comes in the morning. Only men and women of humility and contrition will endure to see the bounty of revival.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17

There is, though, a worldly sorrow. How does this compare with godly sorrow? In their initial outward appearance, they will be identical. There will be expressions of remorse, there will be apologies, they may be tears, there will be self deprecation; the initial actions will be very similar. And for the Christian, there will even be pleas for forgiveness to God and to the people against whom the individual sinned. If godly sorrow and worldly sorrow are so similar, how can one discern the difference?

The difference will always be in the results. Godly sorrow produces repentance which leads to salvation. Life is the fruit of godly sorrow. The person undergoing godly sorrow will become more Christ-like through the process: more humble, more servant-like, more loving, etc. Worldly sorrow will never produce Christ-likeness. As a matter of fact, it will only lead to more sin – to death. Worldly sorrow produces no true repentance. It only produces a remorse of being caught. The fruit of worldly sorrow may affect a behavioral change, but there isn’t an ounce of heart change, and more sin is inevitable. It may manifest itself in self-hatred, depression, condemnation, anger, bitterness, but no Christ-likeness.

So what do we do when someone says they have repented? We wait and watch. The only thing we can do is encourage them in their professed repentance, try to shepherd them and wait for the fruit of their sorrow to come to light. It is a heart matter, and matters of the heart are only revealed in the harvest of fruit.

Here’s another journal entry from this week . . .

Journal Entry: May 12, 2009, 6:45 AM

“1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you,and in a day of salvation I have helped you.Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:”

What does it mean to receive God’s grace in vain? First of all, this is a message, I believe, addressed to believers. It is to those who have received God’s grace. To receive his grace in vain then has application to those who have been born again. It must be actions which nullify the power of the gospel in the individual and in the church. It is those actions which would cause God’s efforts in saving us to appear futile. Dissensions, factions, gossip, slander, adultery, strife, murder, envy: everything which Paul has admonished the Corinthians to expel from their midst.

My mind goes to the difficulties we are experiencing in the final days of our church building’s construction. God has been gracious to us throughout this process. Yet I, and others, sense an undercurrent here which could threaten to sweep us away and make all of God’s graciousness through this entire journey for naught. I personally only know a little bit. I do not know every detail of what is awry. But there is a tension in the air that is tighter than a snare drum. All I can do at this moment is cry out to Jesus to loosen the strain upon our emotions and to make things right. I know this: the deeds done in secret will be brought to light. If there has been any wrong-doing, the Holy Spirit will make it known. Judgment always begins with God’s people. And God will purify his church if there exists any reason to purify. It will be fearful, but it is totally avoidable if all is confessed and all is repented of willingly. But I am speaking to the air because I don’t know anything for sure. I just trust my discernment that something isn’t right. Willing confession and repentance will bring honor to God and prove his grace to not be in vain.

Now back to the verses. Today is the favorable time to repent. Today is the day of God’s favor. The urgency to respond to the Holy Spirit cannot be underestimated. True, this verse speaks of salvation and believing today, however the application is also to the killing of the flesh and our sanctification. The longer we resist the Holy Spirit, the deeper we plunge ourselves into callousness and hardness of heart. The maintaining of short lists with God keeps our hearts sensitive to conviction. Sin is toxic and it poisons you and everyone with whom we love and have relations. Even if it is an unseen sin there are still spiritual consequences with everyone in your life. So now not only have you sinned, then sinned again by resisting the Holy Spirit, but you sin again by bringing toxicity to those around you. YUCK! Today is the day to repent, for your sake, for the sake of Christ’s glory, and for the sake of the spiritual health of everyone surrounding you.

Paul said they put no obstacle in the way of people repenting. He added no difficult, extra requirements, he presented no moral objections to the way he conducted his ministry and his life. He made sure that no one could look at his life, ministry, or his message and make an objection. We too should be careful to ensure that no one can raise a legitimate objection against us, giving them reason to discount our message. This does not imply perfection, but rather along with striving to live holy, when we do fail, there is quick – if not immediate – confession, admission of wrong-doing, repentance, and where necessary, restitution. So long as we practice this, people who do raise objections will have no solid biblical ground upon which to accuse us. So then, even in our imperfections, God will glorify himself.

At times Paul uses the word “commend.” It doesn’t mean congratulate like we may believe it to mean. Often we use the word “commend” in a context of congratulating someone. That isn’t what it means here. The word “commend” really means “to present.” So when we say we commend something, we are saying we present something to you. Therefore when Paul says, “we commend ourselves in every way,” he means that they have went to great lengths to present themselves to them in such a way that there would be no obstacle in themselves which would prevent them from believing and repenting. In other words, they have gone through hell to present the gospel to them in a way which would keep the focus squarely on Jesus Christ and him crucified and raised. What lengths do we go through to ensure that the sin in our lives does not corrupt the message of the gospel? It is not legalistic perfection we seek, but rather a loving pursuit of holiness which is quick to confess, quick to repent, and easy to convict. (Ease of conviction meaning the Holy Spirit needs only offer gently correction instead of earth shattering rebuke.)

Here’s a one of my recent journal entries . . .

Journal Entry: May 7, 2009, 7:00 AM

“16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This is a very well known, very well cited passage. However there is a portion here which often doesn’t get included when quoted. Verse 16 says, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.” The new creation we become in Christ is held to a different standard of life. We should not hold each other to worldly standards. In conflict, we look to the Scriptures. In times of peace, we look to the Scriptures. If we are unsure, we look to the Scriptures. If we need encouragement, we look to the Scriptures. Our standard is heavenly by nature and to abide by it we become like Jesus. If we abide by worldly standards, we will become like the world, and in the end will be indistinguishable from the word, which will ultimately give no one good cause to consider following Christ due to the lack of God’s power in our lives.

I love verse 18, where it says, “All of this is from God.” There is great comfort in knowing that this new creation which I am, and am becoming, is completely a work of God. I do not make this new man by my efforts. It is God who creates the new man within me. This doesn’t mean I have no responsibility in my transformation; indeed I am responsible to obey every prompting of the Holy Spirit and every command which Jesus issued for us to follow. But here is where I end and God begins. More obedience isn’t what really transforms me. If obedience was all it took to be transformed then every legalist would be the most transformed people in the church. We know this cannot be. If it were, the Pharisees would have been the good guys. No, there is something about loving Jesus enough to obey him that affects the change in me. And I suppose therein is the difference: love. There is the person who obeys from fear of losing blessing. There is the one who obeys to obtain favor. These are the legalists among us, and in them transformation is stunted, if not altogether halted. But the one who obeys because he loves Jesus and just wants to pleas him, he will be transformed from one degree of glory to the next. And God steps in and is happy to do the work in the one who loves his son. How simple!

This transformation into the new creation is the sure sign that we have been reconciled to God through Christ. Only those who are being transformed are those who are reconciled. No transformation is equal to no reconciliation. And since we are reconciled to God through Christ, and the Holy Spirit resides in us, we have been given opportunity to share in this ministry of reconciliation. Allowing God to work through us in the declaring of the gospel so that other may hear the gospel, repent and too be reconciled to God. This chance to work with the Holy Spirit in reconciling others to God is the highest calling to which one can be called. Being chosen to serve as an ambassador for the King of all creation cannot be surpassed by any earthly honor. Why do we treat it as something common? Why do we often approach the calling in a cavalier manner? If God were a CEO and we were his employees all of us would be jobless. Thankfully he is not a CEO, but rather he is merciful and slow to anger and long-suffering with our failures. And this should cause us to love him even more.

Journal Entry: May 11, 2009, 7:05 AM

And finally the clincher of this passage: “He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The very purpose from eternity past, which was given to Jesus, was to become a curse for us, to die a sinner’s death, to absorb the full wrath of God upon sin, to take upon himself the sins of the world, past, present, and future so that we who have trusted in him would not be held responsible for our sins, stand before God and be declared not guilty! What wonderous, unexplainable, ill-deserving, deep, deep love Jesus has for the Father and the Father has for us to endure such injustice, such pain and suffering so that we could be reconciled to God – even while we continue to sin.

Because of this we become the righteousness of God. It is the great exchange where when the Holy Spirit regenerates my heart, he not only removes my sin, but applies the righteousness of Christ to me so that I can stand before the Father blameless! This positional righteousness is the guarantee that I will persevere. Once I am his, no one can revoke that ownership. I am secure. But this righteousness that is applied also applies itself in my horizontal life. As the Holy Spirit transforms me, the righteousness of Christ he applied to me becomes more and more visible. Hence, I become more like Jesus, even while I am on this earth. And this is why there can be no salvation in the absense of transformation. The righteousness of Jesus will conquer the flesh and shine through in those he saves. Not every believer is transformed at the same pace, but for sure, transformation is occurring.

I really love my wife. She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. She’s a great wife, a great mom, and the person I love laughing with the most. That is one of the best joys of my life. Laughing with the woman I love most. She loves Jesus more than she loves me and I don’t think I could ask for anything more.

I don’t often get political in this place, but the current political climate has had me thinking quite a bit lately. What would I do if I were in charge? I don’t actually desire the job for one moment, but if it were thrown at me here’s what I’d do:

• Plan on only serving for four years. Two terms for a guy like me wouldn’t even be in the picture.
• Flat tax. Everyone pays an equal percentage of around 17-19%. That’s way less than what I’m paying now, but the surprising thing is that if this were in place and we did away with deductions and loopholes, we’d have way more revenue. The current tax code is in the neighborhood of 60,000 pages. Mine would be one page that reads, “Every citizen of working age who makes more than $5000.00 per year will pay 18% of their total earnings to the federal government. There shall be no loopholes, no deductions no exceptions, and no amendments made to this tax code ever.”
• Let companies that deserve to die just die. The only companies that are worth saving is our auto industry. Let the rest of them flounder. The auto industry keeps our military going by making the armored cars and tanks and such. We can’t afford to lose them.
• No more pork. I will absolutely refuse to sign bills with pork and I will publicly name the people who put pork onto bills.
• There would be energy independence. I would pull all of the federal governments research dollars to go toward making sure we are energy independent in 15 years. And no one gets their research money back until it is accomplished. Alternative energy must be taken seriously and given a real moon shot.

That’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure I could think of more. Disagree? Let me know.

[UPDATE 4.22.2009] My friend, Mike Lauer, who is an accountant has corrected my tax policy. Apparently the way I would set things up means that I would actually pay more taxes than I do now. Again, a demonstration of how complicated this problem really is. So in my administration, Mike would be in my cabinet to keep me straight on taxes.

I’m not sure that anything I say will prepare you for the power and blunt honesty of this message. If you are a man, married, single or divorced, and you claim to be born again, you must view this video all the way to the end. It is a little over an hour in length, so I encourage you to make time for this. If you have to get up an hour early or stay up an hour late, make it happen. A warning: this message is for men, about men, and to men, and therefore it is in a tone which men need to hear. If this message was for women, it would take on a much gentler tone.

After seven months, I have finally finished studying through the book of Acts. Acts has been interesting for me on several levels. When I first began studying it, I had honestly not read it straight through from beginning to end. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m sure that before I began this study, I had read everything in the book through selectively spot reading and searching for particular things over the years because I came across few things of which I had never read. But reading it straight through has brought me new clarity on the events of the early church which I never gained from reading a little here and a little there.

When I began this journey, I had heard a few differing opinions on this book, as to whether one should try to extract doctrine from this book. Some say you shouldn’t attempt to extract doctrine because it is strictly a historical account of the apostles’ ministries. Some say that’s hogwash and we should use Acts for learning doctrine. Here’s where I have landed on this topic. Acts is not a theology book; it is an account of the early workings of the apostles in their ministries. BUT, Acts indeed contains theology and we should take note of the theology of the apostles and the early church. However, the theology present in this book isn’t in the form of a letter from Peter or Paul where we are receiving direct instruction from the writer on how matters of belief and life. Therefore, we should not read Acts and try to directly apply something which the early church practiced to our own contexts just because that’s how they did it in Acts so it must be good for us. HEAR ME: I’m not saying we shouldn’t do our best to emulate the early church – we should. But some things which were practiced in the early church were done out of necessity either due to their minority status in the culture or the fear of persecution. Here’s an example.

Many of the earliest Christians met in homes throughout their cities. There were a few reasons for this. For believing Jews, many of them were shut out of the synagogues. For believing Gentiles, the idolatry of the Roman religions prevented them from using Roman temples. Therefore you see the birth of home churches. They couldn’t go down and rent the local theater every week like many of our churches do when they need a facility in which to meet. Home churches sprung up out of necessity. So to read Acts today and say that we must meet in homes because that’s how the early church met would be false. The feasibility of meeting in homes is allowed by Scripture, as is evident in Acts, but it is not required.

Everyone at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, spoke in tongues. Does that mean that when we receive the Spirit we should all speak in tongues as well? You might believe that if you don’t ask the question, “Why?” Why did they speak in tongues? Why wasn’t it some other manifestation of the Spirit? The answer is in the following verses. Who was right outside the window? Lots of Jews who spoke different languages. The manifestation of the Spirit at that moment – tongues – was needed for the ministry moment at hand. If there had been thousands of sick Jews outside the window, I believe the manifestation of the Holy Spirit would have come in the gift of healing. Whatever would have brought maximum glory to God in that moment would be how the Holy Spirit manifested himself – and it was tongues so that everyone would understand the message of the Gospel.

So can doctrine be drawn from Acts? Yes. Is the extraction the same as from an epistle? Not always. You can’t always read the text and make an immediate literal jump from verse to application. It’s the same thing when you read an Old Testament book like 1 Samuel or 1 Kings; the doctrines aren’t always leaping off the page at you, but they are present in the beliefs and character of the individuals in the stories.

One thing which I am becoming more and more convicted of and convinced about is the presence of God’s power in the lives of people who are born again. Over and over in Acts, salvation is accompanied by the demonstration of God’s power. And Paul even writes this to the church at Corinth in his first letter; the kingdom of God does not consist of talk, but of power. Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t mean the demonstration is always miraculous as it often is in Acts. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. The demonstration of God’s power is most often shown through transformation of the heart and mind. If there is no evidence of transformation, then there is no evidence of God’s power, and hence, no evidence of salvation. The transformation may manifest itself differently in each individual, but the goal of the transformation is the same – to become like Jesus. An abusive jerk will have a different transformation journey than a person who is easily intimidated and submissive to a fault. But in the end, the Holy Spirit’s goal for both of these people is to make them into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Transformation is a product of God’s power in salvation.

Lastly, I have been most convicted over sharing in Christ’s sufferings. I still don’t fully grasp what it means to share in Jesus’ sufferings. I understand it, I believe, in a very limited fashion. Look, it’s not that I want to actually suffer. I don’t want to go the Philippines during Holy Week and put myself through an actual crucifixion like so many of them do (which they do so that they may “share in his suffering”). Forcing suffering upon myself would just be stupid. Paul did what he could on a few occasions to avoid yet another beating or even being killed. There’s nothing wrong with avoiding suffering so long as you aren’t doing so at the cost of loving Jesus with all your heart, mind and strength. But I still have a certain unsettled feeling within me when I think about sharing in Jesus’ suffering. Strangely enough, it’s not fear of suffering. It’s fear that I’ve missed out.

Acts should be required reading for every believer. There is much to gain from understanding the beginnings of the church. For me, I actually have gained a greater desire within me to see the church restored to health. My passion in ministry is to see the people I love become more passionate in their pursuit of Jesus. Acts has only thrown gas on that fire.