ADBC: 06 – On the Purpose of Life and Loving The Sinner, Not The Sin

This is part of an ongoing blog conversation with my brother, David. Here’s the premise.

Previously in the conversation: David gave a considered response to the issue of if humanity was corrupt and irredeemable. His basis for the answer should be very telling indeed for anyone looking for some idea of the nature of humanity. He also gave an engrossing outline of his idea of beauty, which I really commend for your reading. To capture both you can pop over and give his responses a read and feel free to like the entry as well.

David provided his response to what I wrote about freedom and sought clarification as to if it was a fair look at what I was saying. I will say this, my definition of freedom is not the one that the dictionary uses and I understand where David comes from in addressing the more rigid approach to engaging with the definition offered. I understand it and don’t disagree with his take based on what he built up as his case on freedom.

As is now the norm, David asked me a couple of questions:

Q: Do you know the meaning and purpose, both general and specific, of your life? If you do, what was your path to finding it? If not, why not? Does it matter to you? And what hope do you have to find it?

I reckon David and I are on a quest to see who can ask the other the question that stretches them the most. David has outdone himself with this one.

Wowsers, do I know the general and specific purpose of my life? Well, generally, I know my purpose in life is to glorify God. What that means to me is that everything I do and everything I am is to reflect how God created me to be. That’s a general view. How that works itself out specifically is something I’m still working on. I have an idea, I’ve had hints and clues and there are things that I’ve done in my life that indicate what it is specifically I’m called to do and be.

The path to finding that out generally was not straightforward. Neither was the path to getting on with it specifically. On the general note, what it required was for me to ask questions for the first 20 to 22 years of my life. I asked my parents these questions. I asked teachers these questions.  It took coming across someone who would turn out to be a mentor and some years unpacking my life and my understanding of who God is. Then I did some reading of material – including the Bible – and reaching the conclusion about being created for the glory of God. Having reached that bit, though, it still left me with that question: how am I supposed to do that?

When it comes to specifically, I was at university in 1998 and I went through something of a crisis in how I saw myself. It wasn’t a pleasant time in my life and I was struggling with a lot of things. In that, the mentor figure encouraged me to write things down in terms of how I saw myself and the life I wanted to live based on the things that I love and enjoy. That at least engaged me in appreciating what I was good at and what I loved to do, but that was over twenty years ago and as I sit and type this, I know progress has been made – through experiences, through questions, through explorations, through setbacks, through wrong turns, etc. Progress has been made for sure, but I wouldn’t say that I’ve nailed it totally. Not yet. Not at this time.

Then there’s the issue of if it matters to me or if it’s important. I would say it’s massively important to me. Massively. Following Jesus is crucial to me and part of that is about recognising whom He calls me to be and how I operate in the set-up He has in mind. It’s a bit of waste for me to go on living for others to utilise whatever it is I have, but never truly feeling in the place where I’m doing and being everything pleasing to the One that I’m following. Finding that out specifically and personally is a significant part, to me, of what it means to live with purpose. I do stress it is about me, though, because it’s not something I’d bash people over the head with if I had the chance to engage with them. I like the thought of people knowing what their purpose is and then getting on with it for God’s glory and the benefit of those who are in their sphere of influence.

I have great hope of finding and fulfilling it, because of how intrinsic it is to the whole meaning of life to me.

Q: Is it proper and correct to love the sinner but hate the sin? If so, why? If not, why not?

What a wonderful question. So many things pop up in my mind when I think about the issue of loving the sinner and hating the sin. So many. First of all, who’s perspective are we considering? Namely, is this something coming from a ‘sinner’ or someone who claims to be ‘saved’? Then there’s the issue of what it means to ‘love the sinner and hate the sin’.

Why this is a concern to me is that loving the sinner and hating the sin doesn’t always take into consideration how so wrapped up in the sin the sinner can be that they won’t really accept that it’s possible to love them and hate what they do. After all, what I consider to be a sin, based on what I understand God to be saying in His word, actually is offensive to many and my claim to love them can come across as shallow and hollow because I clearly ‘don’t understand that they were born this way’, or ‘there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing’, or ‘this is how they identify themselves’, etc. And if you think I’m referring mainly to issues of gender and sexuality that, to me, is just the tip of a vast iceberg of issues …

In any case, after that minor diversion to address your question. It is proper and correct to hate sin. It is proper and correct to love people – if I get Jesus right I am to love my brothers and sisters in the family of God. I am to love my neighbour. I am to love those that abuse, misuse and wish all manner of evil against me. I am to love my enemy. On that scale, I’m certain that I am to love everybody.

Interestingly, though, the same Jesus that told me to love said some very strong and aggressive words to a number of people. He wasn’t backward in being critical of liars and hypocrites. Likewise, the idea of judgement at the end is to suggest that there will be those who will be found guilty of not responding appropriately to what God called for. There are those who hate God and God, likewise hates them. I’m not sure if people can generate the kind of holy hatred that God can. I am sure that people can generate the kind of righteous indignation at the way evil corrupts people, at how sin has become so prevalent and acceptable that people wrap themselves in sin as if it is skin to them.

It is tragic that believers have taken it upon themselves to condemn others because of their sinful actions as though there’s no hope for them. That kind of attitude led to people being harassed, bullied, tortured and murdered and was done in the name of Jesus. This is attitude and approach is totally abhorrent and should be condemnded.

At the same time, the focus on God being love and how loving Jesus is, cannot be used as some sort of cover that fails to address God’s view on sinners.

In some cases, the most loving thing to do with sinners is to tell them how utterly detestable their sin is. Not just leave it there but also go on to share how detestable sin was in us in the light of a holy and righteous God. This holy God judged humanity before because of their sinful behaviour which resulted in the flood. This God is destined to do something even more clinical and final again. As a result of that, what He has done in Jesus is an opportunity to get to grips with that, appreciate there’s nothing we can do about it as if we can live a sinless life, but there is something that has been done for us if we’re prepared to deal with the issue.

Yeah, it’s not a short answer I know, but there is a reason I went to these lengths. It’s because the simple answer doesn’t deal with what I perceive to be the underlying issues in the statement. That’s not even getting me to touch on the issue about true love hating – and not hating something, but someone.

---

So, dear brother, those are my responses to your questions. As ever feel free to offer your response to the responses if you wish. As you do that, however, answer me this, David:

Q – Why, in your view, is racism such a prevalent issue? What can be done to address/resolve it?

Q – What does it mean to hate someone and is it ever right and necessary to do so?

In the meantime, thanks for this opportunity dear brother, thanks

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden