In church this morning I saw one of the kids in my Sunday School class wearing a t-shirt that says, "Love the sinner. Hate the sin." I was thinking about that phrase and how I said the other day that Christians seem to be quick to do the latter and slow to do the former. As I thought about it, though, it occurred to me that this is one of those Christian adages, like "God helps those who help themselves," that doesn't actually appear anywhere in the bible.

Jesus talked plenty about loving your enemy, loving your neighbor as yourself, etc. And in his life we certainly see an example of loving sinners: he visited prostitutes and tax collectors in their homes and ate with them. What we do not see in these occasions is Jesus balancing this love with a "hate the sin" mentality. As far as we know, he did not take advantage of his time with the prostitutes to condemn their lifestyle or tell them they must repent of their ways. He simply loved them.

This is not to say that Jesus never pointed out people's sins. He was vicious in attacking the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day--the people who believed they were righteous in God's eyes. Why don't we see Jesus spending equal time condemning tax collectors and prostitutes? Maybe he thought his ministry would be more effective if he simply loved them. Maybe society had told these people they were sinners enough times already and they didn't need to hear it once more. Or maybe Jesus knew how easy it is for religious people to be judgmental and he didn't want to give his followers any excuse to hate people who aren't like them. Whatever the reason, I think his silence speaks very loudly.

If I were the kind of person who wears t-shirts with slogans, I would make one that says this: "Love the sinner, Period."