“God Hates the Sin But Loves the Sinner” And We know This How Exactly?
“One of the things we learn from the pure milk that is not mixed with orthodoxy is that lying about the truth is not love.”
There has been a lot going on in the societal realm lately and I haven’t had time to write about it, but the topic of this post pretty well covers it. Idol worship is always formal. Even when parents of ancient paganism sacrificed their children to the Gods, it was according to orthodoxy. The average Joe never devises his own gods and the prescribed worship—he’s not qualified, it is always devised by the religious experts ruling the day. Hence, parents didn’t just sacrifice their children by some flippant self-devised method; it was done according to proper worship.
Historically, there are only two religions; Cult and Word. Cult is the idea that enlightened human mediators rule the unenlightened masses on behalf of God. The truth that they supposedly get directly from God in order to guide the masses is called “orthodoxy.” Orthodoxy has its own metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics. The unenlightened masses sometimes have a choice as to what cult they may choose. Do I believe my infant should be boiled alive in oil to appease the gods, or stabbed through the heart by the High Priest? In contrast, a government will sometimes dictate the cult through the combination of force and faith.
In ancient times, God walked past all of the cults and spoke to his chosen subjects face to face. There were two authorities; one of your own choosing (if you had a choice), and God. Those who chose God are documented in the Bible, and the same also describes the personal interaction that God had with them. In ancient times, cults got a little out of control. Orthodoxy resulted in God being sorry that He created man, so He paid Noah a visit and told Him to build a boat. Not long after the flood waters went away, man once again gravitated to orthodoxy at the Tower of Babble.
Over time, and for His own reasons, God has changed His methods for communicating with His servants. But He has always promised that those seeking His truth would find it. This doesn’t include those seeking orthodoxy of their own desire. Neither does it include those who seek freedom from faith and force so they can choose orthodoxy suited to their own lusts. Those who flee worship with boiling oil for worship with the knife are not heroes. Not in God’s eyes anyway—God is in the truth business.
Orthodoxy and truth. Those are our choices. God’s eyes go to and fro throughout the earth constantly seeking those who worship Him according to spirit and what? TRUTH (JN 4:24). The one who Christ called “the rock” implores us to grow spiritually by feeding on the PURE milk of the what? WORD (1Peter 2:2). Pure milk is available, and God has made it available to all. He uses leaders, but their authority is bound up in His word as judged by the congregation of the saints. The saints follow leaders as they follow Christ.
One of the things we learn from the pure milk that is not mixed with orthodoxy is that lying about the truth is not love. Truisms and spiritual sound bites are the orthodoxy of the American church. They are cult orthodoxy. American pastors invent them to bring God’s truth down to a level where unenlightened congregants can understand it. The inability of the congregant is assumed and feared if not assumed. Even congregants that know something are believed to be equipped with enough knowledge to be dangerous like a loaded gun in the hands of a child. Therefore, orthodoxy proffers the virtue of “childlike faith” as opposed to hard thinking with the brains that God apparently gave the masses accidently.
“We are all just sinners saved by grace.” “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.” And also popular contemporary “Christian” music: “Jesus, Friend of Sinners.” Is Jesus a friend of sinners? Jesus stated that His FRIENDS pattern their lives according to righteousness, not sin. A “sinner” patterns their life after the orthodoxy of choice, and that can be hedonism as well as any other religion. Who is Mark Hall to redefine who Christ says His friends are?
Only the truth sets us free. If you are a pastor who doesn’t challenge American orthodoxy in the form of spiritual sound bites, you are not a pastor; you are just another everyday cultist bent on having a manageable dumbed-down congregation. You comfort with instruction from the manual published by the Hemlock Society and your “love” is woefully misguided.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Interesting, but Jesus was my friend or he wouldn’t have saved me.
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Christian,
“You are my friends if you do what I command you (JN 15:14).” “Sinners” don’t do what God commands. He didn’t save you because you were His friend, He saved you to make you His friend.
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Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
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I understand what you are saying yet I feel I am correct also. Dying for someone is an act of friendship and love.
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Christian,
I will agree with you because of the very important word you used: “‘act’ of friendship.” A friendship-like act does not make us His friend. Jesus is not friends with the world because He supplied a way for salvation. Someone is not my friend just because I want them to be.
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I would like to point out that Jesus was indeed accused of being a “friend of publicans and sinners.” (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34) However, put into context the accusation was one of a perjorative. They in fact were equating Jesus as being a sinner. The fact that he was hanging out with one of these guys made him “guilty by association” as it were.
In addition, while we could not be called a “friend” in the truest sense, God did commend his love toward us in that while we were yet SINNERS Christ died for us, (Romans 5:8) On the flip side, James 4:4 says: “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Wow, the enemy of God! Doesn’t sound very friendshippy to me.
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Andy,
Exactly.
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Andy,
So, Andy, to add to your comment: The only time in Scripture that Christ is called a “friend of sinners” it was derogatory. Furthermore, technically, it is calling Christ an enemy of God.
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This is why within the past several years I have a problem when a believer says, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” (Can we remove that hymn from the hymnbook, too, please?) Well, yes, before I was saved I too was a “sinner”, but praise God, He no longer looks at me that way! I much prefer any other these more appropriate titles: Saint, Redeemed, Righteous, Adopted Son. I don’t know about you, but my sins have been paid for and forgiven. It is so crippling to believers to constantly focus on what they WERE instead of what they ARE.
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Andy,
And there you have it in a nutshell. And if we believe those truisms it makes us easier to control as well.
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It is clear from the gospel accounts that when Jesus ministered to publicans, sinners, the filth of the world, et al, that he was not seeking their friendship. He was seeking their salvation. He layed their sin out before them and made them aware of their need. I don’t think you could label Jesus as “Seeker Sensitive.”
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Such a helpful post and comments. Thanks. Another phrase I would love to have someone explain is this:
There but for the grace of God, go I.
I see that phrase often with regards to sin. iow–I am not a blackmailer because of the grace of God (NOT because of anything in me) and that poor guy/Christian over there who is a blackmailer? He just didn’t get enough of God’s grace? I have trouble understanding that.
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Diane,
Yes, the comments on this post are significant additions. And you add another one. This also adds to my point on the other recent post. All of these truisms come out of Calvinism, but Arminians use them all the time.
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