"Love the sinner, hate the sin" has absolutely nothing to do with our faith. It was said by Mahatma Gandhi on one of his not so good days and it has been used to beat people up.

It has been used to do violence to people ever since. Something Gandhi would never ever have wished. "Love the sinner, hate the sin" has absolutely nothing to do with our faith? It is not to be found anywhere in the Bible. It was said by Mahatma Gandhi on one of his not so good days and it has been used to beat people up. It has been used to do violence to people ever since. Something Gandhi would never ever have wished

What does ‘sin’ mean biblically? It doesn’t mean ‘bad’. It doesn’t mean ‘bad things’. Sin means, and there are two main words for it, a Hebraic word for it, ‘chatta’t’ and there’s a Greek word, ‘hamartia’. Hamartia and chatta’t mean, approximately, separation from God.

Hamartia is an archery word. It means that you let the arrow go and you miss the mark. The arrow goes astray. Somehow all of us have taken a wrong turn, a wrong path. We’ve taken a wrong road. We’ve turned our gaze from the divine, the source of all love and become embroiled in all sorts of other ‘stuff’. That’s sin.

Mysterious, but true, God can perfectly love and hate a person at the same time.

This means He can love them as someone He created and can redeemable, as well as hate them for their unbelief and sinful lifestyle. We, as imperfect human beings, cannot do this, thus we must remind ourselves to "love the sinner, hate the sin."

We hate sin by refusing to take part in it and by condemning it when we see it. Sin is to be hated, not excused or taken lightly.

We love the sinner by being faithful in witnessing to them of the forgiveness that is available through Jesus Christ. A true act of love is treating someone with respect and kindness even though they know you do not approve of their lifestyle and/or choice.

It is not loving to allow a person to remain stuck in sin. It is not hateful to tell a person they are in sin. In fact, the exact opposites are true.