Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
John 5:14
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John 8:11
Jesus wasn’t afraid to tell people to leave their life of sin!
So why are we?
Jesus was the most loving person who ever existed. He was perfect love incarnate. Everything he did was pure love. And on more than one occasion he told the people that he had just rescued to stop sinning. What are we to make of this?
Imagine a young child swinging a razor blade around. Is it loving to let them continue? They are cutting themselves and harming the other kids around them. We don’t just let it continue. Even if they don’t harm the people around them, they are harming themselves and the very least. This is the nature of all sin. Anything that is outside of God’s design for our life is a razor blade in the hands of a child. The most loving thing we can do is to call them to stop. Jesus knew this. When Jesus calls people to stop sinning, it’s actually the most loving thing he could say.
Our culture struggles with a healthy understanding of what love really is. Too often, our culture conflates “acceptance” with love and in doing so ends up enabling sin. We learn from the addiction community that enabling addiction is the opposite of love even though it “feels” very loving. When we cover for a spouse who is addicted and we think we’re showing love and grace, we’re actually enabling the very things that are destroying the person’s life. The addiction community helps us see clearly that enabling sin is not loving. Affirming sin is not loving. Covering for sin is not loving.
And while our culture has finally learned this after decades of research on addiction, it struggles to apply this lesson to all forms of sin. We see this with many forms of modern parenting. Three year old kids are being “reasoned” with as if they are adults. Over and over again these young parents were wrongly taught that setting healthy boundaries of discipline could somehow harm their kids. So, instead, the kid ends up running the house and becomes filled with anxiety as he subconsciously realizes that he’s in charge.
We also see this same thing in church scandals. The enablement of sin and the covering of sin was mistaken for what it means to be “loving.” So church leaders across the country in various denominations were never called out for their sexual sin and abuse. And as they continued in their lifestyle of sin, more and more people were harmed. Again, enabling sin is not loving. Covering for sin is not loving. Challenging sin is the most loving thing that could have happened.
We also see this with the affirmation of all kinds of different sexual expressions and gender identities in the LGBTQ community. The affirmation of sin is confused with what it means to be loving. But enabling sin isn’t loving. And we’re starting to see the harmful ramifications of young children being mutilated with puberty blockers and horrifying surgeries. This is what happens when people confuse affirmation with love. But enabling sin isn’t loving. Affirming sin isn’t loving. Covering for sin isn’t loving.
And these are just three obvious examples in our culture, but there are hundreds more. I think the enemy takes people’s deep desire to be loving and compassionate and manipulates it into something harmful. The desire to love is good. Compassion is good. Accepting people in all their weaknesses is good. But true love sets boundaries. True love calls out sin. True love holds people accountable to the damage their lifestyles of sin cause. Jesus was true love in action, and this is why he called people out on their sin. Sin always hurts the person sinning, and when left unchecked, ends up hurting the people closest to them.
Fire and Light 