The world teaches that love is all about “tolerance” and acceptance of people’s behavior. The world teaches that people “are what they do”, and that in order to accept them, we must accept their behavior.
That is utter baloney.
The Bible teaches us to love one another and not to sit in judgement of one another. We are to love people and we are not supposed to judge people.
The difference between what the Bible teaches and what the world teaches is:
God is in love with us, not our behavior.
God loves us unconditionally. When we abide in Christ, He sees us separate us from our behavior because of Christ.
At the same time, God hates sin.
We are to love people. But loving someone does not imply a blanket approval or acceptance of their every decision. You can love a person and at the same time hate the sin, curse, addiction, ignorance, and disease that plagues their life.
Judgement of a person means that you judge a person as “good” or “evil”.
Judgement of people is reserved for God’s use only. We need to remember that we are judged by the same measures we use to judge others with. Only God is in a position to know the final disposition of each person. Rather than judging the person, our job is to do everything we can to reach them.
We don’t have to judge behavior. Wrong behavior, sin, the curse, sickness, and disease are evil because God has said they are evil. God hates sin. It stands to reason that we should hate the same things God hates because we have been reborn in the spirit with His nature.
Saying that sin is wrong is NOT passing judgement on a person, it is merely agreeing with God’s Word.
Withholding your love from a person, gossiping about them, condemning them, ostracizing, and so forth IS passing judgement on a person.
One way that we show our love for God and worship Him is by loving other people. The best way to show your love for another person is to love them enough to tell them the truth. It knowing the truth that sets them free.
The bottom line: Love God, love people, hate sin.
