Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin

How often do we hear the phrase, "love the sinner, hate the sin?"  But the phrase is not in the Bible.  I am told it actually originates with Gandhi.  So does God love the sinner but hate the sin?  Psalm 5 tells us the very opposite.  

(Psalm 5:5) "The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers."  (ESV)

People do not just commit sinful actions, their very nature is sinful.  The sinner cannot be separated from his sin.  It is who the person is, sin is not just something outside of him.  Our sinfulness makes us an object of God's wrath.  Apart from Christ and the cross we remain under God's wrath.  

(John 3:36) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." (ESV) 

We are all sinners, evildoers, and unrighteous people who apart from Christ will face the wrath of God for eternity in hell.  The hatred of God is a holy hatred, it is not like the self centered hatred of men.  The holiness of God requires that he hate all things sinful.  

But at the same time God loves humanity.  He sent his Son to save his people from the wrath to come.  We can only be reconciled to God through Christ.  God's love and grace are shown to us through Jesus and his work on the cross.  Christ took the wrath of God on himself in the place of all who believe.  

The phrase "love the sinner, hate the sin" is somewhat correct but it tends to be misleading.  It tends to downplay the wrath of God and the utter sinfulness of mankind.  We do not know who we are because we do not know who God is.  The modern church needs to recover its sense of the holiness of God.  People must repent and trust in Christ alone to be saved from the wrath of God.