Do You REALLY?

Question

Do you LOVE the bum that smells like he's soaked in piss, liquor, and dirt for a week, panhandling for change? What about that overly-pierced couple with the leather and dangling chains, slobbering all over each other and rubbing against each other nearly tipping over the newspaper stand on the street? What about the teenage boy with the black eyeliner who is always in a dark kind of mood? What about the sleezy looking married guy you see walking into the "Adult Bookstore" to buy porn, sex toys, to cruise the booths, or whatever? What about the man who gets married, then divorced and says "I've been gay all along and I've been cheating on my wife with another man"? What about the people on the internet who look up snuff movies?

Do you TRULY , TRULY LOVE them? Do you HATE (TRULY HATE) the sin and not the sinner?

What's YOUR take on these people? What about your neighbors, or the same people sitting next to you at church - who pray and exhalt your god, then go out and do whatever?

Answer 1

it is between you and God. not you me and God

Answer 2

Honestly, I truly do love them. I may not like what they do but they're still God's children. The man who gets married, then divorced and says "I've been gay all along and I've been cheating on my wife with another man" is my uncle and I still love him. The teenage boy with the black eyeliner who is always in a dark kind of mood is my little brother and I still love him. The list goes on! Most Christians are too judgmental and don't know how to draw the line between the sin and the sinner, I will give you that much.

Answer 3

Sometimes it hard to, for example, today when I went for lunch I saw this guy sitting on the corner in his clean clothes and trying to eat and orange, I said to him are you ok and he cuss me out good. I just said, ok then have a good day. I realize more and more each day people are trapped by the devil and they don't even know it. I remember Jesus saying forgive them Father because they no not what they do. Sin sometimes comes to the front and we see the sin more than the person. But also, there are those who love sin and iniquity - I hate sin and at times to be honest I feel anger towards those who love sin especially ones that hurt other people. But the Love of God should reign in us and we can't do it but Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Answer 4

You have to look farther than the surface, there's a child in every human being, someone's son or daughter. There's a person with fear, hope, love. We all sin, and yeah, I have a real problem with a lot of sins, and personally, child molesters are the most difficult for me. Can't seem to see them as anything but evil, so the "love the sinner" is especially difficult for that particular sin, at least for me. The point is, we're suppose to give it our best shot. Jesus never said it was easy.

Answer 5

Ironically these people you so graphically describe maybe more acceptable to God than yourself!!! God doe snot see like man sees that's why he urges us to become like him. We are ALL sinners. Dressed up and messed up in the spirit like you see these ones physically. The difference is that we have been washed in the Blood. We cannot afford to show resentment to anyone our salvation is not of our making. Jesus was rejected for precisely the same reason...born in a manger among nasty, smelly, noisy animals. The entire environment must have smelt really awfull. Yet salvation was born there. The woman who said "let it be unto me according to your word' became the channel through which salvation came. If you Carnot honesty say that you cannot be an effective channel of salvation for any. All you need is to show compassion and love and the Spirit of God does the rest. Repeatedly Jesus spoke against these feelings you have. He dinned with sinners, he rescued an adulteress, he delivered the man with a legion of demons etc etc. As He rightly said "Its the sick that needs the physician." Jesus came to give life and these ones need Him more than you do. If Jesus lives in you, you must shed His love abroad in your heart even if you have to hold your nose doing so, Besides God can take away the smell and resentments or any irritation like that if you ask Him and you will see each one in a different light that would motivate you to share with them, because but for the grace of God there goes you.Mother Theresa was aperson of flesh and blood like you, so was Princess Diana. They both handled society rejects, touching lepers, caring for advance AIDS victims. Yet Princess Diana was not declared a born again Christian. If we talk the talk we must walk the walk.

Answer 6

I don't believe it is a sin. People like these come from abusive and irresponsible homes. They had a poor childhood, it's not their fault. Don't consider them sinners, that's somewhat being prejudice. You don't know anything about them and why they're like that. Who are you to judge them? Should we truly love you???

It's their business, not yours. Everything happens for a reason. They don't do this for the hell of it. Who CARES if people have piercings, or boys wearing black eye liner? None of your business, none of mine. Leave them alone. You don't know them.

If God was truly 'loving' and 'caring', he wouldn't be mad at those people, wouldn't consider their actions 'sins.' He would understand. Think about it.

Answer 7

"Day and night, all the lovely abandoned things of the holy city cry out for redemption and a lost god looks out of every human eye. I will never fall asleep upon the green grass while the earth rings with the cries of the exiles."
You're probably looking for traditional Christians to answer this question, which I am not, but I thought this quote seemed appropriate.

Answer 8

We are supposed to love each other, we must try to look at the person and beyond the sin, being willing to forgive just as we ourselves ask for forgiveness. If someone refuses to change and wants to continue in sin seeking worldly pleasures then we must move on but at the same time we continue to pray that change will occur.;

Answer 9

Yes I do. Everyone who is with God in their heart are like these people in some way. We are lost, need to drink to forget pain, have a dark look because no one gives you the time and day, in search of porn to try to satisfy your flesh that never has enough.

Answer 10

I do love everyone, and I do hate the sins they commit rather than the person. I wonder if you do. The fact that you ask the question makes me think that you don't. I mean you ask it in a way as if you were saying "how could you love someone like this?"

Answer 11

In my own power, no, I don't love them. God's got to help me love them and see past all that and remind me of what I would be without Him.

As far as people who sit next to you in church then go out and do whatever, well, I try not to worry too much about what other people do. It's something that's on their own conscience. I don't have to answer for them. Best thing I can do is try to correct them in love (Gal. 6:1, not judging, helping) and pray for them.