We start with the premise that all of us have sinned and fall short of God’s desired life for us. This saying has a great “half-truth” – love the sinner. Jesus says that loving God and loving our neighbor is the greatest commandment. Jesus also told his disciples at the Last Supper that they are to love one another – it is the identifying mark of being a disciple.

 When we say we should love the sinner, it may put us in a position of seeing others only as sinner. Instead of as our neighbor. We tend to focus more on the sin than that person. We are not to keep quiet about sin or enable sin. We are to speak the truth in love. We need to speak out against oppression and speak for the voiceless. Above all, we need to keep in mind our job is not to convict –that is the Holy Spirit’s job—our job is to love no matter what.