hate the sin, love the sinner

carla

A friend of mine had a sibling that went missing in life for quite a while, the sibling leads a life quite contrary to her & her husbands belief system. The sibling has traveled cross country to see the family. Due to many different circumstances & finances the family has not seen the sibling in many, many years. I wondered how my friends husband would react to the sibling, his response? hate the sin, love the sinner. They welcomed the sibling with open loving arms and a good time was had by all and future visits are in the works. It was truly a lovely reunion and kids got to meet a relative they never knew much about. How different from the jw disposable family structure.

My friend & husband certainly felt no spiritual threat by the siblings visit to them or their children. Hate the sin, love the sinner is reiterated often by Christians and here it was in action. How different from the jw view of 'love'. A completely different view of what 'faith' is, the jw's believe everybody & everything is a threat to their spirituality and the Christian believes he/she already has righteousness and is firmly in the hands of Christ in which nobody can snatch them out. Not that they will never sin but recognize that all are sinners and who is to say that one's unseen sin is not worse than anothers very open and seen sin?

I wish all of you seperated from family due to the jw's could have such a happy reunion with your families.

trebor

Indeed, here's the Governing Body approved directions to Jehovah's Witnesses:

The Watchtower, July 15, 1961, page 420:

"Jesus encouraged his followers to love their enemies, but God's Word also says to "hate what is bad." When a person persists in a way of badness after knowing what is right, when the bad becomes so ingrained that it is an inseparable part of his make-up, then in order to hate what is bad a Christian must hate the person with whom the badness is inseparably linked."

The Watchtower Society's message is clear. Despite Jesus' teaching to love your enemy, the principle to hate what is bad must be followed to a superlative degree. It is not just to hate what a person has done, but to hate the person.

OUTLAW

Love the Scotch..Hate the empty bottle of Scotch.................LOL!!...OUTLAW

babygirl75

That reminds me of the movie "Silent Hill". Where in Silent Hill they "destroy the sin, not the sinner"

Chalam

The WT is so unbiblical and ungodly it is untrue.

Matthew 5:43-47 (New International Version)

Love for Enemies

43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

1 John 4:20 (New International Version)

20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

All the best,

Stephen

darnkid

I left the truth some 10 years ago. It was after I got divorced (Gasp!) and started smoking (triple Gasp!!!). Anyway, my kids were small then and their dad left the truth as well, he DA'd himself. When he finally convinced the girls to give up the truth and have Christmas he surprised them on Christmas Day, no less, that they were all going back to the truth!!

Now my oldest daughter is baptised and over 18. She won't come to my house. I could not celebrate her recent graduation with her. I have no idea what her wedding will be like. She told me that she isn't even sure if her future children will be able to spend time with me without supervision.

My youngest daughter is to turn 17 shortly. She is not baptised yet but is actually stronger than her father and sister in the truth. So I know it won't be long before she gets baptised. So I have a little over 1 year left with her.

I speak to my parents about once every six months-I call them so that they have to talk to me.

Who ever thought up the idea to alienate people this way so that they could see the error of their ways was so wrong. If anything it makes me even more sure that I made the right decision to leave. It feels like my heart is being ripped out at times, but I was so worn out with pretending that I became suicidal and knew I was done with it.

Has my life improved? I have finally managed to develop a very small circle of friends, but am still alone most of the time. I do believe in God and when things are tough I just tell myself that He will take care of everything. Okay, so sometimes that doesn't help!! But I am trying, even after 10 years, to build some kind of life.

And yes, when I was growing up as a witness we were taught to still love the person but to hate what they did. I guess their thinking has changed on that, you know, "the light keeps getting brighter", at least that is what they always said when some thinking changed.

I don't see much love in THEIR God.