Love the Sin Hate the Sinner?

I have a weight problem. I am very aware of this as I am currently at the heaviest I have ever been in my life. If you know me well you know that I think there are spiritual roots to every real life problem. You see, it's what sin is. It's also what love is. The oft quoted religious cliche " hate the sin, love the sinner" is fine for the impartial observer. Or even the partial observer. But what about when it is personal?

Those deep-rooted "go to" sins tell us about ourselves and our need for God. I'm not talking about those casual sins, like cursing when you smash your finger in the door, or when you "exaggerate" your role or importance in a given situation to make yourself look better. Unless that's your "go to move". Those aren't mine, my biggest is gluttony. So think about what those are for you, and continue reading with those "go to sins" in mind.

When it comes to ourselves it seems too often we love the sin. I love to eat, I have no problem admitting that, but do I need 3 of this instead of two? Do I need the large milkshake instead of the low calorie water or diet soda? These sins don't sneak up on you like the casual sin does, they are located way down inside of you. The devil knows it, God knows it and YOU know it. Just when we think we have beaten it, watch out!, here it comes! A little taste of it at first, then a bit more and we remember why we loved it so much. Then we look for ways to massage that sin. Bring it up slowly so we can try and fight the urge. Sometimes we fail badly and just completely succumb to it without much of fight other times we fend it off for awhile or dabble around in it, and then there are times that we defeat it.

But when we don't win we usually consciously chose to sin. Sometimes in the middle of the sinning (around the main course maybe?) we might even revel in it. At that point, we are loving the sin, and hating the sinner (ourselves). Sin is not good for your health. Eating salad is. So the next time you indulge yourself in that go to sin, remember you are saying you love that triple cheeseburger more then you love yourself. You are loving those curse words, lies, gossip, anger, lusty acts, or whatever it is, more then you care about your own well-being. For most of us that's a lot. Jesus told us to "love our neighbor as we love ourselves", so clearly He felt that we placed a high value on our own self-worth. Based on the choices most of make, I'd say that's true. The only thing we care about more when we sin, is that item or feeling that is the object of our sinfulness. When you willfully sin you are loving the sin and hating the sinner because sin is never good for you. Think about that, and make a change.