ken wilson online

We love these sticky phrases, don’t we?  Especially the ones that get us off the hook like this one does. The ones that swoop in and lift us right over the horns of the dilemma that another sticky phrase plunges us into:  “judge not, lest ye be judged.”  How do we do that, without all hell breaking loose?  Gosh, we have to judge don’t we?  He couldn’t have meant, literally, “judge not, lest ye be judged.”  No, he meant judge carefully, judge wisely, judge lovingly, judge well, judge insiders.  So why didn’t he just say that?  Because he didn’t have us around to write his speeches for him! So we come up with our own sticky phrase to “complement” his. “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”  Voila! we’re off the hook!  Or are we?
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So you’re a young pastor.  Have you noticed that people sin?  Yes, they do bad things.  Some they do to you–complain about you to others for example because they are afraid to speak with you directly.  Oh that’s galling.  So you will be tempted to focus on those sins because they make an impression on you.  But that’s not what the poor sinners need so much.  They need someone to talk to about the struggles in their lives which often involves sins–the sins of others or their own or the communal sins that affect them.  As you are sitting there listening to a poor sinner, you will be tempted to assume the posture of the expert.
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