Hate Sin. Love the Sinner.

The news has been flooded with the sad story surrounding the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy that happened on Friday. Nobody understands why someone would do something like this, and hearing the reports is heartbreaking.

Most of the United States hates Adam Lanza. Nobody can imagine what kind of person could commit this heinous act. We don't understand who would be able to murder 20 first graders and 6 staff members.

Frankly, the news isn't helping this image. I'm SICK of hearing the news talk over and over about him and what he did. I'm tired of it, and it disgusts me. Wanna know why?

Because Adam Lanza is no different than any of us.

We are called to hate sin, but to love the sinner.

At camp I like to do this example with the youngest of campers where I take a bunch of quarters and put them into 2 stacks. 1 stack has 2 quarters in it, and the other has 10 or so quarters in it. I ask my girls what kind of sins would be represented by the smaller stack, and they typically reply with lying, or being mean to a brother, or not listening to their parents. I then ask them what sins would be represented by the larger stack. Typically their top 2 answers are murder, or worshipping another god. I then have each girl stand directly above the stacks of quarters and look down on them from a birds-eye view (God's view) , at which point they notice that both stacks of quarters look the same.

In God's eyes, sin is sin and all is equal. A lie is equal to murder. As humans, we don't understand this. We excuse some sins that we often fall into daily, but we wouldn't think of committing "those other sins" such as murder or adultery that would hold to a different standard. We do not have the capability to understand God's perfect mind, and therefore we cannot possibly understand the phenomena where God sees all sins as equal. James 2:10 states, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it". Sin is sin. There is no such thing as a "worse sin", as all is disobeying God and falling short of what He wants for us.

I believe that through Jesus, my sins are forgiven since I believe in and trust in Him. I also know that this holds true for all of those who put their faith in Jesus. We hate sin, but love the sinner. Adam Lanza's crime is no more or worse than mine. Sin is sin. God hates ALL sin, but loves ALL sinners. We should do the same.