Love people, not sin

There has been a lot of thoughts put out about Christianity and homosexuality in the past few months. I think this is actually ignoring a lot of other issues that affect many more people and will try to address the larger framework briefly here:

1. I am to love my neighbor as myself. (Matthew 22:37-40) To do that I have to know what kind of person is my neighbor and who am I?

2. We have ALL sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) This doesn't sound like a big deal, because who's perfect, right? Well it is a big deal, because our sin makes us unable to live in Heaven with God without accepting Jesus' sacrifice for my sins and His Lordship over my life.

3. So that means I'm good to do whatever I want as a Christian, right? Not quite. When Jesus prevented the women caught committing adultery from getting stoned, he didn't encourage another affair. He told her to "sin no more". (John 8:1-11) When he met the Samaritan woman at the well living with a man out of wedlock, he didn't celebrate her "independence". Instead He offered her the "Living Water". (John 4) We are not called to celebrate sin, but to love sinners and point people toward Jesus because they need Him, like I need Him.

So, this means that we are to love people because we are all sinners in need of the Saviour. Being saved doesn't excuse sinning and we certainly don't celebrate sinning. But we don't let Satan rule our future with our past either, we go forth with the goal to sin no more.

What are you doing to make sure that people still feel your love while hating sin?