But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. — Ephesians 4:15
Recently, I saw a commercial that was trying to share a message about God. The idea behind the commercial was that Jesus did not teach hate. Throughout the commercial, images were shown of people washing the feet of others. At the end of the commercial, it said that Jesus did not teach hate. Instead, He washed feet.
It is true that Jesus did not teach hate. His teachings were clear: we should love those around us. However, Jesus did not teach us to tolerate or accept sin. Jesus never said we should simply accept the sins of those around us. He never said we should turn our eyes in another direction, overlooking the sin that those around us are involved in.
The idea of this world is that taking a stand against sin is hate. If you take a stand for something, you hate the person that is doing it. But that’s not the truth at all. Taking a stand against sin is not hate. Standing against sin is exactly what God shared for us to do in His word. He never instructs us to hate, but He also does not instruct us to accept sin.
Instead, we should be speaking the truth in love. We should call sin exactly what it is: sin. We should never hate those who are committing the sin. As Christians, we should love them and show them the example of Jesus.
Today, resolve in your heart to be committed to the truth. Not just taking a stand for the truth but doing so in love. Our heart’s desire should be that those caught up in sin around us would see their sin and want to flee it. We should stand for the truth. Never from a position of hate but instead from a position of love.
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