Pilgrim Soldier

I’ve heard this phrase so many times and have used it myself on numerous occasions, but a few weeks ago I started to think about its real meaning. Where exactly did the phrase come from?

It might sound dangerous but I’m not sure that we are called to hate sin. I think that we are simply called to love people. We are called to love the sinner. If we start to bring an emotion with as many negative connotations as hate into the equation and then judgementalism can start to creep into our thoughts.

As hate is so strong, if we hate the acts of sin then it doesn’t take long for the conditions to be placed on our love. We say we love everyone, but what is shown is that we really only love those who conform to our requirements. What is seen is that we love you if you do this and don’t do that!

Now I know that there will be someone who says that we can’t ignore sin in someone’s life. I agree! But I think all our relationships have to start from a position of love. If we allow such a destructive emotion as hate to be involved in any relationship I suspect it is doomed to end up a badly damaged relationship.

Let’s stop hating! It’s something that has been such a part of our Christian history (through things like the Crusades and the Inquisition) that I suspect many non-Christians think that it is part and parcel of our faith. Let’s stop hating and instead simply love the sinner just like God loves us, His sinful children.

Once we’ve done this, we might actually start to like the people who we love and I suspect that the world would be a much nicer and safer place!