Faith Baptist Church

06/23/2026

🙌🏻

One of the most famous Christian sayings isn’t something Jesus ever said.

“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”

The problem isn’t only that Jesus didn’t say it...

It’s what we’ve done with it.

Too often, “love the sinner” becomes the story we tell ourselves… while “hate the sin” becomes the experience we give everyone else.

“We love you” is one sentence.

“We love you, but…” is often where love gets buried beneath everything we really wanted to say.

Yes, God hates sin.

Including mine.
Including yours.

And no, loving people like Jesus is not “loving them to Hell.”

Love doesn’t require silence about sin. It requires that truth never become an excuse for contempt, cruelty, or pride.

Jesus called people to repentance.

But notice His pattern:
Grace first.
Dignity first.
Love first.

He loved people so deeply that repentance became an invitation they accepted, not a weapon they feared.

God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn it.

So maybe we should stop acting like He sent us to do it.

Jesus showed patience toward people trapped in sin.

But hypocrisy?
Religious pride?
Self-righteousness?

Those were the sins that made Him flip tables.

So before we obsess over “their” sin, Jesus offers a simpler starting point:

Check the mirror.

“First take the plank out of your own eye…” - Matthew 7:5

Ever notice how our urgency to confront someone else’s sin can burn like wildfire… while our urgency to confront our own barely produces smoke?

That isn’t spiritual courage.
That isn't standing up for your convictions.

It’s hypocrisy with a Bible verse.

So... if we truly hate sin,
we can begin in the mirror.
And stay there awhile.

Christian love was never meant to be love-with-fine-print.

It crosses lines.
It absorbs discomfort.
It refuses to reduce people to props for our false righteousness.

Imagine if Christians became known for loving people the way Jesus did.

No fine print.
No asterisk.

Just costly love that makes people curious about Christ.

But if our faith is known
more for who we condemn
than how we love…

we’re not leading people to Jesus.

We’re shutting the door in their faces.

Matthew 23:13

06/22/2026

And if our words don’t sound like good news to broken people,

perhaps we’ve forgotten the heart of the Gospel.

06/21/2026

June 21, 2026

06/21/2026

🙌🏻

06/18/2026

Sometimes a sermon on sin only counts when it comes with someone else’s name on it.

06/14/2026

June 14, 2026

06/14/2026

June 14, 2026

06/11/2026

Amen~
Read this—it’s so on point!

At some point, “my beliefs” can become a prettier way of saying:

“I have a spiritual reason not to love them.”

And that should concern us.

Because Jesus never used truth as a reason to move away from people.

He used it to move closer.

Closer to the wounded.
Closer to the outsider.
Closer to the grieving.
Closer to the very people the religious had already rejected.

But too often, we turn theology into a ball and chain. We drag it behind us while insisting we’re “defending Jesus.”

Because some of us have built a faith that is more fluent in who we oppose than who Jesus embraced.

You may know some of them too... Christians that can argue for two hours about transgender athletes, immigration, pronouns, politics, and “what’s happening to this country”…

but can't name two things Jesus actually taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus was not vague about what matters most.

Love God. Love your neighbor.
No asterisks.

Everything else is supposed to serve that.

Not outrank it. Not replace it.
Not become the loophole we use to avoid it.

And this is exactly what Jesus did.

Six times in Matthew 5,
Jesus said some version of:
“You have heard that it was said…”

Then He challenged the religious understanding of the day and pulled it deeper.

Jesus kept redirecting theology back to the heart of God.

Reconciliation. Mercy.
Integrity. Peacemaking.
Loving our enemies.
And a righteousness deeper than religious performance.

So maybe the question isn’t,
“Is my theology correct?”

Maybe the better question is:
“Is my theology making me look more like Jesus?”

Because if your beliefs make you colder, crueler, prouder, harder, and less capable of loving the people Jesus kept moving toward…

that’s not spiritual maturity.

That’s theological captivity.

The kind that makes us obsessed with being right about God while completely downplaying Jesus's very clear, but uncomfortable commands.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
— Jesus

And Jesus didn’t come to help us justify our theological chains.

He came to break them.
He came to set captives free.
Including us.

So, if your theology needs you to love people less in order to stay “biblical,” you're likely not defending the Bible.

You're likely avoiding Jesus.