Earlier this week, I was reading a fantastic talk by J. Reuben Clark, Jr., then a member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This talk was given as part of the April 1934 General Conference of the Church, and is available via PDF here. He referred to various truths that the Church stands up for, and will always stand up for. When I read these older talks, I am often impressed with how much things tend to stay the same. Pres. Clark could give almost the same talk today and no one would bat an eye. In the concluding paragraphs of his talk, he said (among other things) the following:
“The Church must always war on error. There can be no compromise on the part of the Church with error. To the repentant sinner the Church, and we individuals, have all forgiveness; to the repentant sinner we open our arms in welcome; but against the sin which he commits the Church must always war.”
This should not be surprising to hear, though if someone were to quote this in General Conference in April, there are a good number among the chattering classes that would consider this harsh; un-Christlike even. And yet, this message is entirely consistent with the Gospel and the doctrines of the Church. The Psalmist admonished, “ye that love the Lord, hate evil.”[1] The author of the Proverbs identified six things that the Lord hates, “A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”[2] This list could be a lot longer, but it’s a good start. Alma the Younger, in his final instructions to his son Helaman, told him to teach the people “an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity.”[3]
There are really good reasons to be against sin, to hate it even. One need look no further than the effects of sin to find good reason for this. Sin damns the sinner. The Apostle Paul said it most succinctly: “the wages of sin is death.”[4] As we know, the Lord “cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.”[5] When we sin, we withdraw ourselves from the Spirit of the Lord.[6] This impairs our ability to hear the Spirit of the Lord, or to have the Lord’s Spirit as our guide.[7] We become much more susceptible to being deceived. As we are unrepentant and persist in sin, we become less able to discern between truth and error, and we begin to call evil good, and good evil.[8]
Unsurprisingly, there are many in our day and age who reject the seriousness of sin. They predictably teach that we should “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”[9] Others, clearly misunderstanding God’s love and grace, argue that all sin is forgiven, sooner or later, so there is no harm in committing it in the first place.[10] Using these vain and foolish teachings, some people are beginning to excuse sin in themselves and others. However, if you remove the injunctions against sin and the exhortations to repentance from the scriptures and the teachings of modern day prophets, you aren’t left with much else.
Still others misread the Savior’s instruction that we should love one another[11] as some mandate to ignore the sin in others and simply love them. They misunderstand that the Savior did not teach us to love one another as the world would do so, but to love one another as the Savior loved us. His perfect love never excused or allowed for sin. His perfect love never gave sin a pass. Having paid for the sins of the world, He knows perfectly well the violence sin does to each of us, and the pressing need we all have to repent and turn as fully away from sin as possible, “for no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven.”[12] Much more could be said about the tragic and spiritually debilitating effects of sin.
How should we, then, respond to the sins of others? Of course it is important to avoid the hypocrisy inherent in nitpicking the minor offenses of those around us while ignoring our own pressing needs for repentance,[13] but does that absolve us from action with respect to our fellow men? Do you suppose that you have no responsibility as a father or mother towards teaching and urging your children to repent?[14] Do you suppose that you have no duty to warn your neighbor?[15] Is there anything more pressing than to preach repentance?[16] You are wrong if you believe that you have no duty in these instances.
Just as surely as we will not be excused in our sin, neither will our neighbors and loved ones. Seeing as we know this, how can we possibly have true love for our neighbors, friends and family if we fail in our duty to encourage their repentance? Do not believe for one second that you can love a son or daughter most effectively by sitting on the sidelines and cheer them on in some sinful endeavor or another. This is the sort of damnable activity that will be answered on the heads of the parents.[17]
Simply put, you cannot love someone without hating the sin that is damning them. Who among us wouldn’t rush into danger in order to protect their child? Who among us wouldn’t happily sacrifice everything we have if we could guarantee the physical well being of their children? And yet, when we turn to consider eternal things; things of the spirit; many have been lulled to sleep and will not raise a finger to reach out to those children for fear of not appearing “loving” in the eyes of the world.
As has been pointed out by many, the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” does not appear in those specific words in the scriptures, but we are taught to love the sinner, and to hate sin. It is only natural that the more love we have for the sinner, the more we hate their unrepented sin, and the more we work to encourage their repentance.
[9] 2 Nephi 28:7-8, and a Dave Matthews Band lyric.
[10] Id.