Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After

by Trevin K. Wax

“Chris, why would you ever think you can’t be a friend to a sinner? Jesus is the mighty Friend of sinners to us. Why would we not be the friends of sinners?” Chris nodded. “You are sensing the tension every Christian feels. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Loving your neighbor without approving of everything your neighbor does,” Gil said. “All of us are forced into that position one way or another—no matter the sin.” Gil continued, “When you think about it, that’s the war we fight ourselves. We love ourselves—have no trouble with that at all—and yet, as Christians, we don’t condone our own behavior half the time. Like Paul, we wrestle and realize what wretched people we are, before arriving at the throne of grace and saying, ‘Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ ”