I recently had a wonderful chat with a dear friend who is very smart (he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford), very wise and very godly.  We were talking about the image problem the church seems to be having with today’s culture. Specifically, the culture has managed to label us as “haters,” “bigots,” “mean” and “intolerant” – all because many Christians have dared to take the commands of the Bible seriously.

I agree that Christians have not done a very good job of convincing the world that they “love the sinner and hate the sin.” To the world, hating the sin is the same as hating the sinner. But to say hating the sin is the same thing as hating the sinner is like saying that hating cancer is the same thing as hating cancer patients. It’s just not true. The reason why Christians hate sin as defined in the Bible is because sin demeans, defeats, disables and destroys people who are made in God’s image. Just as no doctor wants to see a patient killed by a very real physical disease, Christians do not want to see people (or a society) they love or care about fall victim to a very real spiritual disease.

Perhaps it would be helpful to define “sin.” Sin is self-indulgence now. It’s basically saying, “I do what I want when I want to,” “don’t tell me what to do or think,” “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul,” or “I don’t need God; I’m in charge.” Sin can be a willful defiance or a passive indifference to God and His commands. Sin is complete self-absorption.

Here’s the bad news: we are all sinners. No one — including Christians — is better than anyone else. According to Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We miss the mark of God’s moral standard. But there’s more. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” Our sin has separated us from God, which is why we all need a savior to rescue us from our sin.

Enter Jesus Christ. He came from heaven to fix our sin problem. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that, “God made him [Jesus] who knew no sin to become sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.” On the cross, Jesus took the full penalty for our sin to make it possible for us to become like God. Because Jesus is “full of grace and truth,” so should his followers be. Because Jesus is loving, compassionate, forgiving and merciful, so should his followers be. Even though Jesus was perfect, he wasn’t embarrassed to be seen with imperfect people.

Consider this passage from Mark 2. “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples…. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

Jesus was not afraid to “hang out” with hookers, thieves, adulterers, and other “sinners.” He loved them and wanted the best for them. But as we just saw, Jesus spent time with these people, not because they were okay in their current state, but because they were sick, and he was the only one who could cure them. He didn’t say, “hey it’s perfectly acceptable to be an adulterer.” Adultery is destructive. That’s why, after he told the woman caught in adultery that her sins were forgiven, he added, “Go and sin no more.” He told the crippled man he healed to “stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.” Jesus takes obedience to God and His Word very seriously because sin is deadly.

While it is true that we come to Christ just as we are, he is not interested in business as usual. Sadly, in an effort to appease the culture, some churches today think that the welcome of Jesus means “come as you are and stay as you are.” To win approval ratings with the public or increase attendance, they hang out signs using accommodating phrases like “Tolerant,” “Progressive,” “Open-Minded,” “Non-Judgmental” or “Accepting.” Sounds nice, but it’s not helpful. A doctor who tells you “you are just fine” when you are actually dying isn’t doing you any favors.

Jesus says to all of us, “come as you are, but don’t stay as you are.” Jesus came to change us. He came to transform us from self-centered, rebellious, desire-driven people to God-centered, obedient, Spirit-led people. He came to make us like Himself.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; the new has come.” Romans 12:2 adds, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Galatians 6:14 says that “Because of the cross [of Christ], my interest in this world [and its desires] has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.”

Christians are far from perfect. We all have deep dark secrets, hang ups, bad habits, serious struggles and temptations. That’s why the church is more like a hospital for the sick than a club for the holy. Sick people come to Christ to get well, not to stay the same.

So how does the church improve its image problem? The same way it did 2,000 years ago. It must genuinely love all people like Jesus loves them. Since the term “Christian” actually means “little Christs,” our attitudes and actions are to be Christ-like. If Jesus says, “come as you are, but don’t stay as you are,” then this should be the message of his followers, always delivered in humility, grace and mercy, not with self-righteousness, judgment and condemnation.

Only then will we welcome, woo and win the culture. “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”