Luther rightly insisted that the unwillingness of the sinner to be regarded as a sinner was the final form of sin.

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man

I get angry when people point their finger at me and call me a sinner. What right do they have? Who the hell do they think they are? I have to live everyday hearing somebody say or write, "I love the sinner, but hate the sin!" It makes me sick inside. I know they're calling me a sinner!

Niebuhr's words brought me up short, however. Here I am, unwilling to be called a sinner. Here I am, committing the final form of sin.

When I read these words I stopped and prayed. I asked God to forgive me, a sinner, for my open act of self-righteousness. I suppose I was blinded by the other blatant acts of self-righteousness that show up in my mailbox on a daily basis. People who want to point out to me what they see as my sin, without acknowledging they too are sinful people.

What was it Jesus said? "How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." [Matthew 7:4-5]

Jesus is clear, we must admit our status as sinners, and repent. We must work out the log in our own eyes before we can concern ourselves with the speck we see in our brothers' eye. But guess what? We are never done dealing with our own sin. For if we were, we would be sinners no longer. But we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus knows we will never be at a place where we can see our way clearly enough to judge the sins of others. That log will always be in our eye.

My message to those who send me letters of judgment, telling me to repent of my "sin" then is this: If you were dealing with your own sin, honestly, openly and faithfully, you wouldn't have the time to write to me about my sin. Jesus is clear: "Judge not."

Please know, however, that I humbly accept my status as sinner. Just what my sins may be is between me and my God. We're working on my sins together, so you need not worry about them anymore.

Now that we've been relieved of the burden of judging one another, let's turn our hearts to the place Jesus tells us to focus all of our attention:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 22:37-39]