a simple exhortation I found while I was thumbing through City of God to write my paper on how he uses imagination (intentional, spiritual, mental reflection) to draw out clearer theology on pre-Fall and post-Resurrection life...
"Since no one is evil by nature, but anyone who is evil is evil because of a perversion of nature, the man who lives by God's standards has a duty of 'perfect hatred' towards those who are evil; that is to say, he should not hate the person because of the fault, nor should he love the fault because of the person. He should hate the fault, but love the man. And when the fault has been cured there will remain only what he ought to love, nothing that he should hate" (Book XIV, Chapter 6).
Kind of coarse language, but a wonderful exhortation to despise sin yet love the sinner. Once they repent and grow in love, the sin vanishes and only the person, completely deserving of love having been made by God in His image, remains.
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