So many Christians today, in their zeal to give love to others, unknowingly (or willingly) give their support to sin and sinful behavior. Instead of doing the sinner a favor by bringing them closer to God, the Christian does them harm - and displeases God - by encouraging them to sin.

I'm pretty sure many of us aren't aware that we are already doing it. To help all of us avoid supporting sin in the name of the Lord, here are a few ways Christians support sin "in the name of love."

1) By downplaying the dangers of sin

Christians encourage unbelievers and believers in sin alike to keep sinning by downplaying or ignoring the dangerous effects of sin in our lives.

Sin affects our relationship with God in a bad way. Sin destroys what testimony we have. Sin destroys our lives, not to mention steals our resources and robs us of our peace. People in sin need to be told and reminded of this.

We can't turn a blind eye to the dangers of sin and expect not to fall into a ditch. If we, however, see the dangers of sin but fail to warn others about it, we are to be blamed for their fall as well.

"Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)

2) By focusing only on God's love for sinners

So many Christians today are so eager to share the love of God without even knowing it. They are quick to say "God loves you" to others, not realizing that their intention to spread God's love could backfire and give people a license to keep sinning. Let me explain.

When we approach people in sin but do not address the sin they are doing, and instead just keep telling them "God loves you," they might think, "if God loves me even if I'm in sin, what's the point of stopping it?"

The Gospel is a very offensive message. 1 Corinthians 1:18 tells us,

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

We cannot focus on just one aspect of God's person and preach it to be His totality. People need to know that He is holy, righteous, and just. We should keep that in mind, too.

3) By playing "nice Christian" to those who are caught in sin

Lastly, when we play "nice Christian" to people who are caught in sin, we actually give them the message that we don't care if they're sinning.

There are a variety of ways to play "nice Christian" to others:

• There's the politically-correct Christian who avoids telling people what they don't like to hear about sin (see 2 Timothy 4:3)
• There's the friendly Christian who will be in fellowship with those who are not following the Lord (see 2 Corinthians 6:14-15)
• There's the timid Christian who won't ever dare to say what God says in His Word because he is afraid or not confident of himself before God (see 2 Timothy 1:7)

Such "nice" Christians give people the impression that sin is tolerable and allowable, even acceptable, before God. This is wrong and should be corrected.