"I'm a Christian" they say as they continue to post things such as "God hates fags", "Muslims go to hell", "God hates you", "God hates everyone", "Jesus hates [this]" or "Jesus hates [that]".
God does hate, but he hates sin—not people. But if God is a God of love, and would not be God without love, how could he hate? It's because God sees the bigger picture. He sees the consequences of your sins in a much bigger and broader view than you do. His love for his creations far outweighs his hate for sin.
God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of tolerance, because if He did, He'd be allowing the sinner to eventually reach the Celestial Kingdom, where they literally would not be able to stay because of the sin they've committed. When Jesus taught that "no unclean thing" may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, he was being literal. They literally cannot abide there in the presence of God's eternal glory and be able to survive. He's not condemning people, he's issuing a warning, saying "Guys, if you don't follow what I teach, you literally cannot stay with me and Dad!"
And then there are people that say "I'm a Christian" and then have absolutely no idea what the Atonement is or what Christ stood for and taught. Christ stood for understanding of all peoples, of not judging unless it was righteous judgment—righteous, not self-righteous, and there is a huge difference—and of obedience to higher laws so that we can receive blessings and be happy. Jesus taught that He was the way, the truth, and the light and life. He taught to overcome the natural man, which is selfish, evil, carnal, violent-prone, abusive, and wild, and instead become a Disciple, who is long-suffering, patient, kind, obedient, stalwart, truthful, honest, chaste, virtuous, compassionate, and humble, as Jesus himself was.
If you don't have any understanding of what Jesus did for you personally, or have a basic understanding of his teachings, or at least have a desire to learn what those teachings are and to incorporate them into your life, are you truly a Christian? Are you really a disciple of Christ? And how do you tell? Because if you don't grasp the Atonement, you don't grasp repentance, and if you don't grasp repentance, you don't truly grasp anything. Repentance is not something bad. Repentance means to "turn to", to return towards God. Part of becoming a better person is recognizing that you've made mistakes and then FIXING them.
Repentance is a lot like a backspace key on the computer. First you have to recognize that it's there, and then you have to move towards it with your finger. It's a cheesy analogy, I know, but bear with me.
In the same way that you have to move your finger to delete something, YOU have to move yourself towards God and accept the Atonement in order for you to advance at all. You can't go forward in life with a bunch of sins stopping your spiritual growth.
Sins are like stones in your spiritual backpack. The more you sin, even if they're just little things, the heavier the backpack gets. You have to understand and apply the Atonement, the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial backspace key, and get rid of those stones. Avoiding true repentance and returning to the sin denotes an undeveloped sense of understanding of what the Atonement is and means.
Once you've repented, God doesn't remember the sin anymore and therefore could not hold it against you at the final day, and you've come closer to God and Christ through your repentance.
Sins also work as a binding chain from the sinner to Satan, the father of lies and the great deceiver. Sins make us free to bind us to Satan, where as repentance and living a Christ-like life binds us to Christ and therefore makes us free.
Some people will try and rationalize their sins by saying, "If [God] loves me, he'll justify me doing a little sin and I'll be okay". This is a grave misunderstanding of love. There is a difference between love and law, and love, regardless of how much God loves you, is not an excuse for sin, and ultimately justice must be satisfied. It's much easier to talk of mercy than justice, but justice must still be satisfied. Laws stand regardless of social trends, social norms, and perceived instances of misjudgment or condemnation.
God loves you, but He can't just excuse you for going against His commandments. Which are commandments, not just highly useful suggestions.
I'm continually striving to be better at everything I mentioned. I'm selfish, I was carnal. I'm working on my flaws and developing my strengths. I've turned from repentance and accepting and understanding the Atonement many times, and I'm continually getting better at returning to my Father and His Son and repenting for my wrongs. I am not perfect, and I am not expected to be in this life. God does not call us to do things that we cannot do someday. Nevertheless, this is a topic that I've been prompted to talk about, and one of my strengths I'm developing is following the Spirit, regardless of perceived consequence.
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