Tolerance

We had a family weekend in Austin for the Labor Day holiday, and we all managed to make it to church on Sunday.  Brad Thomas delivered a well thought out, spiritually inspired sermon on tolerance.   Now hang on a second, I know tolerance can be a potentially combustible word/action that sparks a defensive mechanism within the hearts and souls of all of us, but the lesson he gave us had some settling points. "Love Well". We do seem to get our ganders up when we are confronted with people and ideas that do not sync into our own beliefs and opinions, but contrary to cultural sways, it honestly is what God condones that has any true validity.  How often do we allow culture to dictate our tolerance for what is right and what is wrong, instead of God.  And where exactly does scripture play into how to handle situations and people who are not lining up with God's truth? How does God's truth line up with our own personal choices...that we are tolerating.  

We first have to understand that God tolerates us, with all our faults, all our failures, all of our shortcomings and all of our "off His track" experiences. But the key to His tolerance is our repentance; the recognition that we have messed up, we have gotten off His track. It is only when we surrender, in humble sorrow,  our actions and quests of wrong doing that brings us back to Him.  Now once we get a grip on that, the next step is how do we handle others. Everyday we are faced with having to be tolerant, and sometimes it is even with members of our own family or issues regarding our home church.   It was repeated over and over in his sermon that we are to "love well";  an action that Christ displayed to the lady who was caught in the act of adultry; 

John 8:1-11

 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  

It is hard to "love well" when you have been offended, and hurt or you see someone, or are living with someone who is deliberately behaving in a manner that does not honor the truths set out by scripture. Brad made that point that there are levels of tolerance, and  gave the following example: there are state tolerances, like being a Methodist, or Baptist or Presbyterian, and then there are federal tolerances which go directly against the truth declared by scripture. Those same tolerances are ones we struggle with on a personal level; some offenses are about us and our established standards and opinions while others hold greater consequences because they  are about God and His standards, and His truths. We are called to "love well" on both fronts.  Our culture has adopted its own way of disseminating a watered down version of biblical truth, based on what feels good, or what may be offensive, dictating its own reviews, commentaries and analysis of scripture rather than accepting truth as stated in the scriptures as a timeless Holy foundation set by God,  not to be altered changed or added to or tweaked.  God's truth is the standard for culture, not vice versa where culture is the standard for truth. God's truth is the only stable, non changing foundation that has held and continues to hold steady and secure over centuries of time. It is on that that we must stand. We can be tolerant of "state" level injustices with our fellow man, but in "federal" level we must stand on solid truth and learn to be steadied enough to "love well" even in the midst of a conflict.  There will always be those who make decisions to live on the side of culture rather than truth. As a matter of fact we are subject to that on a daily basis, and it is a choice we have to make.  Do we side with God and His truth in our life, or do we side with culture and its lies?   We are to "love well" when we disagree, and let God's truth stand in the gap.  We can not change people, we can only change how we respond to them, react to them and love them in spite of differences. Loving others like crazy comes down to authority:  God or me? 

When faced with tough life choices of tolerance, we have three choices, take it, leave it or change it.  We can choose to 1) placidly go about and ignore truth, 2) accept the reality of truth and repent and move away from that which we know does not embrace the standards of God,  or 3) we can speak out in love and courage and allow God to use us to help make changes that stand on his unwavering word.  This applies to people as well as country.    

In the following verse God first commends then corrects his people,  and after reading it aloud in church,  Brad asked the congregation, what are you tolerating that God would not?         

Revelation 2:19-23

 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.  So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.  I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.  

God "loves us well", in spite of our differences, but he also stands steady on His truth and expects us as Christians to do the same. 

There is a most wonderful commentary regarding Biblical Christianity vs Cultural Christianity that I found this morning written by Oswald Chambers.  If you have a chance to read it, it is very simply stated: http://www.crossroad.to/charts/cultural-Christianity.html.

"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions" C.K. Chesterson. This is the quote that was on the sermon notes. We are not to tolerate a cultural christianity rather stand steady on Biblical Christianity.  While we cannot change a culture single handedly, or even ourselves for that matter,  we can surely depend on God's truth to be an active tool for recovery when we readily repent. "In a world of religious alternatives that offer all God's blessings without accountability, His absolute truth simply doesn't fit. Biblical values become a source of reproof and offense to those who have chosen the wide, popular way. Yet, our God reigns -- and we are on the winning side!" (Dennis Monroe)

  

Dear Lord, help us to be tolerant of others and love them well but not be tolerant of ways of the world that are contradictory to your truth and your standards. Amen       

     

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!