Intolerance

I have been thinking about what it means to be tolerant and was Jesus tolerant?

definition of tolerance:
a : sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own
b : the act of allowing something

In view of the meaning of this word I was thinking Jesus instructs us to be loving, compassionate, caring, forgiving, and merciful but we are never told to be tolerant of others are we?? At least I can not think of any scripture that would instruct us to ever be tolerant of sin? We are told to share the truth with others in love but not to be tolerant of sin. I was thinking about this because the world keeps saying that Christians are "intolerant" as if that is a bad thing and I find myself thinking Jesus is actually "intolerant" too?

Or am I missing something??

rdg

Hi Rdg,

Is temperance something similar? We should not excuse sin at all, however.

We are given these verses, which may help.

2Ti 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
2Ti 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

So though we should not tolerate, in the way of not instructing someone the right way to go. We should help them in seeing Christ's way more clearly.

Michelle

And actually, Paul pokes fun at the Corinthians for bearing with those who oppose the true gospel. 2 cor 11:4,20

Satanic style is to take good words and use them for ulterior motives. You cannot really be a committed Christian if you "tolerate" all the deathtraps that the people of the world trust for their futures.

But we don't shun them or avoid them. We engage, confront, preach, argue, reason, cajol, give- because knowing what awaits unrepentant sinners stirs the compassionate believer to do something.

"Excuse me sir, but you are backing up to a cliff, and it is a 2000 foot drop behind you!"

"You Christians are so smug, always know better, always telling us what to dooooooooooo......ooooooo...."

As Jeremiah once lamented, if he did not speak the message was like fire in his bones, screaming to be spoken. That was his intolerance...

We are intolerant because we serve an intolerant God who has only one answer to man's quest for eternal life. The "No man comes to the Father except through Me" intolerant Jesus.