Tolerance

I will have to work at not becoming political in this blog entry because of the nature of the title; and I have promised to keep this discussion strictly Biblical.....certainly not political. 

Tolerance is a major practice in America today, perhaps more than ever before.  You will notice that most other countries, for what it is worth, do not tolerate what we do in our society.  And tolerance sounds like a good thing, like a great thing.  I would suggest that the Bible does not teach that. 

We see in the Old Testament that God was very specific in what He wanted from His people.  The examples would be too numerous to even mention.  But we can mention that even in His first people, Adam and Eve, He was very demanding in what He expected from them.  And in the case of Cain and Abel, the first children, we see that Cain did not do what God expected of him.  Even that early in history, God was intolerant of bad behavior. 

Then there was Jesus.  Jesus taught a less exact type of religion, wanting people to give their heart to the Lord, not just outward sacrifice.  But even here, Jesus was specific about many things.  For example, He was quite critical of the Jewish leaders in Matthew 23....and in many other places.  He taught His followers to do certain things in their worship in the future days, like: remember Him by taking the communion (He taught them this in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22).  In Matthew 28:19, He told His apostles to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you...."  In John 14:6, He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."  And in Matthew 7:21, He said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

I get the idea from these teachings and many more that Jesus was serious about this.  It wasn't "Do what you want to do", but rather "Do what I say!"  He didn't stress tolerance in matters of morality.  And we should not be so quick to accept every thing that comes our way, that comes into our society.  There still is right and wrong.....and there is plenty wrong in our society today, in our movies, our tv, our language, our behavior.  Let's stand up for right.  Jesus certainly did.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!