It’s so easy to criticize when someone else fails.
It’s so easy to see faults in them when we overlook ourselves.
Lord knows I’m not perfect, I don’t deserve to throw rocks at anyone
So if there is a mistake you see in me let it be this one.
If I’m guilty, let me be guilty of too much mercy.
If I’m gonna be wrong, let me be wrong for treating someone else right.
I don’t wanna push down, what I wanna do now is help a brother back on his feet,
If I’m guilty, let me be guilty of too much mercy.
So many moments I’m busy taking when I should be giving.
To many moments I’m busy talking when I should be listening
I need to make it more about others time after time.
I have found this simple truth whatever you give it’s gonna come back around.
by Aaron & Amanda Crabb, Contemporary Christian music duo
in-tol-er-ance: The unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from one’s own.
Because a Christian baker will not bake a cake for a gay wedding….he is accused of being intolerant. But on the other hand, the gay couple are intolerant to the Christian baker because of his Christian beliefs and his following of God’s Word that homosexuality is a sin. Is it tolerant to allow the baker to have to shut down his business and be sued for all he has, just to satisfy someone who didn’t get their cake?
Because a government employee who issues marriage licences declares that she cannot issue one to a gay couple due to her Christian beliefs is berated and thrown in jail, she is declared intolerant of the gay couples feelings and the gay couple feel she should accept their way of life as normal, are they not intolerant of her Christian beliefs?
People who cry intolerance to those who do not hold the same views as themselves are not tolerant and do not practice tolerance. It seems society is accepting doing the wrong thing as the norm, so why are we as Christians accepting this? NO – there is no tolerance if you are for the righteous way of life. So YES we are intolerant!
Oh boy, this could get confusing…but stick with me
When it comes to those who do not accept God’s laws and His Word, and how Christians conduct themselves towards sin against God, there is no tolerance. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that immorality must be judged, but not by us as Christians, only God can judge. We don’t accept the wrongs and we are asked to not keep company with those who do. Yet we are considered intolerant. Our job as Christians is to stand firm for our beliefs, for the sake of the gospel, before the unbelieving world, that their hearts would be changed. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
The hearts of men need to change. As verse 11 says,
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
A slightly different set of sins can be found in Proverbs 6:16-19,
“These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”
When I read His word, the message I’m getting is that even God won’t tolerate certain things. But that doesn’t make Him an unloving God. In fact He loved us so much that He gave us His Son, Jesus, to take away all that sin.
The cure for these sins is the gift of a new heart that acts in accordance to the love and law of God. This new heart can only come from God. Ezekiel 36:26-27 says,
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgements and do them.”
Humanity’s only hope is the miracle of a regenerated heart that acts according to the direction of the Holy Spirit to walk in God’s statutes and judgements.
Only when the sinner understands why, we as Christians, are intolerant towards them, will they have a tolerance for us. The price for immorality is high; it is not all luxury and pleasure with no aftereffects.
Christians can disagree with another’s views and not be angry with them, our quest is to love them and pray for them.
For we were all sinners at one time, until Christ rescued us.