Can we be Tolerant?
A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night I preached a message called “Can we all Get Along?” The message is on the Sermon page of the website you can check it out if you would like (www.southdecaturchurch.com). The context of the message was about tolerance. We live in a society that tells us that we should be tolerant of all people and that we should not judge people on anything that they do. A few weeks ago our president stood at the podium and declared that the United States is no longer a Christian nation, and though I believe that to be true, he went on to say that we should live in tolerance to all religions. Which got me to thinking what does the Bible teach when it comes to tolerance?
First of all nowhere in the Bible does it teach us to be tolerant. As a matter of fact Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1 that the cross is an offensive message. In other words the message of the cross makes people chose a side. When confronted with Jesus a person has to make a choice on where they stand and how they are living. There is no neutral ground. Jesus said John 14:6 “ I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”. For the Christian that is plain and simple and there is no room for anything else. Jesus is not just the way but He is the only way. How can you tolerant anything else? If you are a believer then you have to no that there is no other way to heaven but by Jesus Christ
Second if you are a believer then you have to feel the urgency to go and tell people about Jesus. You do not have time to tolerant anything but truth. The world is dying and we have the good news and if we sit around allowing people to believe a lie then we have failed to the most important then that we can with our faith. Share it. If we are truly living by the truth then we cannot in no way live in tolerance because if we do then we are saying that we do not have faith in what Jesus said. If Jesus said that He was the only way and He is not then all that He said cannot be trusted. But the truth is that Jesus is truth and therefore we must convince people that He is the way to eternal life. Peter said it when he said “Where can we go to find the words of eternal life”. We can’t be tolerant, we must show the Love of Jesus and save as many as we can.
