15-5

Chapter 5: Tolerance

This was by far my favorite chapter in the book thus far. He says that there are two things that you never want to do. 1: Scream fire in a crowded theater and 2: whisper the word tolerance in a church. How true that can be. Tolerance has become a bad word, especially in churches. Many people associate tolerance with accepting sin, watering down the gospel, and letting everyone do anything they want to all the time. However there is a difference between tolerating sin and tolerating sinners. Tolerating, at least in the sense that we are talking about, is simply allowing someone or something to be.

Continued unrepentant sin by a Christian should not be tolerated. Paul teaches us in Romans that just because we have grace doesn't mean we should keep sinning. We all do, we are by nature sinners, but that doesn't mean that we should willfully sin all the time. "Sin in the church is like a caner that, if left untreated, leads to death. We are supposed to eat with non-Christian sinners but not with unrepentant Christian ones." We read in 1 Corinthians 5:9-11: "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." "Sinners should always be allowed in our presence. It's their only hope. It's our only hope for reaching them."

Remember the story of the woman who came and washed Jesus feet with expensive perfume and her hair? She had a reputation of being...a sinner (probably a prostitute). The people who were there couldn't believe that Jesus was allowing her to hang around. But Jesus wasn't condoning what she had done, He was just loving her. "Jesus was more tolerant of lost people than most of us will ever be, because He loved lost people more than most of us ever will. Tolerance is viewed by many in the church as watering down the message of Jesus, but when we look at how Jesus interacted with sinners who were in need of salvation, we learn that tolerance toward sinners was key to how He reached out to them. He chose to be with sinners because He wanted them to have hope. He allowed this prostitute to be in His presence at this dinner because He wanted her to be with Him at the banquet He will host in eternity." Had this woman made bad choices in her past? Absolutely. But that didn't make her intolerable, just sinful. But with Jesus there are no lost causes.

One thing that we have to remember is this: in Jesus, we are not our worst sin. We are not defined by the bad choice we made on prom night, or the people that we slept with before we were married, or the wrong things we did so that we could get a promotion, or anything else that we have done. We are sinners who sin, but we are not sin. There is a huge difference. Sinners are loved by God, sin is hated.

"Do we really believe that all lost people can have the hope of forgiveness-that God can forgive anyone of anything? If so, then that will change everything. We will tolerate sinners-allowing them into our presence-because we believe that God has the power for positive change." With Jesus there are no lost causes.

Enjoy the Journey