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| Photo from the Quebec Mosaic Series |
From my experience, tolerance seems to have become a swear word in conservative Christianity. It does make sense why so many Christians have become disillusioned with the term. The word tolerance has been misused so often by our society. We have been told that Christianity is a religion of intolerance, because we dare to say there is only one way to heaven and we dare to take a stand against evil.
What we have forgotten is that God practices tolerance, and calls us to do the same. Sound like blasphemy? Hear me out. Let's take a look at a passage from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus explained what Christian tolerance should look like.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"
– Matthew 5:43–47
This is real Christian tolerance. Loving others, even our intellectual "enemies." Praying for those who hate us and our beliefs. Greeting and reaching out to people who are different than us.
I can already hear the clamour of objections. "But we can't just let sin go! What happened to taking a stand against evil?" Indeed, we should not take Jesus' words out of context. Much of the Sermon on the Mount is concerned with the gravity of sin. In Matthew 5:29–30 Jesus says, "If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."
However, despite the seriousness of sin and the importance of not letting sin infiltrate and permeate through the church, God still causes the sun to rise on evil people and sustains the lives of the unrighteous. One day God will unleash his terrible judgement on the wicked, and they will no longer be able to stand tall and proud (Psalm 1:5). In that sense, yes, Christianity is quite intolerant. But today, we are called to love them.
(Oh, and by the way, loving our enemies includes being kind to them and maybe even inviting them over for dinner. I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean clobbering them with a Bible at every opportunity.)
My favourite Bible passage on tolerance is probably 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, which explains that while there's no point in trying to hold nonChristians to our standards of morality, we should definitely take a stand against sin within the church (i.e. the sphere of believers both locally and universally). Perhaps a good rule of thumb would be: "Tolerate sin outside of the church, but don't tolerate sin within the church." Or perhaps that's an over-simplification. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
"I wrote to 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 to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. 'Expel the wicked person from among you.'”
– 1 Corinthians 5:9–13
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Scripture quoted from the New International Version, 2011.
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Read more:
Let's Talk about Christian Tolerance – Mark Driscoll
