God is Intolerant

GOD AIN’T TOLERANT, HE’S PATIENT

While the Bible says nothing about God being tolerant, it speaks often about God and his people being patient, loving, and forbearing.

The verse quoted in the rest of the Bible more than any other is God telling us he is, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7 NLT). God’s attributes are compassion, mercy, patience, love, and justice. Displaying obvious black and white thinking, God sees some things as “iniquity, rebellion, and sin” and not just preference, taste, and perspective. God allows such behavior to continue—including my own faults and failings—not because he is tolerant but because he is patient.

If God were merely tolerant, Jesus would not have needed to die in our place for our sins. He would not be holy and we would not be unholy. There be no failure on our part that needs fixing. But in compassion, mercy, and love God came as Jesus Christ to live the life we have not lived and die the death we should have died. And God shows patience not because we do not need to change but because we are stubborn and slow to change. The human leader of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, says it this way, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” (2 Peter 3:9 NLT). God’s patience far exceeds the new tolerance. God tolerates us—as he seeks to change us—because he loves us.

LOVE CHANGES YOU IN A WAY THAT TOLERANCE NEVER CAN

On all matters, including tolerance and intolerance, Christians are to imitate God’s example. Speaking to a church in the ancient city of Ephesus, the apostle Paul commanded Christians to “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love” (Ephesians 4:2 NLT). And writing to a church in the ancient city of Colosse, Paul says, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12-14 NLT).

In bringing up our faults and sins the Bible demonstrates that there is in fact black and white, right and wrong. But Jesus died that we might be forgiven and changed, so that we can in turn forgive others that they too might change. This is the old tolerance. It is a grander vision for society than the new tolerance, because it holds out hope of a change into something far better, a radical recreation the new tolerance does not hold as a virtue since it is unwilling to call someone from wrong to right. This is the vision of Jesus in calling us to love both neighbor and enemy. He knew we would not agree with everyone but needed to love everyone. This is made more difficult when we are mocked and maligned as we will examine in the next blog.