My topic today is tolerance. We hear a lot about tolerance
and being tolerant in our society, and today we will talk about
tolerance from a Christian viewpoint. I have some texts here. Let me
give these to you for your hearing. I have some we'll read, and then
some I will just tell you, and you can follow up on those later. The first text this morning is
Romans 12, verse 18. And the scripture says, if it
is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. The second text this morning
is 1 Peter 2, verse 11 and 12. And there we are told, dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers
in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against
your soul. Live such good lives among the
pagans that they, though they accuse you of wrongdoing, they
may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Another text from the book of
Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 and 23. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is
no law. Romans chapter 12 verse 16, we
are told there to live in harmony with one another. Several passages
I will give you here. We'll not read from them. They're
lengthy, but I would like you to consider these. Draw them
to your memory. I know you've read them. And
then maybe later go back as you think about tolerance. Romans
chapter 12 verse 1 through chapter 15 verse 13. This is a long, long passage
where Paul takes the theology that he has taught in the first
part of his letter to the Romans and then makes practical application. If all of this is true, then
how shall we live? Next, the entirety of 1 Corinthians
and 2 Corinthians, and we'll talk more about these letters
of Paul shortly. We're going to draw a lot from
them generally. Galatians chapter 5 verse 16
through chapter 6 verse 10, again Paul says here, if all that I've
told you previously, all the doctrine, all the theology, if
all of this is true, then how shall we live? Ephesians chapter
4 verse 17, through chapter 6, verse 9. Again,
it's the same scenario. And then Colossians chapter 3,
verses 1 through chapter 4, verse 1. These passages, as I mentioned,
all build or take off of Paul's theology. He laid the groundwork
in sound doctrine, as Brother Bill told us this morning. And
then Paul makes practical application. If this is the truth, then what
does it mean to us and how shall we live? In these passages, Paul
will tell us how the world behaves and how we as Christians shall
behave. Now this is important to us as
we remember that Jesus Himself, as He prayed to God on that final
night, He prayed for us as believers because we are in this world
but not of this world. And we must know how to live. Finally, let me read a passage
that I find very dear to my heart because it helps me to know and
it guides me. And that is from the book of
James, chapter 1, verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, Let
him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it
will be given to him. This morning as we discuss the
topic of tolerance, I hope that God grants us wisdom. We certainly
need it. In this day and age, tolerance
is the watchword. If you turn on the TV and watch
the news or listen to the radio or read the newspapers or magazines,
they're talking about tolerance. There is a world of ideas out
here and we must be tolerant. All ideas are equal and have
equal validity. It is not proper, according to
the people, that we would devalue or not take with equal credibility
the other ideas. We must be tolerant of everybody's
viewpoint, everybody's lifestyle, everybody's thoughts and deeds. We must recognize all of them. If you don't, if you don't recognize
these other beliefs, if you don't value them the same as you value
your own, you are labeled as intolerant. And in this day and
age, that is the worst thing you can be. It would be better
to be a murderer or a rapist than it would be to be intolerant
or so it seems. No one wants to be labeled as
intolerant. Not now. So if you watch the
TV, if you read the papers, if you listen to the radio, everybody
from politicians to preachers to newscasters to common people
is running as fast as they can away from the label of intolerance.
Nobody wants to have a strong opinion and nobody wants to be
labeled as intolerant. But is this tolerance, is this
preference, is this adherence or recognition of other beliefs,
is this a Christian virtue? We have to ask that question.
Is tolerance as the world presents it, as we're told we must be
today, is this a Christian virtue? Are we truly to be tolerant? Well, to begin the discussion,
we have to define our terms. Everything, everything has a
context. And if I just throw the word
out without defining it, then I'm having a meaningless discussion.
So we must define our terms. First, let's look at tolerance,
the definition of the word tolerance. You go to the dictionary, it
is defined. And basically, the definition
of tolerance is the act of allowing something. The act of allowing something.
That is tolerance. Now what you notice in this definition
is that tolerance in the strictest sense is neutral. It's neutral. Implied intolerance
is a passive approval as demonstrated by the fact that you allow something
to happen, that you will not actively stop it from happening. But tolerance in and of itself
is neutral. It neither approves or disapproves
of anything. It will allow it to happen, but
it is neutral. Here is where the problem begins
immediately, because the advocates of tolerance today do not want
or expect neutrality. What they really want, as you
listen to their arguments, is acceptance of and or privilege
above and beyond acceptance. They also want forced association. This is beyond the scope of tolerance. By definition, let us remember
that tolerance is neutral. tolerance neither approves of
or disapproves of that which it tolerates. Again, this is
where the trouble begins immediately. The basic tenets of our Christian
faith and the basic practices of our Christian faith are at
odds with much of the tenets and practices of other faiths
and certainly of the world. We are told that we as Christians
must be tolerant of other beliefs. But by tolerance as presented,
you find quickly that we're not talking about just tolerance. What we're really being told
in practice is that we must yield our faith and practice so that another is preferred. This is a problem. This is a
problem. You and I are told that we must
set our faith aside, yield our practice, and submit to accommodate,
to grant privilege to others. At this point, we are not tolerating
anything. We are being forced into acceptance. Now, this is the problem, and
this is the place that we find ourselves in today. This is a problem. We are not
talking about tolerance anymore. We are talking about forced acceptance
of and association with things that are contrary to our faith. Now, we as Christians, to know
how to handle this, to know what to make of our place in this
situation, we must go to the Scripture for our answers. And
the Scripture, as we know, has everything within its pages as
revealed by God to His people to address issues of faith and
practice. Tolerance is not a new argument. Forced acceptance and forced
association is not new to mankind. The church has faced this before. And this is where the two letters
of Paul to the Corinthian church come in. And we're not going
to read it all and we're not going to necessarily address
things in specific. We're going to be very general
this morning in this discussion as we look at Paul and his advice
to the Corinthian church. Let's look at the church at Corinth. It's important we see this and
draw some incredible parallels between the situation of these
believers in Corinth and ourselves today. Corinth was a major city
in the Greco-Roman world. It was a port city in the Greco-Roman world. It had a thriving economy. It was an economic and a cultural
center in its day. It was a cultural crossroads. As a port city, people from all
over the known world coursed through Corinth. As a cultural center, there was
every kind of belief and practice known to man available to one
in Corinth. You could find every kind of
faith and practice available to you in Corinth from the most
heavenly to the most bestial. Corinth itself, because of the
population, because of the cultures, because of the mixing of minds
and practice, was an extremely wicked and immoral city. You can read through the history
of the time and find out that Corinth was a nasty, nasty, nasty
place to be. I don't see a whole lot of difference
between Corinth and Houston. I don't see a whole lot of difference
between Corinth and Los Angeles, Corinth, and New York. Truthfully, and I don't know
that I want to admit this, but I don't see a whole lot of difference
between Corinth and Conroe, except in size. This is the situation
that we find ourselves in today. The church in Corinth was a church
that was faced with all kinds of secular belief, all kinds
of religious belief, and the grossest forms of immorality,
sad to say, outside of the church and inside of the church. The parallels with our own situation
in this day and age are certainly easy to see. As Paul dealt with
the church in Corinth, he issued edicts, gave advice, told them
how they should live. We can pull a lot from this. Paul was trying to tell these
people, these dear believers, how they should live in their
day and age in this rotten, corrupt, wicked place that they were.
One thing that we need to remember, and I say this loudly and over
and over again, is that there is a context. There
is a context. That was the historical context. That was the time and place context. Now let's set another context.
The letters to the Corinthian church were written to the church.
The whole Bible was written to believers. The promises contained
in the Scripture are not for non-believers. We throw Scripture,
I use this in the generic sense when I say we, but people throw
Scripture around and take these promises of God and they throw
them around and say, well, these are for everybody. No, they're
not. And this is something we need to realize as we read through
Paul's letter to the Corinthian church is that there are two
kinds of people on earth. Two kinds of people. There are
God's people and there are not God's people. That's the first
contextual piece of information we must grasp and take to heart. There are two kinds of people.
There's God's people and there's not God's people. The letters
to the church at Corinth are written to God's people to tell
them how they should live, what they should believe and how they
should live. We should take that to heart. There are two kinds
of people. God's people and not God's people. Paul tells the Corinthian church
how they should relate to the world. That's where he begins
his discussion. The surrounding area, the city
of Corinth, around the church was wicked. It was rotten. It
was corrupt to its very core. How should believers deal with
this? What should they do? What should be their relationship
to this world? Paul's advice to the Christians
in Corinth is to segregate from them. Pull away from, separate
from the Corinthians. At one point in the book of 1
Corinthians, Paul tells them, have nothing to do with these
people. Have nothing to do with them.
Pull away, separate, segregation. This is not popular in today's
world. The truth is that's intolerant.
It's intolerant. Paul says we as Christians don't
have fellowship with non-believers. He says have nothing to do with
them. Now the Corinthian church was
troubled by Paul's strict teaching on this matter. And as a result,
there were questions asked, there were letters written back and
forth, and we have the second letter to the Corinthians. And
Paul somewhat clears up this matter of segregation from the
world. Because apparently the argument
was, if we pull away from them completely, we can't even live. Fact is, we go to the grocery
store, we've got to buy from them, we've got to deal with
them on some level. And Paul's advice then is, that's
true. That's true. You can't pull out
of the world. You cannot. But your dealings
must be few and they certainly are not your fellowship. Your fellowship, your friendships,
your intimate relationships must be in the church. Not in the
world. Not in the world. not in the
world. Now there is an exception to
this. God's people are to have relationship
with those in the world in one way. We are to go and preach
and teach and make disciples of all nations. But this is a
relationship built first and foremost on introducing Christ
to sinners not on friendships. If in the process of evangelizing
the lost are saved and we become friends, that is good. But that friendship will be built
on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ and not on any worldly
concern. Paul says that we as Christians
should separate from the world. don't take our fellowship in
the world. The Scripture is plain on this
that as we associate with the world, as we make our friendships
and our fellowships with the world, we will be pulled into
the sewer before we pull them out of the sewer. And this is
exactly what was happening at the church at Corinth. The people
in Corinth had their friends in the world. They had become
Christians, but they hadn't severed their ties with the wicked. They
had their friends in the world, their families in the world,
and what was happening now is that this immorality, this gross
immorality, was creeping into the church. That's the problem. That is why we are told to separate
because we are depraved creatures. We are weak and pitiful. And
left to ourselves for even a moment, we will fall right back into
the sewer. That's where we came from and
truthfully left to ourselves. That's where we want to return.
It's a sad fact, but it's true. This is part of the indwelling
sin. and the struggle that we face that Paul addresses in Romans
chapter 7. It's in us and until we breathe
our last that will be the case. It is important because of that
that we withdraw from the world. Deal with the world on limited
occasion when necessary only. Don't take fellowship there. This is by today's standard intolerant. It's intolerant. We believe,
and I use this again in the generic sense, we as a political body
today, believe that tolerance means that I am willing to come
and sit down and eat with you and visit you and even become
your friend. And in certain instances, such
associations are even forced upon us by law. We have to accept
these things. Well, again, remember that tolerance
in the purest sense is neutral. It doesn't approve, it doesn't
disapprove. The basic attitude of tolerance is you do your thing,
I won't stop you. I do my thing, you don't stop
me. But that's not what's being told
to us today. as tolerance. For the world,
we are to separate. Now, as Christians within the
church, how are we to act? Hell with that. The church is
to be the pure body of Christ. And within the ranks of the church,
there is certainly no tolerance. No tolerance for sin. No tolerance
for sin. Paul is playing on this and as
we look at the example of the Corinthian church, we're told
that there's even one amongst you who is so immoral that he's
beyond even the immorality of the pagans surrounding him. Paul says, get him out of the
church. Get him out of the church. There
is no room for this behavior among God's people. Paul was completely intolerant. Now why was Paul intolerant? The Scripture tells us that this
is God's will for your life. And that you're there being believers. This is God's will for your life.
That you be holy as He, God, is holy. There is no room for sin in holiness. I realize that we, as fallen
creatures, will never achieve holiness. Never. But that is
no excuse for tolerating unholiness. And Paul says, this man is even
more wicked than the pagans around you. Get him out of the church. There's no room for this. There's no room for this. Now,
let us understand. God loves sinners. He gave His Son to save sinners. And even this perceived harsh
attitude within the church is within view of repentance, forgiveness,
and restoration. Don't tolerate sin in the church,
but be willing to forgive and restore. And we see that in the
Corinthian letter, the second Corinthian letter, and this is
very interesting, but it appears that the man from 1 Corinthians,
the grossly immoral man, was put out of the church, and then
we see in the second Corinthian letter that by appearance now,
he has repented. He has seen the error of his
ways. He has changed his life. And
Paul's advice at this point is, forgive the man and take him
back into your fellowship. They would not tolerate his sin,
but they would forgive and restore a fallen brother. And that is the attitude, or
should be the attitude, of the church. There is no room in the
church for sin. There is not. Churches that make
room for sin, and there are many that do these days, are in error. They're wrong. They violate the
holiness of God and the holiness of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
By making room for sin in their congregations. We can't do that. But at the
same time as we will not be tolerant of sin, we must always be ever
mindful that we are falling. We are forgiven and we have been
restored by Jesus Christ and as His body, we must extend the
same to our dear brothers who have fallen and who come back
to us broken, seeking restoration. And that is how we should be. Again, completely intolerant
of sin within the church. ever eager to forgive and restore
brothers who come home. This is how tolerance within
the church should be. The rub comes in because the
world will not accept this. But we knew this. The world did
not accept Christ The world in the early days of the church
did not accept believers or the church. And throughout human
history, the world will not accept the church even today. And if we stand and say this
is what we believe and we will not be swayed, we will be first
and foremost insulted. That label of intolerance will
come out. Brother, you really can't believe
that. You can't believe that that is
the only way. If we say yes, we do believe
that, we will be insulted immediately. And if things get worse, we will
be beat upon, spit upon, any number of horrible things. And
we've seen that. Look at the news and see how
they respond to Christians who stand up against abortion or
against gay rights or any number of other things. There is no
room for immorality in the church or in the lives of God's people.
And the truth is that we are intolerant. On that level, we
are intolerant. And we must be because the command
is to be holy even as God is holy. So that right there is
where we will leave our discussion of tolerance today, recognizing
that there is a difference in viewpoint between the tolerance
that the world would push upon us today, which is actually not
tolerance, it's forced acceptance and forced association. And the
Christian view of tolerance, which would be to let the world
do as it may, but we will not engage in such. That is where we stand. Every claim of truth is intolerable. Now we as Christians know the
truth is in Jesus Christ. But any truth claim is intolerant. If you don't believe that, look
at the Islamics. There is no more intolerant group
on the face of the earth than the Islamics. They are completely intolerant.
And yet, if you turn on the TV, Christians are the greatest threat
that our society has ever faced. There's much more to be said
about tolerance and intolerance. This was basically a quick run
at it so that we would start thinking about it. In the weeks
to come, if I have opportunity to preach again, we'll look at
it a whole lot more. There's some things we need to
consider. built into this discussion of tolerance and intolerance.
It's a weighty subject and certainly today I just didn't even barely
scratch the surface. I gave us the briefest, briefest,
briefest of overviews. But what I'd like to think about,
go home if you will and in some quiet moments read through the
letters of 1st and 2nd Corinthians where Paul addresses the church
there. and instructs them at how they should live in a very
wicked, wicked place. And then keep in mind Houston,
Texas. Keep in mind your life every
day of the week and recognize the relevance of that letter.
Later we will talk about real tolerance as opposed to the tolerance
that's being forced on us by the world. We will talk about
our place in the world and our place in the church and the place
of the church in the world. And a critical distinction we
will make in the weeks to come is between what man considers
legal and what God considers moral.