Romans 5:12 KJV Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: You might be proud of yourself because you have a …
Source: Spiritual Disease
Day: July 24, 2016
Tolerance Isn’t The Answer: Love Is
There are a lot of things that I talk to people about on a daily basis. Thanks to social media, a lot of them center around current events and how they are spun to make people react. I can surely sympathize with a lot of it, but as a Christian who believes – WHOLEHEARTEDLY – that the Word of God is the infallible living Word, and the Truth, there are certain things that I cannot be swayed on. No matter how politically correct, no matter how popular, no matter how many laws are created. The Word will stand when everything else melts away.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
I could go on and on about what the Bible has to say about the Word, but I digress for now. If you should be so inclined, you can study it out for yourself. Any of the links above will lead you to a website with a great many study tools that you can use at your convenience.
There are even instances throughout the Bible where God’s people have gone against laws and against popular standing and remained true to God. The “three Hebrew children” – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – were commanded to worship a statue of gold (Daniel chapter 3) or face being thrown into a fiery furnace. However, they were too dedicated to God, who had commanded that His people worship nothing else other than Him, to even think twice. They said they would not do so, even to the point of death, and if it were God’s will, He would save them from the fire.
First of all, they had no idea what God was about to do, but the point is that they didn’t care. And it made the king SO angry, he commanded the furnace be heated seven times hotter than normal. It was so hot that the guards that carried the three up to the top were burnt up in just being that close. BUT GOD!
A similar occurrence happened to Daniel himself, when he was thrown into a den of hungry lions (Daniel chapter 6) for continuing to pray when the king commanded that no one do so for thirty days. Daniel knew what was at stake, and he didn’t care. He had to remain true to God, and doing so saved his life.
In both of these instances, the end result was the same: people came to know God in all His might and power through the dedication of His people. The same people that never transgressed the Word of God, and God was quick to show his power.
If, in either of these cases, these people had attempted to reason with God and bend His rules, the outcome would have been much, much different. They were not tolerant to the point of allowing the overall majority to rule in their own personal walk with God. They were not tolerant of the fact that their own beliefs were being disregarded and they were certainly not tolerant of anything that would cause them to “put away” God.
BUT, neither did they allow what happened to give them an opportunity to hate. Instead, they came out of their circumstances praising the One True God, and with love, declaring that His mercy endures and His Hand is on those that serve Him. They had the love of God in their hearts, along with their tried and true dedication to God, and together, they worked miracles.
Even Jesus spoke often of love and how it changes things and people alike. He taught parables on it and lived by it Himself. Once, when being questioned by the scribes and Pharisees, he was asked what was the first commandment of all, and he had this to say…
Mark 12:28-31
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Love is what will change things, but doing so is sometimes only possible through the love of God. As Christians, it’s time to stop playing church and acting as if there are no repercussions for acting the way we have for too long. Time for talk is done. It is now time to love – but not tolerate sin to do it. It IS possible. It’s certainly not popular in this world, just as it wasn’t popular back then, but God’s Word and commandments never change.
All Out War! 