Tolerance: To Be or Not To Be

It's no secret that there is a constant battle among Christians about whether accepting sinners or correcting them should be our predominant focus. So many of us go to great lengths to love the unsaved, treading lightly, making sure they are not offended by our beliefs. Others of us make sure the unsaved know that their actions are wrong from first contact regardless of their response. The Lord makes clear in a very short verse in Hebrews what our attitude should be in order to show the glory of God. And isn't that what we're trying to accomplish in the first place?

Hebrews 12: 4 "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:"

According to this Scripture, we are to be at peace with all men, and, at the same time, be holy so that these men we are at peace with will see the Lord in our lives. So the answer is, neither camp is wholly correct. We are to both be at peace with the unsaved and show them the glory of the Lord through holiness which the Lord has accomplished in us. 


"Follow" could also mean pursuing peace making this an active effort. 

 I Peter 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Rom. 12: 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

These verses make it clear that as far as we are concerned, we are to honor all men. All men are created by God in His image, and while they are not your spiritual brother/sister as of yet, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't treat them with respect for who they are and their opinions no matter how contrary they are to Christianity. In Romans, we see that sometimes the unsaved will choose to not be at peace with us. A lot of times, people have a fear of or hatred for God. When you bring your love for the Lord to them, you bring that to light too often for them to be comfortable. Why should we expect anything else from an unsaved person (John 15: 18-19)? Isn't their eternal destination much more important than our momentary hurt feelings from rejection?  We see this in our government passing laws that directly oppose Biblical principles, and punishing Christians for adhering to Biblical principles as being "intolerant." What do we expect a sinner to do? Sometimes people say they have a restored faith in humanity. What faith should we have in humanity? The Bible tells us we are all deceitfully wicked (Jer.17:9) so why should we expect behavior contrary to that? 
  
Now the basics. Holiness- the part so many of us leave out when we embrace philanthropy. Holiness is achieved by the Holy Spirit in our lives through sanctification and this takes time and constant effort. Hebrews 12:1  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us"The Lord clearly states to be holy, for He is holy. We have to choose to allow God to point out our sin, and we must repent in our desire to turn completely away from that sin. We must be willing to allow the Lord to lead us out of temptation, because He has said He will always provide a way out. If we don't become like Christ, we can't glorify Him, simply put.

What about Jesus' example in all of this?

Matthew 21:12-13
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

First observation- Jesus didn't pick on the individual. His anger was never focused on any one individual. It was focused on the sin going on in the place. When we are angry, we usually take it out on an individual because our anger is based on selfishness. Someone is irritating us, putting us down, taking away from us. Fact of the matter is that sinful anger is selfish. Second, He is God and this was His house. We can't compare us throwing people out of a church because they're doing wrong because we are not almighty, sovereign God. It was His house and only He had the authority to throw people out. The whole culture had defamed His house and He was concerned that it diminished the glory of His Father and Himself. His anger was focused on the glory of God. Jesus was also harsh on the Pharisees calling them hypocrites, etc. several times. However, he didn't exclude them from his teaching groups even though he knew they were there just to criticize and find fault. Also, Pharisees usually started the conversation with a controversial statement, so the Lord answered. He never went seeking a fight with them, although He did provide instruction to the people on why they were not suitable spiritual leaders. 

On the other hand, the Lord showed great care for tax collectors and adulteresses entrenched in sin and met their imminent needs. With the adulteress about to be stoned, he protected her from certain death even though it was clear she was guilty. Once she realized He had cared enough for her to protect her in spite of her sin, her life was changed because God applied His holiness to the situation and told her to sin no more (See John 8:3-11). But to get her to listen in the first place, He had to meet her imminent need of protection. Many judged lepers as being punished for sin with their disease, but the Lord healed them meeting their physical needs. Only one leper came back to thank God for what He had done. In the same way, just because we love and help to meet needs does not mean that they will instantly give their life to the Lord, but a seed has been planted. The Lord cared about that one leper who trusted in Him (Luke 17:12-19). 

However, what you don't see is Jesus accepting the sin in the life of the unsaved. The Lord made the relationship with the purpose of leading them to Himself and His power. This is the point of our relationships with the unsaved- the Bible states clearly that we are not to be close friends or spouses with the unsaved (Prov.24:1, 2 Cor. 6:14), but we are to be at peace with them. The point of our existence is to glorify God. If that is truly the desire of our heart, the unsaved will see the difference and will become curious eventually. Even if they don't, it will come up in conversation at some point. Even if that person avoids you from now on, the seed has been planted and God will do the work in his/her heart. 

Holiness is of vital important because without it, there is no difference for the unsaved to see- sometimes when all we do is accept them so well that we support their sin, they see no need to change. Instead of pro-life beliefs with exclusions such as incest and rape, we should compassionately educate the young lady on the realities of what abortion is, and share the gospel with her so the Lord can change her mind and heart. Instead of shunning our homosexual family member, we should explain to them the importance of Biblical marriage in light of the gospel and let God change the heart. Remember, the goal of a relationship with the unsaved is to glorify the Lord through sharing the gospel (Mark 16:15). Simply put, when we are at peace with others, our holiness has a foundation because not only can the unsaved see the difference, they realize that the difference is the reason you are willing to be at peace with them.