Tolerance is an embraced mode of thought and ideal today in our societies of freedom. Tolerance has “some” wisdom in a sense to understand how others may not always agree with our own thoughts and opinions. Biblically speaking we are even taught to “avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife”. I propose a thought…tolerance is meant as a love language offered by those who seek to live peaceable with one another.
I enjoy soaking in the language of love right up until I am confronted with truth. We are never to twist the truth to justify being tolerant and even compromised. Tolerance for the sake of peace is an incorrect perception. Tolerance for the sake of our own freedom is again an incorrect perception. Going back to what the Word speaks when it says to “avoid foolish and ignorant disputes”; I looked into the deeper meaning of the word foolish. According to Strong’s it would mean, “dull or stupid, heedless, absurd”, just to be brief. In the dictionary it refers to “resulting from or showing a lack of sense, unwise, lacking forethought or caution, trifling, insignificant”. My thought process was that this word never said to avoid disagreement. It does not say avoid discussion just so we could be tolerant of each other. It spoke that we are not to be foolish in such things. It also speaks “a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
In Acts chapter 17 when Paul came to Thessalonica, he did not come to foolishly dispute anything. He came in love, but would only speak truth. The results were divisive, and telling verses were spoken, “these who have turned the world upside down have come here too…And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things”. Paul and his companion Silas were sent elsewhere and this is where we find the encouragement to know what true tolerance should be. “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.”
Accepting anything less than truth is compromise; it becomes the world’s twisted version of tolerance.
Scriptures 2 Tim 2:23-26, Acts 17:6,8,11
