
Tolerance
Let’s Talk About It
July 21, 2024
It is our taste that decides against Christianity now, no longer our reasons. —Nietzsche
Moral Relativism- Whether something is considered right or wrong is fluid and changes based on opinion, social context, culture or whatever factors we choose.
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. —Revelation 2:18-20
TOLERANCE = GIVE CONSENT OR APPROVE OF
25 No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord’s sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel. —1 Kings 21:25
SYNCRETISM - BLENDING BELIEF SYSTEMS TOGETHER
20b By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. —Revelation 2:20b
MISLEADS = DECEIVE OR LEAD ASTRAY
Tolerance isn’t about a total rejection of Jesus. Tolerance is diluting the gravity of Jesus’ call on our lives to surrender all of who we are to all of who He is.
21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.
23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. —Revelation 2:21-23
The greatest threat to the Church is not the cultural battles outside, it’s the compromise inside.
The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them. —Francis Shaeffer
There will be a pull on us to compromise. If I’m honest with you, I can consistently feel how odd I am in the prevailing culture. The pull on my heart to shrink back and be silent, to want to look normal or not offend, is extremely powerful. I don’t want to needlessly offend, yet the God of the Bible will continually confront us. He is eternal; we are finite. He knows all things; we can’t understand ourselves. He is outside space and time; our five senses hem us in a given location. This is a recipe for constant conflict if we won’t approach the God of the Bible in humility. He is the Creator; I am the created. I won’t always understand or like what I’m called to. But I love and am captivated by Jesus, so I long to follow Him wherever He leads. —Matt Chandler
AS GOD’S PEOPLE WE BELIEVE IN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY REPENTANCE.
AS GOD’S PEOPLE WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CAME FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH.
22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. —Matthew 10:22
WHOSE WORD CARRIES THE MOST WEIGHT IN YOUR LIFE?
18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God… —Revelation 2:18