Ephesians 4:15, “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—”
Zechariah 8:16, “These are the things you shall do: speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace;”
John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
We celebrated Valentine’s Day just yesterday. For many people, it was a day filled with joy, chocolate, flowers, and dinners. For others, it was a sad day, the first Valentine’s without a loved one. Maybe the one you love has rejected your advances, and that day was a sad reminder. We have a lot of lonely people in our world; some are lonely for their own reasons; others are not able to find anyone to love them. Sadly, in our world today, there is confusion between what love is and what tolerance is. Our world would have us to believe that these are one and the same.
The word tolerance is defined this way in the dictionary: the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. We have learned that, in general, the desire is for us to tolerate the bad behaviors of others and not of us. One of the problems we face is that love has become about everything but the truth. Now, let us be clear: there is a certain degree of tolerance involved in love. We are called to forgive each other numerous times for the same failures, just like God forgives us. We are told that true Godly love covers a multitude of sins; that means a lot of sins. I have heard a good marriage defined as one where the husband and wife each forgive each other a lot.
The Bible tells us that Truth and Love go hand in hand; one will have a hard time when you try to separate the two. Our world is doing that. We are told in John 8:44 that all lies are from the devil. He is the father of all lies. So, if we say a man can be a woman, and vice-versa, we are lying, and that is from the devil. If we tell our children that a man can do what a woman does and vice-versa, that lie is also from the devil. If we tell our kids that love means encouraging evil and that tolerance means that we ignore God’s stated laws about right and wrong, then we are lying, and that is from the devil.
Love requires truth; one cannot speak lies in love. I will say it again: one cannot speak lies in love. The world’s definition of tolerance requires us to do that. It requires us to turn a blind eye to the obvious truth and to promote lies as ‘truth.’ This is hatred. Love requires us to be willing to be hated for it. This is hard; we all want to be liked. But the truth separates; it requires lines to be drawn. I love my wife, so I do not have sexual relations with other women; all else is lies. All else is hatred.
Truth fosters other things in our lives and in our societies; just look at what Zechariah says: truth comes hand in hand with justice and peace. They cannot be separated. The contrast is that lies breed injustice and warring. Herein, then, is the Achilles heel tolerance; the very thing that it desires to bring in cannot be had when that tolerance is built on lies. Jesus is the very standard of truth, and as such, He is intolerant by the world’s standards. But He also requires that we live in justice and peace with each other.
In Micah 6:8, see this admonition: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Because of the doctrine of tolerance even promoted by churches, many Christian women have stayed in physically abusive relationships, and sadly, some have been killed. We have been guilty of promoting tolerance at the expense of love and truth. We used guilt about separation or divorce to coerce these women to stay and ‘tolerate.’ In many cases, we did not even challenge the men to stop their evil ways.
One can see that as we get closer and closer to the return of our Savior Jesus, the lies of the evil one grow more and more audacious, and they are no longer creeping into our churches; they are being proclaimed from the pulpit. Many of the mainline denominations have been infiltrated and flat-out taken over by the LGBTQ2+ communities, and they no longer have any fear or reverence for God at all. It does not take long for the lies to cheat God of His glory. It does not take long for the lies to pervert the Gospel, and a local ‘church’ becomes a highway to Hell and not a gateway to Heaven. We are tolerating people right into Hell.
Jesus’ love requires sacrifice; it requires a standard that is not negotiable, and it requires us to say ‘No’ at times. Love requires us to be perceived as hateful and even mean. Real love is hard and requires us to have a thick skin. True Godly love looks at the long view and is not satisfied with instant gratification. God’s love requires forgiveness, then more forgiveness, then a bit more forgiveness, and finally, more forgiveness.
I pray that your life is filled with God’s truth, that you live in peace and justice with those around you, and that you never allow tolerance to defy the clearly established boundaries of God.
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario