Compassion Not Tolerance: Obeying

God is tolerant to a certain point. His tolerance is called grace. He gives mankind every chance to CHANGE before they die. However, God's tolerance stops at the grave. Once a person has died, then justice is served. Toleration stops at the grave. God's justice! What's that?

Proverbs 21:15 (ESV) "When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers."

Justice will be "joy" for those who do what's right in God's eyes and "terror" are to those who do "evil".  Here are some examples of God's justice and what "justice" means:

 1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV) "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

These passages sum up "justice". For those unrighteous they will not go to heaven. They damn themselves to eternal punishment. What is "unrighteousness"?  Examples are the sexually immoral, idolaters,  adulterers, homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. I'm sure many people find their "sin of choice" among those which are damning! God does not tolerate sin, rebukes those who do, judges those who fail to repent, and allows them entry into the kingdom of Satan where evildoers are punished. God is loving, but God tolerates only to a certain point. From a worldview the "politically correct" would say that God is an extremely intolerant god and that Christians are the ultimate of intolerance!

If God punished everyone, indeed, he would be an unjust God. Although all men deserve punishment, the fact that we have a fair chance, means God is fair and loving!  According to Verse 11 we are "justified" by Jesus Christ who died for all of us! It's a necessity, though, that we accept that justification and live sanctified lives.

"Justification" is Jesus paying the price for our sins. He shed his blood and died so that we are "saved". Those who believe in and accept Jesus and live sanctified lives, are saved from wrath; eternal punishment. That seems to be fair and actually very tolerant of God!  That's merciful and loving on his part. Part of justice is those given mercy are to love God. They love God by following his commands. They set themselves apart from the world (sanctification) and live righteous lives.

Therefore, we are to be obedient to God as a result of his mercy! It's the same as the Abrahamic Covenant. God is merciful and allows us eternal prosperity, but to love God means that the saved shall be a living sacrifice. We cease to do things of pleasure out of love for Jesus who died in our place!

Exodus 20:6 ( ESV) "But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

For those who are saved God is patient!  He allows us time to develop. After living our lives as selfish babies, he patiently watches our development into mature Christian adults (sanctified Christians). However, Christians are responsible for change. We're "new persons" and as such, we must live new lives.

With those who fail to heed the call of the Holy Spirit and to be called to repentance, they may become "reprobate":

Romans 1:27  "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers..."

Those with a reprobate mind are those who God has just outright given up to Satan; those who continue in homosexuality, specifically, but just look at the list of bed-fellows: fornication, wickedness, murder, etc.!

The "thought police" hate Christians who "judge". Now let me point out that "judging" can be merely "having an opinion" all the way up to "condemning". "Thou shalt not judge!" is defined  as the harsh judgment of condemnation:

Luke 6:37 "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned..."

No, we're not to condemn, but we are to have an opinion! That's necessary to reprove (rebuke) which is one purpose of scripture.

 Ephesians 5:10 "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret."

2 Timothy 4:2 "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine."

How would Christians know who to correct and rebuke if we never have an opinion by judging their life. Yes, we are to judge, but it's using a just scale. We judge as we would want to be judged. That's in a non-condemning, loving attitude. It's telling others what God says about sin!

Even Christians have fallen to the lie "Thou shalt not have an opinion!" That's scripture "doublespeak" when taken out of context. We must tell others about the dangers of disobedience, for if the ones we love, are merely tolerated so as to not offend, the tolerant Christian condones their sin and as a consequence,. sinners become reprobate. Ironically, those who are so tolerant damn the ones they love just so that the sinner can be comfortable in their sin!

Many Christians fail to reprove and rebuke homosexuals out of tolerance. Scripture doesn't focus on tolerance. Obedience to the will of God is throughout scripture. He demands that we love him and show it by obedience!

We all have relatives and friends who are homosexual. We love them the same. However, if we love them why do we not want them to be with us in heaven? That's how we show our love!

Let's look at the extreme. If we have a son who has a desire to kill, we would tell him, to save his wretched neck, what God says about murder! Only the apathetic parent would remain tolerant and let the wayward son go to hell! Why then, do not parents (and friends) of homosexuals desire to save the ones they love? They fail to obey themselves. God tells us to reprove and rebuke! Isn't it better to "hurt their little feelings" than their "wicked little feelings" being damned forever? Think about it!

"Tolerance" is a willingness to accept in others what a person believes to be wrong. This is true for us, but for God, he's even tolerant for a spell until the person's heart is so hardened that he allows sinners to damn themselves.  Why would we want our loved ones to do what we know is wrong and stand idly by without saying anything? It's because Christians have become slaves to "politically correct" propaganda and are afraid the "thought police" will hate them too!

Obedience is doing what is right in God's eyes. The sinner is to quit sinning and the Christian is to reprove and rebuke those who sin. We are to spread "The Good News" to the world. That's The Great Commission and all Christians are called to do that! How can Christians obey God and still be tolerant? It's impossible... Scripture teaches obedience, not tolerance!

"Saving" those who need salvation is compassion. Tolerating the behavior of those who sin is apathy. Face it; by remaining silent in the face of sin IS obedience. Christians are doing what Satan wants them to do! Every person who Satan marks for death, the silent Christian is an accomplice in their loved one's death!