My Intolerant Jesus
Hey, you know what? I can no longer TOLERATE you INTOLERANT Christians.
You are un-WOKE, anti-LBGTQ right-wingers who are Neanderthal in your treatment of women and their right to choose. You are bible-thumping, gun-toting nut jobs voting blindly Republican every election like lemmings heading off a political cliff.
The only progressive thought in your life is considering a Progressive Insurance policy.
Ok, the above rambling is my 'semi' exaggeration of the average Joe Secular. While I may have overstated the views of 'Joe', the negative perception in society, fueled by the media, is very real.
This whole INTOLERANCE label is concerning me.
I agree when the heart and mind of the church becomes judgmental and becomes merely legalistic in our words and actions... we act as living, breathing CLANGING CYMBALS, 1 Cor 13:1.
BUT when we genuinely love God, we should naturally honor Him with obedience in our words and actions.
Truth in Love, where we do not force our faith on others, BUT in all our ways acknowledge God first, and preach His truth even when it is not popular.
So this all leads me to my INTOLERANT JESUS.
Of course, Jesus healed the sick, the blind, the lame, and raised the dead. BUT he also lovingly told the truth to a compromised world. Jesus admonished his disciples, spoke frankly to the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-23), the woman at the well (John 4), and instructed Nicodemus that he must be spiritually born again (John 3).
Jesus also shared clearly the ONLY way to Heaven, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me". John 14:6.
In all his words and actions, Jesus was TRUTH IN LOVE. Without His love, Jesus would be just another false prophet clanging a cymbal. The result, though, was that the world rejected Jesus, and He was crucified by basically the same crowd who were praising him just 5 days earlier on that first Palm Sunday.
Let me leave you with the words of my 'INTOLERANT JESUS' to his disciples in John 15:18-25
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they would also obey yours. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
So kind of a reverse affirmation…
For us, when we stand for God's Truth in the face of an intolerant secular society, we realize we will be hated. YIKES! If we stand boldly regarding the Bible teaching regarding sin and the need for everyone to REPENT of their SINS, then there is the promise… the world will hate us.
In Contrast, if the world likes us, maybe we are wallflower Christians, ineffective while blending in with the locals.
I pray we remember these words as encouragement to stand firm for TRUTH on the side of our Loving God, and also to remember to be Truth in Love always.
Blessings
Jeff
