Scripture reading: I Corinthians 5:1–13

When Tolerance Is Intolerable

But I have this against you, that you tolerate
that woman Jezebel. (Revelation 2:20)

Our postmodern culture regards tolerance as perhaps the supreme moral virtue. To question its value is equivalent to questioning the value of apple pie or baseball. And yet the Bible warns against the dangers of tolerating moral evil and remaining passive in the face of doctrinal error. It wasn’t long ago that to tolerate something meant to accept the existence of different views and to recognize the rights of people to hold them. But today the definition has changed. Tolerance now means we must not only accept the existence of other opinions but we must accept those opinions as being equally true. Even within the church, voices are urging us to be open-minded and non-judgmental. Anyone who dares to speak up in favor of moral absolutism is quickly labeled a narrow-minded bigot and accused of hate speech. Today, tolerance has come to mean that all beliefs are equally true, and all lifestyles equally valid. Allan Bloom stated this reality forcefully in his book The Closing of the American Mind:

There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. . . . Some are religious, some atheists; some are to the Left, some to the Right; some intend to be scientists, some humanists or professionals or businessmen; some are poor, some rich. They are unified only in their relativism and in their allegiance to equality. . . . The relativity of truth is a moral postulate, the condition of a free society, or so they see it. . . . The danger they have been taught to fear is not error but intolerance. Relativism is necessary to openness; and this is the virtue, the only virtue, which all primary education for more than fifty years has dedicated itself to inculcating. . . . The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all.

This analysis of the “American mind” helps us to better understand the concern of the risen Christ in writing to the church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18–29). Jesus commended this body of believers for their love, faith, service, and patient endurance. He praised them because their current activities were greater than their former ones. If you had lived in this community, you would have wanted to join a dynamic church like this. But there was one problem: But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. (v. 21)

The problem wasn’t sin in the church but rather the toleration of sin in the church. There are no guarantees or promises in the Bible that false doctrines and immoral practices will not worm their way into the body of Christ. Unfortunately, these things happen, even in the church! Jesus is not rebuking the church at Thyatira for the sin that was there; he is rebuking her because she wasn’t doing anything about it! She was passive, indifferent, and tolerant.

Are there areas of your heart where you are “tolerating that woman Jezebel”? Hear Christ’s warning and stand up for the narrow path of Truth. Love sinners, but hate their sin. For Christians living in a world like ours, few challenges are greater.

The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church, grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.  —Leonard Ravenhill

point to ponder • Where is compromise with sin creeping into your life? Your family, business, church, relationships?

prayer focus • Discernment, both in your life and that of the church, so as to be able to walk on the narrow path of Truth.