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Children of the Light–Tolerant or Truthful?
By Watchman | January 29, 2009
“”Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
Ephesians 5:8-11
There is an interesting and diabolical paradox accepted today by what seems to be a majority of those in power in this nation: the only intolerance that should be endorsed is the intolerance of the intolerant. You see, it sounds so good, so noble! “Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) Every person in the world who has any claim to literacy knows this one verse from Scripture–I have found that most atheists can and will quote this, though they may have never read a single verse in the Bible in their lives. Was this Jesus’ way of making certain that we were tolerant of everything that men do? Is tolerance of evil what this verse actually encourages?
God is the only One who truly knows the motivations and secrets of our hearts. He is the only One who knows if we cry out to Him for forgiveness of a sin we are unable to control on our own. He is the only One to know, without possibility of being wrong, our love for Him or our disdain of Him–none of these things can we judge accurately at all times; therefore, we cannot judge them at all. As part of the fallen world, we know tendencies to judge based on looks, family affiliations, income levels, modes of dress or hair styles–all of these are worldly considerations only, and we may not–as Christians–judge others on this basis. However, the new tolerance demands that we not condemn any action or idea that has already been condemned by–and is in direct opposition to– the word of the Almighty God. In other words, according to this school of thought, we have no right to condemn evil. These people would tell us that to speak out against those things in our society that oppose the word of God is not to be “loving” as Christ would have us love.
Dear ones, if you saw someone in the street oblivious to the fact that they were about to be hit by a truck, would it be “loving” of you to stand silent watching as the inevitable approached, not shouting a warning or making an attempt to bring that person to a sense of his own danger? No? Then why is the desire to warn the sinner of his impending spiritual doom to be condemned as “intolerant” ? It is the most loving act we can perform. As Christians we cannot passively accept evil as the norm, nor allow it to pass unchallenged. Jesus Himself loved all of mankind enough to die for it, but He condemned evil wherever He found it and adjured the sinner to “Go, and sin no more!” Anger and hatred for those living ungodly lifestyles is not righteous, but compassionate opposition to those beliefs which would lead others into deadly sin and an eternity in hell is a necessity. It is demanded by God.
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) In an earlier Scripture (John 3:19) He said, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” So what was the purpose of the Light? To shine the light of truth on the darkness of an evil world. To illuminate that which was ungodly, so that the damned might repent of their evil and be saved. We are told (Eph. 5:8) that we should walk as children of light–to illuminate the evil that we encounter with love and compassion, that it might be defeated through the word of God, and the condemned be saved through the atoning Blood of Christ. Also in Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul warns us to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” and “…redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
Brothers and sisters, it has rightly been said that the fastest way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We have become experts at this. Through our determination to not offend the sensibilities of others we have allowed the sins of abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, blasphemy, heresy and anger to flourish to the point where the majority prefers we no longer have a voice in public at all. This must cease. We must speak out against evil wherever we find it, as Christ did, and shine the light of truth once more upon His creation. This is the true meaning of love.
Maranatha!
Topics: Current Events and the End of the Age, Kingdom Living | No Comments »