Tolerance

Is there a limit to what we should tolerate? Obviously, yes - but what
should those limits be and who decides? That's a debate that affects us
all, whether we're bringing up teenagers or teaching in schools about
relationships or deciding whether women should be bishops or gay
marriages be encouraged. The limits of toleration have moved over the
years, and I find that as life goes on my own limits change, and I am
probably more tolerant in some ways and more intolerant in others than I
used to be.

My position is that God decides what I should or should not put up with.
There are many things in life that I can do nothing about and have to
put up with. However, there are many things that I should do something
about. The first priority must be in my own life. This was strongly
impressed upon me in my reading of Pauls letter to the Romans. In the
second half of chapter 1 he tells how God's judgement has been revealed
against all godlessness and wickedness, and lists such evil activities
as homosexual activity, envy, gossiping, and disobeying parents - all of
which deserve death, he says. But then he goes on to say, 'You,
therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else,
for... you are doing the same things.' (Romans 2:1.) The list of wicked
things he's been making was not designed to help us condemn others, but
to make all of us realise our own sinfulness! (The rest of the letter
explains how in fact God is seeking to reconcile us to himself, and to
renew his creation, through Jesus Christ.) And the way Paul tells us to
deal with the rubbish in our own lives is not by trying to live up to a
set of rules or ideals but by trusting Jesus for reconciliation and
trusting the Holy Spirit to lead us into good and acceptable ways of
life - and doing what he tells us.

How can I know what God wants me to tolerate or not? I may have a sense
of what is right and wrong, but ultimately I have to check it out with
what God has said in the Bible - and this is where I find I am changing
my position, as I get more and more into what the Bible is saying, taken
as a whole. The life and teaching of Jesus has to colour my view of
everything else in the Bible, for Jesus reveals what God is like most
fully - he and the Father are one. As I wrestle with different issues, I
sometimes feel I am still in the dark, and I cannot predict what my
limits of toleration will be in the future.

In all this, I know I am called to love my neighbour as myself,
whatever he or she does, whether I approve of it or not.