Tolerance

Hello everyone ,my post today will be centered on Tolerance

When I think about tolerance the saying “live and let live” comes to mind. Think about your lifestyle: your behaviors, actions, thoughts, and environment for a moment ,think about someone else's. Chances are there are some things about other people's lives which annoy you, even your loved ones. Many people are surrounded by others who appear to be 'incompetent' and 'annoying'. Understanding tolerance can help shift our attitudes toward others, leading us to a more productive and happy life.
The dictionary definition of tolerance is; a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint. Tolerance is knowing someone and their differences, inabilities, shortcomings and loving them through it all. The level of tolerance in your life can be attributed to levels of happiness and contentment.
Tolerance is difficult just like the quote of George D Prentice “we are in favor of tolerance but it is a very difficult thing to tolerate the intolerant and impossible to tolerate the intolerable” , but to practice tolerance, we have to ; empathize, ask for explanations, ignore our differences, address a conflict ,learn about other people’s lives and culture, improve our self esteem etc.

Should Christians be tolerant?

These days, there are many beliefs, many teachings about religion, Christianity ,the church and what ought to be and there are many followers of all these teachings .Tolerance is what makes us live together with them even if we don’t agree with their doctrines,Tolerance is what makes us interact peacefully with all the members of this community irregardless of our personal beliefs, tolerance is being able to put all these aside in order to achieve a common goal.
Christians are to absolutely be tolerant. Recently, tolerance has come to mean accepting that those other beliefs are true—something Christians absolutely cannot do. The Bible is specific that we should expect others to have different beliefs about God. Galatians 4:8 says that those who don't know the true God are slaves to what are not gods. Romans 1:18-25 explains that although God has given evidence of His nature in creation, many will refuse to believe what their eyes tell them. And Luke 10:21-22 says that on occasion, it is to God's purpose that people do not see Him; God often closes the eyes of those who in pride rely on their wits to find Him instead of in humility seek Him with their hearts.
Christians are to tolerate others when they have different beliefs about God. But are we to expect tolerance in return? Luke 6:22 says we are blessed when others reject us because we follow Christ. John 15:18 says that when the world hates us, we need to remember they do so because they hated Christ first. It is foolish to expect tolerance from others toward our Christian beliefs, even if they demand tolerance for their own. God has told us clearly: we will not get it. But God has also told Christians what our response should be when we are faced with intolerance. Matthew 5:43-48 says we are to love our enemies and pray for them. Romans 12:20 says we are to provide for them.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT TOLERANCE

Timothy 4:1-2
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

2 John 1:10-11
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Ephesians 4:2
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love

Romans 14:1-4
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

John 8:7
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Deuteronomy 13:6-10
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORDyour God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Acts 10:28
And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

Matthew 7:1
“Judge not, that you be not judged.

Matthew 7:12
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

1 Peter 3:8-11
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.

Proverbs 17:15
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect

Proverbs 16:24
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Exodus 14:14
The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

1 Timothy 6:3-5
If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Romans 16:17
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

Psalm 133:1
A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Ephesians 4:30-32
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Revelation 2:2
“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

Matthew 5:44-45
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

1 Corinthians 6:1-4
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?

Ephesians 5:15
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ...

Titus 3:10-11
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Romans 2:4
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

John 12:47
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

Titus 3:2
To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Philippians 4:5
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
May God bless with the virtue of tolerance as it is a prerequisite for world peace. Shalom!!!