Tolerance and Vision
Can you really tolerate another message on tolerance? Of course you can, because tolerance is just another aspect of Love, which is God. I trust that you have been as thrilled as Dennis and I have been in looking at this piece of Love. We have been digging into this subject and yet the more we learn about tolerance the more we realize we don't know. that is the way Love is, you cannot exhaust the subject and you cannot get too much of it. God/Love realizes that He is self perpetuating, the more we receive Love the more we want and need Love. It is the only true and healthy addiction!
So, some of you may have been asking whether there are eveer appropriate limits to tolerance. You may have wondered if God's judgment isn't an example of His tolerance being exhaused. That is a very good question. And let me further complicate tolereance with the question of defending ourselves, isn't it alright to fight back against violent attacks? You may be thinking that that is a no brainer. May I remind you that Jesus said, "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Tolerance is complicated; it certainly requires us to make choices about the limits to our own gift of tolerance. How can we know when to be tolerant and when to appropriately withdraw it?
Scripture
"Put your sword back in its place for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" At that time Jesus said to the crowd, "Am I leading a rebellion that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me..."
Matthew 26:52-53, 55