Are You Truly Tolerant?
HAVE you ever felt incensed because of someone’s improper conduct? Are you quick to act when corrupting influences are making inroads among your close asso-ciates?
Prompt and firm action is sometimes re-quired to stop the spread of serious sin. For example, when brazen wrongdoing threat-ened to defile the Israelites in the 15th cen-tury B.C.E., Aaron’s grandson Phinehas took decisive action to clear away what was bad. Jehovah God approved of what he did, say-ing: “Phinehas. . . has turned back mywrath from upon the sons of Israel by his tolerating no rivalry at all toward me in the midst of them.”—Numbers 25:1-11.
Phinehas took appropriate action to halt the spread of contamination. But what about unchecked indignation at the mere human failings of others? If we were to act rashly or without just cause, we would be-come not so much a champion of righteous-ness as a figure of intolerance—someone who makes no allowances for the imperfec-lions of others. What can help us to avoid this pitfall?
‘Jehovah Is Forgiving All Your Error’
Jehovah is “a God who is jealous (zealous); a God not tolerating rivalry.” (Exodus 20:5, footnote) Being the Creator, he has the right to demand our exclusive devotion. (Revela-tion 4:11) Yet, Jehovah is tolerant of human weaknesses. Concerning him, the psalmist David therefore sang: “Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness. He will not for all time keep finding fault. . . He has not done to us even according to our sins; nor according to our errors has he brought upon us what we de-serve.” Yes, if we are repentant, God ‘is for-giving all our error.’—Psalm 103:3, 8-10.
Because he understands the sinful na-ture of humans, Jehovah does not “keep finding fault” with repentant wrongdoers. (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12) In fact, it is his purpose to eliminate sin and imperfection. Until that is fully accomplished, rather than bringing upon us “what we deserve,” God graciously extends forgiveness on the basis of Jesus Christ’s ransom sacrifice. None of us would be judged worthy of survival if Jeho-vah did not show mercy when appropri-ate. (Psalm 130:3) How grateful we can be that our heavenly Father, who rightfully de-mands exclusive devotion, is a merciful God!
Balance Is Needed
Since the Sovereign Lord of the universe displays tolerance in dealing with imperfect humans, should we not do the same? Toler-ance has been defined as “the disposition to be patient with the opinions or practices of others.” Do we personally have such a dis-position—an inclination to exercise patience and forbearance when others say or do things that are not grossly sinful but perhaps are inappropriate in word or deed?
Of course, we need to avoid being over-ly tolerant. For instance, terrible damage is done when religious authorities tolerate abusive priests who persistently molest boys and girls. “Treating the children as occasions of sin,” commented one reporter in Ireland, “the church authorities merely moved on the offending priest [to another location].”
Is just transferring such a man an example of proper tolerance? Hardly! Suppose a med-ical body allowed an irresponsible surgeon to continue operating, transferring him from one hospital to another, even though he was killing or maiming his patients. A mistaken sense of professional loyalty might produce such “tolerance.” But what about the victims whose lives were lost or ad-versely affected because of negligent or even criminal practices?
There is also a danger of showing too lit-tle tolerance. When Jesus was on the earth, some Jews known as Zealots wrongly sought to use the example of Phinehas in an at-tempt to justify their own activities. One ex-treme action of certain Zealots was “to min-gle with crowds in Jerusalem during festivals and similar occasions and stab the objects of their displeasure unawares with daggers.”
As Christians, we would never go as far as the Zealots did in physically attacking those who displease us. But does a certain degree of intolerance lead us to attack in other ways those we disapprove of—perhaps by speak-ing abusively of them? If we are truly toler-ant, we will not resort to the use of such hurtful speech.
The first-century Pharisees were another intolerant group. They were constantly con-demning others and made no allowance for human imperfection. The proud Pharisees looked down on the common folk, malign-ing them as “accursed people.” (John 7:49) For good reason, Jesus denounced such self-righteous men, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cumin, but you have disregarded the weight-ier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These things it was binding to do, yet not to disregard the other things.”—Matthew 23:23.
In making this statement, Jesus was not downplaying the importance of keeping the Mosaic Law. He was simply showing that the “weightier,” or more important, aspects of the Law required applying it with reason-ableness and mercy HowJesus and his disci-ples stood out from the intolerant Pharisees and Zealots!
NeitherJehovah God nor Jesus Christ con-dones badness. Soon, ‘vengeance will be brought upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news.~ (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) In his zeal for righ-teousness, however, Jesus never fails to re-flect his heavenly Father’s patient, merciful, and loving concern for all who want to do what is right. (Isaiah 42:1-3; Matthew 11:28-30; 12:18-21) What a fine example Jesus set for us!
Patiently Put Up With One Another
Though we may have great zeal for what is right, let us apply the apostle Paul’s counsel:
“Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another. Even as Jehovah freely forgave you, so do you also.” (Colossians 3:13; Matthew 6:14, 15) Toler-ance requires putting up with one another’s shortcomings and mistakes in this imperfect world. We need to be reasonable about what we expect of others.—Philippians 4:5.
Being tolerant does not in any way imply approval of wrongdoing or being blind to errors. Some aspect of a fellow believ-er’s thinking or conduct may be somewhat out of harmony with Jehovah’s standards. Though the deviation may not yet be so se-rious as to lead to rejection by God, it may give a warning signal indicating that some adjustment is required. (Genesis 4:6, 7) How loving it is when those having spiritual qual-ifications try to readjust the erring one in a spirit of mildness! (Galatians 6:1) To succeed in this endeavor, though, it is necessary to act out of concern rather than with a critical spirit.
“With a Mild Temper and Deep Respect”
What about exercising patience toward people whose religious views differ from ours? A “General Lesson” that was posted in all the National Schools established in Ire-land in 1831 reads: “Jesus Christ did not in-tend his religion to be forced on men by vio-lent means. . . . Quarrelling with our neighbours and abusing them is not the way to convince them that we are in the right and they in the wrong. It is more likely to convince them that we have not a Christian spirit.”
Jesus taught and acted in a way that drew people to God’s Word, and so should we. (Mark 6:34; Luke 4:22, 32; 1 Peter 2:21) As a perfect man with special God-given insight, he could read hearts. When necessary, there-fore, Jesus was able to pronounce scathing denunciations on Jehovah’s enemies. (Matthew 23:13-33) It was not intolerant for him to do this.
Unlike Jesus, we lack the ability to read hearts. Hence, we should follow the apostle Peter’s counsel: “Sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a de-fense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you, but doing so together with a mild temper and deep re-spect.” (1 Peter 3:15) As Jehovah’s servants, we should defend what we believe because it is solidly based on God’s Word. But we need to do this in a way that shows respect for oth-ers and for their sincerely held beliefs. Paul wrote: “Let your utterance be always with graciousness, seasoned with salt, so as to know how you ought to give an answer to each one.”—Colossians 4:6.
In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Je-sus said: “All things. . . that you want men to do to you, you also must likewise do to them.” (Matthew 7:12) So, then, let us pa-tiently put up with one another and show re-spect for those to whom we preach the good news. By balancing our zeal for righteous-ness with Bible-based tolerance, we will please Jehovah and we will truly be tolerant.