Tolerance Invites Judgment
Today’s message from the Gospel of Mark delves into questions about the way Jesus treated His family. Our text in chapter 3 at first appears that Jesus showed disrespect to His mother and brothers. While Jesus was addressing the multitudes of people always following Him, His family came asking others to inform Him they were outside waiting to talk to Him. Upon hearing this, Jesus said, “Who is my mother, or my brethren?” In our English translation, it appears as a curt, disrespectful answer. Would Jesus show such insolence, or would He always keep the commandment to honor His father and mother?
For those who want to find fault in Him and thus disqualify Him from being the sinless Messiah, any port in a storm will do. The truth is that Jesus would never break any of the commandments especially one that stands at the head of the second table of the law. This is the fifth law that commands us to honor our father and mother. This commandment is the first relating to societal order which takes up the duty of believers towards our fellow man. The second table begins the fulfilling of the second greatest commandment which is to love our neighbor as ourselves. If there is a social gospel, this is it. The true social gospel is faith in Christ that works outwardly towards the treatment of our fellow man with love and respect, and to honestly wish his best welfare. God loves people, and to be like Him we must love them too.
I speak this cautiously because loving souls is different from saying we must be tolerant of evil lifestyles and to live and let live. We do not love our neighbors if we do nothing to correct them. We do no favors for anyone by letting them continue in a lifestyle that is against the Holy Word of God. We are to warn offenders about the wrath to come.
I wonder sometimes what people think the warnings of God’s word are for if God says we are to keep quiet and tolerate every evil perversion. What could we warn people against if there are no consequences for their behavior? How could we love anyone that we care too little about to warn them that sin brings destruction and eternal death in the fires of hell? To love a person is to bring him to Jesus Christ. To love him is to tell him to turn from his sins, to repent of them, and to trust Christ who is the only one who can save him. To love him is to teach him to worship God in spirit and in truth. This means forsaking sinful lifestyles that God so clearly says are against His holiness.
The social issue that Christians are most concerned with is our action towards the lost unbelievers of this world. It is not our judgment that counts. It is God’s judgment, and the word shows us how to judge righteous judgment. It not only shows us; it demands that we do it. God does not tell us to tolerate sin but to purge it from us. It is not governmental action that will do this. Its solution is to plead with the heart through the grace of God for repentance and faith.
The sum of this is that rejection of God’s commandments is rejection of God. There is no peace and prosperity in the rejection of God. There is only this—the bypassing of the blood of Christ and trampling beneath the feet His holy sacrifice. We will not circumvent God’s righteous retribution by preaching tolerance. To live and let live is a fantasy. It is live and let die if we do not fight for the justice of the commandments. Leaving people alone to die in their sins is not love. When most say peace and love, understand they mean let everyone do their own thing. To do so without intervention is to condemn lost souls to eternal hell.
Pastor V. Mark Smith