Tolerance Galatians 5:22-23 19 December 2014 Lonnie Jones Good Morning My Friends! It’s the Friday before Christmas. This week is almost gone! Happy, happy, happy! Most of all, it is a new day to be a reflection of Christ and to spread the good news of the gospel through being a lover for Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in this Friday because it will never come around again. As I walked Kiko for more than thirty minutes, it took my best character chest of stored patience as he never did number two despite being out there for a very long time. Which leads me to our topic. This morning, I want to spend a few minutes on the word “tolerance.” Just as I was patient and tolerant of Kiko’s agenda this morning, we must also be tolerant of others, of their actions and often of their words even though they may not be pleasant to the ears. As I read the posts of my fb friends, often times there are troubling posts about relationships. If you recall, I wrote about relationships several time in the past, so without doubt, I know that God desires for us to have loving and kind relationships with each other. I read posts that should not be aired publicly, but privately! I read posts where the reader can sense the real anger that the writer has in his or her spirit. I read posts that are mean spirited! And….perhaps I too have fallen into the snare of the devil and written such posts! If so, I am truly sorry that I stooped to this low. However, the fact of the matter is that it should not be as such! Let’s face it! In this life on earth there are people who make us angry and we just can’t seem to see eye-to-eye with them on a particular issue. Anger levels rise and a verbal war starts! Needless to say, Satan is pleased and is setting in the arena cheering on those offended with each other wanting the relationship to be broken. But, rather than showing contempt toward the other person by getting angry and having a verbal war, tolerance is a better alternative. It shows respects, patience and courtesy – all important values in their own right as well. Tolerance is maintaining one’s self control or discipline. You know, God gave us the nine fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5. Here are verses 22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience (longsuffering), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” All nine of them are related to tolerance but the key word here is patience. To have patience with others is to demonstrate tolerance! Amen! I looked up tolerance to get the meaning of the word. Here is what I found. Tolerance is the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree. Tolerance is the capacity to endure continued subjection to something from others. The synonyms for tolerance are: toleration, sufferance, forbearance and endurance. As a noun tolerance is having a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry and of enduring! However, I like this one the best! The Free Dictionary says tolerance is the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others. Bottom line, it is maintaining self-control with patience toward others so that these fights do not happen! Amen! God tells us in Ephesians 4:2-3, “be completely humble (lowliness) and gentle, with patience (or tolerance), to bear with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in a bond of peace.” You know…unity is another word that goes along with tolerance or longsuffering. A scripture for unity is Psalm 133:1: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is, for brothers to dwell together in unity.” The bottom line is that God wants us to be at peace with each other, to be in unity and in one accord! If we are at war with each other, then there is no unity nor peace and certainly not any tolerance of another person, be they right or wrong. Relationships are broken and people are at war! Again, Satan is pleased when we fight our verbal wars and get out of unity, without peace nor tolerating each other. John 10:10, He has come to kill, steal and destroy! Amen! Folks, the answer lies in His Word and in prayer. Let us pray about our differences, and then act accordingly to how the Holy Spirit leads us. Amen! God wants us to respect each other and to be tolerant of each other with humbleness and gentleness when disagreements happen in order to maintain the unity of peace, and a bond of love. Have a great, blessed and tolerant Friday! Love everyone today! Be an encourager. In His Love John 3:30 Lonnie
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:32:19 +0000
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