Is Tolerance a Christian Virtue?

The word tolerance is heard frequently in today’s world, often in the context of discussions about race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and even religion. Is tolerance a biblical virtue? If so, what does it look like in a world where so many people have such vastly different answers to life’s most important questions?

Dr. David K. Bernard's answer will help Christians navigate the turbulent waters of modern culture while remaining faithful to Scripture.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

We hear a lot about tolerance these days. The word is often used in the context of discussions about race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and even religion. Is tolerance a biblical virtue? If so, what does tolerance look like in a world where so many people have such vastly different answers to life's most important questions? Keep listening to find out. Welcome to Apostolic Life in the Twenty First Century, a podcast dedicated to helping modern-day believers live out the teachings of the first century church. This podcast is part of the teaching ministry of Dr. David K. Bernard. Dr. Bernard has dedicated his life to studying the Bible and helping believers apply its message to their daily lives. In Apostolic Life in the 21st century, Dr. Bernard answers your questions about what the Bible teaches and how those teachings apply to everyday life. Thank you for joining us for this episode. If you enjoy this podcast, we encourage you to check out Dr. David K. Bernard's books. Dr. Bernard has written more than 30 books on biblical theology and Christian living and leadership. Visit Pentecostalpublishing.com and search David Bernard for a list of available titles. Enter promo code DKB10 at checkout to save 10% on your order. That's Pentecostalpublishing.com, promo code DKB10 to save 10% at checkout. The word tolerance gets thrown around a lot in our culture, usually in reference to discussions about uh sex, gender, gender identity, race. In fact, many of our audience members are probably familiar with that. It seems like they're everywhere, these bumper stickers that say coexist, and that the letters are made up of symbols from various royal religions, including usually the Christian cross. So this people are talking about tolerance, but I want to know the word tolerance does not appear in the King James Version of the Bible, at least. But is that a biblical virtue? And if so, what does it look like in a world where people have so many different competing ideas and answers to life's most important questions?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

So the question is Is tolerance a Christian virtue? And the answer is yes and no. Yes, uh, in the sense of loving and respecting all people. And you can see this in Matthew 7, 12, the words of Jesus. We usually call it the golden rule, and we can paraphrase it in modern English, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And it actually goes back to the Old Testament. Jesus said, uh, this is the summary of the law and the prophets, because you go back to Leviticus, love your neighbor as yourself. So just like you love yourself, you should treat your neighbor the same way. Uh so the Old Testament, the New Testament, the whole Bible teach we should respect other human beings because number one, they are created in the image of God. And number two, uh Jesus Christ died for everyone. Uh we should love them. And love is more than an emotion. Sometimes we we don't have an emotionally warm feeling towards an evil person, but love is primarily an act of the will. We choose to treat them kindly, respectfully, uh, lovingly. And so we're even supposed to love our enemies, Jesus said in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Uh so when it comes to how we treat another human being, we should treat them as we wish to be treated. So love, kindness, respect, which would indicate if we we want freedom to practice our religious beliefs, we want free uh people to at least respect us, not to ridicule us, not to persecute us, uh, not to hate us, not to be bigoted or prejudiced against us. Well, we should do the same. So whether it's an atheist, a Muslim, someone living a homosexual life, someone who's addicted to drugs, uh, someone who's transgender, um Christians of other denominations, we should treat them kindly. So that means accepting them as humans and with civil rights, human rights given by God, in fact. Um we can't violate that. But not approval. So we can uh tolerance in the correct sense, the biblical sense, as I've described it, loving your neighbor and so forth, um, and the golden rule would mean accepting them as humans, accepting their integrity, uh, respecting their rights, uh uh accepting the fact that they have a right to participate in society and politics in the community, but not approving of their behavior, their lifestyle, their choices, and so on. And sometimes that can be a fine line. But uh say, for example, with family members or neighbors or or people, uh fellow um students at school or coworkers. How do you you can't hate them, you can't speak against them, yet you don't want to approve of their lifestyle. And so here's the problem with tolerance now. It's been redefined, not in the sense of respecting another person and protecting their rights, as I've just explained, which I do believe is biblical. But now tolerance is being redefined to say you must approve of other people's choices and lifestyle. And the theory behind this is there is no absolute truth. So everybody's truth is just as valid as everybody else's. And so if you're gonna respect that person, you have to accept their truth as valid for them. Well, we've discussed in a previous podcast that there is absolute truth. It's found in God, it's found in the Word of God. And even though we are imperfect beings and we may not be capable of perfectly understanding truth, we can understand the truth of God's word, and we can understand uh that we're supposed to have faith in God and that we're supposed to be born again, and we're supposed to live a holy life, and there's some uh actions and behaviors and lifestyles that are right, and there's some that are wrong. And so there too for us, there is a standard of objective truth. So if you believe all truth is subjective, then your tolerance would mean you say, well, your lifestyle is just as valid as mine. Your religion is just as valid as mine. Well, as Christians, we can't say that. And of course, to live in this world, practically speaking, you can't say that. To a brain surgeon, you can't say, well, your technique is just as good as that person's technique. No, one technique is going to kill you and one is going to save you. You can't say to an airline pilot, well, however, you want to fly the plane is just as good as how I want to fly the plane. No, there's a right way and there's a wrong way. And the wrong way will cause you to crash and burn. So in the real world, there is right and wrong. So to say, and in the spiritual realm, certain lifestyles are sinful and will lead to eternal separation from God, which we call the lake of fire hell. So to say your lifestyle or your choice is just as good as mine, um, it's not a matter of our personal choice, it's a matter of God's will. But just to say one choice is just as good as the other is not true because one choice leads to destruction. Sin has horrible consequences in this life, not to mention the life to come. So to say it's all the same or all neutral or equally valid, we can't conscientiously say that because we can't believe that. And furthermore, it's just objectively not true. Uh, you know, if you live in certain ways, you destroy your physical health. Um, so if you smoke, you're much more likely to get lung cancer and all kinds of other diseases. So to say, a choice of smoking uh or the choice of using drugs is morally neutral and it's just your choice versus my choice is equally valid. That's not objectively true. It's actually detrimental for your health. In the same way, various sins are detrimental for your physical life, your spiritual life, your emotional life, your family life, your marriage, and your eternity. Uh, so tolerance cannot mean that we accept other views as correct. Um, and so it is not bigoted to say, I believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world. I believe that salvation is through Jesus Christ. I believe if you live a sinful life, uh, that you will eventually have an eternity that's separated from God because God is holy. And if you choose sin on a permanent basis, you will be separated from the God who is holy. And that's what your eternity will look like. It's not bigoted or prejudiced or hateful to say that. Now, we can we can say God is the judge. I'm not going to say you're going to hell, and I don't have authority to send you to hell. And what I think doesn't really matter, but God is going to be the ultimate judge. Now, I will further add, because some Christians may push back to say, no, we should uh, you know, we shouldn't be tolerant even in the sense you you first described. Well, uh, certainly we're to hate evil. Um, and it's sometimes an overused phrase, and I think there's a truth. We can hate sin, but love the sinner. So we hate sin because it's destructive. So we hate alcoholism because it destroys lives. Doesn't mean we hate the alcoholic. We can have compassion for them. We can respect them as a human, we can love them. So I do believe in a very real sense, um, we can hate evil and sin without hating people or being bigoted or harsh or hateful towards them. And we have to, in our speech, our conduct, we have to think not only do we want to be morally right, but we want to be effective. So, yes, telling someone what you're doing is wrong, it has bad consequences, that may be the most loving thing to say. But just to ridicule them or attack them or be harsh and hateful towards them, saying we're right and they're wrong, well, I think you have to say we're not trying to win an argument, we're trying to win a soul. And so being harsh and hateful turns them away from hearing truth. We haven't really done any good. We haven't really loved them. Now, uh, so for someone to push back, I would say read 1 Peter, especially chapters two, three, and four. And it talks about having a good reputation uh in the community. So we are to live a good Christian life. We are to be good citizens in society, uh, we are to be good employees, uh, even with unbelievers, so that we have a good testimony. And we we should care what other people think about us. So you might say, well, we don't we don't have to care what sinners think, but first Peter says, yes, we should. And then it says, they may persecute us unfairly, but let's make sure it is indeed unfairly that we're not being, that we don't suffer or we're not uh being attacked because of sins that we're committing. But if we are going to be persecuted or if we are gonna suffer in a society, or if people are going to hate us, let it be because of the godly life we've chosen. And and it Peter goes on to explain, do good works. So eventually, even though they may persecute you and ridicule you when they see your good works, they may change their mind. And Peter also says, have an answer for the questions they ask, uh, so that they might understand. So when you read 1 Peter, it seems to say, even when you're treated unjustly, you're persecuted, or you suffer as a Christian, you should pay attention. You should try to be um have a good reputation and have a good relationship as far as you can. You should care about how other people look at us. You shouldn't be antagonistic. They might be attacking you, but you shouldn't attack them in the same way. And and so I think he is saying that Christians should be um tolerant in the sense of respecting other people even when they're not respected, and doing good works even when they're being persecuted. So there is an element um following what Jesus said that we should care about what other people think of us, and we should strive to be good Christians, good citizens, good neighbors, good family members, even when that's not reciprocated. And so tolerance in the sense of respecting and loving others regardless, yes. Tolerance in the sense of approving sinful behavior and lifestyles, no. I think that's the the proper course for Christians in our secular society.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Thank you for listening to this episode of Apostolic Life in the Twenty First Century. If you enjoy this podcast, please take a moment to give us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We also appreciate it when you share apostolic life in the 21st century with a friend or family member. And make plans to join us again next time as we look at how the Bible applies to everyday life.