Friday Read: The Delusion of Tolerance

Pilate thought he was being reasonable. Faced with an obviously innocent man and a bloodthirsty crowd, he offered a compromise: "I will therefore punish and release him" (Luke 23:16). Beat Jesus a little to appease the crowd, then let him go. Everyone gets something; nobody gets everything. It's the kind of moderate, tolerant solution that modern culture applauds—finding middle ground, respecting all viewpoints, avoiding absolute positions. But Pilate's tolerance enabled the greatest injustice in human history.

Today's tolerance doctrine teaches that all beliefs are equally valid, all lifestyles equally legitimate, all truth claims equally credible. To suggest that some ideas are better than others, some behaviors more harmful than others, or some truth claims more accurate than others is considered bigotry. We've redefined love as acceptance and wisdom as open-mindedness, creating a culture where the only unacceptable belief is believing that some things are unacceptable.

But Jesus wasn't tolerant in the modern sense. He called the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs" (Matthew 23:27), told the rich young ruler to sell everything (Mark 10:21), and declared himself "the way, and the truth, and the life" with the exclusive claim that "no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). He was compassionate toward sinners but intolerant toward sin, loving toward people but uncompromising about truth.

Paul followed this pattern, commanding the Corinthians to "expel the wicked person from among you" (1 Corinthians 5:13) and warning the Galatians that anyone preaching a different gospel should be "accursed" (Galatians 1:8-9). This wasn't hatred—it was love that cared more about spiritual welfare than social acceptance, more about eternal truth than temporary peace.

The modern church has largely capitulated to tolerance ideology, refusing to address sin clearly, compromising biblical truth for cultural acceptance, and confusing love with affirmation. We've forgotten that sometimes the most loving thing you can do is tell someone they're wrong, that true tolerance means engaging with ideas seriously enough to evaluate them, and that Jesus's love was proven not by his acceptance of sin but by his willingness to die to conquer it.

Where have you confused tolerance with love? What biblical truths are you reluctant to affirm because they're culturally unpopular? When does your desire for acceptance tempt you to compromise convictions? True love doesn't tolerate destruction—it intervenes to rescue, even when rescue is unwelcome.