Tolerance is Not Approval

Can’t we all just get along?

Do you remember the feeling of freedom we had as children? Our imaginations ran wild and flowed unimpeded by the dams of the daily grind! Do you remember the fun of playing ball or hide and seek? How about pretending that you were a caped crusader or some other hero or heroine?

Despite our desire for unfettered freedom, even we knew there had to be structure, there had to be rules. Every game we played had some set of laws and many times, the rules were defined by the one who owned the ball and the bat. My ball. My rules! This dictatorial rule of decree was often argued but seldom overturned. Sometimes there was a cry from one of the older, wiser kids: “Guys, can’t we all just get along?”

Growing Up and Getting on with It

Now let’s take that concept and fast-forward well beyond adolescence and into adulthood. We all know that rules apply to life, regardless of whether you accept God’s Word as the standard or not. We can testify to the fact that there are many fighting for the right to assert dominance and rule over others. Even in adulthood we hear the decree: “My ball. My rules!” And a lot of people are fighting for that “ball.”

Words matter and definitions matter all the more. If one can control the language, they can control the culture. This is the playing field in the culture wars, and it’s plain to see! For example, if you only used the modern new stories to define words and terms, you’d be hard pressed to figure out that tolerance differs from approval. And by approval, they mean being “on the right side of history.” 

Tolerance and Intolerance

The modern cry for tolerance is not only for allowance of diverging views, but also the approval of certain views. It is also a condemnation of those who reject those views as false. In the name of “tolerance,” war is waged on those who are on the “wrong side of history.” 

To be clear, I am not suggesting that we ought to tolerate all things. There are many things that we ought not tolerate. We ought not tolerate the abuse of children. We ought not tolerate mistreatment of others on the basis of race or ethnicity. We ought not tolerate the slaughtering of helpless babies in the name of “women’s healthcare. ” 

I think that by now you may be picking up what I am communicating. Or perhaps a more appropriate way of putting it: smelling what I am stepping in. 

Tolerance is Not Approval.

If tolerance means that we discuss our disagreements with civility, deal. If tolerance means that we engage without the use of logical fallacies such as straw man and ad-hominem arguments, I’m game. If tolerance means approval, someone else said it better than me: “Yeah, that’s gonna be a ‘no’ from me, dawg.”

Tolerance is not approval. Don’t let those pushing a particular agenda tell you otherwise. We have a standard of truth. We have a God who does not tolerate any and all viewpoints. He has made us in his own image. Male and female he has created us. He forms each one in the womb. He created the cultural diversity that we see and will have that diversity on display in heaven as a multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue that will surround his throne!

This beautiful message is not one of tolerance but of the sovereign grace of a holy God. Though our sins are intolerable, God has made a way to be on his right side. He has done this through Jesus. It is his life, death and resurrection that is our only hope. He is our peace. 

We do not need the approval of the world or to be on “the right side of history” as others see it. In the midst of the madness, it is time we speak the truth to the culture: God’s world. God’s rules.