Many people at present seem to deluded that Jesus was a tolerant man. He certainly was not tolerant. It was his lack of tolerance to what he saw around him that made him an outstanding historical person. He was so significant that we divide time into before and after his birth. Today, we seem to be required to have tolerance of those that are intolerant of Christians. We seem to believe that tolerance is a virtue. There is no way that you should tolerate things that are wrong. Our enemies are weaponizing our tolerance against us.
Karl Popper once coined the ‘Paradox of Intolerance’: if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant.
It is not sensible to be tolerant of intolerance. On logic alone, a tolerant society will eventually become intolerant, as the intolerant group begins to dominate.
Even a Buddhist quotes:
Jesus regularly criticizes the Pharisees’ approach to the law. Jesus challenged their interpretations and the way they applied the law, arguing that they prioritized ritual observance over genuine faith and compassion.
We know that Jesus entered the Temple and went tribal on the money changers. He upended the money changing tables. Their ill-gotten money was scattered, and peope ran for cover.
Can you imagine such a scene happening today! Is there a single person today that could take on the money manipulators. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ took them on with world wide protest. This group opened my eyes and many have struggled to find the answers they were seeking. Jesus condemns them for their wickedness and accuses them of being thieves effectively in the middle of the church hall.
Here is Jesus on a rant: (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2023&version=NLT)
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses.[a] 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
5 “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.[b] 6 And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. 7 They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’[c]
8 “Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters.[d] 9 And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your Father. 10 And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you must be a servant. 12 But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
13 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.[e]
15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell[f] you yourselves are!
16 “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ 17 Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. 19 How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it. 21 And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it. 22 And when you swear ‘by heaven,’ you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,[g] but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel![h]
25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish,[i] and then the outside will become clean, too.
27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed. 30 Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’
31 “But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. 33 Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?
34 “Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city. 35 As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time—from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on this very generation.
Our compassion is being exploited.
Billy Graham’s message on “Stop Being Kind to Everyone” emphasizes the importance of discernment and boundaries in Christian kindness, rather than suggesting a complete cessation of kindness.
Sometimes, when you’re a nice person, it doesn’t get you loved. It gets you used. Your kindness is taken advantage of. Your decency is exploited. Your compassion is met with indifference. Your tolerance is despised. You are seen as a doormat, a pushover, or a sucker. People of tougher upbringing will simply assume you are ‘weak’ and the will walk all over you. They consider you too soft to stand up for yourself.
Do not let others misuse your decency. I harden rapidly against anyone testing my tolerance but I am decent to all and good with those of what I call a ‘kindly heart’. Start being wise.
Jesus use very harsh language and gave scathing significant criticisms particularly of the leaders of the time. The government of the time was the temple. The temple ruled society and was the government. He criticised government, government leaders and religious persons as they were all the same thing. He called religious leaders “hypocrites”, “blind guides”, “fools”, “bleached tombs”, and “snakes”. He accused them of being murderers, liars, and full of wickedness. That appears in a scathing rant in Matthew 23.
He called out political leaders. He teached that God will judge us and send some people to hell. He demanded that sinners repent. He said to the Pharisees that their father was Satan. He had a habit of telling people to their face that they were wrong.
The Jesus of the Bible was not tolerant. If you believe he was tolerant, you have been misled, probably by agents that want Christians to be peaceful and subservient. Jesus never was peaceful and subservient.
Jesus critisises seven churches, whist giving commendations for what they are doing well. He rebukes then for what they are doing poorly. Here is one case where he is clearly intolerant of sexual immorality, something that is rampant today. He says this to a church in Thyatira:
I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. [Revelation 2 and 3]
