Tolerance

Lately, in the church, I have seen an abundance of people who are so spiritually motivated that they forget others may not be as mature in the faith as they are. We must remember that faith is a maturing process. There are those who are babes in the faith and then there are those who are very mature in the faith. Also note that length of time in the church does not equate to maturity in the faith. Neither does lack of time in the church equate to lack of maturity in the faith. We have to be careful about condemning those who show a lack of maturity in the faith. We need to learn the art of constructive ministering to those. That is to show love in how we address issues of maturity. When we don’t show the kind of love that God has commanded us to show, we do more harm than good. My dad would always say that some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. That is what happens to us when we show a lack of tolerance for those who lack maturity.

Romans 15:7 – So accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; Then God will be glorified.

Grace. We have to remember that everyday of our lives God has given us grace. We as believers are suppose to then in return give grace to others. The church has long struggled with understanding. We should not accept sin or immature behavior, but we must be more loving in how we deal with sin in others. No one is perfect.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We were all in the same sinking boat that we ourselves caused to sink, until God came along and allowed us to get into His boat. We didn’t deserve the right to be in His boat, but He saw our struggle and had mercy on us. He gave us what we did not deserve- life (grace). He kept from us what we did deserve – death (mercy). He set the example as to how we are to treat one another.

Be careful categorizing people as “evil.” People are not evil, but evil spirits do inhabit people – saved and unsaved. So while you are focusing on the evil within another person and criticizing them, you could be praying for that person and ministering to that person that they might experience growth in the faith and become stronger.

We all have faults, thus we all have room to grow; both the mature and immature.

God bless you.