When you become a true follower of Jesus you can do no less than what Jesus did here on earth and does every day in heaven and that is to love all of mankind. You are told to love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). Such a simple concept, but oh how Christians struggle with the second part of this command.

We have earned our label of intolerance by our attempts to legislate our beliefs, by our insistence that everyone should see our view of God as the only way to see God. God has as many faces as there people on this earth. We need to be tolerant of other viewpoints and not try to force compliance with our views; just as others need to be tolerant of our views and not try to force us to conform to their beliefs.

Tolerance is defined as: the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. And to tolerate something is to allow and accept. That is allow (something that is bad, unpleasant, etc.) to exist, happen, or be done and accept the feelings, behavior, or beliefs of (someone). Agreement is not required.

Let us learn to be tolerant of others and show them the love of God by example, not rhetoric. Sometimes we lose the audience by our very passion for Jesus, by our very love of all mankind, by our unwillingness that any fall short or miss the message and become lost for all of eternity. We need to speak God’s Truth, love everyone and leave the rest to God. After all it is not by our works but only by His grace can anyone be saved.