Intolerance

Unwillingness to allow or permit something beyond certain levels. God's intolerance should be the model for God's people, but they should avoid becoming wrongly intolerant.

God is intolerant of evil

God is pure and cannot tolerate evil

Habakkuk 1:13 See also Numbers 25:3; Joshua 7:1; 2 Samuel 6:7 parallel 1 Chronicles 13:10; 2 Kings 17:11; Psalm 5:6; Romans 1:18; Revelation 21:27

Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

God demonstrates his intolerance as the last resort

Jeremiah 44:22 See also Exodus 4:10–14, Exodus 34:6–7; Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:30; Acts 17:30; Romans 2:3–5

So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

Human intolerance should reflect God's attitudes

Human intolerance of God's enemies

Judges 5:31 See also 1 Samuel 17:26; Psalm 69:9; Matthew 26:51 parallels Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50; John 18:10; Ephesians 5:6–7

So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.

Human intolerance of ungodliness

Exodus 32:19–20 See also Deuteronomy 6:13–15; Psalm 119:115; 1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:16, 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 2:12

As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain. Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

Human intolerance of error

Titus 3:10 See also Acts 17:11, Acts 20:30–31; Galatians 5:11–12; Ephesians 5:6–7; Colossians 2:8; Hebrews 13:9

Reject a divisive man after a first and second admonition,

Human intolerance of evil and sinfulness

Revelation 2:20 See also Job 28:28; Psalm 34:14, Psalm 101:4–5; Matthew 5:30; Romans 6:12, Romans 12:9; Ephesians 4:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; Revelation 2:2

But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Human intolerance can be misguided

It can be a form of hypocrisy

Luke 6:41–42 See also Matthew 23:29–30; Luke 13:14–15; John 12:5–6

Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

It can amount to exclusiveness

Matthew 23:13 See also Acts 15:1

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

It can be a form of oppression

Intolerance of minority, afflicted or underprivileged groups oftens leads to oppression: Exodus 1:11–14, Exodus 23:9; Proverbs 14:31, Proverbs 28:3; Ecclesiastes 5:8; Matthew 20:31 parallels Mark 10:48, Luke 18:39

It can be harshly condemnatory

In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?”

It can be a form of bigotry

John 15:19 See also Numbers 11:27–29; Judges 12:5–6; Matthew 21:15–16, Matthew 23:16, Matthew 23:18

If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

Intolerance is usually a matter of decision

Intolerance leading to a good decision

Luke 18:4–5 See also Luke 11:7–8

For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she will wear me out with her perpetual requests.’”

Intolerance leading to a bad decision

Matthew 19:13–14 parallels Mark 10:13–14, Luke 18:15–16 The disciples' intolerance is counteracted by Jesus Christ's tolerance.

Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. And the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”