Are We Tolerating What Jesus is Against
Jesus is the Son of Man who knows what it is to live in human skin. But, what is inside of Him is different from us. His innermost being is holy glowing purity. Revelation 2:18-20a describes the ascended Christ like this: eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like burnished bronze. Revelation 1:16 describes His face as the sun shining in its strength. Following these magnificent other worldly, heavenly descriptions of Jesus, we’re told that Jesus, the Son of God, says this, ” I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first, but I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.” Yes, Jesus is our Shepherd and He is slow to anger, but we must never forget that He is the Son of God reigning in glory. He sees our deeds and what we are tolerating.
Lord Jesus, SON of GOD, forgive us for tolerating what You hate.
Debbie, I would be interested to see how you would expound on this further. How do you think we are called to treat these people? Are you referring only to people who preach, but are leading others to immorality? We are also called to love our neighbor, and to address our own sin (the plank in our eye) before focusing on the sin of others. I do not have to agree with the sin of others to treat them kindly, and since God sees all sin as equal, I can’t claim their sins are any worse than my own. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Hi Kay, thank you for your comment and sharing your thoughts. I wholeheartedly agree with you that we are to treat people kindly and as Jesus taught, to first take the plank out of our eye before we attempt to point out another person’s sin. Jesus gives further instruction in Matthew 18:15 -17 about our relationship with a Christian who sins. From His teaching, it appears that rather than tolerate it or ignore it, He says, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.” I believe that speaks to your comment about us treating one another kindly. Rather than talk about the person to friends and family, go directly to the person in private. (after we have taken the log out of our eye) Jesus continues, “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.” Again, this is kind. It’s the opposite of gossiping about a person behind their back. Verse 17 continues, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector.” In other words, rather than letting sin abound in the body of believers, we are to do the most loving thing in the world – address it for the purpose of helping our sister or brother in Christ. In case some would say that to treat a person as a despised collector is harsh, we must remember that Jesus went to the tax collector’s home. Christ’s mission is always driven by love and for the purpose of drawing us to Himself. I hope that helps. In Christ’s Love, Debbie