Organizing the Inside – Day 255 Tolerating Sin vs. Tolerating the Sinner

May 15, 2012 at 2:00 pm · Filed under Faith, Leadership, Love, Relationship, Wisdom, Women's Ministry and tagged: God, Sin

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? Romans 2:4 (NLT)

Should the church tolerate sin?
I believe “Tolerance” has been misinterpreted and many will have to answer for that. The love of God is not shown by our willingness to agree with sin, nor does God’s love require that we acknowledge sin as a perfectly acceptable lifestyle. The love of God causes us to denounce sin, but love the sinner. The world has done an excellent job at twisting things around. The lies of the enemy have been very creative by making what’s right, seem wrong and what’s wrong, seem right. We must not be deceived. We should make no provisions for sin, your own or anyone else’s. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.  Romans 13:14 (KJV) God did not put some stamp of approval on sin when He tolerated us in our sinfulness instead of destroying us. God’s tolerance of us gave us time to repent. Even still sin remained sin and righteousness did not change.  Indeed we ought to give the ungodly a chance to repent, but their repentance is not up to us. Their repentance is between them and God.  If we had received what we deserved, then there would have been no need for Christ to die. We each have benefited from the unimaginable patience and love of God toward us, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (KJV)

Let us be clear about difference between the love of God and the act of condoning sin.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV) As Christians who represent and serve a holy God, we must be careful not to allow our views of right and wrong to be dictated by anything other than the Word of God and the divine leadership of His Holy Spirit, both of which are always in agreement with one another. It’s important to take a stand, but caution to the one who is found standing on the wrong side of truth.

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• True repentance (thebereanway.wordpress.com)
• Organizing the Inside – Day 230 God’s Gift Of Acceptance (lizmason.wordpress.com)

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