Lovingly intolerant

I can think of many words to describe my father, but tolerant is not one of them.

Photo Mark Schroeder wearing green vest with cross — WELS President Mark Schroeder

Students in the Latin classes he taught at Northwestern College would agree. From the first day of class, his students recognized that this serious-faced professor would tolerate nothing less than their total attention and their best effort.

No one knew better of his intolerance than his children. He would not tolerate even a hint of disrespect or misbehavior from his children. He was intolerant of anything less than his children’s best effort in school or in their work. He was intolerant when his children acted without thinking or when they spent money foolishly.

I thank God for my father’s intolerance. Through his intolerance, he showed genuine love. It was that intolerance that instilled in his children the values that they still hold today: the importance of regular worship, a clear sense of right and wrong, a respect for authority, the virtue of hard work, the importance of honesty, the commitment to family, and the need for careful stewardship of God’s material blessings.

In our society today, one of the greatest sins is that of intolerance. In the US, the argument for tolerance seems irresistibly attractive and compelling. After all, the United States is a land of freedom, born from a desire of our founders to be free from tyranny and oppression and founded on principles championing the rights of the individual.

But today’s culture of tolerance has gone far beyond the defense of the right to think and live in freedom. The idea has caught on that it’s no longer legitimate to distinguish between right and wrong, moral and immoral, truth and falsehood. Anything and everything should be tolerated. This thinking has had a devastating effect on nearly every area of society. In a society drunk with the wine of tolerance, moral standards disappear, families disintegrate, violence flourishes, schools decay, and self-interest rules.

In the face of that onslaught against biblical values, our synod has remained clear in its confession. Without apology we teach that God is the author of human life. Marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman. Any use of God’s gift of sex outside of marriage is wrong. Males are males, and females are females. Absolute truth is found in the Bible, which is God’s own Word from which we dare not depart.

Some will say that our lack of toleration is unloving, even bigoted. Just the opposite is true. Defending and upholding the truth of God’s Word means that we will say what God says. When God calls certain behavior sin, so will we. When God’s Word proclaims his truth, we will boldly admonish those who deny that truth. When God, in his love, calls sinners to repentance for ignoring his will, we will echo that message in the same spirit of love. To tolerate what God condemns is anything but loving. To tolerate sin in silence is to abandon sinners when they need us the most.

But we don’t stop with identifying sin. Christian love moves us to walk beside those who struggle, as Christ walks patiently with us. Genuine love doesn’t just point out sin and its consequences. It also seeks to lead a repentant sinner to Christ.

Sometimes intolerance is the only way to show genuine love. May God help us to remain lovingly intolerant for the sake of the gospel.

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