I’ve had all I can take.

We have been asked lately to find “common ground” on many issues. As this country is asked daily to compromise, to change its ways, to give ground to enemies, to give up freedoms and independence, we are told it is for the good of all. It is utilitarian in its basis, and authoritarian in its practice. People that have long been respected are now being attacked. People who thought protests and rallies were for the most radical of our society are now hitting the streets with those of like minds, wondering if there is anyone that will listen to them.
We are told to respect the views and opinions of others. We are told to accept and give credence to all views, and that anything less is bigoted and intolerant. However, the people telling us this have no intention of changing their views. Yes, Jesus told us to love our enemies. He didn’t tell us we had to get along with them! What did he do those that changed money in the temple? Did he pat them on the back, say “ I don’t agree with what you are doing, but you are welcome in my Father’s house?” NO! He drove them out! [ Time for a sidebar: I think about this scene when I went to Greenville, SC with my wife to hear a famous reality TV couple at a church. After the event, you got to meet them…if you paid $20 for a picture to autograph.]
Ecclesiastes 3 mentions that there is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time for war, and a time for peace. It is said and used on bumper stickers: “War is not the answer.” Well, according to the Bible, it sometimes is. Why do you think there is so much record of war in the Old Testament? Do you think God hated the Phillistines? Did he hate Goliath or Delilah? I believe God loved Goliath and Delilah. But they did not serve Him, nor worship Him as God. They came against God and His people, and had to face their end. Read the end of 2 Timothy. Did Jesus die for Demas, and for Alexander the coppersmith? Yes, He did. Did Jesus die for Larry Flynt, Rosie O’Donnell, and Ray Boltz? Yes, He did! But does that mean that we accept their lifestyles, tolerate their work, and give them full fellowship in the church? NO. We are not to be unequally yoked together with them. We are to be separate from them (2 Cor. 6: 14-17).
You may say “But Jesus ate with the low people of His time,” and so He did. Did they stay the way they were? Was Matthew a tax collector after he met Jesus? Was Mary Magdelene still demon-possessed after she met Jesus? Did He respect and tolerate the views of the Pharisees? Go back to His first message after His tempting period. What was His first word? REPENT! In other words, turn your life around! Change your ways!
Yes, we are to love our enemies, and bless those who curse us (Matthew 5:44). We are also supposed to do all things in love, or it will get us nowhere (1 Cor. 13). But tolerate is not listed in there. There is a time for war. This is that time. We are to go to war against today’s “tolerance.”