Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is the last message in our Q&A series. In this series, I’ve been answering some questions that were submitted by people in our church family. We always want to be sure that we’re giving people answers to the questions that they have in their lives and in their relationship with God, which is why we devoted an entire series to answering your questions.

We’ve really had some dynamite questions so far in this series. The first two weeks have been absolutely amazing and you can check out those messages on our website.

We’ve got one more question to tear into in this series. Here it is.

How do we combat our culture of tolerance in a way that will bring people to Christ instead of them seeing Christians as intolerant?

This couldn’t be a better question given the times we live in. It’s a question that God’s people must be able to answer. We don’t get the option to dodge this one. You have to be able to answer this question. So we’re going to chase after that answer today.

In the book of 1 Chronicles, the Bible tells us about all the men who banded together to fight for David. God had anointed David to take the place of Saul as king of Israel, but Saul wasn’t willing to give up his power. 1 Chronicles 12 gives us an incredibly long list of the men that God brought to David to join his army. Listen to what it says about one group of men who came to David.

The Bible tells us that God sent David, “…men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do…” (1 Chronicles 12:32a, NIV)

David didn’t just need soldiers who were ready to fight. He needed men who understood the times that they lived in. That would enable them to see the best course of action for the nation of Israel.

And we need those same people today. The church needs to be filled with people who understand the times that we live in. People who understand the culture so we can see the best way to engage our culture with the gospel.

A lot of times Christians believe that God has called us into full retreat mode from our culture. Instead of engaging culture, we isolate ourselves from it. That means that you only listen to Christian music, only read Christian books, only associate with Christian friends. And you know what that makes you? Impotent and useless.

David needed men who understood the times. The church needs those same people today. You can’t understand the culture if you always run from it. Gang, the people all around us who need Jesus to save them, they’re not reading Max Lucado. They’re not listening to Steven Curtis Chapman. They never set foot into a Family Christian Bookstore.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t use those resources. Max Lucado is one of my favorite authors. But that can’t be the only thing I read. See what we’re saying?

Now, you’ve got to be sure that in your effort to engage the culture, you’re not polluted by the culture. That’s a very fine line to walk. This isn’t an easy thing to do. But it is a necessary thing to do. We’ve got a mission. That mission is to take the saving gospel of Jesus Christ to people who desperately need it. And to do that, we’ve got to be people who understand the times.

And to understand the times that we live in, you need to understand this word: tolerance.

Now, for some of us, that word sounds like a very good thing. And by the 1950 definition, it is a good thing. The old definition of tolerance was to show respect for a person who has different beliefs than you, even though you don’t share those beliefs.

But that’s not what people in 2009 mean when they talk about tolerance. Today, tolerance has come to mean that every single individual’s beliefs, values, lifestyle, and truth claims are all equal.

See the difference? Tolerance used to be about respecting someone even though you disagreed with their beliefs. Now, tolerance means that you have no right to disagree with their beliefs at all. All beliefs are equal. All truth is relative. If it’s true for you, then it’s true. And no one has the right to tell you any differently.

Can you see why this presents a problem to those of us who follow Christ? We believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. That all gods apart from him are false gods. All religions aren’t equal. All truth claims aren’t right. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that’s it.

Our culture would view that as horribly intolerant. And we have to know that going in. We have to be people who understand the times. We’ve got to know what people believe about truth in a culture that has been overtaken by the concept of tolerance.

Before Jesus was crucified, he appeared before Pontius Pilate. Pilate kept trying to get Jesus to admit that he was the King of the Jews.

Finally, “Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. (John 18:37b-38a, NIV)

The question that Pilate asked more than two millennia ago is the question that our culture is asking today. What is truth? And our culture’s answer is that truth is whatever you want it to be. If it’s right for you, then it’s right. If it’s true for you, then it’s true.

And the scary part is that a lot of studies suggest that a majority of Christians have bought into this belief system. A Barna research study in 2005 revealed that 35% of Christian adults believe in absolute truth. 35% of adults who claim to follow Jesus believe that truth is not relative. It is not based on circumstances. Truth is absolute and unchanging.

That means that a sizable majority of the church has bought into the belief system of tolerance. And that is freaking scary.

Jeremiah 7:28 says, “This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. (Jeremiah 7:28, NIV)

Jeremiah wrote these words, describing the state of Old Testament Israel. But he could have just as easily have written them about 2009 America. And it could also describe the majority of the American church…and that had better rattle us to our core.

We do not get to be the arbiter of truth. God never appointed us to decide what is right and what is wrong. That’s his job. And as his people, we’ve got to hold the line of truth in our pluralistic, relativistic, tolerant culture.

I have friends who believe that they have the right to choose an abortion. The Bible tells us that life begins at conception, which would make abortion murder.

I have friends who believe that homosexuality is a good and wonderful alternative lifestyle. The Bible teaches that homosexuality goes against God’s design. The Bible calls it sin.

And those are just two of many, many examples. But do you understand how horribly intolerant those statements are? If you a person who understands the times, then you know that when this message hits the internet, there will be some people who absolutely wig out. I’ll probably get some hate mail in my inbox. It’s absolutely, unthinkably intolerant to say those kind of things, and somebody is going to feel led to tell me that.

But if we are truly God’s people, then we have to hold the line on truth. I’m not talking about gray areas. I’m not talking about disputable matters. When the Bible clearly spells out something as black-and-white, right-and-wrong, we don’t get the option to change it. We can’t rearrange the letters of Scripture to try to make it more palatable to our culture. We’ve got to hold the line, church.

But how we hold that line makes all the difference. Our culture believes that Christians are intolerant, bigoted, hatemongers. Part of that belief is because there are some Christ-followers who are still willing to hold the line on truth. And if someone labels you intolerant simply because you will not give up the truth, then you’ll just have to accept that label. Accept their criticism. Accept the persecution. That’s all you can do.

But, if you get labeled as an intolerant bigot, not just because of your belief but also because of your attitude, you’ve got a huge problem. It’s not just important that we hold the line on truth. It’s important how we hold that line.

Listen to what Paul said in Ephesians 4. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:15, NIV)

Speaking the truth in love. That is God’s command for how we interact with our culture of tolerance. We’re not afraid to speak the truth, but we will always speak it in love.

Not too long ago, there were some protesters outside a large church. They were protesting because the very well-known pastor of that church was holding the line on truth. He was preaching the truth and they perceived that as very intolerant. So, come Sunday, there were hundreds of protestors outside the church.

You know what the church did? Took coffee and donuts out to them. They didn’t go out to argue with them. They didn’t try to kick them off the property. They didn’t go out and condemn them to hell.

Now, the church never gave up the truth. They held the line. But they went out to the protestors, armed with love, and engaged them in conversation with pastries instead of picket signs. That is how a Christ-follower responds. Speak the truth in love.

In this verse from Ephesians, did you notice that Paul told us that speaking the truth in love is how we grow up in Christ? It’s part of spiritual maturity. In other words, if you can’t speak the truth in love, you’re a baby Christian. I don’t care if you’ve been a Christian for 50 years. If you can’t speak the truth in love, you need to grow up.

Listen to what Paul wrote to a young preacher named Timothy. “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:23-26, NIV)

This is so important for us to remember. Those who oppose us, those who call us intolerant, we instruct them gently, in the hope that God will lead them to repentance and a knowledge of the truth. We don’t give up the truth. We hold the line, but we do it in gentleness and in love.

Remember, the goal is not to win an argument. The goal is to win a soul. The goal is to win a person to Christ. And, as with anything else in life, the best model we have for this is Christ himself.

In John 1, the Bible says, “The Word (meaning Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NIV)

You know what the most important word in this verse is? And. Jesus was full of grace AND truth. That little conjunction is really important because it shows us that, with Jesus, the concepts of grace and truth were a package deal. But a lot of us try to go back to Conjunction Junction and change it around a little bit. “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?” Remember?

It looks like this. Jesus was full of grace AND truth. A lot of Christians are full of grace OR truth.

In our lives, a lot of us try to go back to Conjunction Junction and change the “and” to an “or.” But what we don’t realize is that that little conjunction makes all the difference in the world. Jesus was full of grace AND truth. For a lot of us, it’s grace OR truth.

Some Christians are more naturally inclined toward grace. You give people grace. Sometimes, you give them too much grace. It becomes too much grace when you get to the point where you’re willing to sell out the truth. It’s too much grace when you allow someone to call their sin good. It’s too much grace when you won’t tell anyone that what they’re doing is wrong.

That’s not grace. Grace doesn’t mean that you allow the feelings of people to overtake the feelings of God. And that is what so many Christians do. In an attempt to avoid making someone feel bad, we don’t hold the line on truth.

Mark Driscoll points out that, “When you lose sight of the truth, you will allow error, sin, falsity, and heresy in the name of being nice, which is not nice to God. And ultimately it’s not nice to people. Because you’re lying.”

In reality, you become a spiritual wuss. We’re commanded to be people of grace, not people of wuss. Grace doesn’t mean you turn into a marshmallow. Grace doesn’t mean giving up the truth. It doesn’t mean that you allow the feelings of people to overtake the feelings of God. Grace is not a license to give up truth for tolerance.

For some of you, you need less grace and more truth. Your mercy is too much and you need to repent before God because you’ve been waffling on his truth. When God’s people are willing to bend on God’s truth, we play right into Satan’s hand. If we buy into the lie that it’s all opinion and perspective, that everyone is right and nobody is wrong, that all truth is relative…hell wins a great victory. Because think about it…if everyone is right and nobody is wrong, if there really are many ways to God, if hell is just an idea and not an actual place…that allows everyone to make decisions about right and wrong based on nothing more than how they feel at the time. So if I feel like hitting the strip club after church, that’s cool. It can’t be wrong.

Some of you have given people permission to live like that. You give them grace with no truth in the hope that you can win them to Christ. Why would they ever want to come to Christ when you’ve already given them the perfect scenario? You, as a Christian, give them nothing but grace. You never tell them that they’re wrong. You never give them the truth. You’re all about their feelings. You never want to make them feel bad, so you completely ignore the truth. Why would they come to Jesus when you’ve already given them the perfect set up? All grace and no truth never led anyone to Jesus…ever. The only place it will lead them is hell and you might be the person holding the door open for them.

Now, let’s talk about the flipside of this coin. Some Christians lean too far toward grace. Others lean too far toward truth. If that’s you, then let’s talk about you for a minute.

You know the Bible. I mean, you KNOW it. You can quote book, chapter, and verse. You know it.

And not only do you know the Bible…but you use the Bible…as a sledgehammer. You’re about as subtle as a muddy elephant in the snow. People see you coming, and they run the other way because it ain’t Sunday, but they know they’re about to get a sermon.

You know the truth and you use that truth to bludgeon and bully people. You point out their sin. You point out that they’re going to hell. But it’s done with no grace. It’s done with an air of superiority, not a heart of compassion.

Christians who have truth but no grace will always be the one who talks. It’s like they don’t even know how to listen. Even when someone is living contrary to God’s truth, even when we know that they’re wrong…we have to listen to them. People are won to Christ through conversations, not accusations. But Christians who have truth but no grace rarely, if ever, listen. They don’t care to hear where a person is at in their spiritual journey. They have no desire to understand why a person’s life is where it is right now. The only thing they care about is they’re right. This other person is wrong. And they’re going to make sure the other person knows it.

If that’s you, can I tell you something? You might know the Bible really well, but I think you may have forgotten some parts of it. You might need to go back and read what it says about pride. And you might want to revisit some stories about Jesus and the Pharisees…because you might just be one, buddy.

All grace and no truth allows a person to live however they want never feel guilty about it. All truth and no grace drives people away from God because of the judgmental hypocrisy of Christians. You know where both roads lead? They both lead to hell. In both instances, Christians are standing in the way of people seeing Christ. And without Christ, those people will spend eternity in hell.

Listen to these incredible words from the book of Job. “Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides.” (Job 11:5-6a, NIV)

As Christ-followers, it should be our goal to live with godly wisdom. And the Bible reminds us that “true wisdom has two sides.” In this case, the two sides of wisdom are grace and truth. Anything less isn’t wisdom. It’s foolishness.

It’s absolute foolishness to sell out the truth and focus only on grace. It’s also total foolishness to ignore grace and use the truth as a sledgehammer.

Jesus lived with perfect wisdom, which meant he lived with the perfect balance of grace and truth. That’s one reason I love the story of Jesus and the adulterous woman. It’s one of the clearest examples of the grace and truth of Jesus.

In John 8, we read about a time where the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. Jesus was teaching a big crowd of people that had gathered in the temple courts, when, all of a sudden, the Pharisees appeared with a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. Now, did you get that? This woman was caught in the act of adultery. Get the idea? It’s possible that they dragged her up in front of Jesus with absolutely no clothes on. She was completely degraded, completely humiliated, but that didn’t matter. All the Pharisees cared about was nailing Jesus.

They asked him, “Jesus, what should we do with this woman? The Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say, Jesus?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “Ok, go ahead and stone her. But on this condition. You can only throw a stone at her if you have no sin in your own life. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

This was an amazing answer, because the angry mob dropped their stones, hung their heads, and walked away. Eventually, no one was left but Jesus and this woman.

Starting in verse 10, the Bible says, “Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11, NLT)

This is grace and truth. We see truth because Jesus called her adultery a sin. He told her to go and sin no more. He never excused her lifestyle. He didn’t leave any ambiguity on whether she was right or wrong. He called her sin what it was…sin.

But that truth was given in perfect harmony with grace. Jesus clearly pointed out her sin, but he also said, “I don’t condemn you. You get grace. What you’ve done is wrong, but you get a second chance to get it right.”

When you look at Jesus, you see a perfect marriage of grace and truth. And as his followers, this is where we’ve got to land as well.

We’ve got to have a spine and a heart.

We’ve got to have a spine to stand up and call a sin a sin. That’s not popular in a culture of tolerance. Standing for the truth will cost you. It’s hard, but we’ve got to have a spine strong enough to stand firm in the midst of the storm.

But along with a spine, we’ve also got to have a heart. A heart of grace. Give people love and compassion and patience. When you point out their sin, do with the desire to see them won to Christ. Don’t do it just to win an argument.

A spine for truth and a heart for grace. That’s what we see in Jesus and that’s what he wants to see in the lives of his people.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: grace, Q&A, tolerance, truth