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I also want to add a thing or two about the phrase "Tolerance." There is a heap-load of misunderstanding about that word concerning this "judge not" business as well. Just to be clear, tolerating someone is not the same as loving them or showing them acceptance and understanding...
The word "Tolerance" is defined, when applied in a social sense, as "putting up with someone." I don't know about you, but I'd rather be loved than "put up" with. "Tolerance" suggests a very negative idea. It suggests that when you tolerate someone, you are "putting up" with their existence/ideology, which you find either annoying or unsettling in some alien way. Yet our society has somehow grossly warped the meaning of the word to mean the full acceptance of ideas and people who fit this uneasy notion within all of us.
By contrast, Loving someone in Christ may not necessarily require us to accept everything about an individual, but it DOES require that we help them and show them Jesus in all His rich compassion, still welcoming them to accept Truth and put off falsehood for their benefit. It also requires us not to look for things to hate, and even not to hate at all. Tolerance just tries to put a band-aid on negative thoughts/intentions towards people by sweeping them under the rug and giving the pretense of peace. Love drives the negative notions of hatred out the window and requires us to "hate the sin" only, but still be there for the sinner, extending to them in the message of Jesus with his taste of True Peace.
The word "Tolerance" is defined, when applied in a social sense, as "putting up with someone." I don't know about you, but I'd rather be loved than "put up" with. "Tolerance" suggests a very negative idea. It suggests that when you tolerate someone, you are "putting up" with their existence/ideology, which you find either annoying or unsettling in some alien way. Yet our society has somehow grossly warped the meaning of the word to mean the full acceptance of ideas and people who fit this uneasy notion within all of us.
By contrast, Loving someone in Christ may not necessarily require us to accept everything about an individual, but it DOES require that we help them and show them Jesus in all His rich compassion, still welcoming them to accept Truth and put off falsehood for their benefit. It also requires us not to look for things to hate, and even not to hate at all. Tolerance just tries to put a band-aid on negative thoughts/intentions towards people by sweeping them under the rug and giving the pretense of peace. Love drives the negative notions of hatred out the window and requires us to "hate the sin" only, but still be there for the sinner, extending to them in the message of Jesus with his taste of True Peace.
