What does it mean to be Christlike?
Should we overlook sin? Should we refrain from telling someone in the wrong that they are at risk of God’s judgment? Should we be “tolerant”? I don’t think so. I think we should be kind. I think we should be loving. I think we should be ready and willing to help anyone we can, regardless of how “good” or “bad” we might perceive them to be. We cannot send a soul to Hell. We cannot judge a soul and find it guilty. God will do that. All we need to do is inform them of the opportunity to be rid of their guilt.
That said, I wholeheartedly reject the notion that to be Christlike means to overlook sin. Jesus did not do this. Jesus was not tolerant. In fact, Jesus was so intolerant of sin He suffered the most horrible death imaginable just to rid the world of it. He loathed iniquity so much He came from the Palace of Perfection to live amongst the world of wickedness all so He could rid the world of ungodliness. He hated the poison of ungodliness so much that He shed His own precious blood to purify the world and rid us of the plague. That’s not a picture of tolerance; not in the slightest. That’s a picture of a God who is supremely intolerant of sin. He can’t stand it. He doesn’t want to look at it. He doesn’t want to be around it. He wants to remove every trace of it from your soul, because He sees it (rightly) as a poison that is eating you alive.
It’s time we start being as intolerant of sin as God Himself is. May we never return to that old poisoned well, but stay at the fountain of Jesus’ blood, where we are purified and healed from all our sins.
~Matthew