On....INTOLERANCE

As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I sign a declaration each year stating that I will not “contend” with my personal views of the scripture to the “disunity of the Body”. What this means is that we all may have our ideas and opinions of what the Bible teaches, but for the sake of the whole Body of Christ (the Church) we will not argue or be contentious because of our personal views of the scripture.  When this type of contentious spirit prevails it destroys the whole body and nobody succeeds! 

One of Jesus’ final prayers was, “That they all may be ONE.” Jesus loved to see people walking together in UNITY. That should be our prayer today! Sadly, the church has been so dissected throughout the years over insignificant, petty, doctrinal beliefs that much of the world looks at us and says, “Why would I want to join the church....look how they cannot get along with one another.”

The spirit of Intolerance is a spirit that we must pray against daily! People’s lives have been uprooted and destroyed because of this demon force that is still rampant today. What we need today is a deluge of the Love of God that brings UNITY!

I remember the day my Uncle Harold Fulton shared a story with me that expresses this thought. He served as a Pastor for many years in Presque Isle, Maine and was full of many incredible life experiences. He also dabbled with mechanics, fixing cars, rebuilding engines, flying airplanes, etc.

He told me that many years ago, when the first gasoline engine cars came around that they were all “rear wheel drive” which meant there was a drive shaft that extended the length of the car from the transmission to the rear differential. The engine and transmission would turn the drive shaft which in turn would cause the rear wheels to turn, thus pushing the car forward. He explained to me that the drive shaft needed a center support because of its long length. Through wear and tear, that center support bearing could become worn out and would need to be replaced or rebuilt. He said you could tell when it was worn out because the drive shaft would knock and rattle as the car would move down the road.  The sound meant that there was too much play (too loose) between the shaft and the support bearing. If the bearing was not replaced, the loose slapping of the drive shaft would literally destroy the underneath of the vehicle and sometimes the drive shaft would simply fall onto the ground leaving the car inoperable.

The solution was to replace or rebuild the support bearing before it got to that stage. So, the mechanic would rebuild the bearing to precisely the exact dimensions to within a few thousandths of an inch. The thousandths of an inch clearance was called the “TOLERANCE”.  Sometimes the “tolerance” would be too tight and he said you would often see mechanics towing a vehicle down the road dragging the back wheels of the car until the support bearing would release its grip enough to allow the shaft to turn freely. Sometimes it was just too tight and it would NOT release and it would break other parts such as the internal workings of the transmission or the rear differential. 

So, if the tolerance was too loose everything would fly apart and if the tolerance was too tight everything would break apart. Either way it would make the car inoperable!!

He likened this to the “tolerance” level in the church. If there is no tolerance, everything breaks and grinds to a halt, and on the other hand, if the tolerance is “too loose” and there are no guidelines to govern us, everything will fly apart! Either way, the church suffers and will grind to a halt!

Much confusion and destruction within the church could be avoided if we would do some general maintenance and get our “tolerance levels” in order. Sometimes all we need is a little squirt of oil (Holy Spirit)! Maybe even a rebuild wouldn’t hurt!

There is a middle ground where the “tolerance” is “just right” and everything works in perfect harmony.

There are two important scriptures that are on my heart today. The first one is, “Endeavouring to keep the UNITY of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3 (KJV) and the other is, “Above all, clothe yourselves with LOVE, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:14 (NLT)

God help the church to get the proper tolerance levels so we don’t grind to a stop or so we don’t fly all apart! Remember, the world is watching!!  SRR