Shortly before his crucifixion Jesus gave this command to his disciples.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
John 13:34 ESV
In order to carry out this command we must take a look at how Jesus loves us. There are two places where he describes his love.
The first one is well known.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13 ESV
Jesus showed his love for us by giving his life so that our sins could be forgiven; we must be willing to sacrifice our lives for other Christians if it is necessary. Very few of us will ever be in a situation where we need to literally give our lives but if we
are willing to do so then we shouldn’t hesitate to make lesser sacrifices such as time, work, and possessions.
There is another description of his love which is often over looked.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:19 ESV
If we are to love as he loves there are times when we too must reprove and discipline. The Bible gives us two examples of how to do this.
The first is found in his letter to the church of Thyatira.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
Revelation 2:20 ESV
We must not tolerate false teaching.
The second is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
1 Corinthians 5:1 ESV
We must not tolerate sin.
We live in a society in which tolerance is considered a supreme virtue. Tolerance and love are often regarded as synonymous. The fact that Jesus commanded his followers to love but here reproves them for tolerance shows that they are very different.
Tolerance is passive. It allows people to live as they wish without imposing restrictions on them. Love is active. It requires that our treatment of others should be motivated by their welfare.
Most of the time loving others also means being tolerant. We should allow others the freedom to be themselves and live as they want to. There is one limit to this freedom. They must not be allowed to teach or do things that will harm them or others. When this happens we are forced to choose between tolerance and love. At times like this true love is always intolerant.
Tolerance is good as long as it is guided and controlled by love. Tolerance without love can easily become indifference. We can end up allowing people to live any way they want because we don’t really care what happens to them.
Everyone knows that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Very few realize that the road to Hell is also paved with tolerance.