Tolerance

Leviticus 19:33 (NLT)
33 “Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. 34 Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

This verse was God’s charge to the Israelites to show compassion to those who lived among them who were foreigners and did not know the Lord their God. They were to extend love to them as if they were one of their own remembering they once had lived in a land foreign to them. Except in the land of Egypt they were treated as strangers and slaves who had no freedom. Their past was to serve as a reminder of why they needed to show compassion.

There are many people around us who do not share our own views or have our own interests. There are people with different values and people of different religious beliefs. It is our responsibility as Christians to love these people despite their differences. We should treat them with the same respect as we would expect to be treated. Tolerance says we should have sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own. Tolerance does not mean we let go of our beliefs nor does it mean we do not speak up when we are attacked for what we believe in. Tolerance allows us to see the differences in other people and love them despite those differences.