III INTOLERANCE We are certainly happy to have so many visitors present and want you to know that you are always more than welcome at our service. It is our purpose to do everything we can to show our appreciation and make your visit with us pleasant and profitable. Our topic this morning is “Intolerance.” It is both timely and important. During the past week an organization of churches throughout the nation has been celebrating what is called Brotherhood Week and preaching the doctrine of tolerance. There was a panel discussion on this subject at Watkins Institute last Tuesday night which indicated that people are interested in this topic and also illustrated the need for tolerance. So we feel that we are speaking on something which is of very great current interest. Incidentally, the panel was also an index to the interest people have in a public hearing of religious differences. A religious debate will still attract a bigger crowd than any other sort of church service. It is a mistake to conclude that people are not interested in a discussion of religious issues. There was a debate just a few days ago at White House, Tennessee, in a very small congregation, perhaps not more than forty or fifty members. The crowds overflowed the building. They moved to the gymnasium of the local school and filled it before the debate closed. This indicates the extent to which people are interested in public investigations of religious questions. I The Issue Defined 1. In order to study intelligently the subject of intolerance we need to understand definitely the meaning of the term. The words “tolerance,” “intolerance,” “tolerate,” and so on, have several different meanings. If we aren’t careful, one person will be thinking of one meaning of a term and another of a different meaning. If you look these words up in your dictionary, you will see several definitions. In order that we may understand each other, then, I want to cite two or three of them. 2. One definition says that intolerance means unwillingness to bear or endure. In other words, it means unwillingness to suffer long. Of course, in that sense intolerance is wrong, because the Bible teaches that we should be longsuffering. One of the fruits of the Spirit is longsuffering (Gal. 5:22). “And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all” (1 Thess. 5:14 ARV). There are many other Scriptures in the New Testament which teach the importance, the necessity, of our being longsuffering. So, of course, in this sense we ought to be tolerant, we ought to be willing to endure, to suffer, and to bear.