Churches of Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 20th century
And speaking of tolerance, did you ever know of a public meeting leaving
instrumental music out of the worship because of tolerance for the
members of the church of Christ who were present? I talked to a man one
time who advocated that we ought to have one community church by just
leaving out those things which we can’t agree upon and taking the things
we can agree upon. I said, “What are you going to do about these people
who don’t believe in instrumental music? Will you leave that off for the
sake of their conscience?” He said, “No, they’ll just have to stay on
the outside till they can come in with us.” The people who teach that
sort of tolerance and so-called broad-mindedness don’t practice it. In
reference to something on which they have no conviction they will appear
to be very broadminded, but if you test them out on one of their pet
theories or hobbies or something that they do believe, then they are
just as narrow minded as anyone else, or more so.
VIII
The Basis of Unity
In the forum last Tuesday night it was said that we ought to leave off
all doctrinal differences and just love our neighbors as we love
ourselves. Let’s put that to the test. What does it mean to love your
neighbor? Do you love your neighbor as you do yourself when you see him
on his way to hell and don’t try to stop him? Suppose you are thoroughly
convinced that your neighbor is following a doctrine that will take him
to hell, and you don’t try to stop him, just throw your arm around him
and call him “Brother,” is that love? Why that’s the very opposite of
love! If you see a man riding down the highway and know that a bridge
has been washed out a few miles ahead and he is going to run off and
kill himself, will you try to stop him? You will if you love him. If you
see a man on his way to hell, you’ll try to stop him if you love him!
I agree that we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves, but I also
insist that love will move us to do everything we can in order to
correct him when we see him following a course which will lead unto his
destruction. Love demands that we preach the truth. Love demands that we
persuade people to obey Christ. Love brought Jesus to this earth, and if
we have the love that he had, we will do everything in our power to get
people to believe, understand and obey the truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account