Tolerant?

Tuesday 6^th June

Read 2 Corinthians 11:16-21

“I repeat: let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. ¹⁷ In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. ¹⁸ Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. ¹⁹ You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! ²⁰ In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. ²¹ To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!” (NIVUK)

Tolerance is a fascinating buzzword today. The greatest wrong one can engage in it seems is to express intolerance. Ironically enough intolerance is the one thing that is not tolerated. How has that state of affairs come about? The simplest explanation is that the right to be our authentic selves has become the highest good. Any challenge to expression of our authenticity is a human rights violation. Therefore we must tolerate everything anyone has a desire to do in the name of expressing their inner truth. We must have a zero intolerance policy.

Paul is horrified at what the church in Corinth was tolerating. They were tolerating Satanic deception! There is no doubt what Paul thought about these super-apostles – to him they were intolerable. But why did the church tolerate them? They tolerated them because they thought themselves superior in wisdom and these ‘leaders’ had arrived scratching that ‘superior’ itch very well indeed (v19). Perhaps they suggested that only the really wise could grasp what the teachers had learnt about Jesus and the gospel? In their determination to reach these giddy heights of wisdom they tolerated loss of independence, exploitation, divisions and perhaps even discipline that would constitute physical abuse today (v20).

Whilst Paul will ask that they ‘tolerate’ him enough to listen to his foolish words (v16) there are limits to what he expects them to tolerate from him. Those limits do not extend to emotional, spiritual or physical abuse (v21). But the question worth pondering is whether we are too tolerant? How much of the world’s agenda do we simply tolerate, even if we know it is wrong? And are there things we should tolerate? Paul will give us some clues.