Your Opinion on Tolerance?

So what's your opinion of tolerance? I've come across many Christians who equate showing Christ's love to being tolerant of everyone else's beliefs. Is that really the case, though? What can we learn from the love of Christ? It doesn't take much reading of God's Word to see that He isn't tolerant of sin. For example, when Jesus saw the Jews buying and selling in the temple, what did He do?

John 2:15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

That doesn't sound to me like Jesus was being tolerant of their view, does it?! And we know that Jesus was acting in love, because He is one with the Father, and "God is love" (I John 4:8). Check out Christ's tolerance of the Pharisees' sin in this Scripture:

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Wait a minute! Jesus just told the Pharisees that they are just like their murderous father! Shouldn't He be tolerant of their beliefs even though they are wrong?

Ephesians 5:11-13 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

God is telling us that He wants us to expose the darkness of this world. How do we do that while being tolerant of others' beliefs and without stepping on people's toes? Others use the excuse that we need to be tolerant of others because everyone is right. However, Jesus said:

John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

If you ask me, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for anyone else, does it? We need to be careful to make sure our opinion of any topic lines up with the truth of God's Word (Jesus, while praying to the Father, said, "Your word is truth." John 17:17).

I realize that I didn't go into a whole lot of detail, but I wanted to make that point.

Reason for Redefining Cool

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my new blog! You probably have a few questions about this site, so I'll make it clear what it's about.

"Cool" is a term our culture has defined, and its meaning is constantly changing with use. Many sinful practices, including perversion and immorality, are now being considered acceptable by our society. As "cool" is being shifted to include the ways of this world, I want take its meaning and redefine it. In Romans, we are told not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so we may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1). My point is not that we, as Christians, should be conformed to the world's definition of cool, but that we should redefine it according to the Word of God. That is our standard for measuring right and wrong, and anything it speaks against is sin, and shouldn't even be associated with cool.
Although we are not to be conformed to this world, it is important for us to be relevant to our culture. Many Christians today seem to think that, to be relevant to our culture, we have to have "some" sin to convince others to be saved. I totally disagree. We can show the world that Christians can be cool without intermingling ourselves with sin. By the header, I don't want you to get the message that I'm cool, because that is the last thing I would want you to walk away with. I hope the title and subtitle give you my intended meaning of redefining cool with God's Word.
I decided to include this song by Lecrae, because the lyrics exactly explain my thinking.

So what am I going to write about? I'm glad you asked! In addition to writing about our culture compared with God's Word, I plan to write about assorted topics, my favorite being about anything caffeinated. Other stuff includes music I like, snowboarding, motocrossing, and other topics along the way. And, special thanks to The Other Alice for coming up with the title for my blog. It was exactly what I was looking for! Check out her blog: As In a Mirror. And thanks to those from Twitter who helped me out with a subtitle. I appreciate you all!

So what do you think about the blog? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!