Upon reading Locke’s A Letter of Toleration, I immediately saw how Locke may have pulled much of his beliefs from a study of Romans 14:5-6,
“One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.” (ESV)
Locke continuously writes of how different matters should or shouldn’t be tolerated but ultimately, eternal matters are left to each individual who is firmly convinced of what he or she believes. Just by looking at this passage in Romans and reading Locke’s Toleration, I think I can see how the beliefs he is holding to can be applied to modern society. It seems like Locke was tired of people “complaining about the color of the carpet” and just wanted the church and state to fulfill the roles for which they were made. I am challenged to evaluate what I personally consider important to tolerate and when it is important to be on the same page with those I am conversing with, etc. I think an evaluation like this would allow me to know on which matters it would be wise to speak up and on which matters it would be best to refrain from speaking. It would also help in being able to speak (in matters within the body of Christ) with grace and boldness in knowing where more boldness would be beneficial for the brother or sister in Christ with whom we are speaking.
Do you think it’s important to know what we tolerate or if we should tolerate anything that isn’t directly biblical?
I commented on Caroline and Zane's posts.
I commented on Caroline and Zane's posts.
Comments
In regard to your question, I believe that it is important for every individual to determine what they personally do and do not tolerate. Everybody on this earth is forever going to have a different opinion on things, even people within the same religion. For instance, in Christianity, there are multiple denominations that have come about simply because enough people believed in a certain something and they decided to band together on that.
However, when you take a step back, you can clearly see that all the denominations basically believe in the exact same things. The disagreements only arise when looking at the finer details of Christianity. It is within those finer details where we need to determine what our views are.