I know it’s not politically correct in today’s world, but I see now that my mother was an intolerant woman.
Looking back half a century since my boyhood, I recall a lot of things my mother refused to tolerate:
• Even a hint of disrespect toward my father
• Even a hint of irreverence toward the heavenly Father
• Unwashed hands at breakfast, dinner, or supper
• Vulgar language, euphemisms included
• Smoking, chewing, or spitting
• Failing to add “sir” or “ma’am” to any yes or no
• Failing to add “Aunt” or “Uncle” when addressing any older person by their first name
• Any form of dishonesty
• Any activity that conflicted with church obligations
The list could easily run off the page, but this gives you an idea of the things my mother would not put up with. She refused to tolerate them because she knew that such behavior could ruin my life and cost me my soul.
In the same light I tell you without shame that the God I worship is even more intolerant than my mother was. A list of behaviors he plainly says he does not approve seems a bit gauche by today’s PC standards:
• Lying (whether in the White House or out)
• Adultery (ditto)
• Selling justice
• Failing to help those who cannot help themselves
• All forms of sexual sin, including rape, pornography, homosexual acts, live-in loving, and incest
• Disrespect for parents
• Divorce
• Drunkenness
• Pretentious worship and all displays of religious self-righteousness
• Cruelty toward animals
• Cruelty toward anybody, but especially toward the very young and the very old
• Greed, and all the evil it can spawn in us
Like the list for my mother, this list for God could go on and on, but this is enough for you to get my point.
God knows that such behavior will alienate my friends, destroy my own self-esteem, and cut me off from heaven, so he labels it with the old-fashioned word sin.
Like my mother, God won’t tolerate anything that can damn my soul and ruin my life, because he loves me.