This post is part four of a series of blog posts I’m doing on George H. Morrison’s piece, “The Intolerance of Jesus”.
To read the rest of the series–
- Part One–The Intolerance of Jesus
- Part Two–Intolerance Must Be Knowledgeable
- Part Three–Christ Died Because of His Intolerance
Christ Is Intolerant When It Comes to Sharing the Allegiance He Demands from us
Again I trace this same intolerance in the allegiance which Christ demands from us. He is willing to take the lowest place upon the cross; but He will not take it in your heart and mine. When He was born in the fullness of the time, He did not ask for the splendour of the palace. He was born in a manger, reared in a lowly home, and grew to His manhood in obscurest station. But the moment He enters the kingdom of the heart, where He is King by conquest and by right, there everything is changed, and with a great intolerance He refuses every place except the first. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me”—”Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” That is the word of a King in His own Kingdom, claiming His rightful place among His subjects. And when you speak of the meek and lowly Jesus, never forget there is that imperial note there. He is divinely intolerant of everybody who would usurp the throne that is His right. — George H. Morrison 1866-1928 — The Intolerance of Jesus
I kind of feel like as American Christians we don’t really relate to that level of sacrifice. We don’t really experience having to leave behind everything, like Peter and the Apostles did. But our American experience has not been the norm. It has only been the last couple hundred or so years since there was a place or country where “religious freedom” is tolerated. We are just beginning to see those freedoms as related to Christianity infringed on. However all around the world, when you become a Christian, you realize the cost before you answer “yes” to following Jesus. That price can be very high; persecution, loss of family, fortune, sometimes your life. I believe that if we don’t want to lose the very Christian heritage that we cling to as a birth right, we are going to have to start paying the price—not just paying lip-service to it.
Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:29-30
“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle—that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” — Brennan Manning, author, friar, priest, contemplative and speaker.
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