This post is part five 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
- Pat Two–Intolerance Must be Knowledgeable
- Part Three–Christ Died Because of His Intolerance
- Part Four–Intolerance of Sharing the Allegiance
Previously in this sermon by Morrison, he has been talking about the actions of Jesus being intolerant…he continues now with the nature of intolerance and why it is worthy of Christ.
Such, then, are one or two instances of the intolerance of Jesus Christ, and now I want to examine its true nature, that we may see how worthy it was of Christ.
The Intolerance of Christ Is the Child of Glowing Faith
The first thing I note in the intolerance of Jesus is that it is the child of glowing faith. The intolerance of Christ is little else than the other side of His perfect trust in God. When one is a stranger to you, bound by no ties of love, you are little affected by what is said about him. The talk may be true, or it may not be true, but it is none of your business, and you do not know. But the moment a man becomes a hero to you, that moment you grow intolerant of liberties. If you believe in a woman, your heart is aflame with anger should anyone sully her name even with a breath. A French poet tells us that when he was a youth he was a passionate worshipper of Victor Hugo. He believed in Hugo with all
his heart and soul; he thought there had never been a poet like him. And he says that even in a dark cellar underground, where nobody possibly could have overheard him, he could not bear to whisper to himself that a single verse of Hugo’s poetry was bad. That is the fine intolerance of faith in ardent and eager and devoted natures. That is the faith which Jesus Christ was filled with, in God and His righteousness and providential order. And with a faith like that there can be no compromise; no light and shallow acceptance of alternatives. Under the sway of such a glowing trust a certain intolerance is quite inevitable. It is easy to be infinitely tolerant, if all that Christ lived for means but little to you. An age that can tolerate every kind of creed is always an age whose faith is burning low. And just because Christ’s faith burned with a perfect light, and flashed its radiance full on the heart of God, you find in Him, in all His God ward life, a steady and magnificent intolerance. — George H. Morrison 1866-1928 — The Intolerance of Jesus
Morrison was speaking to an audience in the last half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. We look back on those days as the Victorian era of the church. And yet he seems to be admonishing his listeners that their “tolerance” was a sign that their “faith was burning low!” What will be said of our generation? Pray with me that we will recognize that we are in a battle, that we would “grow intolerant” when anyone would sully the name of Christ, putting on the full armor of God, being prepared to “destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ..” 2 Corinthians 10:5
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