God is love, yet our postmodern culture has taken linguistic license and redefined divine love as tolerance. Tolerance, properly understood, is a good thing when implemented frugally but becomes a big problem when it becomes a blank check. I think that perhaps the most helpful definition of tolerance is the one used in the sciences: the allowable deviation from a standard, especially: the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece (Merriam-Webster). Tolerance is the amount of variation allowed before something no longer functions properly. A tire, for example, can only tolerate so much deviation from perfect circularity before it begins to wobble. As a neonatologist, I measure the height, weight ,and head circumference of every baby that is born and plot them on a growth curve to see if they are appropriately grown. If a measurement exceeds the limits of tolerance then it suggests that there may be an underlying problem necessitating additional investigation and special care. If I were to accept all measurements as normal then I would be guilty of malpractice because ignoring parameters outside the norm puts babies at risk. In other words, we need to be vigilant over those things that exceed the limits of tolerance not because we hate but because we love.

Before we start pointing fingers, we need to admit that we all have wheels that exceed the limits of tolerance. We cannot distract others from our imperfections by arrogantly pointing to our shiny custom rims because our fellow commuters will quickly see our hypocrisy as they watch our pimped out ride uncomfortably shimmy down life’s highway. We all have been recalled for failing to meet factory specifications but thankfully the one true Authorized Dealer sent His Master Technician to rotate and balance us while we were still wobbling.

While the word “sin” has received a great deal of bad press, we need to remember that sin isn’t a violation of an arbitrary set of divine rules but rather is living in a way that exceeds the limits of God’s functional tolerance. You cannot be a follower of Jesus and somehow think that God tolerates, in fact, His death on the cross is the ultimate demonstration of His intolerance to sin. The Good News, however, is that God’s answer to sin is not to declare us totaled but rather redeemed.

Critics of Christianity describe God as a spoilsport who wants to curb our thrill rides by taking away our tires and placing us on blocks in front of the community church, when in reality, He came to give us an entirely new set of all-weather tires so we can confidently drive from Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. As it turns out, God’s love is very mechanical when it comes to tolerance.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash