Psalm 69:8-9 says: "I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's children; because zeal for your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you fall on me." These words came to the minds of the disciples in John chapter two when Jesus cleaned house in the temple. Nehemiah did something similar in Nehemiah 13. He discovered Tobiah, an enemy of God's people, living in the temple. In chapter 13 verses 8 and 9, Nehemiah threw Tobiah's things out and had the rooms purified. Verses 15-22 tell of Nehemiah stopping merchants from conducting business on the Sabbath. I love verse 21 when he even tells them that if they continued that he would "lay (his) hands on them". That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Our culture has begun to preach tolerance. Tolerance is a code word for condoning evil. (To prove that point, watch how much tolerance the tolerance preachers have for truth and righteousness.) Tolerance will let you live; it will also let you die. But, love will save your life. Love doesn't leave room for the fear that keeps us from doing what is best for other people. Love shines truth on evil and calls it what it is. Love compels me to reach in and pull you out, because that's exactly what somebody else did for me.
Jesus did not tolerate the proliferation of sin under the guise of righteousness thriving in His Father's house, and neither should we. What do we allow to be taught in His church? What do we tolerate in our homes? (Gentlemen, it's nobody's job but ours to be the gatekeepers of our homes.) What do we tolerate in the temples of our bodies? Tolerance is a venom that is killing our culture. It's time to clean house. "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."