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Bible Dictionaries
Toleration, Tolerance
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or TOLERATION, TOLERANCE.—The Lord Jesus Christ exemplified the highest forms of toleration and encouraged the virtue in His disciples (Mark 9:38-40). The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans (John 4:9), yet Jesus laboured in Samaria (John 4, Luke 9:52), healed and praised a Samaritan leper (Luke 17:15-19), and chose a Samaritan, in preference to a Levite and a priest, to exhibit the meaning of the term ‘neighbour’ (Luke 10:30-37). When His enemies asked, ‘Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon?’ He passed over the former and limited His reply to a denial of the latter charge (John 8:48 f.). While by example and teaching He sought to build a bridge of kindly consideration from the side of Judaism, He built also from the other side, and declared in Samaria that the Jews were to be respected as the possessors of the means of salvation (John 4:22; cf. Romans 3:1-2; Romans 10:2; Romans 11:25-31). There are other kinds of tolerance manifested by the Lord. Persons of diverse views, habits, temperaments, were attracted to Him, so that Petrine and Johannine minds, the tax-gatherer Matthew and the tax-hater Simon, Nicodemus and Zacchaeus, Martha and Mary, found in Him what they needed. His gracious comprehensiveness shielded the good in all. The ascetic Baptist (Matthew 11:18), who drew men into the wilderness (Matthew 11:7-9), received the highest commendation (Luke 7:26-28) from Him whose scene of ministry was the street and the synagogue, and who honoured with His presence bridal and other feasts (Matthew 9:10-12, John 2:1-11; John 12:2). The Samaritan villagers (Luke 9:52-58), whose intolerance James and John would have avenged, were left alone; thus were they punished, whereas they might have made their place glorious, as he did who lent the Lord the room in which the Holy Supper was instituted (Luke 22:7-20). In this case we see the intolerance of the Samaritans borne with, and (as in Luke 9:49-50) the intolerance of the disciples rebuked.
Again, though the Lord Jesus was frequently compelled to attack the Pharisees on account of their doctrines and practices, He showed them consideration by accepting their hospitality (Luke 7:36; Luke 11:37); and He reminded His disciples, on an occasion when His enemies criticised His conduct (Luke 5:30-33), that those who preferred old ways were to be judged leniently (Luke 5:39). The great parables of Luke 15, besides being a rebuke of the leaders in religion for neglecting to minister to publicans and sinners, are a gracious appeal to share in the delight of seeing men saved,—an appeal to the benevolence latent in the hearts of Christ’s unscrupulous critics. He was tolerant to the intolerant. There is, moreover, a striking proof of the existence, in the minds of the Pharisees, of a strong belief in our Lord’s toleration. No matter how vehemently He denounced their hypocrisy, they were convinced that He was free from animosity. Always they counted upon His forbearance. Of the reality of His power they entertained no doubt, though they could assign it to a Satanic origin (Luke 11:15, Matthew 9:34; Matthew 12:24); and yet so confident were they of impunity, that they never anticipated injury at His hands, and they ridiculed Him openly (Luke 16:14). They were aware that His graciousness alone spared them, and they knew that that graciousness would not fail.
W. J. Henderson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Toleration, Tolerance'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/toleration-tolerance.html. 1906-1918.
