Intolerance and Love

The ruins of Ancient Ephesus

March 18, 1950 – Revelation 2:1-7

Ephesus was intolerant of evil men. That church could not bear the evil workers who sought to settle among them. But that mere intolerance of evil did not make Ephesus what Christ wanted her to be. Intolerance of evil is, or can be, a negative attitude, and if it lacks the moral backing of positive love for God, it will quickly degenerate into bigotry and narrowness. This is for me, for though I pretend zealously to have hatred for wickedness, often it is not from a knowledge of and love of righteousness, but from mere external, social, and environmental feelings.

Jim Elliot, The Journals of Jim Elliot

P.S. There’s an excellent book review of Jim Elliot’s biography Shadow of the Almighty at Philip Dunwoody’s Spy blog. Read the review and read the book.