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Clothe Yourself

             Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

 

I’ve met quite a few people who have told me about Popper’s Paradox of Intolerance. It is the idea that if society shows any tolerance of intolerance, then intolerance will destroy the society. Of course, what those people don’t seem to see is that their intolerance is what causes the destruction. I suspect, however, that those who do cite Popper’s Paradox would say that we should be uncompassionate with the uncompassionate, unkind to the unkind, arrogant with the arrogant, a bully to the bully, and impatient with the impatient. After all, if we do not treat these things as the heinous crimes that they are, our society will become uncompassionate, unkind, arrogant, bullying, and impatient but if we treat these things as the heinous crimes they are, our society will become just as uncompassionate, unkind, arrogant, bullying, and impatient. Catch 22.

As Christians, we are told to clothe ourselves with virtue, becoming models of them rather than judges of their performance by others. To the uncompassionate, we are to be compassionate, and so on, whether they deserve it or not. Of course, that requires that we understand the meaning of the terms involved. That understanding isn’t likely to coincide with what we grew up believing.

 

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