1 Corinthians 13:6 “Love rejoices whenever the truth wins out.”

Paul has been contrasting love by teaching what it is not, he now flips the coin and returns to the positive side of love and gives the last five qualities. These qualities also reveal what love brings to those who love, for God’s love is the fountain from which goodness flows.

• Love Rejoices

It’s easy to focus on what love does not rejoice in but love is not about the don’ts and the inactivity of not doing, love is about what it actively must do. Love is not simply a feeling, or an abstraction, love is active not passive and love is only love when it acts. 1 John 3:18 says “Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” The truth is that love is defined by the get to and we should do all the good we can, to all the people we can, for as long as we can. In Luke 18:11-13 the Pharisee stood and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men-extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” What a contrast of responses. It’s easy to rejoice in what we don’t do and how much better we are than others who do what we don’t. When we head down this path our rejoicing becomes centered around our supposed success while using the sin of others as a backdrop to reflect our morality, but that is nothing more than patting our back with pride. Love is saddened by sin but not surprised by it for love is not blind but has 20/20 vision seeing sin for what it is. Jesus saw through the outward disguises to the inner being, He knew the evil in the world as only the sinless One could know it. Paul also was not blind to the grave sins and weaknesses of the Corinthian Christians. Love does not rejoice in sin but it does not reject the sinner, which is selfishness, which always turns its face away from sorrows, shames, and the failures of others. Love does not turn away from the lonely and broken lives that sin creates. Christian love is not content to denounce wrong, it seeks to save men from it and faces the facts with the confidence that God is able to both deal with sin and heal sin.

Love is the energy of life and Paul reveals loves real outcome, all 15 colors and hues of the spectrum of love reveal verbs. It is the act of loving that makes a person better than they are, for love enlarges the boarders of our heart, it deepens us and fills us to overflowing. It is by loving that we come nearer to God and our soul is knit together with His Son. When we refuse to love we shrivel inwardly, our hearts decay and die. Paul says that love actively rejoices in the truth, what do we delight in, is it truth? Psalm 119:35 says “Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.” Verse 77 says “For your law is my delight” and verse 174 says “I long for your salvation, O Lord, and Your Law is my delight.” Love rejoices with truth as opposed to rejoicing with thoughts, words, or actions that are not right or unrighteous according to God. Unrighteousness justifies sinful actions, words, and attitudes where Love concerns itself with truth not selfish opinions. Love does not look for tidbits of untruth to pass on and refuses to float along with gossip. We are to rejoice only with the truth and we may say that we refuse to participate in evil yet we seem to enjoy watching it or find ourselves hoping others fall into it. Rejoicing in anyone’s sin is wrong. Do you become glad at learning of another’s calamity, failure or faults, or at the exposing of the weaknesses of others? That is not love for love covers a multitude of sin (1 Pet. 4:8) love does not spread gossip and those that love will be offended at the sharing of gossip. The mind that seeks after God, the source of eternal love, rejoices with learning of and comprehending His truth. Those that love are those who search for God’s truth and make His truth their source of rejoicing, good doctrine is right thinking about God, ourselves and others. Right thinking, in turn allows us to love one another in truth, with what is real, rather than in a setting of self-deception.

Love does not focus on the wrongs of others or parade their faults for the entire world to see. Love is also not ignorant, it knows the truth but loves in spite of what it sees and can endure the worst because it has its roots in the best. Love knows that people are full of sin and are prone to sin, but love still loves in spite of. It does not disregard falsehood and unrighteousness, but as much as possible it focuses on the true and the right. Love looks for the good, hopes for the good, and emphasizes the good, so love rejoices with those who teach the truth and live the truth. What does love look like, it looks like Jonathan, the prince of friends. He was the son of the king and the heir to the throne when the truth that David would be king was revealed. How did he respond to the truth, when confronted with the truth of David’s courage and success when faced with the reality of David’s magnetism and heroism? How would we respond? A small man would have been insanely jealous but Jonathan was a rare soul, he cast all ambition out of his heart, and his soul was linked to David’s. 1 Samuel says that Jonathon loved David; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 1 Samuel 23 says “Then Jonathon, Saul’s son, arose and went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that. So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord.” What would our response have been to David’s troubles? Their friendship lights up the pages of a warlike and corrupt time, it became a golden thread that runs through all the later years of the story of Saul’s reign. Great friendships can grow up only between large and generous natures that are controlled by love. Jonathan understood that sacrificial love rejoices in truth how about us? Will you letting love rejoice through you today or will you get in the way?

1 Corinthians 13:5-6 “Love keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice”

The Fourth and final pair of negative love killers are:

• Keeping Score

The word that is used here is a bookkeeping term that means “to count up and to take account of,” as in a banking ledger. The thought that Paul is conveying is the recording to keeping score and even the desire to settle those accounts. Paul talks about how we deal with wrongs and one of the destructive issues that arises from this is a suspicious heart. A suspicious person has a negative effect on situations and people that they are suspicious of and involved with. Most of the people who have influenced me to change over the years have been people who believed in me. In an atmosphere of suspicion people often die but in an atmosphere of trusting they expand and find the encouragement to change. Paul say that Love does not attribute evil motives or suspicions to others for that is conviction without evidence and only God can judge the heart. Paul’s prohibition is not just against suspecting evil of others but it also concerns evil actually done to us by others. In these situations of personally being wronged self wants to record each wrong in living detail, even assigning a fine and sentence to each wrong. The Savior however wants us to forgive because, He has forgiven us, because bitterness creates bondage, and because we are going to need more forgiveness from Him in the future. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Real love will not hold bitter grudges or allow long standing resentments against others, even when the wrongs done against us feel spiteful. In my life there have been three steps in the process of forgiveness that have freed me from the prison of pain time and time again.

1. Relinquish my right to get even.

Paul wrote in Romans 12:19 “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.”

We buy into the lie that we can hurt other people with our resentment when we try to get even. The truth is that hurt doesn’t bring healing until its placed in God’s hand and hurt people hurt themselves and others.

1. Respond to evil with good.

In Luke 6:27-28 we are commanded to “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” The truth of God’s Word is what sets us free and God reminds us that we do have a choice as to how we will respond. We do not have to let the hurt herd us down the path of pain where we become programmed to respond to the poison.  Romans 12:21 tells us “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” How we respond to hurt is a reflection of obedience and trust in His Word.  Sometimes we can’t prevent the snake bite but we can always participate and be proactive in the administration of anti-venom. When we respond to evil with evil we are choosing not to suck out the poison but to let is coarse through our veins hoping that the snake dies.

1. Repeat the process.

Remember the discussion Jesus had with Peter in Matthew 18:21? “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? No not seven times, Jesus replied, but seventy times seven.” Here is the hard part of love, instead of entering evil as a debt in its accounting books it voluntarily passes the eraser over what it endures. Love forgives and removes the record of accountability for the offense. We don’t need to keep record of wrongs to protect ourselves when we are confident that God is in control of the outcome, and when we know that He is looking after our needs. What if instead of making a list of others mistakes against us we listed the number of times God has forgiven us. I know that I deserve to be punished but instead He took it for me, there are no lashes on my back or shackles on my feet. God is not keeping a list of my wrongs in fact the only thing that is written in His book is my name. I have been immersed in grace and submerged in mercy and true love longs to share the miracle of mercy and the gift of grace.

• Injustice

Injustice or unrighteousness is anything that does not conform to the standard of the right which is God’s just standard. Injustice denies truth, and all immorality is rooted in the process of self-deception where wrong behavior becomes the product of a misbelief about reality. Love does not get its kicks out of unrighteousness yet today too many Christians are entertained by programs that elevate wickedness. Like ancient Rome we satisfy and justify our desire for unrighteousness by calling in  entertainment, yet is God pleased with His people when we are entertained by watching people being beaten, stabbed, raped, hated and abused. Love experiences no joy in seeing the faults or failings and falling into sin, even when those flailing feel like the enemy. Love mourns over sin, it weeps regardless of whose injustice is revealed.  Love does not pass along a juicy morsel of someone else’s failures just because it tastes good to do so. Breaking the news of sin is for the good of others not to promote a “feeding frenzy” around others embarrassment and pain. What are you recording and rejoicing over? Is it time to repent and receive forgiveness, is it time to release the hurt and stop recording the pain? Today we have a choice to embrace His Word or our wounds, what will you choose?