[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. – 1 Corinthians 13:6
Misfortunes and times of distress fall on everyone at one time or another. They are occasionally the result of bad choices. How do you react when something negative happens to someone you don’t like? It is different when it comes to a friend, though, isn’t it? In today’s verse, Paul focuses on the idea of rejoicing, when not to rejoice, and when you should, and he ties it to the characteristic of love. Love knows when to rejoice, and when not to.
Pastor and author George McDonald wrote, “There is a certain mean streak in human nature which takes pleasure in what is unrighteous, especially if an unrighteous act seems to benefit one’s self. This is not the spirit of love. Love rejoices with every triumph of the truth.” Theologian William Vine said, “All unrighteousness is the negation of truth. Love expresses itself in truth, and all conduct that satisfies holy love satisfies truth. Truth and righteousness are associated in Ephesians 5:9,” which says, “The fruit of light is found in all that is good and upright and true.”
As you can see, the believer who practices the love that God intends needs discernment. While you may need to overlook the faults and bad choices made by others, you do not compromise the truth. You cannot take a soft approach toward sin and should never rejoice in the missteps of others. Instead, your job as a follower of Jesus is to present His love and truth to them, without condemnation, encountering them with goodness.
New Testament scholar Dr. Simon Kistemaker said, “One of the characteristics of love is the constant attempt to discover good and praiseworthy words, thoughts, and deeds in a person. Love searches out the truth and rejoices when that truth is triumphing over wrong. Love and truth are inseparable partners residing in God himself. God shares these characteristics with his people. He endowed them with love and truth, which, though tainted by sin, are renewed in Christ Jesus through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.”
Are you demonstrating the love of Christ to others? You are called to love others, even the unlovable, in the selfless and compassionate way that Jesus loves you. While this isn’t easy, it is essential to your spiritual health and walk with the Lord. Ask Him, and He will lead you.
Today’s Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:6
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: 1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
