Verse 6 - Take 2

I know I already covered verse 6. But this is just so important! I imagine that this says pretty much the same thing, just worded different, but I couldn't help but feel that I didn't do it justice earlier. So take it or leave it, but here it is:

1 Corinthians 13:6- Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Love does not delight in evil. I can’t help but think of my 8 year old son who is sitting next to me. He and his 6 year old little brother, go through stages where they love tattling on one another. They are currently in this stage, and they tell me every little thing that the other one does wrong. I am trying to teach them that love does not delight in evil, but that’s kind of hard for them to understand. They know it’s wrong, and they think I should know… Oh the joys of parenthood.

But it’s not just kids that struggle with this concept. How many times do we tell others what so and so did? How often do we watch the news just to see all the bad things that happened in a day? This part of the verse makes me think about gossip. Proverbs 26:20 tells us that “Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.” How true is that?! When we focus on sharing evil or bad things that happen, all it does is stir up strife. Last night I was the perfect example of this. I had talked with someone on the phone earlier in the day, and they had told me something shockingly horrible that they had done. This person is not a Christian, and didn’t understand how wrong it was to do what they did. They kind of felt like they took it too far, but they didn’t grasp the consequences it had on those around them. Anyway, I was telling my husband all about it (because I try to tell him everything), when it hit me that I was, in a way, rejoicing in evil. I was pained for the person that was effected by this, and for the lack of salvation in the person I spoke to, but there was still part of me that enjoyed telling this horrific story. I was delighting in evil. (On a side note: how is news different then gossip? I have been wondering about this a lot lately… Any thoughts?)

On the other end of this verse, we are told that love rejoices in truth. I love being truthful with my husband, but I don’t think that’s the kind of truth this is talking about. Telling my husband everything is a good thing, but delighting in truth is deeper than that. What about when someone sins against us, but they tell us afterwards and their sin hurts us? Can we rejoice in knowing the truth when it hurts? Can we rejoice in the truth when it is not what we wanted? Let’s say that the truth is that our boss has decided that we aren’t holding up to our end of the deal and we are being fired? The truth is that we weren’t performing well, can we rejoice in him telling us the truth and grow from that experience? Can we rejoice in the truth when the truth is something that we enjoy doing is a sin?

Can we rejoice in the truth that God has rebuked us for something that He doesn’t like, or do we delight in our evil too much and start an argument with God (or other Christians) to defend our sin?

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