Love Does Not Delight In Evil, But Rejoices With The Truth

Love Does Not Delight In Evil, But Rejoices With The Truth

Matthew 12:33-37

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you all in the name of Jesus. Amen.

We are wrapping up our sermon series on what is love from 1 Corinthians 13. Pastor Randy and Pastor Dan have shared how love is patient, how love does not envy, and how love is not angry. This morning, we focus on verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 13: “Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” Or in the NIV: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

Tomorrow, Rachel and I celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary!

Insert wedding picture slide

24 years of wedded bliss. Wow…don’t we look young?!? I still have those black and white saddle Doc Martens by the way!

When we said our “I do’s,” Rachel’s Uncle Mike, a now sainted Lutheran pastor, made us turn and face the congregation and yell, “Divorce is not an option!” Our siblings, in turn, have done the same at their weddings. And when the time comes for my sons, Jonah, Eli, and Silas, they will make the same declaration.

In fact, Rachel and I have been earnestly praying for our sons’ future wives ever since our sons were born. We definitely pray the “love is patient” part over and over as our sons’ wives are going to need a lot of patience! Maybe…that they have a lot of patience with their in-laws!

And in praying for our sons’ future wives, we have worked really hard to try and instill the importance of love…the importance of marriage…the importance of family. Even when our sons were really little, we spoke about these things—about the importance of being a close family and the importance of choosing the right, godly spouse.

One day, Eli when he was such a young boy, said, “I am going to live on a house on a lake.” And Jonah, who is a year older than Eli, said, “Yeah, I am going to live on a house on that lake, too. On the other side of the lake so that we can take a boat to visit each other whenever we want.” Silas, who was around 4 at that time, said, Jonah, “Can I live in the basement of your house?” Jonah, said, “Sure, Si, it will be great! We can play video games together all of the time.”

Well, the conversation continued with rules for or about their future wives. Rachel and I said, we only have 2 rules—your wife has to love Jesus, and your wife has to love our family. The rest of the rules—well, that’s up to you.

Jonah said, “My wife has to love Jesus, has to love our family, and she can’t eat trash.”

Eli said, “My wife has to love Jesus, has to love our family, and she has to love sports, too.”

Silas finished by saying, “My wife has to love Jesus, has to love our family—especially Jonah, and she has to love video games because we’re going to live in Jonah’s basement and play video games all the time!”

Ahh…love that delights in the truth!

Perhaps instead of rules for the choosing of their wives, we should be working on how they speak to their loved ones. What words they use.

Words matter.

Our Gospel text speaks about the importance of words—about how words demonstrate what is meant in the heart.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

What one says is a reflection of one’s heart. Just as a tree is known by its fruit, what one says speaks to what is in one’s heart—what is one’s character. A person’s character is known by the words that come out his mouth.

Spoken words. Lived words.

Did you know that the average person from the first “Good morning” to the last “Good night” has 30 conversations during the day? The average person—30 conversations! Statistically speaking, we will spend 13 years worth of time just talking. If we were to write down the words that the average person speaks in one year, those words would fill 264 books of over 200 pages each! All from our words.

Astronaut Michael Collins was speaking some time ago at a banquet, and he estimated that the average man speaks 25,000 words a day, and the average woman speaks 30,000. Then he added, “Unfortunately, when I come home each day, I’ve spoken my 25,000, and my wife hasn’t started her 30,000.”

That’s a lot of words! And, it doesn’t take a lot of words to show what’s in one’s heart. For what comes out of a person’s mouth—the words they speak—shows what’s in the heart. It shows the love of their heart.

Matthew 15:18-19 tells us: But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

We don’t have to talk to a person very long or on very many different occasions to find out whether in one’s heart is pure, wholesome thinking or lustful, evil, dirty thinking. We don’t have to listen to a person very long to find out whether one’s heart is kind and gentle and thoughtful, or manipulative or cruel or deceptive or evil, because what is in one’s heart is going to come out of one’s mouth.

The problem is our sinful nature and the fallen world in which we live loves this unwholesome love. It loves a love that is not really love.

For the world, love is manipulative and manipulated. Pressures that accompany a deceitful love. Words like, “If you love me, you’d sleep with me.”

Our sinful nature and the fallen world in which we live loves a masked love. It loves a masked evil.

How many of you remember the TV show Friends? It was such a popular show. Fun loving. Carefree. Hanging out at the coffee house. Living life as friends.

During the run of seasons of Friends, a dark and disturbing movie called Pulp Fiction came out in the movie theaters. Violence. Drugs. Sexual assault.

Which one was worse than the other? The R-Rated Pulp Fiction? Or, the fun-loving TV sitcom?

One was evil masked. The other was evil unmasked. In Friends, characters were sexually permissive—even though you didn’t see it on screen—however, their promiscuous lives seemingly were lived with no apparent consequences. Evil was masked.

Pulp Fiction on the other hand was evil unmasked. Dark and disturbing and full of consequences. There was no deceit—just raw.

Today, the envelope continues to be pushed. Evil masked and evil unmasked are so easily intertwined and drawing viewers and voyeurs in—captivating them with embracing that which is unwholesome.

There is nothing new under the sun. When Paul wrote the words of 1 Corinthians 13 about what love is, the city of Corinth was a disaster of morality. Corinth was an evil place with pervasive idol worship and rampant sexual immorality. The recently converted Christians in Corinth sometimes had a hard time shaking the old habits. To combat these evils, Paul taught that loves does not enjoy or delight in such evil actions; rather, true love finds joy in truth and righteousness.

Consider a wholesome marriage. God created man and woman to be together—to be fruitful and multiply. God gave man and woman a great gift of sexuality—of intimacy. This gift of intimacy outside of the construct of marriage leads to everything but the joy that God intended us to have. Intimacy outside of marriage leads to fear—perhaps fear of pregnancy…perhaps fear of someone finding out…perhaps fear of being cheated upon or rejected or used or manipulated or whatever.

But, intimacy in the construct of marriage—a wholesome marriage—there is no fear…no wondering…no manipulation…no rejection. It is man and woman becoming one as God intended.

A wholesome marriage gives us a snapshot of a love that is true.

God reveals for us a truth about love.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Love is not manipulative. Love does not trick…does not lie…does not deceive. Love does not harm or tear down or gossip or delight in the misfortunes of others.

Rather, love rejoices with the truth.

True love rejoices in what is right and good. Anything that covers up sin or seeks to justify wrongdoing is the polar opposite of godly love. Love does not sweep sin under the rug. Love does not try to find ways to get away with bad behavior, and it does not put up with injustice. Instead, it treasures truth, celebrates good behavior, and promotes virtue. True love has nothing to hide.

Love rejoices with the truth.

We have several educators among us this morning, and later in our service our educators will be receiving a special blessing as they get ready to start a new school year. As we consider that love rejoices with the truth, I ask you to lift up our educators in prayer. So much of education is rooted in legalism—grades…attendance…discipline. But teachers have a beautiful responsibility—whether public or private or parochial—to teach and share truth and love. What an admirable Calling to do so—to help our youth understand truth and love!

And teachers have it so hard! They are dealing with kids that are sinful.

One night, many many years ago—18 years or so ago—we were in the midst of potty training Jonah and Eli. Very few teachings in life are more difficult to master! We had a bag of lollipops that we were using as rewards for success. And this one night as we were lying in bed getting ready to go to sleep, our door was cracked open as it was customarily done so that we could listen to see if the boys needed us. Well, this night, our door slammed shut and I heard the pitter patter of feet running down the hall and then I heard another door slam shut. I thought to myself, ok…what is going on. So I walked up to their bedroom that they shared and I heard, “It’s ok…they’ll never know…I shut their door…they can’t hear us!” So, I sprung the door open and turned on the lights, and there is Eli and Jonah in the same bed with hands under the covers and eyes shut and acting as they were sleeping. I pull the blankets down and there is the whole bag of lollipop suckers that were on top of the refrigerator!

After a heart to heart about honesty and deception, I returned to our room, and said to Rachel, if they are like this at 3 years of age, what are we going to do when they are 16?

Well…teachers of kids of all ages…this is what they have to deal with! So, teachers, remember that Love is patient and kind and does not anger! And those of you who are not teachers, pray for our teachers—for these kids often know not what they do…

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke records those words of Jesus from the cross. This same Jesus who says I am the Way and Truth and the Life is the same Jesus who went to the cross out of love.

For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son…He sent Him to the cross because of His love for us. God did not put conditions on His love---it wasn’t I’ll send my Son to die for you if… No, Romans says, “But God shows his love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

What a great act and display of true love…love that is selfless…love that is patient and kind…love that does not envy…love that does not anger…love that does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth…a love that rejoices with Jesus…a love that bears all things including the cross…a love that believes all things including the resurrection…a love that hopes all things including the life to come…a love that endures all things including the sacrifice for our salvation.

As we wrap up this sermon series on love, this passage in 1 Corinthians 13 ends with, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Why is love the greatest? Because love is eternal. Love is what moved God to send His Son to save us. God’s love is what we base our hope and gives us the reason to have faith.

Love is the centerpiece of the Christian ethic and must remain as the believers’ focus in every era and culture. It is how we are to treat each other. We love because God first loved us.

Live in His love and live out His love. Amen.