Sin and Sinners

Love Does Not Rejoice at Wrongdoing

Last week we started our summer series that will deal with a variety of topics and questions submitted by you. Conveniently enough, the topic from last week segues well into the question at hand for this week. You see, last week we closed and I asked you to look around and see how God was shaping you and the people around you. Today, we’re going to talk about one of the ways that we are called to shape one another. It’s not a popular one and it can be an uncomfortable one - and that is the topic of discipline, of correction, of bringing God’s Law to bear. We are called to love one another, that’s never in question. There’s a push in the world though that misunderstands love, and part of that misunderstanding is that love doesn’t offend and love doesn’t make you feel bad about yourself - but sometimes real love finds that necessary. Here in 1 Corinthians we read that love does not rejoice at wrongdoing and I came across a commentary that explains what that means, Lockwood writes “love avoids the human propensity not only to give tacit approval to wickedness but even to delight in hearing about it and perpetuating it.” If you love someone, and we are called to love the people God brings into our lives, you are called to help them live in alignment with God’s Law - we shouldn’t keep quiet and we certainly shouldn’t celebrate.

Which makes the timing of this sermon interesting, because we are in the midst of a month where so many people celebrate sin. And I say that it makes the timing of this sermon interesting because specifically, the question was submitted regarding how we as Christians should interact with people who struggle with the temptation and the sin of homosexuality. And that’s a reality we are going to have to deal with as faithful Christians, because the world wants to say it’s just a cultural issue or it’s not really a sin - but Romans is clear when it says in Romans 1:24-28 “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” So for homosexuality, and all the other sins we are confronted with in the people around us, we should be prepared to confront the people we love in a Biblical way- because of our love for them.

Not Irritable or Resentful

But how we approach people in our lives who are caught in sin, especially in regular or habitual or unrepentant sin, matters. We have to remember that we do this out of love, so it’s no wonder that the right understanding of love can guide our approach. In the passage we read earlier, Paul tells us that love is not irritable or resentful. I want you to think of two potential approaches to dealing with a sin. Let’s use a pretty low-key example, my brothers and I used to play Halo together with friendly fire enabled. It almost goes without saying that we would throw grenades at each other - even though we were on the same team.

One way to deal with that could be this. I turn to my brother Nathan with a really nasty look on my face. I’m frowning, my forehead is all bunched up, everything about me says I’m irritated. I tell him, “dude, what the heck! You killed me! How stupid are you?! We’re on the same team.” And of course, to teach him a lesson, I stop trying to actually win the match and start dedicating myself to vengeance - by hitting my teammate with a rocket. Anybody think that course of action would result in my brother repenting? Yeah, I can confirm from personal experience that it does not help.

Another way to deal with that could be this. I grin at Nathan, and say “funny guy, you must’ve lost your plasma grenade.” My posture is relaxed and my features are kind, everything about me says I’m not upset and I don’t hold it against him. I tell him “let’s finish off the other team before descending into anarchy.” I don’t hit him back with anything, don’t say anything demeaning about him. Anybody think that course of action would result in my brother repenting? Yeah, I think my odds are much greater on that one.

When we approach someone doing something wrong, if we’ve taken it personally and we’re irritable and resentful - we’re not approaching it like God has called us to. It becomes more about us than about our love for the person we’re trying to correct. So when we are bringing discipline or correction to someone, we have to come at it with a calm and loving attitude - not irritated or resentful, never forgetting the reason we’re doing it in the first place is out of love.

Not Insisting On Its Own Way

And another part of love that we have to keep in mind when we’re correcting someone is that we are not doing it to insist on our own way. I want you to imagine a really serious Padres fan, let’s call him Dodger. Yes, that’s right, Dodger the Padres fan. Dodger has a friend, Card the Cardinals fan. Dodger texts Card and says “hey man, can we grab lunch, there’s something I need to talk to you about.” So Card and Dodger sit down for lunch at a cafe, they order their drinks and food, chatting about work and the weather and making some other small talk. After their food gets to the table, Dodger, without a trace of irritation or resentment, says “Card, we need to talk. You keep rooting for the Cardinals season after season, and it’s just wrong. You live in Southern California, you don’t regularly talk to anyone who likes the Cardinals, it’s just wrong that you aren’t a Padres fan.” Dodger goes on to try and convince Card to shift his allegiance to the Padres, even going so far as to claim that because the Padres are named after priests, rooting for them is a holy decision.

There’s just one small problem with that story, rooting for the Cardinals is not a sin. There is nothing morally wrong with rooting for the Cardinals over the Padres. Dodger was seeking to “correct” his friend, but it wasn’t out of love or faithfulness - it was just to insist on his own way. Whenever we confront someone in our lives, we need to make sure that it’s in line with what God has taught us - not just because we want to push our preferences or our agenda or our ideas on someone else. Our correction should always be rooted in God’s Word.

Love Never Ends

So we are called to correct one another when it’s necessary, even with sins as personal as homosexuality, but we do it out of love. We do it as a reflection of the love that Christ showed us. You see, God saw us trapped in our sins, trapped in our brokenness. But He didn’t just shrug His shoulders and say “that’s fine, whatever.” No, He sent Jesus to live among us, to accept the price for our mistakes and our shortcomings and our evil.

Love bears all things, and Jesus bore the price of all our sin on the cross.

Love endures all things, and Jesus endured humbling Himself, endured the suffering of humanity for us.

Love never ends, and Jesus’ love for us never ends. We cannot outrun it, our sin cannot overwhelm it, the devil cannot destroy it, death cannot defeat it - Jesus’ love for us endures forever.

It’s that love that saved us from all of our sins, it’s that love that called us out of the grave, and it’s that love that shows us a better way. Amen.