Love Rejoices in …
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
As much as you and I like being part of the crowd, like being accepted by the people around us, sometimes as disciples of Jesus, we’re called to stand apart. We’re called to go against the flow rather than with it. We’re called to be counter-cultural. It’s not easy, is it?
For the first thirty-six years of my life I lived a lie, as indeed many people do. Here’s what my particular lie looked like.
You’re told that if you work hard enough you can do anything you want, have anyone you want. Just work hard and you’ll succeed.
So I did. I worked incredibly hard and I ended up driving a big expensive car and living in a big expensive house. Hey, I was on the road to real success. But on the inside – and let’s face it that’s where we live – it didn’t satisfy me. In fact, the hollowness of all that nearly drove me to the point of suicide.
But given the lie I’d swallowed, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until a friend pointed it out – until a friend told me the truth, until a friend introduced me to Jesus. You see, that’s what love does; it rejoices in the truth.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
Most of the people in this world don’t want to know the truth. They’re much more content living out their own particular brand of lie. But those of us who love them … we shouldn’t be joining them in that. We shouldn’t be rejoicing in wrongdoing with them – in fact, quite the opposite.
Love rejoices in the truth. And at some point love shares the truth.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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