Learning to Love Like Jesus Part 6 - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

2:00There was a teacher in the Sunday school class that was corralling the kids around. You remember this? You know where I'm going? And the teacher was reading this passage. And she had a bunch of wild kids running around trying to corral them. And so Nancy could hear the teacher reading, Love is patient, get in here. No joke. We've come a long way. Love is kind. I said, sit down. But we've come a long way. Continue to grow. Continue to grow.

2:43So tonight, what we're going to pick up in verse 6, really, but I'll just by way of review: love is patient. Remember, these are translated into predicate adjectives. But really, they're verbs. They're verbs. Love is waiting. It's really what it is. Love is waiting. It's what patience means: waiting for somebody. Love is kind. It is that love is helping. It's an attitude of helping. Love is not jealous. That is, love is not coveting. Love does not brag. That is, it is not bragging. Love is not arrogant.

3:29It's not bowing up. It does not act unbecomingly. That is, it is not degrading somebody else. It is not acting unbecomingly in the presence of someone. Love does not seek its own. That is, it's not seeking self-benefit. Love is not provoked. That it is not easily offended. Love is not easily offended. Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. That is, love is not keeping record of wrongs. It's not over there calculating the wrongs so that it could square up later. All that is not love. And tonight we want to continue in verse 6 and add two more truths. It's our goal tonight. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. So the first one, love does not, and you can see there, it's the same word. Love does not rejoice in one thing, but it rejoices in another thing. Let's just walk through this. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Again, a verb, it's present verb, active form. It's not rejoicing, it's not accelerating, it's not welcoming, it's not congratulating. That's the whole idea. Love does not welcome, celebrate unrighteousness. Word for unrighteousness speaks of wrongdoing, injustice, wickedness, wrong, evil.

5:11When you put it all together, love is not rejoicing in the things that are not right. If I could just translate it that way and explain how I see these words, these concepts fitting together. Love is not rejoicing in things that are not right. So if something's not right, love does not rejoice. There's not a benefit. It doesn't get excited. It doesn't welcome. It doesn't congratulate. It doesn't rejoice in things that are not right. And there's a whole spectrum of things that are not right. Right, wrong in respect to God, in respect to each other, and Respect to lots of things, world.

6:07But you remember Jesus's lament? You remember he talked about this idea. We'll get to it in the next verse, but just remember his teaching about those who mourn. They're the ones who are blessed, right? You see, love doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, it mourns unrighteousness. That's what love does. And blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. But you remember Jesus as he was looking over Jerusalem. What did he say? And keep in mind, they had rejected him. They had thoroughly rejected him. The religious establishment had rejected him. They were expecting a different Messiah, not just the religious establishment, but soon the whole masses. They wanted somebody to come and put the Romans down.

7:12They wanted a different king. They didn't want a Messiah who would come and compel them to love their enemies, compel them to love one another, to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of others. They didn't want that kind of. Messiah. And deep down, I think we really struggle with that too. We can talk a lot about church, we can go through a lot of motions, but when it comes down to that in the trenches, sacrificially loving somebody else in the faith to the point of giving ourselves, we struggle. Even loving some of our closest loved ones like this is very challenging, right? At times. At times, maybe not.

8:06But what does Jesus do? He sees, he knows what awaits him. He knows that they have rejected him. He knows what he's going to go through, and he knows what's going to happen to Jerusalem. And he says, This, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it.

8:40Behold, your house is left to you desolate. Do you hear a tone of lament in that? Do you hear anything at all like, ha, you're going to get yours. You rejected me, and now you're going to get yours, and you are going. Going to loathe the day that you rejected me. You hear anything like that? Not at all. It's his lament. He is not rejoicing in their rejection of him, nor is he rejoicing in the fact that they're getting their just due for rejecting their king.

9:28Jesus didn't rejoice over evil wrongdoing, didn't rejoice over the fall of somebody else. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. And this does not mean that love turns a blind eye to the evil in the world. We're very much, love is very much and painfully aware of the evil in the world, but it never celebrates it, never congratulates it, never winks at it, never laughs at it. Now, it love does not at all. You can think about that in so many realms. Maybe we'll talk about that in a little bit, but love never gloats over a person who is overcome by evil. Where if you.

10:30Love somebody, you don't gloat when they've been defeated, when they've fallen into the ditch. Ah, no, love doesn't gloat even over enemies. We're called to love our enemies. So, when evil befalls even our enemies, we're not to gloat because we're called to love our enemies. Love does not gloat, love grieves over the sins that human beings commit against one another, all manner of wrong. It doesn't rejoice in the right, it grieves when there's wrong. That's what love does, and it grieves when humanity treats when one person treats another person poorly, thinks poorly, speaks poorly of another person, or whatever. If you love God and you love people, you grieve.

11:36When someone you love is maligned, guess what you do? You grieve. That's what love does. Bringing it back to the church at Corinth, in what ways might the Corinthians have been rejoicing in that which was not right? Remember some ideas? Yeah, the way they celebrated the Lord's table, some going first, some being some having plenty, some having none, some being shamed, some being, yeah, that, and, and just, oh, wow. Yeah, so, so that's a good. What else?

12:29Yes, they were, they were rejoicing, they were, they did a couple things there. They were letting it go on, and then they were later they get really hard on the person, right? So it's like, yes, so so they were definitely rejoicing in that which was not right. Sin, yes, unrighteousness. Attitudes towards the gifts of the Spirit. Yeah, you see, you see these same issues coming up, rejoicing in false displays and celebrating false displays and other things. As it relates to the love of God, what are some ways that we might be tempted to rejoice in evil? So let's think about if we love God, we'll talk about how, relate this to each other in a little bit, but as it relates to love for God, what are some ways of love? Ways that we might be tempted to rejoice in evil when they fall when a person falls when somebody, yeah, to be able to, yeah, okay, so when a person falls, that's somebody who's an enemy and then falls into sin and gets adjusted, there's a there's a political figure, sports figure, too.

14:03Right, right, a co-worker. Okay, I'm happy to see him fall flat on his face. That gives me a little bit and a little bit of rejoice. Yeah, so that's a let me ask. Let's suppose somebody comes in, you're in the workroom, break room, and somebody tells a real foul joke, and everyone's laughing. If you love God, can you really laugh at that which is but it happens all the time and it happens all around us, doesn't it? Love does not congratulate, welcome, participate in that which is not right. What are some others? Yes, sir, especially with the religion movement saying that. If you love God and you understand that God loves these people, then the best way for you to love them is to celebrate with them.

15:15Yeah, very good. Not celebrating with people in their vices. The way to love somebody is to accept them, accept their vices, accept that which the Bible clearly condemns. And so to redefine morality, yeah, and to welcome it, to celebrate it. You guys have just been in the whole vacation Bible school planning, Vanity Fair, right? The big deal. Why did they kill, why did they lock up Christian and end up killing faithful is because of just what you were saying. They weren't buying their goods, they weren't celebrating. But we can't do that, right? Love for God is violated, and love for the person that wants us to celebrate with them in their evil. That's not love for them either. Somebody's got to tell you. This stuff ends up empty. It ends up void. It ends up bringing a shame upon you and an eternal separation from God. There is, I cannot. Love you or God and participate in that. And that's exactly where we now stand in this world. Very separated and a testament to that the world's deeds are evil and people need to repent. And that's exactly why they hated Christ, right?

16:52Other thoughts? Yes. Condemning people. Yeah, okay, so you're talking maybe looking to explain what you mean, like condemning. Right, right. So essentials and non-essentials, and freedoms and liberties, and matters of conscience, and to condemn somebody for not having the same conscience, not having the same informed conscience as yourself. Yeah, so condemning them, yes, that would be unjustly. What is the difference? Difference between sinning directly and vicariously. What is sinning directly? Getting drunk, okay, going out and getting drunk. That's a direct sin.

18:20You actually do it. Yeah, you actually do it. You actually engage yourself in an action that is sinful, right? What is sinning vicariously? Enjoying, yeah, exactly, enjoying watching it in a movie. We can sin vicariously, even if we're not sinning directly, by watching somebody, by being entertained by others who participate in that which is wrong, evil, not right, unjust. And that's our entertainment system, largely, right? Much of what's you can hardly be a connoisseur of what comes out of Hollywood on a regular basis and not sin vicariously, not enjoy watching other people sin.

19:18In fact, this is what sells news, even. You think about there's the entertainment realm, right? Think about our news. Think about what sells these days. Think about what makes the headlines. It is almost categorically across the board of something that's not right, something that's unjust, something that, and that's what shows up. That's what gets reported, that's what gets at times celebrated, at sometimes condemning the right action, and sometimes that's a big deal. Okay, these people were celebrating those who condemned the right action, and then other times we're celebrating those who are choosing the wrong direction, right? And that's that's news, report. And so that's sinning directly, and the difference between sinning directly and vicariously, what can be said of both of them? You put them together, what's lacking in both instances?

20:34Love, thank you, love for God, love for humanity, painfully lacking. If you're entertained by evil, very much, you've got a love problem. If you can have a steady diet of unjust actions parading before your eyes over and over, and that is what becomes entertainment. Got love problems, primarily love problems with God. And as it relates to love for one another, what are some ways that we might be tempted to rejoice in wrongdoing or wrongdoing, evil? I think we've been saying it, but any other ideas?

21:28Sometimes we can rejoice in someone's shortcomings, right? We can rejoice. Even I'm aware of those who would actually wish their spouse, they wanted to be out of the marriage so bad that they had actually wished their spouse would commit adultery so that they would have justification to be gone. They had actually wish somebody would break the relationship, do something evil, do something so that I'm just in walking out, so to speak. That's a real love problem, right?

22:14What is at the heart of gossiping? Yeah. Do you really want? To hear about somebody's failures, some do you really delight to hear in the scandals? What you fundamentally have is a problem with loving somebody. Listen, if somebody's got a problem, and if you've been around me long enough, you know, if you come to me and start saying, I've got a problem with so-and-so, I'm going to say, you know what, you need to go talk to that somebody. Don't come talk to me, go talk to that person, unless you want me involved, because I will get involved.

23:01But the idea is that the way we talk about one another and the way we, the things we'd like to hear, tell me more about this. Let me tell me a little bit more about what you just started. I want you to finish this. Tell me more about this individual or tell me more about this situation. Lack of love. Any other thoughts on that? Seeing a bully get bullied. Well, yeah, I mean, there's something satisfying, right? Seeing a bully get bullied. Oh, you've got your just desserts, right? And that's, and boy, we just saw Jesus, talk about someone who got bullied, and here he is lamenting, and he's not rejoicing even at that. And there's maybe a sense of satisfaction and justice served, that kind of thing.

24:00Love doesn't gloat. And so a good example. Yes, in the back. Like these imprecatory psalms, right? Lord, have you seen how miserable these people are? No. No, but yeah, it could be a lack of love. Instead of like, Lord, I want you to judge them. Lord, bring down the fire, do something. And Lord, rather, why don't you bless them, bring them into a right relationship, and forgive me for, you know, yeah, that's more of an expression of love, but very good.

24:58Well, let's keep going. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices in the truth. It rejoices in the truth. It's it, again, it's the whole idea of sharing joy with. It's the same verb, but the difference is that it has this added idea of togetherness, sharing joy together with. So love rejoices with the truth. Truth. It is sharing joy with the truth. It is rejoicing. And again, the same thought of welcoming, congratulating. It loves the truth. Again, the noun, it rejoices with the truth.

25:47Truth, in the sense of implications for sound doctrine. It's interesting how he puts these two, you know, in contrast with one another. You have the truth and unrighteousness, the truth and wrong. You'd almost expect unrighteousness, injustice is one word for unrighteousness, injustice. You would expect then the word here to be justice, right? Rejoices in justice. No, it's a nuance, but it gives you a, it's the truth. Love loves truth. Love loves the truth. And that's implication for sound thinking, sound theology.

26:38Love for God loves the truth. Truth about God, about thinking, sound thinking, what's right, what's logical, what's orderly, what's sound, what's in keeping with the nature and character of God, truth. It also carries the idea of uprightness, truth. And that has, love rejoices with that which is right, upright. That is also true, and it has implications for the right things, doing the right things. Love rejoices when it sees the right thing being done. That's what causes it to rejoice.

27:20Love rejoices in the right thing. Love rejoices in reality. There's an implication rejoicing with the truth that impacts reality. Truth or love rejoices in the truth. It doesn't rejoice in the false. Even if the false, or even if the truth can be painful, I think you'd all rather, if you love somebody, you want to know the truth, right? And sometimes, after painful times of exposure and reality, sometimes there's a heaviness, a sorrow, but deep down there's a rejoicing. I'm glad I heard that confession. Thank you. I'm glad that this is now in the open. I'm glad I now know, even though this truth is painful, yet I rejoice in knowing this and that I'm not kept in the dark any longer.

28:25So rejoicing with the truth has implications for some. Sound thinking, doing the right thing, and rejecting that which is false. So, love is rejoicing in the right things. Love is not rejoicing in the wrong things, it is rejoicing in the right things, rejoices with the truth. You remember some of Jesus' moments of excitement in Luke 10:21? At that very time, he rejoiced greatly. Jesus is rejoicing greatly. What is, you know, stop, think, dial in. Jesus is rejoicing greatly. Anytime you walk through the Gospels and you see a point where Jesus is expressing some kind of emotion, dial in on it. Get your mind around it. He's rejoicing greatly here in Luke 10.

29:33At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in your sight. So Jesus is saying, You have hidden this from all these Pharisees, and those who are too wise, they get it. And you have taken this truth, and these infants have grasped it. And he's rejoicing, but what's he rejoicing in? That they got the truth, right?

30:13That you have hidden and revealed. He's excited about the truth being revealed to the infants. You remember when Peter got it, right? Who do you say that I am? Who do people say that I am? All kinds of answers, right? And then Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him in Matthew 16, 17, Blessed are you. I can almost assure you that there's a smile coming of Christ coming through that word. Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. He was excited when the light went on, when the light of truth went on in the hearts of his disciples, in the hearts of people. They loved it when they got the truth. And you see this over and over through we to love the God, we love the truth. I'm thinking about this.

31:32If love for God and for God and for mankind is rejoicing with the truth, what challenges does the ecumenical movement face? What is the ecumenical movement? It's a unity movement that unites religions, right? Islam, Christianity, all kinds of, let's say, okay, we've basically got one God. We've got really, and of course, that doesn't really work with certain religions. They got to get kicked out of the bucket there because, you know, that doesn't work with Hinduism. It's too crowded, too many gods. So you got to get a really big tent. So you can start seeing some problems for the ecumenical movement, but that ecumenical movement could even happen within Christianity, right? Under the umbrella of Christianity. And what's the problem? What challenges is this?

32:35Different definitions of truth. Yeah, if you're going to rejoice with the, if you're going to have, bring everybody together, what is going to have to happen? Different definitions of truth and ultimately compromise, right? A compromise of the truth. So if love for God, the ecumenical Movement that calls people to compromise the truth, it's going to be void of a love for God, fundamentally, because love rejoices with the truth. And when truth is on the chopping block, love has already left.

33:24Another one. Do you have a? Did I see another hand over here? Okay, you're going to pass? Okay. Yeah. So you get the love of. Yeah, that's compromise on truth. And then really is a love for man. But an evil love of God. Yeah, it's not a love that, yeah, it's not a love for man, not in this sense, not in what he's calling for. It's a deference to man. It's kind of almost a fear of man. It's wanting to appease man because love, if you love God, you don't want to compromise the truth. But listen, if you love one another, you don't want to compromise the truth. You don't want to see somebody that you love void of the truth. And what parent?

34:30That doesn't warn their children of real dangers. From the cradle onward, a parent is constantly involved in the child's life to try to help them with what is good for them. And truth is good. It is always good. And even if it can be painful sometimes, it's always good. And so to love God and to love each other can never come at the compromise of truth. Not according to this text. Temptation, he must have faced. Yeah, just listen to those guys, false prophets. Just listen to them.

35:17You want to hear what they have to say. You enjoy hearing what they have to say. You want to throw me in the well when I'm falling. So just listen. Listen to those guys. I'm done with you. Thinking about Jonah. That verse kind of captures in the judgment of Nineveh. That's what he wanted to rejoice in in their judgment. And yet the Lord was so much better to rejoice in their salvation, to rejoice in the truth that came to them if than I'm trying to send it in through you.

36:02It's very good. I want to see the Lord bring you down, Ninevite. Yes. Jonah's a good example. And what truth did he ultimately despise? That God was what? That he was merciful. I knew you were merciful. I didn't want that to happen. It really comes down to who God is, right? I wanted them obliterated, but my problem was with you because I knew you would have mercy upon them if they repented. And so he didn't love the truth. He had an issue with God. But both, God and very good. Yeah, very good example.

36:51So the question: can love exist where truth is compromised? Yeah, I mean, it's certainly love is compromised where truth is compromised, right? And if love is rejoicing with right doing, how might this impact what we focus upon in others? So if love is rejoicing in right doing, how is this going to impact the way we see each other or maybe what we focus on each other? Focus on in each other? Positive, right? Yes. Something, yeah. I mean, you think about it, we can all day long, if we love people, we're going to start focusing on the good, focusing on what's noble, instead of gravitating to, oh, you messed up again. Oops, up to you, yeah, I saw that. Wow, I didn't, but we can really start focusing on the negatives in people, right? You know where that comes from? A heart that doesn't love.

38:02Listen, if God wanted to focus on the wrong things in us, no, who could stand? Yeah, who could stand? No one. And yet, He chose to see us through the lens of Christ and see in us that which is good that was given to us. So, other thoughts on that? Yes. Believing that people have the best intentions. Very good. Yeah, if you love somebody, believe the best. Believe the best. And grow in believing the best about people. That's what love does.

38:55We'll get into that next time. Hopes all things, bears all things, endures all things. Never fails. But this is in that same vein of thought here. Just thinking the best of people, giving the benefit of the doubt. So, yeah, very good. Thank you. If you're going around skeptical, guess what? You're not loving. That's the problem. And I think that's what the problem is at the church in Corinth. Your problem is you're not loving somebody. And so many of their issues boil down to this one core thing. And so many of the issues that we face today with each other inside the church, inside our family, and outside the church boils down to you've got a problem with loving people. That's what's void in your heart. If you can really learn to love like Jesus loved, you would see things very differently. You would see people very differently.

40:02You would not be ashamed of the truth. Because your love for the truth would so overpower any fear. But fundamentally, we've got to grow up. That's this message. That's what 1 Corinthians is about. Let's learn to really love. Will you walk that journey with me? I'm trying. I really am trying to. This is the journey of the Christian life and learning to love. Yes, sir. Yeah. That's where that is the method statement that he said. But God came to us to show love to us who are lovable. Right.

41:29So there is no reason for me not to love my neighbor to another person. Right. And the word love there, agape, agape, committed to, devoted to, devoted to someone's well-being, doesn't necessarily mean Philos, like, okay, you're just going to enjoy just hanging out together. But what is that will come, by the way. That does come. You'll get to first you make the devotion. To be committed to somebody, to love somebody, to be in it for their well-being, whether it's friend or enemy, once you cross that line, even the difficult people can start finding some things that, yeah, we can get along a little bit better. But that fundamental devotion, loving, that devotion of the will to love that which is unlovable is what God did. And that's that agape. That's that devotion of the will to somebody else's well-being. That's what love is. Talk about it in our marriage preparation class: that love is the, how do we say it, Nancy? Love is the devotion of a well-regulated mind to contribute to somebody else's well-being. Something like that. But it's the committed mind, a well-devoted mind, committed to the well-being of somebody else. That's what agape love is. And it by necessity involves a death to self.

43:12So if think about it, think about it on another level. If love is rejoicing with the truth, who should our heroes be? I'm going to grab. Out just in case lightning hits. I like the spirit behind that. I would love for that to be the truth. And yes, ideally, yes, me aside, our heroes should be those who walk in truth, right? Who love the truth, who stand up for truth, in whatever role in society they have. But that's what's admirable.

43:58And who, what are some of the societal heroes today? What's that? Yeah, the bad guys. And even in many of the movies and stuff, you get these, but yeah, a lot of our heroes today are those who do that which is not noble and who can even celebrate that which is evil. And our society holds them up as heroes. What does it say about a person who has evil heroes? What's missing? Love for what? Love for the truth. Yeah, love for God. Love for they don't welcome, they don't rejoice, they don't celebrate that which is good, but they're celebrating that which is good. So they don't even know how to love.

45:01Like God is talking about here. Any other thoughts on that? But love is patient. Love is kind. It is not jealous. Love does not brag. It is not arrogant. It does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Next week, we'll look at the final installment. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

45:41Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, the truth. Father, help us to love you and love truth more, to celebrate truth more, to celebrate what's right, to celebrate what is good, to despise that which is not right, unjust, unbecoming. Father, help us to truly walk this journey of loving one another. Lord, you've put us in this body. You've put us in this world. You've put us in this church. Father, for the purpose of regulating our minds to the well-being of all of those. Around us. Father, help us to put on a heart of love, wise through wisdom and well-regulated intentions, for the purpose of building one another up, for being a light in this community, for displaying your glory, and for being part of your order, your kingdom, your world to come, that even now the light is shining. And we know that the darkness is passing away. So, Father, equip us by your grace, help us to walk truly in this kind of love, first at home, first among believers, and then into the world.

47:26Go with us this week, in Jesus' name. Amen.