Love Is Not

 

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

Evil. What exactly does that mean? To fully understand this verse, one must understand what evil is. The Merriam-Webster definition is that evil is something that brings sorrow, distress or calamity. The Oxford dictionary gives the definition as profound immorality or wickedness. I would suggest that evil is anything that goes against God’s righteousness. Notice in this verse that evil is not compared with goodness but with truth because real goodness is always based in truth. What masquerades as goodness in our society is very often not good at all. Take for instance the question of divorce. Marriages break down for many reasons, some significant, some insignificant but they never breakdown because there was too much love. Rather it is because there was too much anger, too much selfishness, too much adultery .Yet often divorce is portrayed as something good. At some level though people feel disquieted about it because we do not regularly have celebrations for divorce. Even the most amicable separations leave behind hurt, disappointment, distrust and confusion. Children rarely rejoice in their parents’ divorce. At best, we can say that divorce is perhaps a lesser evil in an already evil situation. True love does not delight in divorce, no matter what.

I pray that I will not be deluded by the falsehoods of the current wave of thinking that puts one’s selfish desires, pride, and ambition ahead of everyone else. I pray that God will soften my heart so that I will think more about what is good for others. Jesus gave us the perfect example. I pray that I will desire to be like Him.