1 Corinthians 13:5

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I become as a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, if I have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, if I have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind. Love envies not. Love boasts not itself. It is not puffed up. It does not behave rudely. It seeks not its own. It is not easily provoked. It thinks no evil. It rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away with.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am known. And now abide these three: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Father, we sang today of your love. When we consider it, we can't help but stand in awe and worship of your love. Jesus, you told your disciples that greater love hath no man than this, than that a man would lay down his life for his friend. So really, the greatest expression of our human love would be to lay down our lives for someone we already love.

We know we count as a friend. But you demonstrated your love that far surpasses our love, that while we were yet sinners, you died for us. Father, this is love. You loved us so much that you gave your only begotten Son, that if we would put our confidence and trust in Him and in you, you would give to us eternal life.

Lord, we thank you for your long-suffering. We thank you for your patience, your kindness, and your gentleness towards us. We thank you that, as we will see as we go through this passage today, you do not keep a record of our wrongs. You are not rude towards us, Lord. You're not easily provoked or angered. We thank you so much for the fact that you are the perfect example of all the things that we see here in this passage—things that in our hearts and in our minds we desire in our own lives and strive for. But apart from you, we can never attain to this.

So, Lord, we pray that you would give us your Spirit and that you would enable us to love like this: to love you in this way, to love one another in this way, and to love those who are unlovely, who are not a part of the body of Christ, and who don't know you in this way. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, "Amen." You can be seated.

It's not as fast as in Jesus' name, except in Jesus' name. Amen. All Jews knew and understood very well. The answer to the question comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6. In that passage, the fathers of the nation of Israel were commanded by God to instruct their children. This was the very first thing that every Jewish child would learn: the answer to the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" Every person in Israel understood the answer and knew the answer to this question. It was not a hard question.

And so Jesus answers and says to him in verse 37, quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6, from the passage that's called the Shema. He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." Now, this is not first in order of when it was given, but first in order of rank. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

Then Jesus went on. The second is like unto it, quoting from Leviticus: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But then Jesus said something profound. He said something powerful that, to this point, hadn't really been said before. "Therefore, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." All of it is summed up in this reality: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the law is fulfilled in that.

Now, remember, when we read this, Jesus is not just a guru or a prophet. He is not just some teacher; He is an authority on these things. He is God. And so when He speaks this, He is speaking with awesome authority to say that all of the Scriptures are summed up in these two commands: to love God with all and to love your neighbor as yourself.

If we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and if we love our neighbor as ourselves, then we will never sin. Now, that's something to contemplate. That's something to consider. We will fulfill God's word, which the children of Israel sought to fulfill. They had counted and numbered all the Scriptures given in the Pentateuch. They took 613 laws and said that we need to keep these to be righteous before God. They sought to keep them.

The Pharisee, the lawyer who came to Jesus, was a lawyer because the Pharisees were astute in the law. They sought to keep all the law and boasted in their keeping of the law. This man who came to Jesus, no doubt, thought himself righteous by the law. Paul the Apostle, when he was Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, thought himself righteous by the law, didn't he? In Philippians chapter 3, he proclaims, "Of the law I was blameless."

No reproach against me. I've kept it all. Jesus says, "Listen, you don't need to memorize all 613 laws. You don't need to figure out every single one of those. All you have to do is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." But how many of you have found that's actually not easy to do? You will never do anything to violate God if you are actively pursuing to love Him. You will also do nothing injurious or sinful against your neighbor. Love fulfills all.

Paul restates this in Romans chapter 13, verse 8. He says there, "Owe no man anything, or be a debtor to no man in anything, except that you would love one another, for he that loves has fulfilled the law." He goes on to say in verse 9, "For this you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." He continues in verse 10, "Love works no ill to his neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." That's powerful. Romans 13:10 states that love is the fulfilling of the law. Therefore, lovelessness is the common denominator of every sin.

It certainly was the case for the Corinthians. The Corinthian church was coming apart at the seams. We've been looking at it for over a year now, going through chapters 1 through 12, and we saw all the different things that they were steeped in as it related to sin. There were divisions, factions, and strife. There was carnality, immorality, pride, and conceit. Brothers were suing one another. Husbands and wives were divorcing one another. People were taking advantage of one another. They were not looking out for the weaker among them. They were violating God's way in communion, not discerning the Lord's body, the church. They were boasting in their spirituality and coveting one another's giftedness. The Corinthian fellowship was a loveless fellowship.

And that's a paradox if you think about it. How can you have a loveless fellowship? And yet it was. They were called by God to be a fellowship in Christ, but they were unable to fellowship, to have koinonia, or oneness, because of lovelessness. Therefore, Paul says to them, "I show you a better way. This isn't working for you."

They were a church that had all kinds of good doctrine. They lacked in no spiritual gifts, so they had good doctrine and spiritual vitality. Yet, lacking love, they were nothing. There is no Christianity without love. There is no church without love. There is no ministry without love.

Now, I believe that it's the tendency within Calvary Chapel, because of our consistency in studying and teaching God's Word, to become doctrinally heavy. I don't say that necessarily as a bad thing, but we at least need to recognize that we can become heavy in the area of doctrine. We can exalt sound doctrine over love.

On the other hand, there are more charismatic churches that do the same thing with spiritual manifestations. They can gravitate towards spiritual activity, such as tongues and prophecy, to the detriment of love. But we've got to remember Paul's counsel to young Pastor Timothy.

In 1 Timothy chapter 1, he says in verse 3, "As I besought you to abide in Ephesus," he tells Timothy, "I want you to stay in the city of Ephesus. When I left Macedonia, I left you there, that you might charge them that they teach no other doctrine." He emphasizes that he wants Timothy to be in Ephesus to establish good, sound doctrine and not allow them to give heed to endless fables and genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edification.

Then he goes on in verse 5 of 1 Timothy chapter 1, stating, "Now the end or the purpose of this exhortation, this commandment, is love." The whole point of this is that you would come to a place of love. Ultimately, the point of sound doctrine is to bring people to a place where they love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind, and they love their neighbor as themselves. If the church doesn't do that, then their doctrine is meaningless. If the teaching of the Scriptures and the doctrine of the church doesn't lead to that, then we've missed something.

We've gotten fixated and focused on the wrong thing if the ultimate end is not practical, demonstrable love, as we read about in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul charges them to teach no other doctrine, but ultimately, the whole purpose of this exhortation is that they would come to a place where they love one another. This is how Paul summarizes or finishes the book of 1 Corinthians, as we will see in about two years when we get there. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 14, he writes, "Let all your things be done with love." Let love be the guiding principle of everything you do, as Paul says to the Corinthians as he concludes his letter.

Proper theology is no substitute for love. Activism and Christian service are no substitute for love. Selective affection—being nice to people you like—is easy to do, but it is no substitute for love. Ignorance and immaturity are no excuse for lovelessness. We cannot simply say, "Well, I didn't know," or, "At least we have good, sound, strong doctrine." Yes, but if you are unloving, that is a problem. Love needs to be the principle by which the church is led.

Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 13, verse 35. We have already discussed this while going through 1 Corinthians chapter 13. He says, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples." By your what? By your love. He does not say by your doctrine or by your spiritual gifts. Yet, we seem to think that people will know we are real Christians because we have sound doctrine or spiritual gifts. No, they will know you are a Christian if you walk in love, as described in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

You can learn a lot about a person or a church by how they fill in the blank to this statement: "God is all about blank." God is all about what? I would think that is the best way to fill it in. However, at various stages in our walk and Christian faith, we fill that in in different ways. For some, God is all about the nation of America being a godly nation.

Having politics and a Christian president is what some people think God is all about. Others believe that God is focused on meeting human needs and answering human suffering. Their entire lives are governed by their understanding of who God is. If you fill in the blank with love, as we see in 1 John chapter 4, "God is love." That is how He defines Himself in the most simplistic terms. That is who He is. I think that all the other aspects tend to balance out.

Consider what the New Testament exhorts Christians and the church to do. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 1 says, "Pursue love." I will mention several verses; if you can, just jot down the references, and we can look them up later. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 8 states that we are to prove the sincerity of our love, demonstrating that our love is real. Philippians 1, verse 9 shows Paul praying that the church at Philippi would have their love abound more and more. In Philippians chapter 2, verse 2, he says, "Fulfill my joy by having the same love for one another."

Colossians chapter 3, verse 14 instructs us to put on love above all things. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 12, Paul prays that the Lord would make you increase and abound in love toward one another. In verse 13, he adds that this is so God may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness. How do we pursue holiness? By love.

Some people argue that holiness only comes from deeply infusing oneself with doctrine. However, the Pharisees of Israel were infused with doctrine, and on an outward, exterior look, one might say they were holy. But in reality, Jesus said they were "full of dead men's bones," filled with carnality, wickedness, hate, vice, and evil. They were planning to kill Jesus, yet they considered themselves holy.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 tells us to consider one another and to stir each other up to love and good deeds—love that performs good works. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 1 states, "Let brotherly love continue." 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 8 says,

Above all things, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins. He said the same exact thing that the Apostle Paul did in Colossians chapter 3. We have been considering the virtues of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is perhaps the best place in the Scriptures to describe what love really is and what New Testament Christian love is all about.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, our cultural definition of love is off. I'm sure you recognize this and understand that what our world exalts as love is just a mushy sentimentality. It bears little resemblance to what is described in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. It is good that Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us this description of love so that we might know what it looks like.

If you just told a whole bunch of people, "Listen, you need to love one another," the 60s were all about that, right? I wasn't alive, but I've heard about it. What came from that? What was produced? Free love, the summer of love in 1969. What came of that? Was it holiness? Many of you were there and might be able to instruct us a little bit. Was there holiness abounding? Was there godliness coming forth from that, or was it carnality? Look at the shift that took place in the culture of America as a result of the summer of love.

The fruit of that era is significant. Jesus says, "Wisdom is justified by her children." The wisdom of an idea is proven as good or bad by what comes from it. As we looked at two weeks ago, we examined the first eight characteristics, or the first eight virtues of love. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not arrogant. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered.

These first eight establish an important foundation for what love is. The love described in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is the description of Christian love, is long-tempered, slow to anger, gentle, merciful, and gracious. It does not burn or heat up to a boil with anger.

Envy and jealousy do not boast about themselves. They do not excessively talk about how great they are or run their mouths to make others feel inferior. They are not arrogant and do not have an exaggerated opinion of themselves. They are not rude and do not behave unseemly; in other words, they have good manners. They never act selfishly and consider what is essential to the happiness of others. This is the love described in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

Love does not outburst suddenly with anger and is not easily upset or irritated. Now, does this describe you or me? No. Does it describe Jesus? Yes. In every way, this is the perfect description of our Lord and Savior. As He lives and dwells in and through us, He manifests these qualities in us because the fruit of the Spirit is love. The demonstrable evidence of the Spirit of God being in me is that these qualities begin to be produced. They come forth not from my own efforts but are produced by the Holy Spirit in me, becoming evident in my life.

Are they immediately evident in their fullness at conversion? No, we all know that. We recognize that perfectly. However, over time, these qualities should become evident. We want to pick up where we left off two weeks ago and consider the last eight characteristics of love given in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We will begin at the end of verse 5, where Paul says that love thinks no evil. This could also be translated as "it keeps no record of wrongs," because the word "think" there is an accounting term in Greek. It means to keep a mathematical calculation, similar to how a bookkeeper maintains a ledger. In that ledger, he keeps all the accounting of everything. If you were a master in the first century and the steward over the household...

If you were the servant of someone, another master, and you were a steward over all his household, you would have a ledger book to keep an account of all the activities of that household. You would make sure that everything was kept in order. Paul says that the one who loves does not keep a record book about evil or the things they have suffered at the hands of others.

We have no problem admitting that this is hard for us. Our brains seem perfectly programmed to index every wrong done to us, don’t they? Some of you have the ability to recount, word for word, something that someone said to you. I don't want to offend anybody, but generally speaking, ladies have a better ability at this than men. It’s just a part of our makeup that we can do this. We keep a record of things, and those wrongs done to us are accounted for in our minds.

We often turn to certain passages of Scripture to support this mindset. We quickly come to passages like "an eye for an eye." That person did this to me, and they need justice—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We are very quick to jump back to that Old Testament mindset. However, we don’t want to be dealt with in an Old Testament sense, do we? No, we want New Testament grace and mercy. But when someone does something to us, we think, "An eye for an eye."

We forget that Jesus had something to say about that passage, didn’t He? In Matthew chapter 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, He says in verse 38, "You have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." You've heard that, right? Yes, we have. But I say unto you, Jesus—He is God—speaks with authority and says, "Listen, I have something to say about that. Resist not the evil one, but whosoever shall smite you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

The level of nonviolence that Jesus is speaking to here is very hard for me to handle personally. I’m a martial artist. I know how to defend myself—at least, I think I do.

I've been practicing martial arts for nearly ten years and hold a black belt in taekwondo. When someone strikes at me, I won't strike first, but I will strike last. This level of nonviolence, where Jesus says, "Someone smites you on the right cheek, turn to the other also," is hard for me. I want to defend myself, and I live in a culture where we're told, "You have a right to defend yourself."

If any man will sue you at law to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. Well, wait, what? Five years ago, I was in Louisiana, driving in a terrible rainstorm. We all know Southern Californians don't drive well in the rain. I got into an accident on the highway just outside of New Orleans. I hydroplaned across the freeway, across the center divide, and ran into a guy in oncoming traffic. Miraculously, I wasn't injured, and he sustained just some minor injuries and had to get some stitches.

About eight months later, I was served a subpoena. I was being sued, and as I looked through the paperwork, I noticed something strange. I was issued a lawyer by my insurance company, and as I read through the documents, I thought, "This doesn't make any sense." This was talking about an accident that happened in April, while our accident occurred in December. I called the lawyer and said, "I don't understand all this legal stuff, but it seems like I'm being sued for a different accident."

He confirmed, "You are being sued for a different accident. This gentleman claims that he got into a second accident as a result of the first accident." I thought, "Let's go get this guy. This is not right. We're going to defend this." But he said, "No, actually, we're going to settle." I responded, "What do you mean we're going to settle? I don't want to settle. This is wrong. I want justice." He insisted, "No, we've decided to settle."

The scripture says, "Whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two." The same Greek word that is translated here as "thinks no evil" or "keeps no record of wrongs" is also used in other places in the New Testament, speaking of the pardoning act of God over our sin.

In Islam, at birth, every individual is dispatched from Allah. Two angels are assigned to them, and these two angels record all of their works.

One records all the good works, and one records all the bad works. In Islam, the view is that at death, at the judgment, you stand before Allah, and the books of your works are set on the scales. The good works and the bad works are weighed, and whichever one is heavier determines your fate.

The God of the Bible, the only true God, has not kept any books on our sin. When we are in Christ, all of our sins are washed away. He keeps no record of our wrongs. Now, be certain that for everyone who is not washed of their sins by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, they will stand before God for judgment according to their works. But in Christ, we have been redeemed, and our sins have been washed away, removed as far as the east is from the west, cast behind the Lord's back. He refuses to bring them up again. God does not keep an accounting of our sin. Instead, if there is a ledger book, He has written by our names, "righteous," because He has given us Christ's righteousness. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness. His righteousness is placed on us, as our sin is placed on Him, and He deals with our sin at the cross.

David speaks about this in Psalm 32 when he says, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute." The same exact word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is used: "impute iniquity." Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile.

The word "impute" is the same word used here for "thinks no evil." Love never makes memories out of wrongdoings; it thinks no evil.

Love does not delight in evil, or, in another translation, love rejoices not in iniquity or sin. Love never rejoices in sin. Now, what does it mean to rejoice in sin? Well, there are at least two ways to consider this. Some rejoice in their own sin. They rejoice in the pleasures that they find in sin.

Or in the fact that they're getting away with their sin. Certainly, there are people who boast about and rejoice in their sin, as well as their obstinance and stubbornness towards God. However, there are others who rejoice in the sins of others.

There are at least a couple of ways in which we can rejoice in the sins of others. We rejoice in the sins of others because it makes us feel better about ourselves. In self-righteousness, we look at the person, the politician who has fallen into adultery, and stands on national TV to confess what they've done, or it comes out on Twitter. Oops. We rejoice in it because it makes us feel better. Look at that vile, wicked Democrat. Right? Or maybe it's a Republican. I don't know. But look at what they did. It builds us up and makes us feel superior. We rejoice in their iniquity. We rejoice in sin. And Paul says, God says through the Apostle Paul, that's not love.

We can love other people's unrighteousness because it encourages our self-righteousness. When we see the failings of others, we rejoice because we feel better about ourselves. It makes us feel like, well, I'm not quite so bad, am I? I'm better than that guy.

Another way we rejoice in the sin of others is by taking pleasure in and entertaining ourselves with their sin. This is a heavy one, and it's convicting to consider this reality. This is not godlike. It's not godly. It's not righteous to take pleasure in the sins of others.

I think of tabloid publications and TV shows. I was just standing in the checkout line at Walmart yesterday afternoon, and I looked over at the tabloid counter. Of course, what's it say? So-and-so's caught in this scandal. Ben Affleck did this. And so-and-so, oh my goodness, look at this adultery and wickedness and sin. It's like, well, yes, we're sinners. But why do those things sell? Why is that a billion-dollar industry here in America? Because, wow, we love to entertain ourselves with the sin of others. We entertain ourselves through the sinful things that other people do, through reality TV, through movies.

Through TV dramas, romance novels, and, this is a hard one, gossip, we see how easily we can delight in the sin of others. Gossip, at its heart, is taking pleasure in and rejoicing in evil. We cannot cover it up by saying, "Well, we’re going to pray about this." When someone comes to you and says, "Oh, did you hear about so-and-so? We need to pray for them. Let me tell you what they did," it is still gossip. We try to make it seem better by saying we need to pray for them. If the point is prayer, then just say, "Hey, listen, I heard something the other day. It grieves me. Let's just pray for this person." There is no need to go into detail about what happened.

If someone has done something wrong towards you, instead of delighting in it by telling everybody else the story, you should go and speak to them. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 18 to go speak directly with them. I have found that the overwhelming majority of the time, when someone does something that bothers me, they had no idea that they even did it. If anything, it was a sin of omission or a trespass. Often, they will say, "I'm sorry. I had no idea that I said that or did that, or didn't say that, or didn't do that." However, many times, we do not give people the benefit of the doubt, as we will see in another characteristic of love shortly.

As it relates to gossip, we need to consider a few things. Would you say what you're about to say if the person was standing right there? Or would you send it in an email if they were carbon copied to that email? Love does not delight in evil. There is no way for a Christian to rejoice in sin. This means that we should never find ourselves hopeful that someone will fall or fail, whether it is someone we do not agree with in political leadership or someone we do not like. Hoping for their fall is delighting in evil.

Love never rejoices in iniquity. It never rejoices in what offends God and what breaks God's heart. It never rejoices in what harms the sinner, nor does it rejoice in hearing about those things, let alone passing them on. As an aside, we all know that the hot news topic of the week has been the Casey Anthony verdict, and a lot of people are talking about this.

Many people are in an uproar over the jury's decision to find Miss Anthony not guilty. It is very important for us to recognize that the news on TV is a business, not some special service that CNN, MSNBC, and all those networks are offering to us. They are not just being nice; they want to let us know what's happening in the world because it is profitable. This is a business. They make money by getting more people to watch their shows so that they can increase their ad revenue. The more sensational the news is, the more attractive it is to our sinful nature. The more we tune into it, the more money they make. Therefore, we can expect that they will try to sensationalize events as much as they possibly can.

In our fallen, depraved state, we love justice, which makes it easy for the media to capitalize on situations like this. The number one daytime TV ratings over the last month have been for the Casey Anthony trial. Many people have tuned in, just as they did in 1994-1995 with the O.J. Simpson case. That was another high-profile case where someone was found not guilty, and the nation was in an uproar because we felt he should be guilty. We believe he should go away and that justice should be served. As a result, many people are angry about the not guilty verdict and upset by it.

In reality, we rejoice in iniquity. Whether we like it or not, our anger points back to a lack of love as a nation, which fulfills Jesus' words that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold. You may ask, "But what about justice?" That is a good question. The problem is that we love justice when, in reality, we need to love mercy. Micah chapter 6, verse 8 says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to love mercy, to do justly, and to walk humbly with your God." Some may say, "But we're upset because the truth wasn't heard here."

There wasn't truth. Well, we don't know. In reality, our system worked the way that it is supposed to work, even though we don't like the outcome. What do I mean by that?

In Isaiah chapter 11, we are told that when Jesus comes and rules and reigns, there will be a rule of righteousness here upon the earth. It says in verse 3 that He, Jesus, does not judge after the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears, but He judges with righteous judgment. The way that God judges things is different from the way that we judge things. He judges with perfect, righteous judgment, while we judge with the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. This means that the best we can do is to judge evidence and testimony.

That is what happens in courts all across our nation every single day, year in and year out, and has been the case since the founding of our nation. We judge by the seeing of evidence and the hearing of testimony, and then twelve people seek to come to a unified decision about what the evidence and the testimony point to. We recognize that we have the best justice system in the world in our day and age. However, even the best is flawed because we are judging by the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears.

When twelve people can agree that they have seen the evidence and heard the testimony, and they say, "Listen, this is the conclusion that we come to," we have to stand back and acknowledge that, at the very least, our system worked the way it was established to work. We may not like the outcome, but it worked.

Now, there is a day coming when Jesus, who is perfectly just, will judge not by the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears, but by righteous judgment. Isaiah 11:4 says He will judge the poor and reprove with equity the meek of the earth. He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips, He shall slay the wicked.

What does that tell us as Christians? We don't need to be angry about this verdict. Why? Because God is just, and He will always be just. So we can leave it in His hands. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Well, what does it rejoice in?

Well, number 11 rejoices in what? Truth. Love rejoices in the truth. Love finds joy in rejoicing in truth taught and truth practiced. It cannot rejoice with error. Love cannot find joy in rejoicing in error, false teaching, or wrong doctrine, but it is blessed by truth lived and truth taught. Love finds the good and focuses upon it. It finds the good and talks about that. Love builds up; it does not tear down. It adds to the character of the individual; it doesn't take away.

As we see in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1, love edifies. Love builds up. However, we often love to tear people down. I would say probably more than 90% of the comedy in our nation is all about tearing down, right? Tearing people down. We laugh at the expense of others, but love rejoices in the truth. Love rejoices in good, sound, right teaching and doctrine.

We cannot say, "Well, their teaching is a little bit off, but they're sure a nice spiritual bunch." We can't say that because we cannot rejoice in the lack of truth or doctrine. What I mean by that is, yes, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is doing a lot of good works in the world. They tithe; if you look at the Church and then you look at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you find that the Mormon Church tithes at a percentage far above the national averages of the Christian Church.

They are a very giving bunch, and they are doing works all over the world in aid and help. When there's an earthquake in Haiti, they're one of the first on the scene with lots of goods to help. When there's an earthquake in Japan or fires in San Diego County, they send truckloads of supplies from Utah. I know because I have wool blankets in my garage that say the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which came from the fires in 2007.

So for all the good that they do, do we just say, "Well, they're really good at doing a lot of good service, so it's okay"? No, they're off.

And so we cannot rejoice in the fact that their doctrine is false. That taints every good work that they do. Why? Because in their mind, their good works are for their salvation. It makes sense, doesn't it? They are very willing to give because their salvation is wrapped up in what they do and not in who God is.

Well, we're going to have to save those for next week. It always happens that way. The next five are joined together, so we really can't jump into them and talk about them. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. That's where we're going next week, so be here.

Let's stand and pray. Father, we love Your presence. We love that You are gracious towards us and merciful. Lord, we love that although we deserve all of Your wrath and all of Your punishment, You have given us salvation and an inheritance—eternal life with You. God, we love all the benefits of knowing You and being called Your people.

Lord, I pray that our love for what You've given to us would overflow into a love towards You and towards one another within the body of Christ, as well as towards those who are outside. It means nothing to love the benefits of who You are and how great You are if those things do not change the way that we love. Lord, we know that our natural tendency is not to do these things. We are not naturally selfless. We are not naturally...

Loving with Your love is essential. But God, as You strengthen us to be so, the world takes notice because they will know that we are Your disciples by our love for You, for one another, and for them.

Father, I pray that You would work this in us because it's just not possible for us to manufacture it without You. Help us, Lord, to not be those who delight in evil or rejoice in iniquity. Help us, Lord, to be patient and kind, not boastful and covetous, not puffed up. Work this in us, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.