Love thinks no evil

1) About a week ago there was a noticeable spike in the number of people who got married.

2) On July 7^th, 2007 a lot of people got married.

a) Some who chose this day were asked why they selected 7/7 of 2007.

b) I heard a few of these couples interviewed and not one of them said “it was a day as good as any other.”

c) Couples had a specific reason for picking 7/7/07. Some said “7 is a luck number.”

d) Some believed several 7’s for a wedding day would bring good luck.

e) Other, especially the women, said their husband would be more inclined to remember the anniversary.

3) Many couples chose a specific day to get married and there was a basis for choosing that day.

4) When we look at the Word of God we find a lot of information.

a) At times we need to look at a passage and simply say to ourselves, “Why is this passage here?”

b) One place where this technique is helpful is 1 Cor. 13:5.

c) At the very end of this passage Paul says, “love thinks no evil.”

5) This is the KJV rendering; the ASV says “love takes no account of evil.”

a) The word translated “think” or “account” was also used by accountants.

b) Accountants used this word to describe debts recorded on a ledger.

c) People sometimes write things down so they will remember them at a later time.

d) Imagine, if you can, someone keeping a book that is titled, “I was offended.”

e) Every time a person is hurt by someone they make an entry in their book.

f) They write down who offended them, what the offense was, where and when it occurred.

g) Then, every Friday afternoon, they go back and review all the bad things in the book.

6) This is an extreme illustration and we would not expect many people to act in this exact way.

7) Yet, something very similar can occur in the lives of people.

8) It is possible to keep a mental list of offenses. We can be quick to recall what people have done to us.

a) Given the word “think,” Paul he likely meant “love does not keep track of offenses.”

b) When someone is unkind towards us, we do not keep a record of what has been done.

c) We do not write it down in a book or try to make a mental record of it.

9) A person may say, “I forgive you but I will never forget what you have done.”

10) That sounds like there is an intentional effort to keep a record and Paul said, “Do not do that.”

11) Or, a person may say, “This is the second time you have done this to me.” A record is being kept.

12) Taking account of evil also indicates a person is perhaps dwelling on what someone has done.

13) This is what the thought at the end of verse 5 means.

14) Since we understand the point, let’s return to where we began: why list this quality in 1 Cor. 13?

a) Why is it inconsistent with God’s will to keep track of the bad things people do to us?

b) Jesus gave us the answer in Mk. 7:21 – if you have kept that passage ready let’s read it now – READ.

c) Jesus said sin begins heart.

15) If we keep a record of wrong, we maintain a record in our most inner self.

16) If we keep a record of the “evil” people have done to us, that record is like a seed.

17) At some point in our lives it will begin to grow. It will provide a crop that is very, very bad.

a) Keeping a record of evil is breeding grounds for resentment.

b) A good demonstration of this is found in the Old Testament.

c) I would like for all of us to turn back to 1 Kgs. 2 because this is a fascinating passage.

d) According to 1 Kgs. 2:1, David had reached the end of his life. He called for his son Solomon.

e) David said he was going to die and Solomon had to be a man (a successor), verse 2.

f) David told his son that if he would obey the laws of God he would prosper (verse 3).

g) Then David called to mind a wrong he had suffered in his earlier years – verses 5-6 – READ.

h) In two verses we have a lot of history.

18) At a previous time Joab had killed two of David’s military generals named in these verses.

19) This happened during a time of peace, but Joab said it had happened during a time of war.

20) This made David angry and he told Solomon to not let Joab die in peace because of it.

a) David was a great man; we all know that. Even God called David a great man.

b) Here we see something in the life of a great man of God that is not very pretty.

c) David had been certainly been wronged, but he did not deal with it in a good way.

d) He held on to this memory till the end of his life, and perhaps until he drew his last breath.

e) What a sad way to live.

21) As bad as this is, the writer of First Kings tells us something else.

22) David told his son Solomon to pick up the grudge he had carried for several years.

a) It was like David was “transferring Joab’s record of bad deeds” to his son.

b) We can look at this information and be almost shocked by it.

c) “How could David do such a thing?” someone might ask.

23) If the truth be told, people are still doing what David did.

24) People keep alive a hurt for years and years. They may also try to pass it on to someone else.

25) If someone tries to drag us into a wrong they have suffered, we can offer them a quick response:

26) “Tear up that record. You have a record of an injury; destroy it. We do not want what you have.”

27) In Heb. 12:15 we find the writer telling his readers to “look carefully.”

a) He was concerned about something, and this item is identified as a “root of bitterness.”

b) If we dwell on the ways people have hurt us, we expose ourselves to the temptation of bitterness.

c) A “root” is often a small thing, and perhaps this is why the writer used this word.

d) A “root of bitterness” may not seem too big of a threat so the writer said, “be careful.”

e) Keeping a record of how we have been injured opens the door to multiple sins such as hate.

28) Our world knows that hypertension has a negative impact on the body.

29) A M.D. once concluded that 60-100% of hypertension can be attributed to four sources:

30) A lack of forgiveness, grudges, bitterness and resentment.

31) Medical science says these are the basic ingredients of hypertension.

32) All four of these items may be related to 1 Cor. 13:5 – keeping track of how people have hurt us.

a) There is another little point translated from the word “think” or “account.”

b) This word in the original text looks a lot like our English word “logic.”

c) Logically it makes the least sense (it is the worst choice) to keep a record of wrongs.

d) That may be our first inclination. It may be what we feel like doing.

e) In reality it is the worst possible way to live.

33) Yet, this is something happens all too often in many aspects of life.

a) Husbands store up grievances against their wives.

b) Wives create and maintain records against their husbands.

c) Minutes before I began to develop this part of the lesson the phone rang.

d) The call came from someone I know but is not a member of the church.

e) He is married, but has moved out of the house. He and his wife are living separately.

f) He mentioned in his call some of the things that caused him to find a new place to live.

g) He has a ready list of grievances of his wife’s actions that caused him to leave his house.

h) People keep records, but Paul said that is not the way love acts.

34) In the later years we find grown children holding on to records.

a) They look back at their childhood and see things that mom and dad did or failed to do.

b) A lot of remembrance is given to the “evil” they experienced as a young person.

35) When we look at this quality we see how it has the potential to affect person after person.

36) It has even affected a significant number of preachers.

a) Throughout history there have been preachers who were slighted or hurt.

b) Some ministers have responded by stepping into a pulpit and retaliating with a sermon.

c) They used a sermon to lash out at someone who injured them.

d) In cases where this has occurred, what was being done?

e) A preacher had kept a record of the evil that someone had committed against him.

f) That evil in the heart grew. It just could not stay inside. It was a root of bitterness.

g) One day it grew to the point where it came out in a very public way.

h) In more cases than not, when that record of evil was publicly expressed, things only got worse.

37) Paul really did give Christians the best way to live in 1 Cor. 13.

38) Keeping a record of evil negatively affects individuals and it can affect entire groups.

39) In some cases keeping a record of evil has divided churches.

a) People mentally kept a list of how they had been mistreated and finally split a congregation.

b) Brethren reached a point where they said, “Enough. Let’s start another congregation.”

c) Someone has compared keeping a record of wrongs to wetting one’s pants.

d) Others can see it, but we are the ones who feel it and we are the ones shamed by it.

e) Harboring resentment over wrongs is a terrible choice and it only hurts us.

40) Jesus could have been resentful when He was crucified.

41) On the Day of Pentecost He could have said that those present were not entitled to salvation.

42) He surely remembered the jokes people made about Him. He remembered the crown of thorns.

43) He remembered the nails in His hands and feet.

44) What Jesus remembered was the need to save people and the need to have them in the church.

45) Thus, in Lk. 23:34 we read, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

a) Jesus is interested in the healing and mending business.

b) Such needs to be our focus if we are His people.

c) Too many want an “ace in the hole.” They keep a record so they can use it when needed.

46) People will pull out their “trump card” (a wrong someone did) and play it to get their way.

47) Keeping records like this almost fall into the category of blackmail.

48) There is an old saying about “making a list and checking it twice.”

49) Such can be done with the wrongs committed against us; Paul says Christians do not live in that way.

50) God’s people are called to a different standard. Are we following it?