God’s Love Hates Evil, while Honoring Good.

*Note: Our standard recording device malfunctioned. I apologize for the audio distortion in this sermon.
-Casey

Last week we read in verse 4, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

Today we read (v. 5), “It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

God’s people are not to act in a brash, self-centered, impatient or begrudging fashion. This is clearly referring to the way we are to treat others (Ephesians 4:32), “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you,” (James 2:8), “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.”

Love is gracious, not only toward fellow believers but also toward unbelievers. Many Christians have forfeited the opportunity to share Christ, because of their own rudeness to an unbeliever over some habit that the Christian may consider sinful and displeasing.

God’s love does not seek center stage, in reference to significance or position.

If God’s love is in us, we will be different from the people of the world. Instead of being preoccupied with self; we will have and express a concern for others.

The Bible indicates that the last days will be marked by selfishness (see 2Timothy 3:1-4). We live in a fast-paced, rapidly changing world that breeds anxiety, confusion, irritability, and an increasing concern for self,

We all need to spend more time in prayer and the Word of God, before we engage anyone, our spouse, children, our fellow believers, and those who belong to the world.

God’s love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs! Wow! Paul is using a bookkeeping term, meaning to make a permanent record in a ledger, where it can be accessed whenever needed.

The same idea is used to represent a recording of God’s forgiveness to those who trust in Him.
Acts 3:19, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.” Romans 4:8, “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

The OT expresses this in Psalm 103:12, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

In God’s ledger, the Lambs Book of Life, the only entry after the name of every true believer, is “righteous.”

Someone once suggested that love forgives and forgets; but more correctly, God’s love remembers and still forgives, completely. God’s Love is not rude, self- seeking, or easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs because it holds no grudges. God’s forgiveness is eternal!

God’s love (v. 6) “does not delight in evil but instead rejoices with the truth.”

As God’s children we seek and celebrate truth, all that is good; while at the same time we despise all that is evil, all that is bad, according to God’s definition.

More and more we find our world declaring, “anything goes,” “everyone is free to do what is right in their own eyes.” God commands us (Romans 12:9), “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Too often godless people are given praise and acclaim today. Too often a heinous act is made into a best seller or a movie, where wretched sinful behavior is popularized even idolized.

Christians are not immune to the subtle, and not-so-subtle, influences of the society around them. The most popular magazines, books, and TV programs are those that glorify sin, and mock God’s righteousness and truth.

Listen! Taking part in sinful attitudes and sinful behavior is wrong, unrighteousness, either directly or indirectly, is a display of a lack of love for God: for God’s love doesn’t rejoice or delight in evil.

God’s love is tough toward evil and tender toward truth. In an unsaved person sin is clear evidence of a lost soul, it is in fact expected behavior; but for a believer to participate in or tolerate evil, is evidence of disobedience and being out of fellowship with God. God’s people are to remove themselves from evil and seek after what is good.
See 1Corinthians 5:11; 2Thessalonians 3:5-6.

Christians aren’t to delight in or tolerate evil, or to take part or rejoice with those who do such things, for God’s Love rejoices with the truth, while turning away from evil.

The majority of people today are deceived, believing that Truth doesn’t exist as absolute, but is relative, i.e., “whatever is right or wrong for me at any given time will depend on what is going on and how I feel about it; for there is no absolute standard for good and truth.”

Most people no longer distinguish between good and evil, true and false; but God’s people will seek to honor Him by exalting His Word and putting down evil!

Repeatedly, in the Gospels Jesus says He is “telling [us] the truth.” The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth and lives in each and every true believer and follower of Christ. The Word of God is God’s Truth; we are sanctified [set apart to serve God] by His Word (John 17:17), “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Everything that conforms to the nature and character of God is Truth. Anything that does not conform to the Word of God and the Life of Christ is false (a lie) and should be both exposed and despised.
Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

Christians are new creations, belonging to God, for His eternal purposes (see 2Corinthians 5:17-21).

Have you heard and responded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 8:1; 10:9-10, 13)? Do you delight in His truth? Ephesians 2:10 says, “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

It has been said that living the Christian life is much like riding a bicycle; if you want to stay upright you have to keep peddling, unless you are coasting!

God’s Love hates evil but rejoices in truth. Anything that doesn’t please and honor God is bad, anything that comes between you and serving your Lord is evil.

How can you know the difference, keep from falling? See Joshua 1:8; Romans 12:1-2; 2Timothy 3:16-17.

If you want to live for Christ, you must feed upon the Word of God daily, seeking to know and to apply it to your life, while at the same time serving in a local church where God’s Word is taught and modeled, that you might be conformed to the character of Christ, which will lead you to have an increasing desire to expose and exterminate all that is false, evil, and bad, while at the same time, you’ll have an increasing desire to pursue, cultivate, share and proclaim all that is true, admirable, and good, according to the Word of God which has been revealed to us in Christ.