1 Peter 1:1

             We are going to cover part of 1 Peter today. I was going to focus on chapter 4 verse 12 for the most part. I had this whole light bulb moment, revelation, enlightenment, whatever you would like to call it, but as I began to study the text and in wanting to be accurate in my message of the text, I found myself at the beginning of the epistle and by the time I would have got through the introduction I would have run out of time. There is so much in just a few short chapters. So, I have decided to study Peter and his epistles because I realized that I am not overly familiar with his writings. Perhaps I will go through the whole book as time progresses. Eventually, I will get to my light bulb moment. Don’t worry; I won’t forget it is written down! Before we start in the first verse of chapter 1 let’s look at who Peter was, who he was writing to, what is his main point and why did he write this epistle. Of course we can find some of those answers in the text itself. That way we can accurately interpret the scriptures original intent and what application, if any, it may have for us today.

 

                   Let’s briefly look first at who Peter was…

Joh 1:40  One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

Joh 1:41  He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ).

Joh 1:42  He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas" (which means Peter).

    

                   Peter was led to Christ by his brother Andrew. As we see in Luke chapter 6 he became one of the twelve apostles.

 

Luk 6:13  And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:

Luk 6:14  Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,

Luk 6:15  and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,

Luk 6:16  and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

 

 

This is the same Peter who walked with Christ. He was a fisherman who was called by Christ to join Him. His first or original name was Simon and Christ gave him the name of Peter, which means rock. He was given this name as a commendation for his faith and to represent that he would be the distinguished pillar of the church. Peter was zealous for Christ as he was the one who cut off the guard’s ear in an attempt to protect Christ. Peter was not without his issues though; As Christ reprimanded him in one instance to “get behind me Satan”. It was to Peter that Jesus said O you of little faith.

 Mat 14:26  But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out in fear.

Mat 14:27  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid."

Mat 14:28  And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."

Mat 14:29  He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

Mat 14:30  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me."

Mat 14:31  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Peter was the one who while on the boat saw Christ and tested the Lord and said if you are really He was also the one to deny Christ three times shortly after His arrest. These instances of failure only made Peter human. It helps us see that even though we make mistakes that God can still use us for amazing things in the kingdom. Peter was still an apostle chosen by Christ to spread the gospel and to take part in constructing, through the Holy Spirit of course, the Bible that we have today. Even though he was not perfect.  I say all that to point out Peter’s authority and his significance in the Bible. Unless you have walked with Christ and penned Holy Scripture and know better than Peter, who may not have been a scholar but learned from walking beside Christ in the flesh, than we should heed his instruction and council.

 

                   Now that we know who he was let’s look in chapter 1 in verse 1 we see who he was writing to…

 

 1Pe 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

1Pe 1:2  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

           

          This epistle was written primarily to the converted Jews who were scattered throughout these areas. KJV writes that they were strangers who were scattered, but of the elect of Christ. So, I am not a converted Jew, I am a converted Gentile, so this book does not apply to me and I can skip over it and move on to a book that was meant for Gentiles. Not quite! I may not be a Jew but…

 

2Ti 3:16  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2Ti 3:17  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

         

                   We see that Peter was specifically speaking to the elect exiles. Are we not called to be exiles of this world? We are called to be in this world but not of this world? So we are strangers in this land, or at least we should be.

But, I have done this myself. We spend our lives here thinking and acting like this is it. This is all there is.  We spend most all of our time improving our temporal lives in this world and totally disregarding our eternal lives. We are but a guest here in this world.  Strangers here but for a little while.

As I meditated on that I thought of a recent trip that I took to visit my parents up in Maine. My youngest son and my wife and I spent about a week with my parents. Although they are my parents and I could have had free reign of their house and property, because I have been away from home for so long I am now a guest of their home. It is no longer my home; I have my own home here locally in Florida.  But, because I am a guest, I act differently than I would at my home. I would be more considerate and make my bed a little neater, or not drink the last of the milk, or not invite a bunch of friends over for a dinner, etc. Because it is not my home I would do things differently. Let me give you a couple of examples.

My parents do not have a television in their home. They choose not to have one. I visit them for about a week or so once every couple of years. It wouldn’t make much sense or even be very polite if I went and bought and installed a 60 inch big screen TV on their living room wall. Why would I invest all that money for something that I am only going to watch once every year or two? It really wouldn’t make sense if I only had a 12 inch black and white TV at home.

 I like to play racquetball for exercise. It wouldn’t make sense for me to build a court at my parent’s house all the way up in Maine would it? Now, on the other hand, it could make sense for me to put a big screen TV on my living room wall in my house if that is what I wanted. It could make sense for me to build a racquetball court in my backyard, because I would be investing in my permanent dwelling and not in a temporary place that I visit.

Don’t we do that very same thing? We are, or have, invested so much of our time, our talents and our treasures on the things of this world and nothing or very little to our permanent home. Our home is heaven. If you are a born again, saved by the blood of Christ, believer then you are here in this world as a stranger only for a short time. We will then go home for an eternity to that place where Christ has gone to prepare for us. We need to be investing in our futures!

 

Mat 6:19  "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

Mat 6:20  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

So Peter didn’t have me personally in mind when this book was penned but can we see that it still applies to us? Elect Gentiles in a strange land. Peter may not have had me personally in mind when this was penned but God certainly did.

 

          Peter wrote this epistle to people just like you and I; people who are servants of God, who have believed in Jesus and are in this world, perhaps enduring hardships, feeling like a stranger, but looking forward to a mansion just over the hilltop. A permanent place, where Jesus Himself, has prepared for us. That is what we have to look forward to. There may be difficulties and hardships and even tragedies along the way. But we are just sojourners, on a journey passing through this land, on our way home where we will be united with our Lord and Savior. We should be focusing what energy and resources that we have toward that goal. If this life in the flesh that we are living now is it, if there was no eternity, if there was no heaven, then we should be devoting our every last drop of time, talents and treasures attaining things and living selfish lives getting all that we can before we end up in the grave. Those that have no hope do live like that. Sadly there are experiencing their “best life now”. But we have a lively hope in Christ. Our time, talents and treasures should be focused on our permanent mansion and not this temporary shack that we are in. We may be strangers in this land but as verse 2 says…we have God the father who knew us before we were even born, we have the Holy Spirit sanctifying us and comforting us and we have the blood of our savior Jesus Christ reconciling us and redeeming us who wants us to be obedient to Him and invest ourselves in Him.

          I have had the privilege to be able to work in ministry with some people recently who, as I did, spent their lives up to this point sowing to their fleshly desires and lusts pouring their whole selves into searching for joy and peace but not looking to Christ for it. Many ended up addicted to drugs, with addictive abusive behaviors and miserable. Now in searching for Jesus they have found peace and joy in their lives. They are sowing into their permanent dwelling. Is everything perfect in their lives? No. But their perspective on what is important gives them stability in those challenging times. They have a testimony that would encourage the lowliest of Christians, so now they aren’t just experiencing joy and peace but they are spreading it!

          What are you sowing to today? Are you sowing to your permanent mansion or to your temporary shack? Be a stranger not a permanent resident of this land and look forward to going home. I have been on some pretty amazing wonderful vacations but no matter how great it was. There is still always something special about going back home.

 

Love Part 12

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
                                                                                                                     1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

        Last time we covered verses 8 – 10 about the fact that love never ends. Love is the most important thing that we do as a Christian and is superior to tongues, prophesy knowledge etc. We also learned that if love is the root in your life than the fruits of the spirit will be what grows on you. I am not going to go over all the attributes of love that I have typically been doing on all these messages. Just bear in mind that love is always self-sacrificial and is always about others before you.

        We are going to cover the last three verses today and finish up this 12 part series. These last three verses have cause many theological debates to the actual meaning of the text. One such debate is on verse 11, which says…

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

Some say that speaking refers to speaking in tongues, thought refers to prophesy and reasoning refers to knowledge. With that they say that all of those have ceased with the maturity of time and only love continues. While others will claim that this has nothing to do with those gifts. And then there is the big debate as to when all of this is supposed to take place or has it already taken place, it will take place when we are taken out of this world, etc. My point in all this is very similar as it was in my last message. It would seem to me that people spend so much time trying to decipher what exactly does the fact that there is 101 letters in that verse of which 42 are vowels mean. Of course I am exaggerating but not as much as you think. People do go that far in some cases. I understand the importance of studying the word of God and the importance of its correct interpretation but so often people seem to miss what would seem to be the most obvious.

If we put this all in context with Paul writing this letter of rebuke and correction and in light of the fact that he has spent a large amount of time telling the Corinthians that they are not paying attention to what is important.(As we spoke about last time). Is it possible that one of the things Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians is… You guys are acting like little children. Would you grow up and stop with this petty bickering and pride that you have. You’re not babies anymore stop acting like it!! I expect children, young Christians to act this way not you guys. There is obviously a lot more in there than just that but we should at least consider the obvious in context.

It does go on in verse 12 to say… 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.    

This seems to fall into the grace aspect of love. I am perhaps taking a lot of liberty in this area but it is a concept that is consistent with biblical truth so I believe it is still in line. Jesus is our example of love. If we look at all the attributes of love that we looked at, we can see that Jesus accomplished all of that perfectly while He was on the earth. Even though he was in the flesh He knew no sin.     

 2Co 5:21  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   

We can take all those attributes and replace love with Jesus.

Let’s just take a minute to do that.

Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on His own way. Jesus is not irritable or resentful; Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.   Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. Jesus never ends.

The grace aspect is this… Jesus loves perfectly and we are called to be imitators of Christ. We will fail to love perfectly. There wasn’t a single attribute of love that we have gone over that I have accomplished perfectly. Some I down right failed miserably in. But we are still in the flesh and will fail. It is His righteousness that allows us to some day when the perfect comes that we will see Him as He is, we will see him face to face and know Him fully as He already knows us. I believe at that time we will be able to love completely and perfectly as He loves us.

So as we move on to our last verse.

1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Why is love the greatest? I believe that firstly when Paul wrote this, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that he indeed was describing Jesus in this chapter and pointing out to the Corinthians that they were focusing on themselves instead of on Christ. He was pointing them towards Christ which is the same thing we are called to do today. But let’s look at these three things. Faith, I have preached a lot on faith in the past and I have stressed the importance of faith and that without faith we are missing a vital part of our Christian walk. Then we have hope, which without hope what do we have? If I have no hope in Christ or heaven or in my salvation then it would cause me to fail. So we can see how important hope is to the Christian walk. But then we have love, why is love so much more important? Because as Paul stated earlier, Love never ends. When the perfect comes, Jesus has gathered up His saints. We no longer have need of faith. We have Jesus!! The evidence is now seen!! We no longer have to hope we are experiencing!! I am so looking forward to the day that I don’t have to have faith and hope. You had some faith and hope in Diamond Ridge this morning. You believed that they were going to bring you lunch today. Even though you did not see it you had faith and hoped that you would eat today. But when they placed the plate in front of you, you no longer needed faith and hope for that meal. But if your anything like me you still loved that meal!! You see, no matter what stage we are in life or resurrection, love will always exist. Even when we are living in the new earth that is waiting for us, we will still love and be loved by Jesus.

LOVE PART 11

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
As I usually do, I am going to give you a refresher of what we have covered the past ten weeks. We will have at least one more message on this text and possibly even two more depending on how it all comes together.
When we started we covered the first three verses and in it we saw the importance and the necessity of love in the Christian’s life. Paul stressed that there is nothing more important in the life of a Christian than love. So Paul goes on not just to tell us about the importance of it but what it should look like. That is what we have been covering for the past several messages starting with…


Love is patient or slow to react and it waits steadfastly.
Love is Kind, it looks for a place to act, it is active
Love does not envy, it is not jealous of others accomplishments
Love does not boast and is not arrogant; we are not smarter than God
Love is not rude or unseemly, don’t be an offense to others even if it seems silly to you.
Love does not insist on its own way, our love for others cause us to insist on God’s way.
Love is not irritable or easily provoked, it is slow to anger
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth, we should not be too quick to accuse others and we should be encouraging them when they are down.
And last time we covered…
Love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things which calls us to encourage and protect others even if it hurts us.
We are going to cover verses 8,9 and 10 today.

Vs. 8… Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues they will cease; as for knowledge it will pass away.
Vs. 9… For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Vs. 10… but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

There are several ways we can look at this and as far as I can tell they would all be accurate but let’s keep in mind the proper context of the book as we move on. Let’s begin by looking at the first phrase “Love never ends”. Some translations including the King James use the word fail. That is technically accurate for the day but by todays vernacular love never ends is a better translation. It means that true love is everlasting not that love always succeeds as one might interpret the word fail. The divorce rate of today speaks volumes to this. Of course some would claim that true love was never present to begin with if it ended in divorce and I do not totally disagree with that. Although no matter how much you love someone it does not guarantee that that love will be accepted. Of course that does not give us a license to stop loving though. Much like though we did not first love Him, He loved us enough to die for us and that love continues and will always continue.
If we go back to our context of this letter Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they were prideful and boasting about their gifts. As I read commentary after commentary about this text it seemed to me that most just wanted to use these verses to support their beliefs of whether or not tongues and prophesy and words of knowledge still exist today or not. I think that many are missing the bigger picture. Not that it has not bearing but we can get so wrapped up in the minor things that we miss the major thing. Just like the Corinthians were and that is the same thing Paul is admonishing them for. They, just like us, were focusing on the temporal, less important issues. All those spiritual gifts that they had and were so proud of, all the talents, all the riches, they are not going to last and are not important in comparison to love. Most everything that we value will fail or cease to exist but in the end love will replace all those things that failed you, with perfection. Our perspective of what is important has become twisted and we as a people have been deceived, just as the Corinthians had.

Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This is not only about material things. If your heart is full of pride than your treasure is in yourself. As we have seen in previous weeks love is about laying ourselves down for others. It is about esteeming others above ourselves. My question to you is this… Where is your heart today? Is it seeking to do good and to encourage others or is it just to better yourself. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that bettering yourself is bad, but if you place it above loving others than you are deceived about what is important. Just as the Corinthians were.

Loving God and others is our most important duty as Christians. All the other “things” even if they seem like good things. Tongues, prophesy and words of knowledge were not bad things that the Corinthian’s were doing. But they were not doing them out of a heart of love for others but they were doing them to raise themselves on a pedestal and arguing about which spiritual gift is better than the other.
I have been to churches with Sunday morning services that were a performance just like a secular concert. During praise and worship time you could sit at a small table and order and eat coffee and donuts…during the service!
The focus is no longer on love and on God. It is on gifts and talents that will expire.
I have referenced this text before and will continue probably for the rest of my life because it is so clear and it has affected my perspective in a tremendous way.

Mat 22:36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Loving God is our greatest command and loving others is second. There are no greater commands than those two. There are others obviously but they all have the same root. Love is the root. If love is the root in your life than the fruits of the spirit will be what grows on you.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

These fruits sound very similar to the traits of love that we have been discussing all these weeks. Paul lays all of this out very plainly and in many places and ways in the books that he has written.

Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We are called to walk in love, which is a sacrificial love, as Christ did for us, and lay down our lives for others. Our own status, our own talents, our abilities, whatever it may be, if it becomes more important than love or interferes with love than it is sin. I believe that is the main point that Paul is trying to make in the text. We should strive after love and everything else having to do with gifts, talents etc. will be done in a honoring and pleasing way to God as a sweet smelling sacrifice to Him.

Love Part 10

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We began with the first three verses back many messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. If we don't love than we are not a Christian. After that we covered the characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. We are not smarter than God? Next was love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Then we moved on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way. Then we went on to... Love is not irritable or easily provoked. And the last time I spoke we covered the very end of verse 5 and verse 6, which covered how love is not quick to accuse others and that we should encourage others when they are down.
We move on to verse 7 this week which says… Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.






We move on to verse 6 this week, which is Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. King James version adds a phrase that is not in the ESV version. It adds thinketh no evil to the end of verse 5. I am going to add that to this message because it seems to roll properly into verse 6
1 Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

We are going to start with that phrase. Thinketh no evil. I am going to use a very trusted Matthew Henry’s commentary. Although I am going to put in an easier to understand manner with the goal of not changing the meaning of what he has written. As I studied this section of scripture I found that his commentary was as accurate as I could certainly determine, and judging by the way my flesh responded by kicking and screaming it would seem effective for admonishment and encouragement.

Charity (love) thinks no evil…
Love cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge. It is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge. It does not suspect evil of others. True love is not apt to be suspicious. It will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed. It will never indulge suspicion without proof, but will rather be inclined to disbelieve evidence against the person it affects. It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance only when the evidence cannot be resisted. It will never suspect ill or have a bad opinion upon mere appearances or here-say. Love will put the best face on that it can in circumstances that have no good appearance.
As I was reading this commentary I was reminded of an illustration that J.D. used to give on occasion. I don’t remember the exact way that he put it but I do remember the point so I am going to make it my own.
Before I go on to my example let me just make the disclaimer that none of this is true and is an entirely fictitious story.
If someone came to me and told me that they saw Ed and Marty out behind the bowling alley getting high and selling drugs to kids what would my first reaction be? If I am being honest I think it would be immediate disbelief. “It must be someone who looks just like Ed or Marty but not them. Maybe (God help us!) they have twins.”
But then my source said it was definitely them. They heard them talking and heard them call each other by their names. My reaction would be something like “They must have been drugged against their will and was then threatened harm to their family if they didn’t. Someone must be holding a gun up to their family. Or maybe they were in an accident and have suffered brain damage. Maybe you misunderstood what was going on.”
You see because I love them and I know that it is against their character to do such a thing. I would have to be convinced that they were intentionally doing and selling drugs to kids. But I would have to have hard evidence like a verbal confession.
Love is reluctant to accuse others. Not that it is blind, but that it doesn’t look for unfounded reasons to drag another through the mud.
Too many times the response to the above type scenario is an immediate phone call to 20 of their closest friends to “ask for prayer” for the downfallen men of the church. Sometime prayer chains can be nothing more than gossip chains. Then within 2 hours it is all over face book that Ed and Marty are druggies selling drugs to kids and I knew that Ed guy wasn’t right. I just didn’t trust him and now I know why. Must have been the Holy Spirit warning and protecting me from that terrible man. No wonder he has a camp for kids. He probable gives them all drugs and gets them hooked so they will come to him and buy later. And that poor Marty, Seems like such a nice guy but you know you hang around guys like Ed enough and even the good guys can be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals you know.
What was not considered in this scenario is love. What may have been happening is that Ed and Marty were out behind the bowling alley taking drugs away from kids so they had the drugs in their hands so it looked like they were selling it and they were actually witnessing to the kids because they both have a burden for the souls of young people even to the point of putting themselves at a physical risk with the drug riddled kids behind the bowling alley.
Again, that did not happen. I made the story up for an example. Let’s get back to Matthew Henry’s commentary as he continues on concerning verse 6.

Love rejoiceth not in iniquity…
Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, it will not intentionally hurt or wrong any and certainly would not make it a matter of its delight or rejoice in doing harm or mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will because it will gratify its spite of another. The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable (loving) spirit than its sport or delight and gives one no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity (love), to rejoice at such fall!
Love rejoiceth in the truth…
Love is glad of the success of the gospel, which is the truth, and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
As you can see in this verse there is a negative and a positive. Don’t do this but do this. Don’t rejoice in iniquity but do rejoice in the truth. Initially I would have told you that this is not an issue for me but when I look at the depth of this verse I start to see where I fall short. I do, at times, tend to look and dwell on others faulty aspects than I do their good aspects. I do, on occasion, suspect other people of things that I have no or very little grounds to believe. The truth, I believe, is that if we can find enough faults in others than it gives us, a sort of, “permission” to fail. We hold ourselves up and compare ourselves to others and it makes us feel better if we find them “worse” than we are. We are to hold ourselves up to Christ and compare. Then we can have the right perspective and know that we are filthy rags not worthy to wipe the sweat off Christ’s brow.
It is by His love towards us; Christ takes no pleasure in our sins but wants us to see His truth prevail in us. We are called to be like Christ to the extent we are able.
Matthew Henry made a comment that I have read already but I wanted to draw it out as I close.
“Love will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them…”
This is true love; it is what Christ has done for us. He has taken our faults and sins and covered them with His blood and has put His veil over them so that the Father sees only Christ’s righteousness when He looks at us. We are blameless to God and therefore able to share in His inheritance. I am overwhelmed at Christ’s grace and mercy.
I would like to leave you with this to meditate on. Is or has anyone ever been overwhelmed at your grace and mercy toward them? Have you ever shown anyone compassion and love when you and everyone else knew they didn’t deserve it? Is there someone in your life who has been accused of something? Whether they are guilty or not is immaterial. I challenge you to show the love of Christ to that person and reach out and help them. Uplift and encourage them. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. This is the time that many are at a place that they will accept Christ as their Savior. Don’t condemn them on what other people say or what they look like. It is Christ’s love and His word through you that will draw others to Him.

Love Part 9

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We began with the first three verses back nine messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. If we don't love than we are not a Christian. After that we covered the characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. We are not smarter than God? Next was love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Then we moved on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way. Then we went on to... Love is not irritable or easily provoked. And we were all convicted and begged for God’s mercy because we failed so dreadfully in that area. Or maybe that was just me!

We move on to verse 6 this week, which is Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. King James version adds a phrase that is not in the ESV version. It adds thinketh no evil to the end of verse 5. I am going to add that to this message because it seems to roll properly into verse 6
1 Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

We are going to start with that phrase. Thinketh no evil. I am going to use a very trusted Matthew Henry’s commentary. Although I am going to put in an easier to understand manner with the goal of not changing the meaning of what he has written. As I studied this section of scripture I found that his commentary was as accurate as I could certainly determine, and judging by the way my flesh responded by kicking and screaming it would seem effective for admonishment and encouragement.

Charity (love) thinks no evil…
Love cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge. It is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge. It does not suspect evil of others. True love is not apt to be suspicious. It will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed. It will never indulge suspicion without proof, but will rather be inclined to disbelieve evidence against the person it affects. It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance only when the evidence cannot be resisted. It will never suspect ill or have a bad opinion upon mere appearances or here-say. Love will put the best face on that it can in circumstances that have no good appearance.
As I was reading this commentary I was reminded of an illustration that J.D. used to give on occasion. I don’t remember the exact way that he put it but I do remember the point so I am going to make it my own.
Before I go on to my example let me just make the disclaimer that none of this is true and is an entirely fictitious story.
If someone came to me and told me that they saw Ed and Marty out behind the bowling alley getting high and selling drugs to kids what would my first reaction be? If I am being honest I think it would be immediate disbelief. “It must be someone who looks just like Ed or Marty but not them. Maybe (God help us!) they have twins.”
But then my source said it was definitely them. They heard them talking and heard them call each other by their names. My reaction would be something like “They must have been drugged against their will and was then threatened harm to their family if they didn’t. Someone must be holding a gun up to their family. Or maybe they were in an accident and have suffered brain damage. Maybe you misunderstood what was going on.”
You see because I love them and I know that it is against their character to do such a thing. I would have to be convinced that they were intentionally doing and selling drugs to kids. But I would have to have hard evidence like a verbal confession.
Love is reluctant to accuse others. Not that it is blind, but that it doesn’t look for unfounded reasons to drag another through the mud.
Too many times the response to the above type scenario is an immediate phone call to 20 of their closest friends to “ask for prayer” for the downfallen men of the church. Sometime prayer chains can be nothing more than gossip chains. Then within 2 hours it is all over face book that Ed and Marty are druggies selling drugs to kids and I knew that Ed guy wasn’t right. I just didn’t trust him and now I know why. Must have been the Holy Spirit warning and protecting me from that terrible man. No wonder he has a camp for kids. He probable gives them all drugs and gets them hooked so they will come to him and buy later. And that poor Marty, Seems like such a nice guy but you know you hang around guys like Ed enough and even the good guys can be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals you know.
What was not considered in this scenario is love. What may have been happening is that Ed and Marty were out behind the bowling alley taking drugs away from kids so they had the drugs in their hands so it looked like they were selling it and they were actually witnessing to the kids because they both have a burden for the souls of young people even to the point of putting themselves at a physical risk with the drug riddled kids behind the bowling alley.
Again, that did not happen. I made the story up for an example. Let’s get back to Matthew Henry’s commentary as he continues on concerning verse 6.

Love rejoiceth not in iniquity…
Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, it will not intentionally hurt or wrong any and certainly would not make it a matter of its delight or rejoice in doing harm or mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will because it will gratify its spite of another. The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable (loving) spirit than its sport or delight and gives one no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity (love), to rejoice at such fall!
Love rejoiceth in the truth…
Love is glad of the success of the gospel, which is the truth, and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
As you can see in this verse there is a negative and a positive. Don’t do this but do this. Don’t rejoice in iniquity but do rejoice in the truth. Initially I would have told you that this is not an issue for me but when I look at the depth of this verse I start to see where I fall short. I do, at times, tend to look and dwell on others faulty aspects than I do their good aspects. I do, on occasion, suspect other people of things that I have no or very little grounds to believe. The truth, I believe, is that if we can find enough faults in others than it gives us, a sort of, “permission” to fail. We hold ourselves up and compare ourselves to others and it makes us feel better if we find them “worse” than we are. We are to hold ourselves up to Christ and compare. Then we can have the right perspective and know that we are filthy rags not worthy to wipe the sweat off Christ’s brow.
It is by His love towards us; Christ takes no pleasure in our sins but wants us to see His truth prevail in us. We are called to be like Christ to the extent we are able.
Matthew Henry made a comment that I have read already but I wanted to draw it out as I close.
“Love will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them…”
This is true love; it is what Christ has done for us. He has taken our faults and sins and covered them with His blood and has put His veil over them so that the Father sees only Christ’s righteousness when He looks at us. We are blameless to God and therefore able to share in His inheritance. I am overwhelmed at Christ’s grace and mercy.
I would like to leave you with this to meditate on. Is or has anyone ever been overwhelmed at your grace and mercy toward them? Have you ever shown anyone compassion and love when you and everyone else knew they didn’t deserve it? Is there someone in your life who has been accused of something? Whether they are guilty or not is immaterial. I challenge you to show the love of Christ to that person and reach out and help them. Uplift and encourage them. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. This is the time that many are at a place that they will accept Christ as their Savior. Don’t condemn them on what other people say or what they look like. It is Christ’s love and His word through you that will draw others to Him.