Love is pure and true.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. 1 cor. 13:6

When evil is mentioned, automatically we think wickedness; we think really bad things like murder, drug abuse, armed robbery etc.  But the evil here does not only mean these mentioned, but anything contrary to the word of God and hurts our neighbours.

That means love does not focus on the negative of others by highlighting their mistakes to make a public display of them.   In Genesis 9, Noah planted grapes and harvested his grapes in its season, pressed it and drunk the wine from it till he was drunk and passed out naked.  Ham came and saw his father naked and passed out.   He run out and told his brothers, ‘father is drunk and naked, come see for yourself’.  The bible says that because Ham made a public display of his father’s weakness, he was cursed by the father. But the other two sons who covered their father’s mistake were blessed.

Am sure Ham didn’t think much of what he did, after all, a little fun won’t harm anyone.  But most often our little fun is what destroys people and kills their spirit.  Love will not delight in ‘a little fun’ at the expense of others.

Love does not delight in evil means not giving in to gossip.  I know a little gossip feels good especially if it’s that person that everyone thought was above sin. Think how it will feel if the shoe was on the other foot, and let us try and not give in to gossip.

It means not putting others down so you can feel good about yourself.  Don’t make a habit of it.

Of course all the really bad things mentioned above should not be neglected as well, because love won’t murder, love won't covert the neighbour's wife or fornicate or act wickedly towards others etc and not think much of it.

Taking pleasure in wrong does not only mean you are happy about it, but it also means that doing evil has become a habit and you have grown accustomed to it.

Love rejoices in truth means that love honours with the truth. Does not hide things from others and pretend.  It means that love will not smile at you when it is thinking ‘I can’t stand him! Oh how I hate him!’

It means love is teachable.  Will correct in love and would want to be corrected too.  Love will not hide the painful truth from you but will find a good way of sugar coating things to soften the blow.  It means it will not insist on its way when it knows it’s wrong, but will gladly accept wrong and take responsibility for it.

It means it will honour you with its true self, not hiding or holding back from you from fear of rejection.  It means that love will not lie to you and tell you that it’s AB when it’s Only A or B.

What this verse encourages in a nutshell is that we learn to respect each other and accept each other and rejoice in goodness and truth.


Written by Aba Dadson







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