“What Love Really Looks Like!” #8
“Love Does Not Rejoice In Unrighteousness, But
Rejoices With The Truth!”
The cultural definition of love is vague at best,
watered down, these days it's just a word used loosely, typically to get an
advantage or a desired outcome! We're so removed from the practical use of the word
but what's scary is how far removed we've become from the spiritual weight of
the word! So far we've covered that Love is patient, Love is Kind and is Not Jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant, Love does not act unbecomingly, love does not seek his own, and is not
provoked, and Love thinks no evil or doesn't remember wrongs suffered! With this blog series I want to go verse by verse through
the thirteen pictures of what “agape”,
true, biblical love looks like! I want us to see how Jesus' loved! Sometimes Love involves hard truths that are for the
benefit of the one receiving!
Proverbs 27:5King James Version (KJV)
In each blog I
want to view the particular picture of love in these scenarios, Spiritually,
Specifically, and Socially! But what does it mean, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth;? Newsflash, you can disagree with someone and still
love them! AND, just because you actively love someone and invest in their life
doesn't mean you accept their sinful behavior! What's amazing is that the first word rendered rejoice is impersonal and
singular! When you rejoice in sin, you rejoice alone! You reap alone! The
second word that's rendered rejoices
is plural and personal. Some translations render the statement “rejoices WITH
the truth” instead of “rejoices IN the truth.” When we rejoice in and with the
truth we rejoice with the host of Heaven and God himself!
What does this love look like?
1.) Specifically
* Person to Person Relationships, spouses, friends,
siblings, etc. *
- What a picture we see as the prophet Nathan rebukes
King David for his blatant trespass of God's Law! -
2 Samuel 12:1-9King James Version (KJV)
1 And the
Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There
were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: 3 But the poor man had
nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it
grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat,
and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. 4 And there came a
traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his
own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the
poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. 5 And David's anger was
greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the
man that hath done this thing shall surely die: 6
And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing,
and because he had no pity. 7 And
Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I
anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; 8 And I gave thee thy
master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house
of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have
given unto thee such and such things. 9
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil
in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken
his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of
Ammon.
The words of truth MUST be seasoned with the INTENT
of LOVE! There's a WORLD of difference between the Prophet
Nathan and his rebuke of David and Westboro Baptist Church and their hatred and
rantings!
2.) Socially
* Individual to Society, to Individuals with which we
don't have a “personal” bond. *
- We see this played out by every prophet, every
Preacher (Even your own), and even Jesus himself but i'll focus on Haggai and
his message to the people of Israel! -
Haggai 1:1-8King James Version (KJV)
1 In the
second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the
month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son
of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high
priest, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the Lord of
hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's
house should be built. 3 Then
came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this
house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus saith
the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. 6
Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not
enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is
none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with
holes. 7 Thus saith the Lord of
hosts; Consider your ways. 8 Go up
to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure
in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
Haggai 2:6-9King James Version (KJV)
6 For thus saith the Lord
of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the
earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 7
And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall
come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and
the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. 9
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former,
saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of
hosts.
What would happen if we lived in love this way and
with love and the intent of helping our brothers and sisters we spoke truth
even when it's tough? What if we listened to this message that Haggai is
speaking to us today?
What does it NOT look like?
Jonah
God called Jonah to preach unto the evil city of
Nineveh and he didn't want to go. Why? They were evil to his people and he knew
it would cost him, possibly his life. Definitely not Godly, righteous intent!
Then when he preached and they repented and God spared them he was mad! Sounds like some “christians” I know. A homosexual
gets redeemed, a drug addict gets born-again, a harlot gets saved and their
response is something like “we'll see!” God Help Us!
3.) Spiritually
* God to Man and Man to God! *
- Spiritually is the most important as it's correct
position will produce the first two! -
- Man to God -
Isaiah chapter 6
Isaiah 6:1-5King James Version (KJV)
6 In the
year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he
covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
fly. 3 And one cried unto
another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is
full of his glory. 4 And
the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was
filled with smoke. 5 Then
said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts.
- God to Man -
THE CROSS
The truth is NOT always comfortable and love is not
always represented in roses and sunshine!
The Excellence of Love
1 If I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If
I have the gift of prophecy, and know
all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have
love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love
is kind and is not jealous; love does
not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does
not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take
into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth; 7 bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will
be done away; if there are tongues,
they will cease; if there is knowledge,
it will be done away. 9 For we know
in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but
when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a
child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish
things. 12 For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know
fully just as I also have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love,
abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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