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“(Love) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but
rejoices with the truth…” (1 Cor. 13:6, NASB)
This is a recognizable passage from 1 Corinthians. Read
at a few million weddings over the years, it has become so familiar we have
missed the amazing truth Paul declared. Most have focused on the first part of
the verse regarding unrighteousness.
Sinful acts are the expression of unrighteousness. When others
sin against us, we can get hurt. Feeling hurt is nothing to rejoice about.
Also, we can commit acts of unrighteousness against others and ourselves. This
doesn’t lead to rejoicing either.
It feels right to focus on the unrighteousness and
to declare it bad or wrong, but, what does this focus accomplish in us? It
actually keeps us rooted in the emotions which result from getting hurt or
doing wrong. For some reason, we think this is what God wants us to do. We
believe our anger (from getting hurt) will protect us from getting hurt again,
or our shame (from doing wrong) will somehow motivate us to do right the next
time.
In this passage, Paul says love actively does
something – it rejoices. His focus is not on condemnation, sorrow, regret,
disappointment, or discontent. Paul said love rejoices with the truth. That is
what love does.
Think of two rooms in which love can choose to be
present. It can only be in one room at a time. Love is either in the room of
condemnation or the room of rejoicing. If love is in the room of condemnation,
its focus will be on denouncing what is wrong (unrighteousness). You would hear
love saying wrong was done to you, or you did something wrong. However, Paul
told us love is not in that room. It is in the room of rejoicing.
In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32),
the father ran out to his son to rejoice with the truth. What was the truth in
which he rejoiced? I don’t think it had anything to do with a change of heart
within the son. I believe the truth was the fact that the father had gifted his
son complete forgiveness. I believe the father also rejoiced that this lost son
was still fully his son, no matter what offense the son had committed. And of
course, the father’s love for the son was not hindered by a wrong suffered.
As I listen to folks, I hear many focus on the hurt,
the offense, or the betrayal. Rejoicing is not some kind of mind game to take
our focus off of the unrighteousness done to us or we have done to others or
our self.
In every unrighteous circumstance, no matter how
hurtful, there is truth in which to rejoice. It is when we are drawn into the
infinite heights and depths of God’s love that truth becomes so obvious and
overwhelming. When I am experiencing God’s love, I can throw a party for truth.
God’s truth reminds me I am loved, worthy, safe, not alone, accepted, adequate,
etc. His truth doesn’t excuse unrighteousness, but His truth changes me.
Embracing His truth enables me to forgive others and myself.
I don’t need to attend a lecture on the evils of
unrighteousness. That doesn’t sound like much fun or very productive. Just as
the prodigal son’s father threw a party because of his love, let’s rejoice in
the Father’s truth that we are unconditionally loved and accepted.
