"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth" — I Cor. 13:5
Charity (i.e. the Love that God is, and the love His Holy Spirit sheds abroad in the dedicated believer's heart (Rom. 5:5)) must not to be confused with sentimentality. Love has hard edges, and its perimeters are defined by God's holiness. Love is morally discriminating, and its moral ground is the character of God, as revealed to us in His word— "the Truth."
A sincere, but misguided preacher heard of late declared that if we are filled with the Spirit we will not hate anything. That is simply not true. If we are filled with the Spirit, we will love what God loves, and hate what He hates. The Psalmist writes, "… I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way [Ps. 119:128]." And again, "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies [Ps. 139:19-22]" Granted that under grace we may take a more tolerant attitude toward the sinner; we must nevertheless take no more compromising attitude toward sin.
Sin undermines the truth and destroys life. Love will reprove it, and that sharply. "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [Heb. 12:6-11]." Love disciplines its children!
Such a passage is the ground for church and family discipline. It should alert us to the need to abhor sin in our own lives, and instruct us regarding the need to reprove it, in love, in the lives of our famijly members and fellow believers. The Lord, in His call to holiness for Israel (Lev. 19:1ff) declared, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him [Lev. 19:17]." The principle is carried over into the church, and if we Love family and fellow believers we will seek in Love to restore them when they go astray. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted [Gal. 6:1]."
We live in a culture that has increasingly repudiated God's law, and seems to sin with impunity. We live in a day when men not only pursue iniquity, but entertain themselves with the sins of others, both real and imagined. Even the "news," in this "information age," thrives by dramatizing and magnifying what scripture clearly identifies as iniquity; "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them [Rom. 1:32]." If the Love of God is prevailing in our hearts, we will hate the sin in our society and our world. We cannot effectively change it, but we can allow the Love of God to change us, so that we stand in genuine contrast to the world around us.
Certainly one of the tests for the presence of God's Love in our hearts is in what things we find our cause for rejoicing. May we find it in the word of God which is the Truth written, and by it fix our focus on the Son of God Who is the Truth living, "Whom having not seen [we] love; in Whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, [we] rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory [I Pet. 1:8]."
"Pastor" Frasier
Charity (i.e. the Love that God is, and the love His Holy Spirit sheds abroad in the dedicated believer's heart (Rom. 5:5)) must not to be confused with sentimentality. Love has hard edges, and its perimeters are defined by God's holiness. Love is morally discriminating, and its moral ground is the character of God, as revealed to us in His word— "the Truth."
A sincere, but misguided preacher heard of late declared that if we are filled with the Spirit we will not hate anything. That is simply not true. If we are filled with the Spirit, we will love what God loves, and hate what He hates. The Psalmist writes, "… I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way [Ps. 119:128]." And again, "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies [Ps. 139:19-22]" Granted that under grace we may take a more tolerant attitude toward the sinner; we must nevertheless take no more compromising attitude toward sin.
Sin undermines the truth and destroys life. Love will reprove it, and that sharply. "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [Heb. 12:6-11]." Love disciplines its children!
Such a passage is the ground for church and family discipline. It should alert us to the need to abhor sin in our own lives, and instruct us regarding the need to reprove it, in love, in the lives of our famijly members and fellow believers. The Lord, in His call to holiness for Israel (Lev. 19:1ff) declared, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him [Lev. 19:17]." The principle is carried over into the church, and if we Love family and fellow believers we will seek in Love to restore them when they go astray. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted [Gal. 6:1]."
We live in a culture that has increasingly repudiated God's law, and seems to sin with impunity. We live in a day when men not only pursue iniquity, but entertain themselves with the sins of others, both real and imagined. Even the "news," in this "information age," thrives by dramatizing and magnifying what scripture clearly identifies as iniquity; "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them [Rom. 1:32]." If the Love of God is prevailing in our hearts, we will hate the sin in our society and our world. We cannot effectively change it, but we can allow the Love of God to change us, so that we stand in genuine contrast to the world around us.
Certainly one of the tests for the presence of God's Love in our hearts is in what things we find our cause for rejoicing. May we find it in the word of God which is the Truth written, and by it fix our focus on the Son of God Who is the Truth living, "Whom having not seen [we] love; in Whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, [we] rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory [I Pet. 1:8]."
Take the world, but give me Jesus, All its joys are but a name;For our greater good,
But His love abideth ever, Through eternal years the same.
Oh, the height and depth of mercy! Oh thee length and breadth of love!
Oh the fullness of redemption, Pledge of endless life above!
— F. Crosby
"Pastor" Frasier
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