Love’s Delight Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

• Be displeased about the wrong things.

• “love does not delight in evil”

• Be pleased about the right things.

• “but rejoices with the truth.”

SERMON BODY:

• NIV: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

• TLB: “It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.”

• KJB: “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”

• Message: “It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people.

• On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.”

• Curley Translation:

• "Love does not delight in wrongdoing but in right-doing”

Ill:

• In Royal Leamington Spa, a town in central Warwickshire,

• There is a graveyards with a very unusual tombstone.

• The only thing written on the tombstone are these words:

“Here lies a miser who lived for himself

and cared for nothing but gathering wealth;

now where he is or how he fares,

nobody knows and nobody cares.”

• Now in contrast,

• There is in St. Paul’s cathedral in London a plain tombstone that reads;

“Sacred to the memory of General Charles George Gordon who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering,

his heart to God.”

• TRANSITION: Two epitaphs, two distinct opposites.

• One life shows loveless-ness, the other life shows love.

• Chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians is a passage on love, on caring, on compassion;

• This chapter it is not just theoretical, good advice;

• But it is very practical in its instructions.

• And as Christians we need that practical out-working element of putting love to practise;

• Otherwise our studies on love just become lectures i.e. the passing on of information.

• But a sermon should always challenge its hearers;

• That if they apply this truth by the power and enabling of the Holy Spirit;

• Their lives can be changed and they can make a difference!

Ill:

Talking of lectures, I like the humorous definition of what a lecture is:

“The art of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the lecturees without passing through the minds of either.”

• TRANSITION: That might be lecturing but it is not preaching!

• Quote: I like how Alistair Begg describes preaching:

“The preacher’s task is to declare what God has said, explain the meaning, and establish the implications so that no one will mistake its relevance.”

• The apostle Paul even through his letters is declaring what God has said,

• He is explain the meaning, and establish the implications;

• So that no one (including you & I) will mistake its relevance!

Ill:

• Henry Drummond in his classic little booklet on 1 Corinthians 13;

• Called, “The Greatest Thing in the World,”

• Compares verses 4-7:

• To light passing through a prism and being separated out into its various colours.

• Just as the various colours of the spectrum all work together to make white light,

• So that apostle Paul describes love in its component parts,

• A rainbow of actions that all work together to make true ‘agape’ love.

Note:

• The apostle Paul describes love in verses 4-7 using a series of 15 verbs.

• Our English translations change some of the verbs to adjectives,

• But in the Greek they are all verbs, they are all doing action words!

• I believe that’s significant.

• The love Paul is talking about is not primarily something you feel but something you do.

• Because ‘actions always speak louder than words!’

• We may not always be able to control our feelings towards someone,

• But we can control our actions, and even to some extent our motivations.

The framework of these verses is:

• FIRST: Love described positively – what love is (vs 4a):

• Love is patient.

• Love is kind.

• SECOND: Love described negatively – what love is not (vs 4b-5):

• Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

• Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking

• Love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs

• THIRD: Love described with a contrasting statement. (vs 6):

• Love does not delight in evil - Love rejoices with the truth.

• FOURTH: Four things love always does (verse 7)

• Love always protects.

• Love always trusts.

• Love always hopes.

• Love always perseveres.

This evening we are focussing our thoughts on verse 6:

• Where love described with a contrasting statement.

• “Love does not delight in evil - Love rejoices with the truth.”

(1). Be displeased about the wrong things.