Alba 12-21-2025
LOVE THINKS NO EVIL
I Corinthians 13:5
Glynda Lomax said she once knew a woman whose heart had been broken by disappointing relationships. She became very sarcastic towards the opposite sex and could often be overheard making disparaging remarks about them. It always surprised Glynda that, although the other woman never had a nice word to say about men, she seemed always to be searching for one.
Each time she began a new relationship it seemed to be all candy and flowers. Before long, however, the spiteful remarks would start and the next thing Glynda would hear, the current beau could do nothing to please the worman. She seemed to always be angry at them for some imagined wrong no one else could see, and for which she would find various ways to punish them. She seemed to feel strong when she was angry, as though her anger somehow made her powerful.
The men at first seemed hurt and baffled, and finally so frustrated they just gave up trying to please her. At this point the arguments would escalate until finally a breakup would occur and she was alone again, back to the venomous remarks, with new fuel for the fire of her anger. After a number of relationships over a span of years, the woman became very bitter. Today she is alone. She would have done well to learn what I Corinthians 13:5 says, “love thinks no evil”. Or as other translations have it, “love keeps no record of wrongs.”
If a person stores up every slight and every hurt that has happened to them, it only results in more misery. It solves nothing. If daily the mind is thinking of the evil that the person believes has happened to them, keeping a record of every wrong, it leaves no room for love.
Our life is full of records, we have a record when we were born, we have a record of when we got our shots, our visits to the doctor, when we go to school they keep records, the police even have a record of you if you’ve ever been into trouble, if you have ever been in the military they have a record of it.
We found out the truth of that by something that happened recently. Alison was out in the back yard and stepped on a rusty nail. It did not puncture deeply, but it left a wound. Thinking that a tetanus shot would be wise, we went to get her one at the Joplin Health Department. In the paper work they gave after giving the shot was a list of every vaccination and shot she ever had. What amazed me is that those shots covered time that we had lived in Nebraska, in Kansas and in Missouri. Yet it was all there. The record was complete.
And there are people who also keep a complete record in their minds of everything that is negative that other people have done to them. And often out of spite or inward hurt, they lash out at others who may or may not be guilty of any of it. Its a feeling that ends up as the old saying goes, “Get mad and the dog and kick the cat.”
In the Christmas story, there is the biblical account of someone who seems to fit this attitude. Think about someone who becomes angry when feeling deceived by others, lashes out hurting others, and has a mean streak. Can you think of a person that fits that category? No, it is not the Grinch. He is not in the biblical account. Although the person I am thinking about was definitely “grinchy”. It is King Herod, the Great.
He wasn't called “Great” because of being such a good guy. Because he wasn't. The greatness came from all the building he did including rebuilding of the Temple. He initiated a massive expansion of the Temple Complex in Jerusalem, eventually doubling it in size until it took up around 450 acres. His palace at Caesarea Maritima was built with impressive technology for the time, including the use of hydraulic cement and even underwater construction. Herod also built several impressive fortresses, including Masada, Herodium, Alexandrium, Hyrcania, and Machaerus.
While these were monumental sites, some of which, like Masada, can still be seen today, he actually built them mostly for himself and his family in case of mass insurrection against him. He even built an entire city, Sebaste, designed specifically to appeal to the Greek-speaking pagans of Judea.
But beyond that, Herod was cruel and merciless. He was incredibly jealous, suspicious, and afraid for his position and power. The people understood what a evil man Herod was. They knew that any threat to his power meant bloodshed. By bitter experience they knew he would release his carnage against innocent people. Their fears for their own safety were well grounded. Fearing a potential threat, Herod had the high priest Aristobulus, who was his wife’s brother, drowned. After which he provided a magnificent funeral where he pretended to weep. He then had his wife killed, and then her mother and two of his own sons. That barbaric act was exceeded in cruelty only by his slaughter of “all the male children who were in Bethlehem, from two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16). He did that in hopes of killing any threat to his throne from the One the magi said had been born King of the Jews.
Those wise men had followed the star that they understood to have special meaning. They arrived in Jerusalem looking for the new King, probably assuming that it would be in that city where they would find Him. So naturally they go to the royal house to meet with King Herod asking where this wonderful child could be so they could worship Him.
Matthew 2:3-5 says, “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, 'In Bethlehem of Judea'”. And they quoted Micah 5:2 where the prophesy was given about the birth of Jesus.
So Herod sent the magi off to find the child and report back to him. He used the ruse that it would be his purpose to also go and worship this new king. But he was thinking evil, not love. The wise men did find the child Jesus with Mary and Joseph. And when they did, they fell down and worshiped Him, just as they had said they would. And they gave expensive gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But because God knows everything, He warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod.
When that happened, Matthew 2:16 says that “Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.” He was angry that he was deceived and he wasn't going to forget it. And he thought of even greater evil he could do to get back at them, and to be sure his position as king was not threatened.
In recording this, Matthew points out in verses 17 and 18 of this second chapter that “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: 'A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more.'” But none of this bothered Herod. He was a man who did think evil thoughts and kept a record of any wrong he imagined had happened to him. Herod was a man who had no love for anyone except himself.
But I Corinthians 13:5 tells us that love thinks no evil and does not keep a record of being wronged. Literally it means “love does not store up the memory of any wrong it has received” (Enduring Word Commentary). So love will put away the hurts of the past instead of clinging to them.
In other words what this is saying is that, as well as a host of other things, love is also forgetful! Since love keeps no record of wrongs, love is forgetful! You have heard of the husband who asked his wife, “Why are you always reminding me of my past mistakes? You told me you would forgive and forget.” She answered, “Well, I don’t want you to forget that I have forgiven and forgotten.”
That is how a lot of us handle hurt from the people we’re close to. We just keep feeding the offense, reliving the pain, rehearsing the hurt, pushing the playback button in our minds, watching again and again how we’ve been taken advantage of, or how we’ve been disrespected, or how we’ve been mistreated. So we just quietly become more and more angry.
It is hard not to remember people, the mistakes that they made, and the hurts that they caused. The truth is, it’s impossible to forget the offense. But there is something that is even better than forgetting, and that is replacing. We should remember what Jesus taught us to pray in the model prayer. It says: “Forgive us our debts, (our trespasses, our sins) as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Forgiveness (not keeping a record of wrongs) is not a burden that God has placed on us… but rather it is a gift, an opportunity, that HE gives to us. Because forgiveness sets us free. But we often have a kind of unbiblical approach to forgiveness. Our thinking goes like this: when someone hurts us, forgiveness can be given when that person who hurt us makes things right. So if they say something, or do something to make things right, then we will forgive them. But the problem is that’s not forgiveness.
Jesus tells us in Luke 6:27-28 “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” And Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” By putting something else, something better in the place of those ‘hurts’, will help us see that God can bring good even out of evil. Remember what Joseph in Egypt told his brothers who had sold him into slavery? He said in Genesis 50:20, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
And remember the discussion Jesus had with Peter? “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No not seven times”, Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.” Peter simply wanted a some kind of legal limit, a number, after which he could finally say, ‘Okay, that’s it – no more Mr. Nice Guy.”
But forgiveness says no to the “You hurt me, so I will hurt you back” philosophy of life. And if there is to be any justice to be served, we need to leave it in the hands of God, the perfect judge. Romans 12:19 says, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord.”
Is there something in your life that you need to let go? If so, probably the person that you are holding a grudge against doesn’t know, only you do. But remember, love thinks no evil and keeps no record of wrongs. We have to stop thinking about what’s been done to us, and we need to replace it with thoughts of what has been done for us, specifically, what Jesus has done for us. Because when we remember what He has done for us, it will give us the grace to forgive what has been done to us.
When Herod called for all male children under two years of age to be killed, there was one child who was saved and carried off to Egypt. Yet that child one day became a victim Himself. But His death would be different. He died on a cross, not for His own sins, but for the sins of others, yours and mine. And because Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins, death was defeated. Yes, there is death in our world, but God so loved the world that He sent His Son to overcome it.
We have a God who knows all things, yet for those who are in Christ, the Lord will have no record of sins. In Micah 7:18-19 it says, “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
From that verse comes the phrase, “The Sea of Forgetfulness”. That is where the sins of those who are in Christ will go. Because if Jesus is your Savior, there will be no record of wrongs. Hebrews 8:12 quotes the Lord saying, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
So how will we live? In life we always have a choice. “Love thinks no evil, it keeps no record of wrongs.” So we can do things Herod's way, or we can and should do things God's way.
CLOSE:
David and Leah Ortiz minister to a small Messianic congregation in Ariel, about 40 miles north of Jerusalem. On the Feast of Purim, gifts of food and drink are sent to friends. On March 20, 2008, their son, Ami Ortiz was staying home from school when he spotted a Purim gift basket that the Ortiz’s house cleaner had brought inside and placed on a table. A label on the package said “Happy Purim” in Hebrew.
When the boy lifted the lid off the basket to get a piece of chocolate candy, the basket disappeared in a massive explosion that gutted the inside of the Ortiz home, shattered Ami’s body and left him unconscious on the floor, barely clinging to life. Hundreds of shards, including pieces of metal, safety pins, and screws, pierced him and left him in critical condition. The package had been placed there by someone who hated any Messianic Jew.
His father described the boy's condition at the time and said, “His neck had an eight-inch gash like someone slit his throat. He has a ruptured lung. Doctors had to operate on his tongue. He has second-degree burns to his chest and arms, and there is no flesh on the thighs,” He also said that doctors amputated two of Ami’s toes.
Ami spent five months in the hospital, and endured nearly a year in a pressure suit to assist in his healing from his severe burns. When Ami later was questioned by a reporter about his attitude toward the one who did this evil to him, he replied: “I don’t feel hate. I don’t see a reason for it. It’s just not there. It wasn’t there from the beginning. I don’t even know how to explain it, but it’s just not there. No hate at all.”
How can Ami have no hate in his heart? Only because of the cross of Christ. “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.”
