Injustice vs. Truth
Message Notes // May 29th
SERIES: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
What do Emotions have to do with it?
We must learn to manage our emotions, or our emotions will manage our actions!
Do you think there is a difference between how we respond vs how we react?
respond - say something in return, to make an answer
react - to exert a reciprocal or counteracting force or influence
Learning to respond instead of reacting can go a long way in saving and developing healthy relationships.
Ephesians 4:25-27
So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Psalm 4:4
Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. (NIV)
Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah. (ESV)
David & Paul are not saying “stew in your anger over night”, but rather, examine WHY you are angry in the first place. Bring it to the Lord, ask Him to reveal to you why you are angry. …ponder in your own hearts on your beds…
Emotions can be indicators that there is a problem:
I’m angry because there’s injustice.
I’m angry because someone hurt someone else.
I’m angry because people are sad, or abused, or hurting…
I’m angry because someone did something against me, and it hurts, and I wish they hadn’t.
Anger isn’t the issue…It’s what we DO with that anger that shows what is really going on in our hearts!
It’s what we call “inner healing”: Dealing with the issues of the heart that get in the way!
Both Paul & David are saying, “Stop! Recognize WHY you are angry because the issue isn’t THAT you are angry, and it’s trying to point you toward something. Don’t let it sit, don’t go to sleep yet, but examine your heart and ask God to work in your life.”
David’s Three Keys to Freedom!
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Am I wrong?
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.Search Me
Know My Heart
Test Me
David is saying, “Look at the evidence (search me), look at my character (know my heart) and put me on trial (test me / try me).”
Shoe me how I’m wrong!
Point out anything in me that offends you…We are on trial and open to the verdict!
Revelation + Application = Transformation
“Examine my life, my heart, my actions, my thoughts - all of it - and put me on trial and tell me where and how I’ve missed the mark!”
Follow through…
…lead me along the path of everlasting life.The path to everlasting life is allowing God to show us where we’ve fallen short, how we should live, and then applying that revelation to our lives.
Love: Injustice vs. Truth
1 Corinthians 13:6
[Love] does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love does not delight in evil (NIV) [wrongdoing (ESV)] but rejoices with the truth.
[Love] does not delight at unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth (Berean Literal Bible)
Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. (TPT)
Injustice
What does it mean to rejoice in wrongdoing?
…rejoicing when someone else has a wrong done to them.
When something bad happens to someone else, don’t let it make you happy…….
…no matter who the person is or what they’ve done…
Romans 5:8
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Our humanity, our inability to measure up, our need for a savior is the great leveler of all mankind. We are all the same. We need a savior, and His name is Jesus Christ!
Ephesians 4:26
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
If the enemy can’t get you angry, he’ll get you happy over it - whatever it takes to get you to sin, to fall short of God’s glorious standard - which is love.
Evil Itself
Ever since there has been sin, there have been those who advocate for it as an acceptable way of life.
Isaiah 5:20
What sorry for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
Colossians 2:6-8
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
Matthew 7:15
Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.
Romans 12:2
Do not be confirmed to this world…
Love does not rejoice, get happy, in a lie parading as the truth!
Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing BUT rejoices in the truth.
Is truth the opposite of wrongdoing?
John 8:31-32
”You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Knowing the truth comes after being faithful to the teachings of Jesus because in the teachings of Jesus IS the truth.
Love rejoices with, is happy with, focuses on the truth!
1 Corinthians 13:6 comes down to a choice. When wrong happens, when sin happens, when something bad happens, what will our focus be and how will we handle our response? What will we speak? Will we join with the negative, or will we bring in the truth?
Philippians 4:8
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
John 8:31 (ESV)
If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
If love rejoices in the truth, or WITH the truth, then love is happy every time it has the opportunity to present the truth, whether that is in word, action or deed.
Our lives become a representation of the truth because as we follow Jesus, as we abide in his word, in his teachings, our lives exemplify His truth, and that is what love does, it marries itself to the truth, it connects itself, it does everything it can to own the truth and live by it, live in it, and live out of it.
Matthew 7:24-25
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
When I know the truth, and I have already decided that my life is to live by that truth, then when any decision needs to be made I already know the answer. I already know what I’m going to do. I’ve already decided.