THE PEARLS OF PAUL
THE LOVE CHAPTER – PART V
DR. JIM DIXON
1 CORINTHIANS 13
SEPTEMBER 12, 1999
Last year, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in California conducted an extremely unusual study. They conducted a study of duct tape. Now, virtually every garage in the United States of America has a roll of duct tape. These scientists in California discovered what most of us already know. They discovered that duct tape can be used for a multiplicity of purposes. They discovered that duct tape is good to seal a leaky radiator hose. They discovered that duct tape can be used to secure a broken window. They discovered that duct tape can even be used to seal shut an alligator’s mouth. They discovered that duct tape is incredible, but they found one thing that duct tape simply cannot do. Strangely enough, it’s the very thing that duct tape was created to it. Duct tape cannot seal air conditioning and heating ducts. It just doesn’t do it. They found that in virtually every instance, the duct tape failed, resulting in a 30% loss of energy efficiency. So, they concluded that duct tape is useful for a plethora of purposes. However, it’s not good at the one thing it was created for.
In that sense, some Christians are a lot like duct tape. You see, some Christians are good at a lot of things, a multiplicity of things. They can become professional athletes. They become the heads of large corporations. They’re good at so many things, and yet the one thing they were most created to do, the purpose for which they were born anew, this is the very thing they struggle at. And that is love. Jesus said, “By this, all people will know you are My disciples, if you love one another.” So, the Holy Spirit has given us the love chapter, that we might have this goal always before us and we might be the people we were meant to be, doing that for which we were born anew.
So, this morning we look at the love chapter, 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. We begin at the end of verse 5 where we left off. It is there that Paul tells us, “Love is not resentful.” This is our first teaching this morning. Love is not resentful.
Now, on a hot summer afternoon in 1933, the phone rang at the office of Dr. Eisenhardt at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. Eisenhardt was the Dean of the Princeton Graduate School with which the Institute for Advanced Studies was affiliated. A woman answered the phone. She said, “Dr. Eisenhardt’s Office.” A voice said, “May I please speak with Dr. Eisenhardt?” The woman said, “I’m sorry. Dr. Eisenhardt is not here. I am his secretary. Perhaps I could help you.” The voice said, “Well, perhaps you could. I was wondering what the address is for Albert Einstein’s residence.” The woman said, “Well, I’m sorry. Those who are affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies here at Princeton, all personal information about them is confidential, and I cannot disclose that.” There was a pause, and then the voice said, “Well, perhaps you could make an exception. You see, I am Albert Einstein and I have forgotten where my house is!”
Albert Einstein was the German American physicist whose theory of relativity virtually revolutionized the science of physics. He gave us a whole new understanding of time and space, mass and motion. He was, by all accounts, one of the most brilliant people ever to grace the face of this earth. He was, by all accounts, a genius. And yet, though he was a genius, his memory was less than perfect, even in 1933 when his mind was perhaps at the zenith of its powers.
You see, he had just, in that year, 1933, moved to the United States. He was not familiar with this country. He had just taken a position with the Princeton Graduate School at the Institute of Advanced Studies. He had, just a few days earlier, moved into a new house, but he wasn’t familiar with the area and he had forgotten how to find his home.
Some of you in this worship center this morning are very intelligent. Some of you are very smart, but no matter how smart you are, your memory is not perfect and you are capable, under certain circumstances, of forgetting your home address. You are capable, under certain circumstances, of forgetting your phone number or forgetting your social security number. Under certain circumstances, you are capable of forgetting almost anything. But there is one thing that some people never forget, and that one thing is a wrong. Some people never forget a wrong. In this sense, their memory is perfect. They never forget a grievance, never forget a wrong that has been perpetrated against them.
I read recently about a man in South Carolina. His name is Henry Engram. Henry Engram, in February of last year, 1998, filed a deed restriction with the Jasper County Courthouse in South Carolina. This placed restraints on the sale of his 1,688-acre plantation. According to this deed restriction, no one could purchase his plantation who lived north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Nobody could purchase his plantation who had the last name of Sherman because, you see, it was General Sherman who had destroyed the buildings on his plantation back during the Civil War. Of course, the Civil War was concluded in 1865, 134 years ago, but Henry Engram has not forgotten. To this day, he is resentful.
There are a lot of people in this world like that. There might be a few people in this sanctuary like that who bring resentment to marriage relationships. You never forget a wrong. You are always able to recite everything your spouse has said or done that grieved you. You never forget. Some people bring that kind of resentment to their work relationships. Some people to their friendships. But the Bible tells us love is not like that. Love is not resentful. The Greek words that Paul uses are, “logizetai to kakon.” These words literally mean “love does not keep a record of wrongs.” Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. Agape love, divine love, God’s love, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. Isn’t that incredible news and isn’t it wonderful?
You see, when we come to God, when we come to His Son Jesus Christ and we come in repentance, He truly forgives us. He does not keep a record of wrongs. In fact, in the biblical world, in the Greek world, when a certificate of debt was cancelled, either because it had been paid or perhaps it had been forgiven, an “X” was placed across the certificate. The word that was used in the Greek to describe the cancellation of that certificate of debt was the Greek word “charizomai.” And, of course, the Greek letter “chi” looks like an X and, indeed, the certificate of debt was X’d out.
That’s a nice concept, the X’ing of a certificate of debt, but, you see, in the Bible there is a more beautiful concept, and there’s a more beautiful word. The word that is used in the Bible to describe the cancellation of your certificate of death is not the word charizomai. It’s the Greek word “exaleiphein.” This word exaleiphein, which is used in Acts, chapter 3 and again in Colossians, chapter 2, this word means “to eradicate.” It means “to wipe away.” It means “to clean the slate.” So, the concept that we have biblically regarding the love of God and His willingness to forgive us is that when we come to Him in repentance, He doesn’t just put an “X” over the page that lists our sin. He wipes the slate clean. He eradicates those wrongs. They are truly forgiven and gone. That’s the love of God in Christ, and it’s the kind of love He wants to begin to see in us.
Paul goes on to say, “Love does not rejoice in the wrong, but love rejoices in the right.” There are really two concepts here, but we’re going to treat them as one. Love does not rejoice in the wrong, but love rejoices in the right.
Now, in the month of May, in the year 1864, a crowded train was leaving New Jersey Station in the state of New Jersey. A young man was racing after the train. He was late, and he had missed the train. This young man was Robert Lincoln. He was the son of President Abraham Lincoln. He decided to do a very foolish thing. He decided to try to board the train while it was moving, and he ran after it. He could see the train was accelerating. At the last moment, he jumped up, trying to board the railroad car, but his grip slipped, and he was about to fall off the train. Who knows what would have happened? God knows. But he didn’t fall because a hand came out and grabbed him. A hand came out and grabbed him, and it was the hand of Edwin Booth.
Now, Edwin Booth was the most renowned Shakespearean actor in the United States of America. Indeed, even today he is considered one of the greatest Shakespearean actors in all of history. His performance in Hamlet was considered to be a masterpiece. So, Edwin Booth reached out and grabbed Robert Lincoln as he was about to fall off the train and pulled him in. It was only one week later that Edwin Booth received a letter from President Abraham Lincoln, a letter saying “Thank you for helping my son. Thank you for rescuing Robert and perhaps saving his life.” Edwin Booth was so proud of that letter that he kept it. He kept it because it pleased him to think that he could do anything to serve or help the First Family of this nation.
It was less than one year later, on April 14, 1865, that Edwin Booth’s brother, John Wilkes Booth, murdered President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. With that tragedy, Edwin Booth would never be the same. He was devastated by what his brother had done. He ceased to act. He ceased to perform. He gave up his career for a period of months. He went into hiding. The media referred to him as the “man of mystery.” It was much later that he finally came out in public again, and he explained that he was so ashamed—I mean he loved his brother, but he was so ashamed by what his brother had done—and he felt guilt just being associated with such a horrible deed.
I think all of us can understand how Edwin Booth felt. None of us want to be associated with that which is wrong. We don’t want to be associated with those things that are sinful. But, of course, we cannot help but be associated with the wrong because we are sinners. The word for wrong in this love chapter, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, is the Greek word “adikia.” It literally means “without righteousness.” It refers to any sin, whether an act or even in thought. And the Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one.” We’re all without righteousness. Adikia. We all bear the shame of being associated with the wrong.
This little passage of scripture tells us if we have divine love, we will take not joy in the wrong we’ve done. We will take no joy in the sins we’ve committed, and we’ll take no joy in thinking about future sins, nor will we take joy in the sins of others. We will not rejoice in the wrongs of others, but we will, if we have divine love, rejoice in the right. We’ll rejoice in the right. Now, the Greek word for right is the word “alethea,” and this word means “truth.” It refers primarily to theological truth and moral truth. If we have divine love, if we truly love God and His love flows through us, we begin to take joy in truth, theological and moral truth. I ask you this morning, do you rejoice in theological and moral truth?
It was 1864 when Abraham Lincoln was invited to a meeting of what was then called “The Committee of Colored People.” African American leaders wanted to express their gratitude to the president for his opposition to the institution of slavery. They wanted to honor him, and so The Institution of Colored People presented President Abraham Lincoln a Bible. When Abraham Lincoln received that Bible, he made this statement. He said, “In regard to this great book, I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to mankind. All the good our Savior Jesus Christ gave to the world was communicated through this book, and but for this book, we would not know right from wrong.” But from this book, we would not know right from wrong. And that’s the problem, because we live in a culture today that is increasingly biblically illiterate. Even those who know the Bible in some measures are not as prone to believe it.
I was going to bring a book up here. I left it down on my chair, but it’s a book that has just recently come out by Chuck Colson, and it’s called “How Now Shall We Live?” It’s a take on Francis Schaffer’s old book, “How Then Shall We live?” In this book, Chuck Colson argues that America has become post-Christian, that we have joined much of the other western nations and western cultures in becoming post-Christian. Chuck Colson acknowledges that America still has a majority of people who claim to be Christian and are nominal Christian. He acknowledges that most people in this nation still attend church, but he claims that we are still post-Christian simply because we no longer rely on Judeo-Christian values for our public philosophy, nor do we rely on Judeo-Christian values for moral consensus. We no longer rely on the Bible for our public philosophy, no longer rely on the Bible for moral consensus. And therefore we are post-Christian according to Colson.
He points out that in 1952, Supreme Court Justice Marshall, in an official court decision, declared that this nation is a Christian nation with a deeply religious people who have a foundational belief in God. This was an official court decision by Supreme Court Justice Marshall declared in 1952, and nobody had a problem with it. There was zero criticism because the statement of Supreme Court Justice Marshall fit the thinking of most people.
But then in 1996, just recently, when Supreme Court Justice Scalia publicly, in a non-judicial setting, in a public setting, confessed that he was a Christian and he believed in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ, he began to be persecuted. Cartoonists in The Washington Post portrayed all the other Supreme Court Justices with law books and portrayed him with a Bible, mocking him. Some politicians claimed that he had actually disqualified himself for service because he could no longer have the ability to render verdicts or decisions impartially, being a Christian. What strange thinking, as though atheists are more impartial.
But, you see, we live in a changing culture. We live in a changing world. Surely you know that. When our daughter Heather was up at Colorado State University, her professors, many of them, made fun of the Bible. They told the class that it was a book of moral prudery, antiquated in its morals and ethics. The claims are absurd, but there are many young lives that are very impressionable. And, you see, if you love God, if you love His Son, if His love is in you, you love His Word, and you’re going to stand for it. As long as you draw breath, as long as you live in this world, no matter what the cost, no matter what the price, you will rejoice in the truth.
There’s one final teaching from the love chapter this morning, and that is that love bears all things. This is the next statement Paul makes. Love bears all things. Of course, this statement, in a sense is unfortunately translated by the RSV. I memorize from the old RSV. The old RSV renders this statement “love bears all things,” but the word “bear” in the Greek is the word “stego.” That word literally means “to cover.” This should be translated “love covers all things.”
Now, the word stego was used of the concept of covering in two ways. It could mean to cover so as to hide, or it could mean to cover so as to protect, but these two concepts were joined because, oftentimes, when you covered something and you hide it, you were, at the same time, seeking to protect it. The basic concept of stego is protection. “Love protects all things,” as it’s rendered in the NIV. Love protects all things. So, God’s love seeks to cover so as to protect. This is true even of the Greek word “storge,” which is the Greek word for family love. Even family love seeks to cover so as to protect.
There is an old story often told, and I’ve told it before. It’s a true story. It took place in 1864 in the fall of that year. A young woman was leaving her house in Great Britain in the region of Wales. Her husband had just died a few months earlier. She was still in grief. She was carrying her little baby, their little son, carrying that baby over the hills of Wales to a friend’s house where she was going to spend the afternoon. She never made it because there came an early storm that fall, a blizzard, unexpected. This blizzard just swarmed over the hills of Wales as she was trying to make her way over those hills to that friend’s house. The snow just piled up, and ultimately in the midst of that blizzard, she was buried.
They found her dead body hours later. They were amazed to see her face down in the snow with her clothes taken off. They understood why when they lifted her up and they saw that she had wrapped her clothes around her little child and placed her body over that little child. The little child was alive. Her son was alive. That son’s name was David Lloyd George, and he went on to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain, reared by his uncle who was a shoemaker and a Baptist minister. But, you see, the love of that mom led her to cover her child so as to protect it. Even family love does that. And, of course, family love doesn’t always have the power to protect. Even a mom’s love doesn’t always have the power to protect.
Earlier this year, on May 3, 1999, the deadliest of all tornadoes, a Category 5 tornado, swept over the little town of Bridge Creek, Oklahoma with devastation. There was a young mom there in Bridge Creek, 26 years old, named Cara Weiss. She was in her trailer. She lived in a trailer park. She was a single mom. She had a 6-year-old son named Jordan. She was going to go over to a neighbor’s trailer and fellowship a little bit, take Jordan with her, when the tornado hit. She could hear it. She looked out the window, and she knew this was horrible. There’s not much protection in a trailer. She took little Jordan, and they went into the bathroom and got down on the floor. They both held hands. They held hands tight, but the tornado just ripped over the little town of Bridge Creek and just shredded that trailer park, and it shredded her trailer, and incredibly it lifted Cara and Jordan right off the ground. It just destroyed the trailer and lifted them both right off the ground. They went into the air still holding hands, this mom and her 6-year-old.
Well, in the midst of it all, they lost their grip. They couldn’t hold on any longer. Little Jordan would never see his mother again. They found little Jordan in a creek bed not too far from the trailer park. He had three broken ribs, his leg was swollen, he was bruised, but he was alive. They kept him in a hospital for one day. The next day he was out of the hospital, and with his grandmother began to join in the search for his mom. He would go up to people and say, “I’m looking for my mom. Would you help me?” People did. A great crowd of searchers joined in that quest. They found furniture from the trailer. They found Jordan’s mother’s car, which had been lifted right off the ground and moved to another place. They never found his mom, not that day.
It was two days later when other searchers found Jordan’s mom. She was dead. The coroner proved her identity through the use of fingerprints, and the news was given to 6-year-old Jordan. The news was given to him. This little guy was just brokenhearted. He tried to process it, and all he could say over and over again was, “I should have held on tighter.” Somehow that little 6-year-old boy, not even out of first grade, felt responsible for his mom’s passing. And you get a glimpse of his tender heart. He’s not going to remain 6 years old. He’s going to grow up, and he’ll come to a point where he understands that he couldn’t have held on tighter. Perhaps he will ask the question someday, “Well, why didn’t mom hold on tighter?” But he’ll know the answer to that. He’ll know that if she could have, she would have because of a mother’s love.
There may come a point someday, I’m sure there will be many points, at which Jordan will share with other people about his mom. He’ll probably always say good things. That’s what psychologists tell us. He’ll probably always say good things because even family love seeks to cover and protect even a memory and a reputation.
Of course, there are times when, in counseling, we need to deal with hard things in our relationship with our parents, but the reality is family love seeks to protect and cover when there is any wrong. A mother seeks to protect and cover her kids, and kids seek to protect the memory of their parents. I mean, even family love is like that, and yet storge, family love, is nothing compared to the love of God. It is nothing compared to the divine love and the power of divine love, and the love that God has for you, that love is yet greater. He loves you so much that He died for you. Jesus loves you so much that He died for you, that He might cover your sin and shame, that He might protect your very soul. He loves you like that. Jesus said, “I know My sheep. They hear My voice. They follow Me. I give them eternal life. No one is able to snatch them out of My hand. My Father is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” That’s the love of God. It covers so as to protect.
So, this morning as we close, we see a glimpse again of divine love. It’s not resentful. It does not keep a record of wrongs, and it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices in the truth no matter what the cost. Love covers so as to protect. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.