Love rejoices in the truth: rejoices when the truth is known and when it prevails; rejoices when others are recognized and promoted for whom they are and for what they have contributed.
Love rejoices when the truth is rooted and grounded in a person and among the people of the world. Note that love never covers nor hides the truth; love is courageous in that it faces the truth.
Love rejoices with the truth. That is not so easy as it sounds. There are times when we definitely do not want the truth to prevail; and still more times when it is the last thing we wish to hear.
Christian love has no wish to veil the truth; it has nothing to conceal and so is glad when the truth prevails.
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
At first glance it may seem strange to contrast not rejoicing in unrighteousness with rejoicing in the truth. But the truth Paul is speaking about here is not simply factual truth. He is speaking of God’s truth, God’s revealed Word.
Righteousness is predicated on God’s truth and cannot exist apart from it. Love always rejoices in God’s truth and never with falsehood or false teaching. Love cannot tolerate wrong doctrine.
It makes no sense to say, “It doesn’t make a great difference if people don’t agree with us about doctrine. What matters is that we love them.”
“Why do we nit-pick so much about who is a Christian?”
That is the basic view of what is commonly called the ecumenical movement.
The ecumenical movement is the brain child of the Roman Catholic Church. This moment gained momentum during the Second Vatican Council held in Rome from 1962 to 1965. The primary purpose of the ecumenical movement is to draw individuals, groups and churches back into the Roman Catholic religious system.
But if we love others it will matter a great deal to us whether or not what they believe is right or wrong.
What we believe affects our souls, our eternal destinies, and our representation of God’s will, and therefore should be of the highest concern to us. It also affects the souls and destinies of those whom they influence.
What is Truth? This is an age-old question, but feel it has become an accepted fact among most “learned” people that we can know “truth” (with a small “t”)–but that we cannot know “Truth” (with a big “T”). We can identify pieces of data, events, conditions, etc., as being real and factual–but the big questions of the universe, ultimate Truth, are impossible to answer.
Agape (love) is consistent with kindness but it is not consistent with compromising of the truth.
Compromising the truth is not kind to those whom we mislead by our failure to stand firmly in the truth.
2 John 6–10 (ESV) And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting,
To compromise, for example, with those who cast doubt on the incarnation is not loving, and it risks losing reward.
Love, truth, and righteousness are inseparable. When one is weakened the others are weakened.
We are not to rejoice in a wrong doctrine that he teaches or in a wrong way in which he lives. Love rejoices in the truth and never in falsehood or unrighteousness.
On the other hand, love does not focus on the wrongs of others. It does not parade their faults for all the world to see.
Love does not disregard falsehood and unrighteousness, but as much as possible it focuses on the true and the right.
It looks for the good, hopes for the good, and emphasizes the good. It rejoices in those who teach the truth and live the truth.
Do you want to know if your love for someone is true? If your friendship is genuine? Check the room key. Ask yourself: Do I influence this person to do what is right?
(Matthew 10:15 NIV) I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
(Matthew 10:42 NIV) And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
(Matthew 18:3 NIV) And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 19:23 NIV) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 21:31 NIV) “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.
(Mark 10:29 NIV) “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel
(John 4:23-24 NIV) Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. {24} God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
(John 6:53 NIV) Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
(John 8:32 NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(John 8:44-46 NIV) You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. {45} Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! {46} Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?
(John 8:51 NIV) I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
(John 14:6 NIV) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(Galatians 4:16 NIV) Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
(1 Timothy 3:15 NIV) if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
(2 Timothy 2:15 NIV) Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
(Hebrews 10:26 NIV) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
(1 John 1:6 NIV) If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
(1 John 1:8 NIV) If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
(1 John 2:4 NIV) The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(1 John 3:18-19 NIV) Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. {19} This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
(1 Corinthians 13:6 NIV) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
- S. Lewis wrote that when one comes to see and understand the truth. “I must do something about it.”
This congregation has always been part of “The Restoration Movement.”
There are some common statements that help to explain this:
| · “That the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice for Christians.” |
| · “That the Old and New Testaments alone contain the authoritative constitution of the church which Christ built.” |
| · “That no human authority has power to amend or change the original constitution and laws of the church.” |
| · “That faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is a sufficient profession to entitle a man or woman to become a member of the church which Christ built.” |
| · “That division among Christians is anti-Christian, anti-scriptural, unnatural, and to be abhorred.” |
| · “That neglect of the revealed will of God and the introduction of human innovations are and have been the causes of all the corruptions and divisions that have ever taken place in the church…” |
| · “That all that is necessary to secure the highest state of purity and perfection in the church is to restore the original ordinances and constitution as exhibited in the New Testament.” |
“What is a Christian?” The Bible has a definitive answer to this question, as it does with most others.
According to the Scriptures, Christians are those who have come to realize their own sinfulness before God and their inability to save themselves, have turned to Jesus Christ in faith and repentance, they are willing to confess the name of Jesus in public and are gladly immersed in water in order to have their sins forgiven/washed away.
But it does not end there…there is growth or maturity as one seeks to become more like Jesus and seeks to know God’s will…and have the courage to act on it.
Philippians 2:9–11 (ESV) Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Today, let’s decide, as best we are able, to recognize truth, to appreciate it for what it is, and act, with God’s help, to practice it till we take our last breath.
Proud to be TJ's man 