5 Minutes a day / 5 Days a week

with God

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The last day of week two in our daily devotional series on love. For our tenth thing we will look at concerning love, is something else that love does not do.

does not rejoice in iniquity

The word iniquity means: a condition of not being right, whether with God, according to the standard of His holiness and righteousness, or with man, according to the standard of what man knows to be right by his conscience.

We know what it means to, not be right with God, which is to sin against God.
But how does this apply to loving your spouse or friend?

The first thing that comes to mind is a man and woman who have sex outside of marriage. The man and even woman call it love, but in fact what they are doing is not only sinning against God, but also against one another and they brag about it.

In a marriage it can be where you have done something wrong or even lied to your spouse, and you go out and tell everyone about it, being proud of what you have done against him or her.

We even do the same with our friends where we do them wrong and tell others how we got him or her.
So how about an example of both from the bible?

Gen 9:21-23 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.

We all know the story of Noah and the flood, and this is right after the flood and they were on dry land again.
Noah goes out and has too much to drink and passes out in his tent, naked.
Noah's son, Ham sees this and goes and tells his brothers, because he is making fun of his dad.
But Shem and Japheth want nothing to do with this evil act against their dad, and they even help out their dad by covering him up.

Ham was dishonoring his father and was rejoicing in this dishonor. does not rejoice in iniquity
I see no love for a dad here, do you?
But on the other hand Shem and Japheth loved their dad and refused to dishonor Noah. does not rejoice in iniquity
I see real love here, and the reason is that even though Noah may have sinned by getting drunk, his sons still loved him anyway. They may not have accepted what their dad did, but they still accepted their dad as head of the home.

So have you sinned against your spouse or a friend and went and told others about it? If so, I would encourage you to stop and ask him or her for forgiveness and even admit your wrong to those you have bragged to.

Has your spouse messed up and have you been gossiping about his or her mess up?
Once again stop and ask for their forgiveness, and maybe be like Noah's two sons, Shem and Japheth, and help him or her out in their situation.
Isn't that what God did for us by sending His Son Jesus to die for us?
God does not like our sins, but He loves us and as Shem and Japheth covered their dad's sins, so has Jesus covered our sin with His precious blood.

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

E-Mail Home Page