Good morning.
Want to offer a special welcome to all of
our visitors who are with us.
We’re grateful for your presence and we’re
hopeful that you will stick around long
enough for us to get to know you and get
to know your name and greet you.
We’ve been studying the things that love
is not,
the things that love does not do.
We’ve been in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 as
we have gone through this study,
and we have mentioned many times and will
continue to mention the context
of 1 Corinthians 13 is not marriage.
It is not
The husband and wife relationship.
It is not the parent-child relationship.
It is not the home relationship per se.
Now, love applies to all of those
relationships.
But the context of First Corinthians
thirteen is the church,
the congregation, the brother and sister
in Christ relationship.
And the love that we are to have for one
another in Christ,
and the love that we are to have for God.
It is the love that Jesus said was the
foundation of the law and
the prophets when he said that the
greatest commandment in the law was this
to love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart,
with all thy soul, with all thy strength
and with all thy mind,
and to love your neighbor as yourself.
These things are the things that Paul is
writing to the church at Corinth
so that they might know what that love
does and does not do.
This morning, as we’ve been in verse five,
we’re going to conclude with Paul’s words
concerning love.
Love does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil.
Those last three words in the New King
James Version are the topic
of our discussion.
This morning. Thinks no evil.
Now, as it’s translated in English,
you may or may not get the real meaning,
the connotation of what this meant in the
original language.
In the original language, the word for
thinks is an accounting term.
It’s not to dwell upon, it’s not to think
about or to
Ponder, it is to give an account of.
It is quite meaning,
quite literally to mean to enter into a
ledger.
If you were to think about ~ days gone by,
back when banks and bookkeepers used to
use a physical ledger,
as they would go line by line down.
They’d have a debit column, they’d have a
credit column,
they would enter in those transactions.
Is something going in? Is something going
out?
And the term here for things is to enter
on the ledger.
But the idea of evil here is the idea of a
wrong done,
an injury, an offense,
harm, or evil treatment.
So if we were to expand into ~ more
complete thought,
what it is that Paul is writing,
Paul says, love does not enter the on the
ledger.
The injury, the harm, the evil that is
done to us.
Paul here writes to these Christians
Hall is saying love refuses to keep score.
Paul is saying love refuses to insist that
the accounts be balanced.
If you’re running a business and you have
a bookkeeper and you
ask the bookkeeper how the accounts look,
and they say, Well, they don’t balance.
Not a good day. What do you mean?
Somewhere there’s money missing out of the
account.
It could be a clerical error, it could be
a typographical error,
it could be a a ~ a bigger problem than
that,
but the books don’t balance.
Something’s wrong.
Well, if you are that business owner,
if you are that bookkeeper, you’re going
to have to spend some time with
the books until you can get them to
balance again.
Until you can net out the problem.
Paul says that’s not how love handles one
another.
Love does not insist
on a balanced book.
Now, before we get into what all this does
mean,
as we’ve been going through the different
things that Paul’s pointed out,
we’ve noticed that Paul time and again has
been dealing with things that he’s
already written to the church at Corinth
about,
and things that he’s already told them
about,
and areas they’ve already been commanded
to work on these things,
and he’s illustrating those things
encapsulated in this concept of love.
But before we get into the things that
this does mean,
I want to talk about some things that it
doesn’t mean from First Corinthians.
First, you should know that love doesn’t
account for the evil or the injury that
is done to someone, does not mean love
never judges.
It is not to say, and Paul in no way
leaves the connotation,
that love just allows people to do
whatever they decide to do,
however they decide to do it, no matter
what happens to someone else,
and no matter what happens to them,
no matter what is going on, and love just
simply says,
listen, we don’t judge. It’ll all be okay.
That’s not what Paul’s saying.
And we can know that.
Let’s begin in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
examine all of the times,
and actually just a few of the times in
reality that Paul insists on judging.
That Paul insists that judging is a
mandatory thing in Christianity.
Chapter 1 and in verse 10, Paul writes Now
I plead with you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
that you all speak the same thing,
that there be no divisions among you.
But that you be perfectly joined together
and of the same mind and
of the same judgment. For it has been
declared to me concerning you,
my brethren, by those of Chloe’s
household,
that there are contentions among you.
Now this I say: that each of you says,
I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos,
or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for
you,
or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Consider that as Paul opens the book.
to the church at Corinth, Paul judges them
on their division.
Paul doesn’t even need to show up to judge
them on their division.
Because Paul knows what he taught them.
Paul knows what he gave to them.
Paul knows the message and the truth of
the cross that was delivered to them.
And he knew there was no division in what
he taught.
And yet they have divided themselves among
their teachers.
And Paul judges them for it.
And condemns them for it. If you turn over
to chapter five.
Paul writes in chapter five and in verse
one,
it is actually reported that there is
sexual immorality among you,
and such sexual immorality as is not even
named among the Gentiles that
a man has his father’s wife. And you are
puffed up,
and have not rather mourned that he who
has done this deed might be taken away
from
among you, for I indeed, as absent in
body,
but present in spirit, have already
judged,
as though I were present.
Him who has done this deed. In the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ,
when you are to get when you are gathered
together along with my spirit,
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh that his spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know
that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the
old leaven,
that you may be a new lump, since you are
truly,
you truly are unleavened, for indeed
Christ,
our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Paul says, I don’t even have to be present
with you to judge on this matter.
And you, the congregation,
are going to have to act on this matter in
judgment.
When we understand that Paul writes to the
church at Corinth and he says,
love does not account for evil or injury
that is done,
Paul does not mean we don’t judge in
accordance with the scriptures.
He commands that we judge.
He judges over and over and over again.
Turn to ch 1 Corinthians chapter 6,
verse 9.
He says, Do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God?
What is that? That is judging.
You can’t discern between the unrighteous
and the righteous without judging.
You can’t discern between the kingdom of
God and the kingdom
of Satan without judging. Paul demands
judgment.
But he goes on to say, Do you not know
that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners will
inherit the kingdom of God.
What did he just do? He judged every one
of those people.
No shock to the Corinthians, because this
wasn’t the first time Paul
had judged those people.
~ you must mean that Paul was one of those
mean hearted,
e you know, evil minded, bad spirited
individuals that always
was castigating all the people who lived
an ungodly life and treated them like
dirt.
No.
No, quite to the opposite. Paul preached
the gospel to them so they could be saved,
and we know that because the very next
verse says,
and such were some of you.
You see, because Paul judged them,
Paul could reach them with the gospel.
Because Paul didn’t dismiss their sin,
Paul was able to bring them to salvation.
Paul says, and such were some of you,
but you were washed. You were sanctified.
You were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
By the way, Paul says, not only did I
judge,
I judged because God already had.
And that is the key. When we judge in and
of ourselves,
we judge wrong.
Paul is reiterating much the same message
that Jesus spoke
in Matthew chapter seven when Jesus said,
judge not that ye be not judged,
for with what judgment you judge,
you shall be judged.
Guess what? In Matthew chapter seven,
where Jesus gives that instruction not to
judge,
Jesus continues through the entire chapter
commanding that you judge.
But he insists that you judge based upon
God’s judgment and not your own.
Not very far down in that chapter,
in Matthew chapter seven, verses thirteen
and fourteen,
Jesus will talk about a narrow way and a
broad way.
Now how could you know which one was which
unless you judged?
He talks about a narrow gate and a
difficult path and a broad way,
and he says, many will go in through that
broad gate,
and few there will be that find the narrow
gate,
and how will you know if you’re one of the
few or one of the many
if you don’t judge?
Paul will accuse the church at Corinth
over in First Corinthians chapter eleven.
of abusing the Lord’s supper. In first
Corinthians chapter eleven,
verse twenty seven he writes therefore
whoever eats this bread
and drinks this cup in an unworthy manner.
How can you discern a worthy manner and an
unworthy manner if you don’t judge?
But notice, he says, in an unworthy manner
will be guilty of the body
of the blood of the Lord. But let a man
examine himself.
And so let him eat of the bread and drink
of the cup.
Every single week, Paul says,
when you show up to partake of this
memorial,
you judge yourself.
Because God is
And he’s going to pronounce you either
sanctified,
justified, and holy, or he is going to
pronounce
you condemned by partaking of that
memorial.
So
Paul makes it clear. When he says love
does not think evil,
he doesn’t mean love doesn’t judge.
But then consider number two. Paul does
not mean that love
never requires restitution.
You say, well, Aaron, this is an
accounting term,
and you just said that the the the books
are never going to be balanced,
that love doesn’t insist on the books
being balanced.
So when somebody sins and then they
repent,
you can’t hold anything against them,
and they never have to restore anything,
no restitution involved, all they have to
do is repent.
First of all, anyone who might make such
an argument misunderstands repentance.
For there cannot be repentance unless
there’s restitution.
Restitution comes as a part of the works
of repentance.
Way back when John the Baptist was
preaching there near the Jordan,
John insisted as he preached to the people
that they show works
worthy of meat of repentance.
What’s that? Restitution.
When that, as the song says, we little
man,
Zacchaeus, came into the house,
his house, with Jesus. And when salvation
had come to that house,
Zacchaeus said to Jesus, If I have taken
anything in an unproper way,
I will restore fourfold. You want to know
why he said that?
Because God commanded restitution.
But consider first Corinthians chapter
five.
We just read a moment ago this passage
where Paul said that this
man stood condemned, this man who had his
father’s wife.
And consider verse four in the same name
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when you were gathered together along with
my spirit,
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh,
that his spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord Jesus.
And ask yourself this question.
If they stood against this man in the
assembly that very next Sunday after they
received the message and the letter from
Paul,
if they said, You know what, we need to
repent of not standing against him,
and we have to do right by this man,
we must withdraw our fellowship from him.
We must put him out of the assembly until
he repents.
Imagine if the very next Sunday,
as they assemble together again,
the man comes in and he says, I realize
the wrong thing.
I know that this relationship that I’ve
had is improper,
it’s ungodly, it’s immoral, and I’m going
to repent.
But I’m gonna keep the woman.
Paul says, no, you’re not.
You see, love desires repentance.
But repentance requires restitution.
And it is not the case that Paul is
teaching us love thinks no evil,
love takes no account of wrong that is
done.
Paul is not teaching us that love doesn’t
require restitution.
For the love of God does.
as it requires repentance. First
Corinthians chapter nine.
1 Corinthians chapter 9 and in verse 6.
As Paul writes concerning those who were
teachers
and preachers among them, and those who
had the right to be paid,
he says, verse 6, or is it only Barnabas
and I who have no right
to refrain from working? Whoever goes to
war on his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of
its fruit?
Or who tends a flock and does not drink of
the milk of the flock,
do I say these things as mere man?
Or does not the law say them also?
For it is written in the law of Moses,
you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads
out the grain.
Is it oxen God is concerned about?
Or does he say it altogether for our
sakes?
For our sakes, no doubt, this is written.
That he who plows should plough in hope,
and he who threshes in hope should be
partaker of his hope.
If there were those in Corinth that owned
businesses,
owned maybe vineyards, or they they owned
~ lands and they had other members
of the congregation that worked for them.
And as they were tending the fields and as
they were bringing in the harvest,
the one who owned it said, sorry,
there’s just nothing to pay you with.
And the workers look around and they’re
like,
what happened to the harvest we just
brought in?
And he says, sorry,
there’s nothing to pay you.
If those workers who are members of the
church bring that problem to the church,
because in 1 Corinthians chapter 6,
that’s exactly what Paul told them to do.
If you have aught against the brother,
you bring it to the church. And the church
comes to the individual,
they say, Listen, we’ve judged in this
matter.
look, Paul said you have to judge.
We’ve judged in this matter, and you have
mistreated your employees.
And they are your brethren.
You need to repent of it. And the man
says,
you’re right. I’ve done wrong.
I kept it all for myself. I’m going to
repent.
But I’m not going to pay them.
No.
You see, love requires the paying of what
is owed.
Love requires that we do not cheat others.
First Corinthians chapter six,
verses one through eight. Love requires
restitution.
But over in First Corinthians chapter six,
Paul also writes something else.
He says, Dare any of you having a matter
against another go to
law before the unrighteous and not before
the saints?
Do you not know that the saints will judge
the world?
look, we’re even called judges.
He says, Do you not know that we will
judge the world?
And if the world will be judged by you,
are you not unworthy to judge the smallest
matters?
Do you not know that we shall judge
angels?
Now in this passage, in these three
verses,
Paul has just said that Christians need to
judge the world,
judge one another, and judge angels.
And someone has the audacity to come along
and say Christians shouldn’t judge?
Maybe they need to open their Bible and
read every once in a while.
But notice what he says:
Do you not know that we shall judge
angels?
How much more the things pertain to this
life?
If then you have judgments concerning
things pertaining to this life,
do you appoint those who are least
esteemed by the church to judge?
I say this to your shame. Is it so that
there is no one wise among you who
Not even one who will be able to judge
between his brethren,
but brother goes to law against brother,
and that before the unbelievers.
Now therefore it is already an utter
failure for you that you go to
law against one another. Why do you not
rather now here’s our idea.
Why do you not rather accept wrong?
Why do you not rather let yourselves be
cheated?
No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat,
and you do these things to your brethren.
Paul wants to know why these Christians
who owe God so much, who have an account
with
the Lord that could only ever be paid by
the Lord,
that could only ever be paid by a sinless,
perfect sacrifice, who was Jesus,
who had an account that was so indebted,
that was so out of balance.
That it could never have been set right,
but Paul had come to them and preached
to them Christ crucified.
Go back to chapter one.
Paul writes to them and he says in verse
14,
I thank God that I baptize none of you
except Crispus
and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I
had baptized in my own name.
Paul, as he recounts his time there,
which is recorded in the book of Acts.
He looks at the things that occurred while
he was there with Corinth for 18 months,
and he says, I’m incredibly happy.
I am glad that as I look back over my time
there,
I wasn’t actively physically baptizing
people and putting them in the water.
Paul was doing the same thing that Jesus
did.
We’re told in the text that Jesus,
all of his disciples were baptized.
But he baptized none of them. It was his
apostles that did the baptizing.
It was others who were around him.
He did the teaching, they did the
immersing.
And Paul says, I’m glad that I didn’t
immerse a bunch of you because you’d
be calling yourselves after me.
He says, Yes, I also baptized the
household of Stephanus.
Besides, I do not know whether I baptized
any other,
for Christ did not send me to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with words
or wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of
no effect.
Paul says, my mission handed to me by
the Lord was not to be
the baptizer of multitudes,
the one who put them in the water.
He says, my mission was to preach the
gospel.
Now some will come along to this passage
and say,
see, baptism is not necessar necessary for
salvation,
because if it was, Christ would have sent
Paul to baptize.
To which I say, you’ve missed the entire
passage,
haven’t you?
Go back to verse 13.
The context of the discussion of baptism
in this text
is not the baptized versus the unbaptized,
but the teacher who was baptizing those
to follow him. He says,
verse 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul
divided?
were crucified for you or were you
baptized in the name of Paul?
There weren’t any Christians in Corinth
that were unbaptized Christians.
Because there’s no such thing.
Paul’s point is, I didn’t get sent to you
by Christ to put you in the water.
I got sent to you to preach the gospel to
you,
which by the way commanded that they be
baptized.
But he says, Rather, I preach this gospel
not with the wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ be made of no
effect.
Now he’s going to enter into a discussion
about the cross,
the crucifixion, and what it meant to the
world versus what it meant
to the Christian. And notice what he says.
He says, For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who
Who are being saved, it is the power of
God.
Paul says there’s a connection between
your baptism and the cross of Christ.
Now over in Romans chapter six,
he tells you what it is. As he writes to
the church at Rome,
he says, For as many of you as been
baptized into Christ have been buried with
Christ.
But notice, he says, for it is written,
verse 19, I will destroy the wisdom of the
wise,
and bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world?
For since in the wisdom of God,
the world through wisdom did not know God.
It pleased God through the foolishness of
the message preached to save those
who believe.
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek
after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified,
to the Jews a stumbling block,
and to the Greeks foolishness,
but to those who are called, both Jews and
Greeks,
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of
God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men,
and the weakness of God is stronger than
men.
For you see your calling, brethren,
that not many wise according to flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are
called.
But God has chosen the foolish things of
this world to put to shame the wise,
and God has chosen the weak things of the
world to put to shame the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the
world,
the things which are despised.
God has chosen and the things which are
not to bring to nothing the things that
are,
that no flesh should glory in his
presence.
~
You mien the message of the cross.
Is a clear declaration.
that we don’t get to glory in ourselves.
We don’t get to look at ourselves and say,
I earned salvation from God.
He owes me.
Paul says, no flesh should glory in his
presence,
but of him you are in Christ Jesus,
who became for us wisdom from God and
righteousness
and sanctification and redemption.
As it is written, he who glories,
let him glory in the Lord.
Paul says, Let me tell you this.
You were a slave. You were a slave to sin.
You were in bondage. You were without
hope.
And through the crucified blood of Jesus
Christ,
you were redeemed.
And now you want to keep an account of the
wrong done against you.
Go back to First Corinthians chapter
thirteen and let’s consider as Paul
writes,
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love does not envy, love does not parade
itself,
love is not puffed up, does not behave
rudely,
does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil. Let us consider what he
does mean.
First, love does not require equality,
or in other words,
retribution and evil for evil.
Turn to Romans chapter twelve.
Paul, as he writes to the church at Rome,
will write to them about the Christian
life,
about their obligation in both.
Standing before God and offering their
praise and their worship to God,
but also their daily lives, and he will
write to them,
beginning in verse 17, and say,
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard
for good things in the sight of all men.
If it is possible, as much as depends on
you,
live peaceably with all men. Beloved,
do not avenge yourselves. You see,
the love that someone claims is love but
isn’t.
As the love that says, You did me wrong,
and now it’s your turn. I’m coming for
you.
We’re gonna settle the score.
We’re gonna net it to zero. I’m going to
give you what you’ve given to me.
Paul says, Repay no one evil for evil.
Have regard for good things in the sight
of all men.
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves,
but rather give place to the wrath.
For it is written, Vengeance is mine,
I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore,
if your enemy is hungry.
Feed him. If he is thirsty,
give him a drink. For in so doing you will
heap coals of fire on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome
evil with good.
Love does not require equality.
Love.
forgives the unforgivable.
Think back to that passage in First
Corinthians chapter six,
verses nine and ten. Think about that list
of the kinds
of people these Corinthians once were.
And you might look at that list and go,
well, maybe they were only mildly these
things.
That’s not what Paul says. Paul says,
and such were some of you.
But God forgave the unforgivable.
But God washed you, sanctified you,
and justified you in Christ Jesus.
Chapter one
Paul writes in verse one, Paul called to
be an apostle of Jesus Christ through
the will of God and Sosthenes our brother,
to the church at Corinth, which or the
church which of God which is at Corinth,
to those who were sanctified in Christ
Jesus,
called to be saints, that means called to
be holy,
separated, set apart by God.
He says, called to be saints with all who
in every place call on the name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and
ours.
Grace be to you and peace from God,
our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, as he does so often,
enters into this letter by granting them,
by wishing them, then desiring for them
the grace of God.
Paul as he writes to them about love?
could be asking them as it were,
where’s your grace?
You remember that Jesus would teach his
disciples to the one who will show
no mercy, he will receive no mercy from
God.
See, love doesn’t keep an account,
it doesn’t require equality. Love forgives
the unforgivable.
Love takes the offense.
Back in chapter six, Paul says
Why do you not rather allow yourself to be
cheated?
If there was a choice between bringing
shame and reproach upon the body
of Christ and being cheated, he says,
I’ll be cheated all day long.
Because I know who I am. Paul will
describe himself as the chief of sinners.
Love takes the offense. If you go to
chapter four,
we learn that love also suffers for the
salvation of others.
Chapter 4, beginning in verse 9,
Paul says, For I thank,
or I think that God has displayed us,
the apostles, last,
as men condemned to death, for we have
been made a spectacle to the world,
both to angels and to men. We are fools
for Christ’s sake,
but you are wise in Christ. We are weak,
but you are strong. You are distinguished,
but we are dishonored.
To the present hour we both hunger and
thirst.
We are poorly clothed and beaten and
homeless,
and we labor working with our own hands.
Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted,
we endure. Being defamed, we entreat.
We have been made as the filth of the
world,
the off-scouring of all things until now.
I do not write these things to shame you.
But as my beloved children I warn you,
for though you might have ten thousand
instructors in Christ,
yet you do not have many fathers,
for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you
through the gospel.
Therefore I urge you imitate me.
See, Paul had already taught them in all
the things that he suffered
in their presence, for all the things that
he endured to teach them the gospel,
for all the things that he did to support
himself so that they wouldn’t be burdened,
so he could preach them the gospel.
Paul had already taught them that love
suffers for the salvation of others.
Love accepts wrong to oneself if
it means someone else will be saved.
But then consider lastly,
love is a choice to not be historical.
First Corinthians chapter ten.
Paul writes in verse twenty-four,
Love or sorry,
let no one seek his own,
but each one the other’s well be.
That’s what it means. Love thinks no evil.
When love is displayed, when love acts in
the life
of a Christian in the body of Christ.
Christian doesn’t say,
~ I’m gonna get even. You know what?
That person did me wrong. And they’re
gonna have to repent and they’re gonna
have
to restore before I’m ever willing to talk
to them again.
No, love doesn’t do that. Love imagines
what can I do?
to make sure they’re right in the eyes of
God.
How can I help them be restored?
How can I help them be one with God,
whether I ever get anything back out of it
or not?
Love doesn’t take account of evil done to
us.
Love rather feeds the enemy who’s hungry,
gives a drink to the enemy who’s thirsty,
and ultimately decides if there’s
vengeance to be had,
I’ll let God take care of it.
We in this life are to judge.
We are to require restitution in
conjunction with repentance.
But we are never to do so for our sake.
We are to do so for the sake of the one
who’s repenting,
so that they might be right in the eyes of
God.
But in all of it, we are to live,
to act, to move, to have our existence and
our conversation in this life with
the interest of the well-being of others
and not ourselves.
If you have need of the invitation of
Christ,
to put Christ on in baptism, to be
obedient to the gospel that Paul
preached, that we still preach today,
the cross of Christ, Him crucified,
and the redemption that is offered in His
blood.
When you come into contact with that blood
in the watery grave of baptism,
rising to walk in newness of life,
no longer what you once were.
But rather being washed, being justified,
being sanctified in the blood of Christ.
If you have need of that this morning,
we stand ready to help you, to aid you in
doing that.
Not to convert you to Christ, or not to
convert you to us,
not to convert you to Aaron, but to
Christ.
If you’re a member of the body of Christ
and you have allowed your love
for your enemies to be extinguished.
Perhaps it’s time to rebuild godly love.
If you have need of the invitation,
why not come now as we stand
