Thursday, August 10, 2006
"Love thinks no evil" (1 Corinthians 13:6).
IDEA: If you value relationships with other people you will practice love that thinks no evil.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that a record-keeping mentality is destructive.
Let’s drop in on a couple dealing with some damage that has been done to their car.
HE: How in the world did the car get a scratch on it? We’ve had it only six months and it already has a scratch on the door.
SHE: I don’t know how it got scratched. I was in the supermarket. When I came out, I saw it. Maybe someone shoved one of those shopping carts against it.
HE: How could that happen? People don’t just rub shopping carts up against cars. Every time you take the car out, it gets damaged. You did that to the fender.
SHE: That was the last car -- and that was two years ago. And who are you to talk? You backed the car into our garage door and damaged it.
HE: Well, at least I didn’t hurt the car.
SHE: But the way you drive, you damage everything else. Like Mary’s tricycle. You just mangled that, drove right over it.
HE: It was dark. You shouldn’t leave the tricycle out there. Why are you talking about that? It was five years ago. You’re always going into the past. Look what you did a month ago. You got the car caught in a snow bank and we had to call a wrecker to get you out. You practically tore the back end off the car.
SHE: It wouldn’t have happened if you had gotten the snow tires when you should have. You always put that off.
I. What is this couple doing that makes for a very bad argument?
They are not dealing with only what occurred. They’re bringing up all kinds of things that happened in the past.
Remember listening to music on records when the needle got stuck? The same thing happens inside our heads. By repeatedly going back over a hurt, we wear a groove so deep in our memories that the needle can’t stop playing the same notes over and over.
II. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “When we really want to seek what is best for the other person and for the relationship, love doesn’t store up memories of wrongs it has received.” It thinks no evil.
Paul knew that a record-keeping mentality is destructive.
It destroys love.
It destroys marriages.
It destroys churches.
Why?
If you really value the relationship you have with other people, why is what Paul says about love something for us to take seriously?