Tuesday, August 15, 2006

"Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6).

IDEA: Love is glad whenever truth prevails.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand why we should rejoice in truth wherever it’s found.

I. Paul says that love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. 

Why do you think he says, “love rejoices in the truth”?  What does truth have to do with love?

Turn those two phrases around: “love rejoices in iniquity and does not rejoice in what is right and honest and true and accurate to reality.”

Why, then, if truth is such a virtue, do we often prefer to believe a lie?

II. Paul says not only that love seeks the truth, but it really rejoices in the truth.

Selfishness often makes us enemies of truth. At times we don’t want to face the truth because we’ll be proved wrong. Some of the hardest words to utter are “I’ve been wrong -- completely wrong about that.”

Scientists should thrive on being proven wrong. We’ve heard of scientists who falsified data. Why did they do that?

Yet it is often in being proven wrong that people are able to discover what is true. In science we often rejoice in truth because it brings solutions to deep problems and cures for difficult diseases.

Is it harder in matter of religion and faith to rejoice in the truth?

Is it possible that when we say we rejoice in truth, that we delight in being proved right?