Note: Love: Part 8 and Part 9 coming soon!

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“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth”

 

Truth is not relative. Truth is absolute. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise, for anyone who says that truth is up to an individual does not understand the meaning of the word. Opinions do not equal truth, yet opinions and emotions can sometimes be just as important. 

 

With that preface, we can now begin. Let’s start with what it means to delight in evil. Gossip, slander, maliciousness, bullying, wrongful judgment, we see this everywhere. We all fall into it, and we don’t realize just how common it is to delight in evil. I had a youth pastor give a sermon once about gossip and what it was and one of the things that was shocking and also very convicting was when he pointed out something that everyone does: “I love ______ so much and they’re one of my best friends... (bla bla bla), but ______ (and I think we can all fill in the blank with something we’ve said and/or heard)”

 

We’ve become so accustomed to conversations about what’s going on in other's lives with social media and reality tv outlining every aspect of a human being that it’s become natural to bring up the “tea” on other people. 

 

So instead, what is it like to delight in truth. For starters, truth is messy. Sometimes it’s exactly what you want to hear and sometimes it’s the very thing you feel like you can’t ever confront. It can be joyous and wonderful, or, it can be a painful introspection. Whatever it is, whether it feels awful or wondrous, it’s good. Good in the sense that it is right and needed. God is an all-good God, doesn’t mean He’s not going to put us through challenges to grow us and mature us. 

 

Don’t only seek the facts that you want to hear either. Just because you have certain facts, doesn’t mean you have the whole truth. Continue to press into all facets of information until you’ve confirmed that you understand a topic or issue with what my leadership teacher likes to call a “360-degree view”. 

 

Don’t just throw on CNN or FOX NEWS, watch both of them; throw on the news mix of those and other media platforms. Don’t just read the Bible and say “it’s true because the Bible said so”. There are countless writers and preachers and authors who’ve written extensive pieces of work to help people understand confusing or controversial parts of the Bible. Read them! Watch videos on them! Whatever you need to do to understand what is true, do it. 

 

And once you understand it, live it.