[If I] do not have love, I am nothing.
—1 Corinthians 13:2
The tabloids get prime space at the grocery checkout. There’s a voracious appetite for the lurid.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Is 5:20). What the Bible brands as evil is championed by many. Those who don’t buy into their perversions are labeled as intolerant, judgmental, unloving. But love does not delight in evil.
Nor does love take pleasure in hearing that justice has caught up with someone who has done evil—even if it is someone who has hurt you. “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice” (Prv 24:17).
Wherever and by whomever evil is done, it is a cause of grief to the loving Christian. And wherever and by whomever good is done, it is a cause of rejoicing to the loving Christian.
Love is the trademark of discipleship.
It’s as simple—and as difficult—as that.