Post
by mattrose » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:26 pm
Notes for this coming Sunday
GOD DOES NOT REJOICE AT EVIL
BUT REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH
Some might consider it the job of the preacher to interpret the Bible. But I consider it to be the job of the preacher to help the congregation to learn how to interpret the Bible. And that includes being honest about when interpretation of the Bible is difficult.
As I began my preparations to preach on the phrase
LOVE DOES NOT REJOICE AT EVIL
I wasn’t sure exactly what the phrase really meant.
It seems simple enough. God is against evil. Of course. But why say that? Is it just a setup for the next line?
BUT REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH
Or does the first line actually significant on its own?
I tend to think every line of Scripture is significant
Once I started digging, I found 3 major interpretations of the phrase LOVE DOES NOT REJOICE AT EVIL
And when we subject them to our series framework… we find some interesting results!
Each of the 3 interpretations takes the line in a different way. These differences are based on slightly different understandings of either the word rejoice or the word evil.
God takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked
God does not rejoice when evil/bad things happen to bad people
Of course, if Jonathan Edwards sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” accurately depicts the character of God, we’d be hard-pressed to take this interpretation.
Edwards sermon pictured God, upon hearing the cries of the wicked as they face eternal misery, not only refusing to pity them, but actively “laughing and mocking” them. Such a God is willing and wanting to show his wrath so as to “magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies.”
But does that sound like a God who is love? Does God take pleasure in the destruction of the wicked? It’s one thing for God to allow the wicked to choose destruction, but it’s quite another for God to rejoice in that fact.
Thankfully, the Scriptures are actually quite clear in the other direction. Through the prophet Ezekiel God bluntly states:
I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
(Ezekiel 18:32, see also 18:23 & 33:11)
But this wasn’t just a statement that God made and then, hypocritically, went around doing otherwise. Over and over again we see God grieving the destruction of the wicked. I’ll share with you 2 close examples:
EXAMPLE 1
God judged Israel, but He wasn’t happy about it. And when the Edomites were… he rebuked them for it. The Edomites had a long history with Israel. They were both relatives and enemies. When Israel was attacked, the Edomites sinned in 4 stages.
FIRST they stood aloof (1:11) at Israel’s destruction
SECOND they rejoiced (1:12) at their destruction
THIRD they took advantage (1:13) of their destruction
FOURTH they participated (1:14) in their destruction
For Edom, it was a slippery slope from indifference to violence toward their enemies. But God rebukes them for every inch of that slide. The judgment of a people should cause us grief, not joy.
EXAMPLE 2
In the very next book of the Bible, Jonah, we learn a similar lesson. Jonah was told to prophecy against the Assyrian city of Nineveh, but he was reluctant. When I was a kid, I projected my shyness onto Jonah and assumed the reason he resisted this calling was because he didn’t want to speak to strangers!
But the real reason Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh is because he was afraid they’d repent! He hated the Ninevites! He wanted them to be judged and didn’t want to give them even an opportunity to turn from sin.
When Jonah finally did prophecy their destruction, his fears were realized. They repented! And God changed his mind too. Given their turn, He decided not to destroy them after all. He had never been excited to destroy them in the first place.
But Jonah was a different story. He was greatly displeased by this turn of events and became angry (4:1). Jonah was literally upset that God was so loving! Jonah needed to learn that God actually loves Ninevites. Rather than being eager to destroy them, He was eager to save them.
God takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked.
Do we?
I’ll admit, this is a complex issue. There is a certain legitimacy, I think, to experiencing a sense of satisfaction when justice is done.
Was it wrong for me to rejoice, as a kid, when Dan Marino got destroyed on a sack by Bruce Smith?
Is it wrong for us to rejoice when a bully gets suspended from school?
Is it wrong for us to be glad when a criminal is finally put behind bars?
Who could blame us for being more than just satisfied when Bin Laden was finally found and killed?
Perhaps there is a difference between a sense of satisfaction at justice being done and actually rejoicing over the destruction of the unjust person. It’s a fine line.
But it’s one we need to mind.
God does not take pleasure in the destruction of the wicked… and neither should we.
Think of David. His own son, Absalom, rebelled against him. David was the rightful King… and justice had to be done against such a rebel. But when news of Absalom’s death reached David, he grieved. He knew that what happened had to happen, but he took no pleasure in it.
And David was a man after God’s own heart.
God takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked
That interpretation is quite possible, but there’s another interpretation that I think fits the context of 1 Corinthians even better.
God doesn’t turn a blind eye to evil in the name of love
God doesn’t get proud of his gracious tolerance for evil
In writing 1st Corinthians, Paul was addressing a group of Christians who were far too accepting to sin in their midst. They were fighting with each other, even suing each other. They were making a mockery of the Lord’s Supper. They were mis-using and abusing spiritual gifts.
But perhaps most surprising to us was their attitude in chapter 5. Paul had heard a report that a man was actually in a sinful sexual relationship with his own mother-in-law. But more astonishing than that was the reaction of the rest of the church! It says they were proud of it (5:2)! On what planet does this make sense?
We get a clue as to their thought process in the very next chapter. The Corinthian Christians, it seems, were stressing the freedom that we have in Christ so much that they were fond of saying “Everything is permissible for me,” but they didn’t know how to add any nuance.
They were, it seems, proud of their tolerance and acceptance of this sordid sexual relationship. In the name of love, grace, liberty, freedom… they turned a blind eye to sin. And worse yet, they actually rejoiced in the sin and their acceptance of it.
What they should have done is fled from sexual immorality (6:18). They should have fought for the purity of their church (6:19). They should have been grieved by the sin in their midst (5:2). They should have judged this man guilty (5:3). Given his lack of repentance, they should have expelled him from the congregation (5:13) in hopes that he’d come to his senses.
But they turned a blind eye and even rejoiced at evil.
God doesn’t do that.
Psalm 5:4 says that God is not a God who takes pleasure in evil. He doesn’t pretend like nothing is wrong in a relationship when something is wrong. And he certainly doesn’t treat freedom as a license for licentiousness.
One commentator said of this passage that “false love which compromises the truth by glossing over sin is here condemned.” (JFB)
We struggle with this.
How to we love the sinner while hating their sin?
How do we let loved ones know we don’t approve of their behavior without cutting off the relationship?
How do we accept the reality of sin without accepting it as OK?
It’s always easier to turn a blind eye to sin in the name of love. But, ironically enough, that’s not actually loving.
The danger of a series titled God is Love is, of course, that we’ll import our human definitions of love and end up polluting our definition of God. We must be careful to let God define love for us and then, and only then, may the phrase “God is love” become the center of our theology.
If this interpretation is correct, and I think it is, it is a warning that “God is love” doesn’t mean anything goes.
God isn’t entertained by filth
(dirty jokes, put-downs, violence, etc.)
I think a less likely, though still possible, interpretation of the phrase is that love is not amused by or entertained by evil. Love wouldn’t find dirty jokes funny. Love wouldn’t find put-downs of other people funny. Love wouldn’t watch violence for entertainment.
And if a loving person wouldn’t delight in such things, certainly God doesn’t delight in such things.
And so God commands us with verses like Eph. 5:4
Ephesians 5:4
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
God does have a sense of humor. I once heard a preacher say sarcasm is a sin, but I’m pretty sure there are some pretty sarcastic lines in Scripture.
But the point is, God doesn’t find dirty jokes, hurtful put-downs, or needless violence delightful or funny. He finds them incredibly ugly. And we should too. I don’t think that’s what Paul had in mind here, but it’s true nonetheless.
No matter what of the 3 interpretations is correct, there is, of course, no debating that all 3 statements are true. God doesn’t like it when the wicked fall, He isn’t loving in an ‘whatever’ sort of way, and He isn’t amused by filth
God Rejoices with the Truth
We’ve spent so much time already considering when NOT to rejoice… that we’re left with little time to discuss when to rejoice.
And isn’t that kind of our problem.
We love to focus on the negative.
Our newspapers and broadcasts are filled with mostly ‘feel bad’ stories. We always find something to complain about in our sports teams, our spouses, our churches.
We define our Christianity, too often, by what we don’t do (decieve, steal, smoke, sleep-around) rather than by what we do (care, charity, give, serve, etc.)
Paul reminds us here that part of being loving is celebrating what is good and true in life. Elsewhere he says…
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Christians should be people who focus on the good and true. This is, in fact, the mark of a healthy individual.
And there’s no one healthier, so to speak, than God!
God loves to focus on the victories. We get the impression in Scripture that He actually takes time to celebrate each victory.
We’ve spent some time, in this series, in Luke 15. It’s a chapter with stories about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. In each story, finding that lost thing leads to celebration.
When the shepherd finds the lost sheep, he “joyfully puts it on his shoulders” and starts organizing a party for his friends and neighbors to come and rejoice with him. The point is that God, every time 1 single sinner is saved, celebrates. He rejoices in the truth!
When the woman finds her lost coin, she throws a party too. Once again, the point is that God celebrates when one sinner comes to a saving knowledge of the truth. Notice something interesting in that particular paragraph. It says, “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” So it’s not the angels who are rejoicing. It is God himself!
When the father sees the prodigal son finally coming home, he calls for a robe, a ring, sandals, a feast, a celebration! When the older brother complains, the Father insists “We had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found!”
When we come to the truth, God can’t help but rejoice.
In Zephaniah 3:17, picturing the future Day of Celebration, it says that “God will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Can you imagine that?
God delighting over you?
God calling for your attention so He can sing you a song?
God rejoicing over you with singing?
That’s the picture of God we get from Scripture. A God who does not rejoice at evil, but rejoices in the truth!
