Encourage Truth
Posted by: ba <ba@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
COLUMN: Final Phase
Encourage Truth
by J. Randal Matheny
"[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but
rejoices with the truth" (1 Cor. 13:6, ESV).
Find the truth and sell it not, urges the Wise
One. And once you find it, applaud it, praise it,
acclaim it, says Paul.
Love is pained when others do wrong and teach
falsely. Love may rebuke, admonish, and even
expose evil, but it will never gloat over
another's fall nor take pleasure at another's
failure, to assume a posture of superiority or
self-righteousness.
Love searches out the good. It encourages those
who do right. It celebrates what is true and sound
and virtuous and genuine. It discovers those
things "worthy of praise" (Phil. 4:7) and not only
ponders them, but praises them.
Many versions translate Paul's second phrase as
"rejoices in the truth." But the verb "rejoice"
(Greek, "sugcharei") in the second phrase is not
the same as that in the first. The second comes
attached with a prefix, which can be an
intensifier of the verb action or indicate active
participation, or, here, perhaps both.
Evil has more than its share of supporters. They
will also reproach those who would insist on the
truth. They are quick to tear down efforts to show
where truth is being tramped upon.
Silence, with eyes only for one's own pot, will
open the way for evil to prevail. The great need,
then, is for the righteous to hold up and
encourage and, yes, support financially, when
appropriate, those works which bring glory to God
by their respect for the truth and its
proclamation.
Will you be one who loves like this?
Slow to censure, loathe to bite,
Quick to praise the good and right.
Flesh and blood to truth object,
Pious saints rejoice unchecked.
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