Love…does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth… 1 Corinthians 13:6
To the well-informed, mature Christian, this characteristic of love may seem so obvious as to not need its own discussion. However, the context of the letter, and church history highlight the need. The Corinthians were rejoicing in various unrighteous ways as evidenced by the conduct of some among them. Consider some of the areas where they were gratifying themselves with unjust deeds.
In chapters 1 and 3, some were prideful about who converted them (1:10-17; 3:1-6). This caused division, and the various factions were taking pleasure in their self-proclaimed elite status. In chapter 5, a portion took pride in tolerating an adulterous situation in which a brother was living (5:1-6). In chapter 11:2-16, some were shirking the God-ordained gender roles in spiritual leadership. In chapter 11:17-34, the well-to-do were feasting at the Lord’s Supper while the poor were doing without. In satisfying self, they were neglecting the rest. In chapters 12-14, some were even prideful about the spiritual gifts they had been given and needed reminding that they existed for the building up of the whole (12:1-7, 11-27). In short, the Corinthians had tendencies to rejoice in various kinds of iniquity, and Paul was clear that such is not the way of love (cf. John 14:15; 15:14, 23; Romans 12:9; 1 John 5:1-3 for more on the moral impact of love on our lives).
Lest we think ourselves immune to these issues, we should be aware of a few issues where this practice of “rejoicing in iniquity” is plaguing the church today throughout our land. There are numerous matters swirling around in the Lord’s church today that are symptomatic of this very issue. Though we cannot address all these issues in depth, we need to be aware of the dangers they present. These things range from sharing sexually promiscuous posts to indulging intoxicants to sympathizing with homosexuality to political rancor to promoting the upheaval of the biblical pattern for church organization, worship, etc., and the list could go on and on. I will discuss just a smattering of these things.
The advent of social media has made it much more common to see these issues as people feel free to like, share, or comment on posts that include various ungodly things. Through the years I have seen brethren openly share their nearly nude beach pictures often complete with their favorite beer brands in hand, plan homosexual weddings, like and share the image of Kathy Griffin holding a severed bloody mannequin head formed to replicate Donald Trump’s, get their kicks from the “Let’s Go Brandon” euphemism for the Expletive Joe Biden chant in 2021, promote filth like the HBO series Game of Thrones and the like, participate in the political rancor and vitriol of each election cycle, tear down the Lord’s church in various locations because they disagreed with a decision by the eldership or what a preacher/teacher said, laugh at or share posts with all manner of crude jokes or language, make role models out of numerous ungodly celebrities, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.
I wish I were guilty of exaggerating the matter in the above paragraph, but the truth is I have abbreviated the list. Though it is easy to fall into any of Satan’s snares at any given moment, the truth is we have within the ranks of those who profess to belong to Jesus a growing number who are rejoicing in a wide range of unrighteous things. It is not my intention to be harsh to those caught up in these snares, but we must find some way to awaken them from this spiritual slumber before it is too late. Furthermore, we must take these realities as a warning to ourselves and reflect very carefully on the things in which we rejoice. I have had the discomfort of learning I was rejoicing in the wrong things on more occasions than I care to admit. Then I had to remember that love rejoices not in iniquity, but in the truth, and that truth in which it rejoices is found in the Scriptures. May we all strive to find joy in the right things.