The Actions of Agape Love – Part 4
I Corinthians 13:5-6, “….it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.”
We are going to break down the five traits in the passage above. Being touchy, fretful or resentful are NOT traits of agape love but rather natural human nature. When we are touchy, we take offense with slight cause and are over-sensitive; when fretful, we are inclined to be vexed, troubled or peevish (ill-tempered, contrary, discontented); when troublesome, we are causing trouble, anxiety and are difficult; and when resentful, we are full of or inclined to feel indignant ill-will or deep-seated hatred.
The Lord is not pleased with us when we display any of these feelings toward others. The following scriptures tell us exactly what He says about these traits:
II Timothy 2:24-26
and God’s servants must not be troublemakers. They must be kind to everyone, and they must be good teachers and very patient. 25 Be humble when you correct people who oppose you. Maybe God will lead them to turn to him and learn the truth. 26 They have been trapped by the devil, and he makes them obey him, but God may help them escape.
James 5:9
Don’t grumble about each other or you will be judged, and the judge is right outside the door.
Ephesians 4:31
1 Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don’t yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude.
Genesis 4:4-8
and Abel also gave an offering to the Lord. He killed the first-born lamb from one of his sheep and gave the Lord the best parts of it. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, 5 but not with Cain and his offering. This made Cain so angry that he could not hide his feelings.6 The Lord said to Cain: What’s wrong with you? Why do you have such an angry look on your face? 7 If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling.a] But you did the wrong thing, and now sin is waiting to attack you like a lion. Sin wants to destroy you, but don’t let it! 8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go for a walk.”b] And when they were out in a field, Cain killed him.
The Word is clear that we are not to be troublemakers. We are to be good teachers and we are to be patient and kind. We don’t have to agree with everyone BUT we are instructed to be humble when we correct them. The reason? So we can create an atmosphere for the Lord to lead them to Him and they can learn the truth. We will be judged if we grumble against others. The first murder was committed because Cain became angry and resentful of Abel. We can just look at the world around us to see how we are not to act.
Paying no attention to a suffered wrong, not rejoicing at injustice or unrighteousness and rejoicing when right and truth prevail ARE traits of agape love. In today’s world, everyone is expected to get even with anyone who does them wrong in word or deed. It is not something new in the world, but it is magnified by modern society. There are whole sections of society that are happy when unrighteousness and injustice succeeds. When right and truth prevail, it is kept much quieter because it is not as sensational. But this is how we as Christians are to always act toward others.
Proverbs 17:15
The Lord doesn’t like those who defend the guilty or condemn the innocent.
Proverbs 29:27
Good people and criminals can’t stand each other.
As you can imagine, there are numerous scriptures in the Word that talk about righteousness and unrighteousness, evil and injustice. But the theme is the same. God’s love and the world do not agree and never will. We are not to look or act like the world. This may make us seem peculiar, but we are called a peculiar people, a royal priesthood. We are not to be weird, we are to be different. We are the righteousness of God IN CHRIST and His love lives inside of us. We CAN do this!