“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” – 1 Corinthians 13:6
In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church is a lovely passage that is often the focus of reflection at Christian weddings. I am referring to the well-known part that begins “love is patient and kind….”
The “love” written about in this passage is not confined to romantic love, of course. Its attributes are described non-exhaustively but no less beautifully. One fundamental attribute of love is its ‘rejoicing with the truth’. This pearl of wisdom sometimes goes unnoticed. It begs the question “what is truth”? There may be many true things in the world, but only God speaks only truth. If God says it, it must be true. Conversely Satan, the chief enemy of God and man, delights in lies. He is called the deceiver and by perverting the truth into lies he incites people to indifference, hate and evil acts.
Love is good, and love is glorious. But let us not fall into the trap of agreeing with those who say that love is whatever any one of us defines it.
Such an understanding defies simple logic. A moral code (the understanding and practice of what is good) cannot be self-determining—rather it is discovered when we seek after it.
The Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft asserts that truth, goodness, and beauty, “are the three things we all need, and need absolutely, and know we need”; truth relates to the mind, goodness to the will, and beauty to the desires or imagination. Yet these things have neither definition nor fullness of meaning apart from God. In other words, whatever is true is true only “because God”. Whatever is good is good only “because God”. Whatever is beautiful is beautiful only “because God”. God is the source and best manifestation of truth, goodness and beauty. Let us ask God to help us live for God, with God and because God.
By Aaron Lee, Elder (YCKC Bulletin 8&9 July 2017)