Rejoicing in the Truth

The Apostle continues that love is not self-seeking, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

We may be sure that the word truth is here used in a special and Scriptural sense. There are many reports which are true as records, but the things are evil in themselves, so that love could never rejoice in them. The evil, the foolish and the insignificant facts of life have nothing to do with that which the Scriptures speak of as the Truth. The Lord Jesus spoke of truth which should make his disciples free (John 8:32). The apostle Paul wrote of truth which should be received in the love of it, and the apostle John wrote that his greatest joy was to find disciples walking in this truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10; 3 John 4). It is the truth of the Gospel and of salvation through Christ. It has ramifications wide enough to set the bounds of all our conversations and of our far ranging thoughts. Do we always rejoice in this, or do we sometimes find pleasure in the contemplation of iniquity? The conversation in thousands of homes may give a sad answer to these questions. It is to be feared that there is a tendency in us all to find a certain pleasure in the record of evil. A lapse from the path of virtue on the part of one who is not a close friend provides a subject for comment in which the error may be deplored, but with a certain evil satisfaction in contemplating the weakness which has been exposed. Especially is this wrong feeling present if the absent sinner has made great professions of piety, even reproving us for faulty conduct. The pleasure found in such conversations, redolent of scandal, is surely "rejoicing in iniquity". Christian love finds no place for it.

There is another way in which this evil is manifested in connection with a matter still more definitely ingrained in human nature. A publisher once remarked to the writer that any hint of salacity in a forthcoming book was the best possible advertisement. Here is wrong thought, wrong feeling, possibly leading to wrong action. It begins with rejoicing in iniquity, and may end with a collapse of all moral restraint.

Some opponents of Christianity have fulminated against Scripture narrative because of the vices and sins there described. The real objection of such critics has been the feeling of repugnance aroused by the manner in which these things are presented. In the Bible, evil is never dressed up with a delicate finery which might make it attractive. It is revealed in stark and disgusting reality. We may learn much from it, but we could never rejoice in it.