[Love] rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.

As I’ve written many times, love is one of the most perverted concepts in this culture.  Part of critical theory is that words are power, so changing the definition of words is powerful.  Someone who does not want to love can redefine the word so that he is loving.  He can change the meaning of love so that he is loving when he’s actually hateful.  The people who are loving are now hateful.  This is where we stand today.

The two great commandments according to Jesus are (1) love God and (2) love your neighbor.  If love isn’t love, then those two commandments aren’t being obeyed. The New Testament spends pages clarifying love, and the Apostle Paul gives a very through description in 1 Corinthians 13.

In 1 Corinthians 13:6, Paul says in essence, “If it is love, it will not rejoice in iniquity, but it will rejoice in the truth.”  Contrariwise, “it can’t be love if it does rejoice in iniquity, but it does not rejoice in the truth.”  This is a simple love-o-meter that will eliminate most of what is called love.  I would estimate about 90% of so-called love is invalidated by these two simple statements.

Someone can call “up,” “down,” on his social media and get agreement that up is actually down in every comment in support of this concept, and it does not change the meaning of “up.”  “Up” is still never “down,” even if everyone agrees that it is.

As a thought experiment, let’s say that a man contended on the internet, and it even went viral with support, that up was really down.  A few people dared to disagree by saying that up was up and down was down.  The man then did six things in response.  First, he deleted and blocked anyone who said that up was up.  Second, he ghosted those who said that up was up and encouraged others do so.  Third, he encouraged employers to fire those who said up was up, to cancel any engagement with anyone who said that up was up.  Fourth, he called all those who proclaimed up to be up very broken people, toxic personalities, with narcissistic personality disorder.  Fifth, he published an instagram photo on behalf of up is actually down and asked for shows of continuous public support for up being down.  Sixth, he issued a restraining order against anyone who says that up is still up and not down.  He requires boundaries, and hearing that up is up triggers him, bringing psychological damages; hence, he must threaten a restraining order.  He must do this to promote wellness and self-care.

You may remember that the leftist values yard sign says, “Love is love.”  The term love becomes a vessel to pour whatever meaning someone wants it to mean.  “Love is love” serves to justify two men “loving” each other in a homosexual relationship.  Along with this, saying homosexuality isn’t love, is deemed “hate speech.”

Paul says that love “rejoiceth not in iniquity.”  “Iniquity” is a word that means “unrighteousness.”  It is the word for “righteousness” with a “not” at the front of it, a compound Greek word.  If something isn’t right, it can’t be love.  Someone doesn’t love someone by lying to him.  He doesn’t love someone by fornicating with that person.   Anything that disobeys scripture, either through omission or commission, isn’t love.

The verse doesn’t say, “love is not iniquity,” but that love doesn’t rejoice in iniquity.  That’s even stronger.  People supportive of sinful behavior are not loving someone.  People that want support of their sin are not asking for love, because love doesn’t support sinning.  When a young person wants support despite his sin, he is not asking for freedom, because freedom according to Jesus is freedom from sin (John 8:32-36).  Sin is bondage.  Love opposes the bondage of sin, hates it, hates what it does to the person.

Jesus says Satan is liar (John 8:44), and He is referring to the lie in the Garden to Eve and Adam.  Satan tells especially young people that standards and requirements and rules are bondage.  He says, sin is freedom.  The loving person, Satan says, gives you freedom, which means, “lets you sin.”  He says that the person trying to stop you from sin is bringing bondage and that you need boundaries between you and that person.  One of the boundaries you have already applied means you probably won’t even read this, because some good pyschobabble is available instead.

Love does not rejoice at all in any manifestation of what is not right, the word “iniquity” meaning “not right.”  Love does not rejoice in dress that is not right, music that is not right, language that is not right, entertainment that is not right, art that is not right, and associations that are not right.  Whenever someone does rejoice in things that are not right, that is not love.  The people who do rejoice in those things that are not right is not loving, but hating.  This is in the realm of up is up and down is down.

On the other hand, love does rejoice in the truth.  The truth is placed in contrast to iniquity.  Iniquity veers off of the truth into some kind error, doctrinal or practical error.  Love does not rejoice in doctrinal or practical error that contradicts the truth.  Love tells the truth, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, speaks the truth.

If someone wants to “feel loved,” actual love, then he should believe and practice the truth.  Love will rejoice in that.  Let’s try another thought experiment.  Let’s say that someone sees someone sinning, and tells this truth, “That’s sad.”  This isn’t even saying that it is sinful, just that it is sad.  The person who hears, that’s sad, should rejoice in that truth.  It is sad.  Everyone should support someone saying that sinful behavior is at least sad, and even something stronger than that.

If someone sees a disrespectful young person and says, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” that is not an attack.  That is the truth.  Love rejoices in the truth. The loving person would rejoice in Exodus 20:12.  Those who do not rejoice in that are the ones not loving.  They are the ones calling up, down, and down, up.  A young person should be told to honor his father and mother.  When he does not, that is not only sad, but it is not right.  It can’t be rejoiced in.  The truth must be told.

The Bible is a love-o-meter.  What Paul wrote is a simple love-o-meter.  Use it.  If you don’t use it, it likely means you are not a Christian.  You are not saved.  Love is of God. They that love, abide in God.  You don’t love.  You don’t even care what it means if you will not use the Bible to define it.