The Record of Wrongs

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE RECORD OF WRONGS

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

NIV

It is time to consider that love does not keep any record of wrongs. This idea here is that we are most likely going to do wrong every so often. As unfortunate as it is, we have not yet attained perfection and therefore we are going to do some sort of wrong, and most likely, again, that is going to happen more often than we think. Even we if try with all our might, we are going to commit a wrong. The problem that bothers us is that we are going to commit this wrong in regard to another person. It is one thing to commit a wrong when we are all alone, and we know that God will forgive, in fact, He has already forgiven us even in the middle of our wrong, which we should just say our sin. The Greek word here which is translated as wrongs, has a more direct meaning of evil, which then means sin. However, what we are told here is that we are not supposed to keep this record of every time someone offends us or commits a wrong against us. The fact is that our memory wants to remember when someone does a wrong against us. It is difficult not to remember, as it might actually be impossible not to remember. However, because we also have to forgive that person who does a wrong toward us, that forgiveness means we will never bring the wrong up or use it as a tool against them. If we were to take a more wooden translation, it would be that we do not think about wrongs. We do not count, reckon, compute, calculate, or count over any wrongs. We do not weigh or measure any wrongs because we love that person. Once again, that person means everyone, for we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, which means we are not to keep a record of anyone’s wrongs, whether they are someone close to us who wronged us personally, or whether they are simply an acquaintance who simply did a general wrong that we became aware of. Not keeping a record means not keeping a record, and it cannot be any clearer than that. Because we love them, we do not work for the office of records of wrongs.