Love does not delight in evil
1 Corinthians 13:6
As St Francis of Assisi once wrote “well duh”. It feels such an obvious thought that it’s reasonable to proffer the question, why even include it? To understand why, it would serve us well to dwell on the notion of hiding in plain sight. Some pitfalls are Goliaths, large and impossible to miss. Others are so small, so “regular”, so seemingly innocuous, that they could beat us in the face and we still wouldn’t recognize them. They are hiding in plain sight. Such is the subtle poison of delighting in evil.
The Germans have a word, Schadenfreude that succinctly captures this essence of the problem. Literally translated it means to take pleasure in another’s misfortune. Now before you rage against the accusation, consider this, when was the last time you participated in or even watched sport without the smallest sense of joy when your opponent fumbled the ball, sent that drive into the bunker, shot wide of the mark, struck out, tripped and fell?
And what is gossip if not a wolf in schadenfreude’s clothing? It masquerades as a thing of no consequence, harmless words, a victimless crime, but isn’t it delighting in the misfortune of others? Our magazines, our entertainment, our news media, our social media feed, bursting with the downfall of others.
And who hasn’t had an enemy or rival that categorically deserved the horrible thing that has just befallen them? Or so it feels in the moment.
There’s only one small issue. And that is, that the issue isn’t small, at all. Because love doesn’t delight in evil. You’ll notice the writer doesn’t use a qualifying adverb like “particularly evil” or “exceptionally evil”. It does not give us a pass for “lite evil”. There are no categories created or nominated that are in or out. It is a singular encompassing notion.
This then is our challenge church, to be people who recognize evil in all its forms and work to minimize it here on earth, not rejoice in it. For if evil is tolerated and delighted in, in any of its forms, it is enlarged in us and emboldened in the world. This cannot be.
And this should be our litmus test, our guiding light: if it were me.
If it were me, would I be delighted right now? If it were me, would I be smugly rejoicing? Regardless of whether we consider that we would have made different choices than those that led the person to that moment. Regardless of whether we deem them an acceptable human being.
If it were me, I would want your love not your condemnation. If it were me, I would want your helping hand, not your pointed finger. If it were me I would not want you to sit idly by and let this thing that has befallen me go unanswered.
Church, inaction is a sign of a disconnected heart. We cannot delight in evil. We cannot have our hearts disconnected from those that God has given us to love. It is a challenge to see it for what it truly is. And it is a challenge to respond in love. But that is our challenge, it is our call! To paraphrase Dr Martin Luther King – evil cannot drive out evil, only love can do that.
With all my love
Stephen