All are worthy
All are in need
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Continuing our journey into the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, we are faced with the instruction that love “does not rejoice in iniquity.”
Iniquity, by definition, is an immoral or unfair act. To examine this, we’ll look at the opposing virtues of morality and fairness in action.
Fortunatley, Christ offers us many examples of moral and fair action in the Gospels, by which we can see exactly how it should be done. We see that our Savior always prioritized what was good for all people regardless of their past or present circumstances. If an ostracized Samaritan woman wanted to speak with Him, Christ would give her His full attention.
The same priority was given to the Pharisee Nicodemus when he sought Christ’s teaching. Christ exemplified fairness in His willingness to admonish the immoral behavior of the Pharisees on multiple occassions, while also being just as quick to admonish His own Apostles if they slipped into immorality. Simply put, morality and fairness are embodied in the Biblical concept of having no respect of persons. All are equally deserving of good, and none are above correction when needed.
Sadly, the modern world view of arbitrary division has seeped into our churches. More and more we, as modern believers, are normalizing iniquity in our daily lives.
While appropriate modesty is a respectable standard, I will openly state my disdain for church dress codes for precisely this reason. A church allowing hateful gossipers the full priveleges of church membership without correction, while outright refusing entry to a soul in need because their clothes are deemed too ugly is, by definition, iniquity.
Sadly, I imagine that you can think of many more examples of such iniquity in our modern churches. Regardless of denomination, congregation numbers, or even age of the church, we see more and more tolerance being afforded to iniquity. Those who followed Christ didn’t do so because he spoke so eloquently or dressed so beautifully; they did so because He treated all people with the same morality and fairness.
If we hope to see the love of Christ spread, and more souls given the help they truly need, iniquity simply cannot be tolerated in our lives. We can not allow ourselves to pick and choose who is worthy of our love. For godly love says that all are worthy and all are in need.