Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love rejoices with the truth…”  God rejoices with the truth.

He enjoys truth.  It is healthy for every part of His creation.  Truth, undeniable, penetrating and sometimes confrontational, fashions an occasion for joy.  God rejoices with it.  God rejoices when His message goes out.  He rejoices when His good news is preached.  His heart delights in anticipation of its reception and the benefits that it will produce in the hearer and receiver of such good news - the truth.  When one is filled with truth, one is filled with this good news.  One has encountered that which rearranges the human heart.  One has been transformed by the beauty of what is realized about God and His relationship to mankind and all that was formerly believed, all that was a lie speaking to the conscience, is willfully resisted.  The truth is given preeminence.  Sometimes, however, the truth is also resisted.  Sometimes others deny the truth and hate the messenger.  God, love, stills delights in its presentation.  God and love still continue to carry and confront with truth.  It is His love for humanity that propels the message even at great cost.   This causes us to continue to allow Him to confront us with truth even though it stirs up our own resistance, however, we daily choose to enjoy the process because we know it produces His beauty in us.  We rejoice because it is His love revealed in the presentation of truth to every part of our body and spirit.  This causes us to continue to present truth to the earth even when it is resisted, sometimes unto our death, because we know and rejoice in its power to save and produce His beauty in the earth.  A lie may relieve anxiety for a moment, but in the end it breeds death, therefore, we opt for temporal suffering so that eternal life can be produced and we enjoy the meditation of the result even before it has come!  Where there is truth presented, even when it is temporarily painful, we always have cause to rejoice!