Keeping Score
“[Love] does not take into account a wrong suffered” 1 Corinthians 13:5
Not take into account – Ou logizetai to kakon . Literally “does not count (to itself) evil”.
Want to know what God’s love is really like? Don’t count the injury someone has done to you even if he deserved to be punished and he showed absolutely no remorse! Love is the act of pardon, followed by amnesty, without any expectation of reciprocity. Love says, “I forgive” even when the other person says, “So what!”
In this famous section on the meaning of love, Paul just connected agape to mercy (“love is not provoked”). Now he connects agape to the other central characteristic of the covenant God: grace. Mercy is the act of removing or overlooking a deserved punishment. Mercy is not following through when someone’s actions demand punishment. Mercy declares amnesty.
But mercy implies a prior action, the act of forgiveness. That is grace. Grace is God’s decision to provide undeserved favor. It is the immeasurable gift of redemption for those who deserved destruction. Mercy is amnesty. Grace is pardon.
There is no indication here that any action on the part of God (or of the one displaying God’s love) is motivated by a change in heart, behavior or response of the one forgiven. The verb is passive. This action has absolutely nothing to do with the status of the one forgiven. Love demonstrates itself by forgiving the unforgiven prior to any acknowledgment of sin by the other person and without any expectation of repentance by the one who is forgiving. John captured the entire movement of love when he said, “We love because He first loved us”. In other words, our demonstration of love is on the same plane when we exercise the choice not to count other’s wrongs simply and only because this is the way that God has chosen to treat us.
Love does not keep score, says God. And who are we to say otherwise. How many times have we said to someone we claimed to love, “You did this” or “You were wrong” or “You made me do this”? How many times have we kept track of the personal affronts, the indiscretions, the unsympathetic acts? A record of wrongs. Yet God says that love does not count a wrong suffered. Love is first forgiving before the wrong occurs. And if God forgives us, how can we allow our love to be tainted by pluses and minuses? Emotional bank accounts are not found in the institution of love.
This day is a great day to love someone. That love will be demonstrated by deliberately deciding to forgive without any expectation of change, remorse, repentance, confession or thanks. This is the kind of love we see on the cross. It is God’s kind of love. Is it yours?
