In this sermon, Stephen Davey explains Paul’s phrase “love does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Corinthians 13:5b), emphasizing that true agape love refuses to keep score of offenses. He begins with a humorous story about a couple who found “true love” online—only to discover they were already married to each other—illustrating how self-centeredness blinds people to genuine love. Davey contrasts worldly love, which remembers wrongs, with agape, which erases them. Using the accounting term logizomai (“to keep record”), he teaches that love “does not keep books on evil.” Instead of nursing old wounds or “stirring the pot,” believers are to live with a spiritual eraser in hand—ready to forgive continually, as Jesus commanded Peter to forgive “seventy times seven.” He illustrates God’s perfect example: our sins are erased from His ledger and replaced with Christ’s righteousness. Forgiveness, then, is not pretending we weren’t hurt but choosing to “cease remembering”—to leave behind and stop rehearsing the offense. Davey points to Joseph naming his son Manasseh (“to forget”) and reminds believers that love “covers a multitude of sins.” True agape love, he concludes, is impossible apart from the Spirit of God. It sets us free from bitterness and keeps us near the cross, where we remember how much we’ve been forgiven. We are never more like Christ than when we forgive and choose to forget.
Keeping Erasers Handy
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