True Love in a Broken World: Biblical Insights from 1 Corinthians 13 on Rejoicing in Truth

My Sermon Manuscript From Sunday After the Death of Charlie Kirk

Love That Rejoices in Truth

1 Corinthians 13:1–6, 13 (ESV)

I think most of you are like me: we live in a chronically online age. If you’re not online, you’re watching cable news, and so you’ve been aware of what’s been happening. For me this didn’t start on Wednesday — it goes back farther. Last month we watched a young man enter a school where children were praying begin taking lives. This week, if you are online (I don’t encourage you to be that online or to search these videos), you may have seen a young woman sitting there minding her own business, her throat cut, bleeding out on a train while bystanders ignored her. You may have seen footage of a man — whose work it was to engage college students with the gospel — bleeding out while people watched.

I have been angry, grieved, zealous, and burdened this week. I hope the Holy Spirit has stirred something similar in you. And I know many of you have also seen people dancing on this man’s grave — celebrating. So much hate. What can we do against such reckless evil?

There is an answer. The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 13. The answer is love — not the world’s version of love, but the love of the gospel of Jesus Christ: real, biblical love. If you have felt zealous this week and felt the need to act, the answer is to find the love of Jesus and preach it boldly.

Context: Why Paul Writes About Love

Leading up to chapter 13, Paul addresses division, jealousy, and the misuse of spiritual gifts. He exposes the sins in the congregation: a man sleeping with his stepmother, people taking one another to court, and a church that tolerates scandal rather than confronting it. Paul’s point is that there is a theological linchpin for the health of the church — and I want to argue that the same linchpin is our hope as a country, our hope as a church, and your hope for your family. That linchpin is true, biblical love.

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 13:1–6 and verse 13 (ESV):

Verses 1–3

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Paul reminds us here that spiritual gifts, knowledge, even great faith or sacrifice are meaningless without love. Love is the indispensable mark of a Christian.

Verses 4–5

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.

Here Paul begins to define love by what it does and does not do. True love is selfless, humble, and gracious toward others.

Verse 6

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

This is the verse we’ll focus on today. Love cannot celebrate evil; it finds its joy in the truth of God.

Verse 13

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love is the greatest because it is eternal. Faith will be fulfilled, hope will be realized, but love will endure forever.

What Love Is

Our culture lies to us about love. The best definition I’ve found is from Voddie Baucham who says:

Love is an act of the will, accompanied by emotion, that leads to action on behalf of its object.

— An act of the will: love is not passive. It’s not merely a feeling. Love is a verb; it moves you to act for the good of the beloved.

— Accompanied by emotion: we’re not called to be stoics. Emotion matters; it’s part of genuine love. But emotion without the will and without right action is not true love.

— Leads to action: love that sits still is not love.

Paul expands on this: love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude; it does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth (1 Cor. 13:4–6).

Verse 6: Love Does Not Rejoice at Wrongdoing

I want to focus on verse 6: “Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.” This is crucial.

Notice something subtle but important: the opposite of truth is not merely falsehood or lies — the opposite of truth is evil. Lies don’t stay as mere words; they breed wicked action. The opposite of truth is wrongdoing — disobedience to God’s law. If you haven’t seen that played out this week, you haven’t been paying attention.

When Paul dealt with the immoral man in 1 Corinthians 5, he didn’t only rebuke the man who sinned; he rebuked the church for celebrating the sin by tolerating it. The main evil today is not only the evil actions themselves — it’s the failure to speak the truth to those evils. When the church fails to rejoice in truth, it ends up rejoicing in wrongdoing.

You’ve seen the morning-after faces of people who chased what the world calls “fun.” For a brief moment they had pleasure, and then they are destroyed — marriages ruined, lives wrecked, people dead after a drunk drive. Seconds of pleasure have destroyed a lifetime. The opposite of truth is not merely a mistaken idea; it is a life ruined by sin. Love does not celebrate that.

Love vs. Cultural Empathy

There’s a current in our culture that elevates a certain notion of “empathy”—not sympathy as the gospel knows it, but an untethered empathy that simply validates whatever someone feels or does. It says, in effect, “Whatever you’re feeling is okay; whatever you’re doing is fine.” It refuses to speak truth, it refuses to warn, and it celebrates self-destruction rather than grief over it. That is not love—it is enabling.

Charlie Kirk spoke out against this modern, untethered definition of empathy. He argued that it condones behavior that is harmful or destructive. Because of his statements, some people were rejoicing in his death, claiming that he “deserved” it for speaking the truth. They celebrated evil and wrongdoing rather than grieving and warning, showing the stark contrast between the world’s version of empathy and true, biblical love.

Jesus himself showed deep compassion. He came alongside sinners, the hurting, the lost—but he did not celebrate their sin. He grieved over their lostness and called them to repentance and new life. That is the biblical balance: we grieve with those who grieve, but we do not rejoice in their wrongdoing. True love grieves evil and rejoices in truth.

C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, warns of the subtle dangers in the world’s understanding of love. He writes: “Avail yourself of the ambiguity in the word ‘Love’: let them think they have solved by Love problems they have in fact only waived or postponed under the influence of the enchantment. While it lasts you have your chance to foment the problems in secret and render them chronic. The grand problem is that of ‘unselfishness.’ Note, once again, the admirable work of our Philological Arm in substituting the negative unselfishness for the Enemy’s positive Charity. Thanks to this you can, from the very outset, teach a man to surrender benefits not that others may be happy in having them but that he may be unselfish in forgoing them.”

Lewis highlights how the world confuses true, self-giving love with a shallow notion of unselfishness. People are taught to think that simply “letting someone be” or validating every feeling is love, when in reality it is only avoidance, delay, or self-justifying restraint. This mirrors the cultural movement of untethered empathy: it claims to love, but it celebrates sin, enables harm, and avoids speaking the truth. True, biblical love—Charity—does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth, acting boldly for the good of others rather than indulging a false sentiment of passivity or polite tolerance.

True love, by contrast, is grounded in truth. It grieves over evil, warns the misguided, and celebrates righteousness. It is courageous, it is holy, and it has eternal consequences. We do not rejoice in wrongdoing; we rejoice when the truth of God is acknowledged and lived out.

Love Rejoices with the Truth

Jonathan Edwards said it well: “True love rejoices in the truth wherever it appears and in whatever it consists.” Love delights in God’s Word, in Christ, and in the truth worked out in the lives of believers. Paul tells us that faith, hope, and love remain — and the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13). Love endures into eternity. Every act of true, biblical love has an eternal effect.

When someone you love is sprinting toward destruction, it is not loving to cheer them on. It is loving to warn, to grieve, and to labor for their repentance. That labor — sharing gospel truth, bearing witness to Christ — can bring an eternal joy that outweighs any temporary discomfort you might endure by speaking the truth. For example, my son Ransom would sometimes run straight toward the stove while I was cooking. He wanted to see what was happening, to be part of it, but it was dangerous. It would not have been loving to let him run into the hot stove, or to encourage him. True love required me to stop him, sometimes sternly, sometimes physically, to protect him. That’s exactly how love works spiritually: we warn, guide, and sometimes rebuke those headed for harm — not out of anger or control, but out of genuine concern and a desire for their ultimate good.

Courage to Speak the Truth

This may cost us social standing, friendship, convenience — even safety. But if we cannot speak the truth when it is socially costly, will we speak it when it is truly costly? The mark of courage is standing for God’s truth even when it offends, even when it makes life awkward.

I’ll be honest: I posted about this on Facebook this week, and the post reached thousands. Some people I don’t know were angry at what I said. It made me ask myself: if someone comes to me angry about the gospel or about what I say about gender or morality, am I still willing to preach the truth? If it risks my reputation, my relationships, my comfort, am I still willing?

If you are a follower of Jesus, ask yourself the same question. Are you willing to rejoice in the truth and not in wrongdoing, even if it costs you?

The Hope and Joy of Love

There is great hope. When someone repents because you spoke truth in love, the joy is infinite and eternal. I saw a testimony this week: a person involved in gender transition who attended an event put on by Charlie Kirk and received a gospel witness, repented, and trusted Christ. That is an eternal joy because one person had the courage to stand for the truth and to love sacrificially.

Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. Love grieves, warns, and weeps — and it rejoices when truth triumphs in a life. Faith, hope, and love abide — and love is supreme because it lasts.

Invitation

If you are burdened today — scared or deeply concerned about the direction of our country or the state of our culture — Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. His gospel brings hope and redemption. If you need prayer, repentance, or to trust Christ anew, the altar is open. Come. Pray for our nation; pray that people would see the light.

I don’t say any of this to say that Charlie Kirk was perfect — none of us are perfect — but I do believe he had a Perfect Savior. Christ is the only hope. He brings comfort, peace, and the power to change lives. Give your life to him today.

Come to Jesus as friend and Savior.