Sometimes we hear things about a brother or sister in Christ, but we don’t actually hear it from that brother or sister in Christ. We hear it from another party, who may or may not have all of the facts. Regardless of what we hear, how we hear it and from whom we hear it, Christian love (that’s agape love) responds (at God’s direction) in a very unique way to reports about brethren.
Christian love “is patient and is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4). To combine the last part of that verse with Romans 12:3, Christian love does not “think more highly of himself than he ought to think.” Christian love “does not behave rudely,” and here’s an important point, Christian love “thinks no evil.” Christian love, when it hears reports of others, “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” Finally, God emphasizes strongly that Christian love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [Christian] Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
When you respond to a brother or sister’s missteps, is it guided by Christian love?