Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Hidden Gem

[Love] Does not behave itself rudely, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil… (I Corinthians 13:5)

I’ve often quoted the second phrase here, “seeks not her own,” to people who think God needs to avenge or restore His honor, supposedly sullied by sinners, or to inflict “just retribution” upon them. But it’s that last phrase I have only this moment discovered. That’s because whoever translated it in the King James and other versions mistranslated it to suit his own theology of retribution. What it really says is not “thinks no evil” but “does not make an account of evil.” The verb is logisomai, and here are all its meanings, according to Strong’s Concordance.


1) to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over
a) to take into account, to make an account of
1) metaph. to pass to one's account, to impute
2) a thing is reckoned as or to be something, i.e. as availing for or equivalent to something, as having the like force and weight
b) to number among, reckon with
c) to reckon or account
2) to reckon inward, count up or weigh the reasons, to deliberate
3) by reckoning up all the reasons, to gather or infer
a) to consider, take into account, weigh, meditate on
b) to suppose, deem, judge
c) to determine, purpose, decide

God is Love, and love (we are told on authority of Scripture, although everyone already knows it) does not keep account of evil. 

GOD does not keep account of evil!!!!

Each and every day I will praise You;
I will sing to my God while I have being.

3 comments:

Marsha said...

thank you for this reminder!

elizabeth said...

beautiful. I always said the strongest argument for the existence of God, if one was to go for an argument, was the love that was spoken of here.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

A bit of clarification...
It means God doesn't nurse grudges.

I don't think it can mean we won't have stuff to account to God for in the Last Day.

BUT that accounting will not be for God's sake; that's the point. He doesn't need that; we do. It will be for our own sake.