Jump Start # 4174

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered.”

Throwback Thursday: an article written from the past

Watching the Scoreboard

In sports, the scoreboard tells who won and who lost. The scoreboard is an important feature of every game. There is a difference from playing for fun and playing for keeps. Fans will look up at the scoreboard several times during a game. When the scoreboard is running, two teams will be engaged in battle. They will play aggressively. Both are out to beat the other. One team is trying hard to score and the other team is trying just as hard to keep them from scoring. When the scoreboard is on, the game is about winning. The losing team may have played well. They may have even given it their all, but in the end, they lost the game. In some games, such as playoffs, when you lose, the season ends. When you win you keep playing. The scoreboard tells it all.

Paul defined love as, “Does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Cor 13:5). The NIV records this as: “it keeps no record of wrongs.”  Eugene Peterson has expressed this as: “doesn’t keep score of the sins of others.”

Simply, love doesn’t keep score. The nature of the game changes when the scoreboard is turned off. In marriage, saying things like, “she always…” is scorekeeping. Or, “He never….” is watching the scoreboard. Always and never are the words of someone that has kept track of things. The score has been remembered. Someone has not forgotten. Someone won and someone lost. Scorekeeping in marriage means one wins and one loses.  Paul says, “Love doesn’t keep score.”

We don’t need to be keeping score in our marriage and among each other. We need to fight for each other, instead of against each other. We need to defend each other. We need to realize that we are on the same side. Patience and forgiveness ought to be the rule we live by.

Love doesn’t keep score!

Roger

January, 2005