One characteristic of the divine kind of love is that it never takes account of a suffered wrong.
First Corinthians 13:5 in The Amplified Bible says, “Love [God’s love in us]…takes no account of the evil done to it, pays no attention to a suffered wrong.”
Your flesh would rather hear something different, wouldn’t it? But this verse contains love’s thermometer. Are you touchy, fretful, or resentful? Are you always taking account of the evil done to you?
This is the divine love gauge. It is easy to find out whether or not you’re walking in love by looking at your love walk in the light of this verse.
As long as you take account of the evil done to you, you’re not walking in love. But as long as you walk in God and in the God-kind of love and stay full of the Holy Spirit, you won’t take account of the evil done to you.
As long as you’re taking account of the evil done to you, you won’t be able to believe the best of every person. Have you ever noticed that natural human love is the opposite of believing the best of everyone?
It is always ready to believe the worst of every person. In fact, some folks are always looking for something to try to get on someone else so they can accuse them or talk about them.
I traveled for years in the field ministry, and many times preachers would say to me, “Have you heard about So-and-so?” And they’d start to tell me something bad about someone else.
I’d always say to them, “I refuse to believe anything bad about anyone. I believe the best of everyone.” And more often than not it turned out to be just a rumor that was going around.
God’s love is ever ready to believe the best about every person. Since God is love, that means God is ever ready to believe the best about each one of us!
After I was born again, something on the inside of me in my spirit seemed to compel me to believe the best of everyone. My flesh didn’t necessarily want to. But the Bible says that the love of Christ in our heart compels us to do what is right (2 Cor. 5:14).
That’s why we should let the love of God compel us to think the best of everyone so we won’t be touchy, fretful, or resentful. Then it will be much easier to take no account of the evil done to us.
First Corinthians 13:8 says that God’s love never fails, fades out, becomes obsolete, or comes to an end. Since God is love, then if love could come to an end, God could also come to an end. But God never fails, and neither does His love!
Some people think it’s a point of weakness to take no account of evil done to you and to pay no attention to a suffered wrong. But it isn’t.
It’s the God-kind of love in action. And the closer you walk with God and the more His love dominates you, the more you’ll forgive and pay no attention to suffered wrongs.
by Kenneth E. Hagin
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications
Rev. Hagin served in Christian ministry for nearly 70 years and was known as the "father of the modern faith movement." His teachings and books are filled with vivid stories that show God's power and truth working in his life and the lives of others.
Rev. Hagin was born on Aug. 20, 1917, in McKinney, Texas, a son of the late Lillie Viola Drake Hagin and Jess Hagin.
Rev. Hagin was sickly as a child, suffering from a deformed heart and an incurable blood disease. He was not expected to live and became bedfast at age 15. In April 1933 during a dramatic conversion experience, he reported dying three times in 10 minutes, each time seeing the horrors of hell and then returning to life.
In August of 1934, Rev. Hagin was miraculously healed, raised off a deathbed by the power of God and the revelation of faith in God's Word. Two years later, he preached his first sermon as pastor of a small community church in Roland, Texas.
In 1937, Rev. Hagin was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began ministering in Pentecostal churches. During the next 12 years he pastored five churches in Texas: in the cities of Tom Bean, Farmersville (twice), Talco, Greggton, and Van. In 1949, he began an itinerant ministry as a Bible teacher and evangelist.
During the next 14 years, Jesus appeared to Rev. Hagin eight times in visions that changed the course of his ministry. In 1966, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he opened a ministry office. That same year, he taught for the first time on radio—on KSKY in Dallas. In 1967, he began a regular radio broadcast that continues today as Faith Seminar of the Air. Teaching by his son, Rev. Kenneth W. Hagin, is also heard on the program.
In 1968, Rev. Hagin published the first issues of The Word of Faith magazine, which now has a monthly circulation of more than 250,000. The publishing outreach he founded, Faith Library Publications, has circulated more than 65 million copies of books by Rev. Hagin, Rev. Hagin Jr., and several other authors worldwide. Faith Library Publications also has produced more than 9 million audio teaching tapes and CDs.
Other outreaches of Kenneth Hagin Ministries include RHEMA Praise, a weekly television broadcast hosted by Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth W. Hagin; RHEMA Correspondence Bible School; RHEMA Alumni Association; RHEMA Ministerial Association International; RHEMA Supportive Ministries Association; the RHEMA Prayer and Healing Center; and a prison ministry.
In 1974, Rev. Hagin founded RHEMA Bible Training Center USA and in 1976 moved the school and ministry offices to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where they remain. To date, RHEMA Bible Training Center USA has 23,000 alumni, and RHEMA Bible Training Centers have opened in 13 other nations: Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Samoa, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand. Together, the 14 schools have more than 28,000 graduates worldwide.
RHEMA Bible Church, pastored by Rev. Hagin Jr., began holding services in October of 1985 on the RHEMA campus in Broken Arrow and has since grown to become a thriving congregation with more than 8,000 members.
Rev. Hagin's daughter and son-in-law, Pat Harrison and the late Doyle "Buddy" Harrison, founded Harrison House Publishers in 1975 and Faith Christian Fellowship International Church in 1977. Both organizations are based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Until shortly before his death in September 2003, Rev. Hagin continued to travel and teach throughout the United States and into Canada conducting All Faiths' Crusades and other special meetings.