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