"Thinketh no evil" (1 Cor. 13:5).

The brain of modern man has been compared to a complex computer. Information is constantly being fed into it, each occurring incident in life being stored away in its inner recesses.

Many behavioral activities are a result of (or result in) the recall or retrieval of data stored away in the brain's "memory bank." In 1 Corinthians 13:5 when Paul wrote that love "thinketh no evil," in the language of his day he used a metaphor concerning love that was a description of an accountant filing information into a bookkeeping system.

The Greek word translated thinketh is logizomai (log-id'-zom-ahee). This word is traced back to logos (log'-os) which is defined basically as "a word; speech; a declaration; a matter; an account."

Logizomai takes the word account and makes it into accountant - one who keeps records. Life is one big ledger, with our minds and hearts recording and reacting to all the debits and credits, positives and negatives, pluses and minuses, which we encounter day by day.

Paul is saying that love (agape - the divine love of God in our heart and life as a fruit of the Spirit) does not count up the evil done to it with a view to settling the account. Love does not enter offenses into a notebook for future revenge.

Love keeps no record of evil done to it. It has no memory of injuries. Love is a poor accountant. It would prefer to leave a blank page in our "memory bank" than to record all the distasteful things that happen to us. Thank the Lord for such a poor bookkeeper as divine love!

Source: The Spirit-Filled Believer's Daily Devotional by Dick Mills
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers