Elisabeth Elliot: "Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth."

Lisa Barry: No, you haven't stumbled upon a wedding ceremony in progress. But the reason I wanted you to hear this little bit of the program is that some verses become so overused that they don't mean much anymore. When a verse becomes this familiar, we tune out. But there are few verses in the Bible that pose so awesome a responsibility to emulate. How would you rate yourself on each of the segments of these verses? And what about me? Am I patient? Am I kind? Do I keep no record of wrongs? Beep! I just failed the test right there.

Today on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot talks more about resisting the mood to retaliate against our enemies. Here she is.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talks on "When You Have Been Wronged." The Bible says, "Why not take wrong?" That is the last thing that any of us is naturally inclined to do, isn't it? But we live in an ever more and more litigious society. People are going to court over ridiculous trivialities, and of course, over very great wrongs.

It seems logical and right and proper that we should get our just due. But that's not going to happen here in this world. Jesus gives us a much simpler way. I've often thought of how much simpler it is to follow Jesus. I don't mean easier, necessarily, but so much simpler. It just simplifies your life to do what He says.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is talking to the Corinthian church and he says, "If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church.

I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers. The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have already been completely defeated.

Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers."

There was a wonderful English missionary in Africa by the name of Florence Alshorn. She went to Uganda in 1920 to work under the Church Missionary Society. She was in charge of a girls' boarding school. The climate of Busoga, where she was, was exceptionally unhealthy. In the early days, Bishop Tucker had written of it, that all nature seemed to be suffering from limpness and lack of energy. Seven young missionaries had been sent to Uganda in as many years, but none had stayed. The trouble was not only the climate, but the temperament of their senior missionary, who had struggled on heroically but at considerable cost to herself and to anyone who tried to live with her.

The crucial battle of Florence's life, which was fought and won during the following years, is best told in her own words, written in letters to a close friend. "I need God so much here. Everything is so difficult. There is so much ungoodness in everything. I keep reminding myself that I am here for Christ and that all the wild and miserable things, as well as the holy and calm ones, must beat through me if I am to be used at all. I thank God that I am here and that it is not easy. I always wanted that."

She was a born educator in the true sense. In the few years that she was at Uganda, she brought the school to a point that was described as first-rate. Underneath the hard but rewarding work in the school, however, Florence was aware all the time of a basic failure-a failure in personal relationship.

Am I ringing any bells out there? Is there anybody listening to me who is aware of a failure in a personal relationship? In her case, it was undermining all that was being taught.

She wrote, "My colleague is dear in some ways, but the matter of fact is that Uganda is a hopeless sort of place. My colleague has stuck it. It just happens not to have affected her health, but it has absolutely rotted her nerves and she has the most dreadful fits of temper. Sometimes she doesn't speak at all for two days. Just now we finished up three weeks with never a decent word or smile. And then, I'm sure it isn't the right thing just to leave her to it," Florence said.

She was almost in despair. The school children were fully aware that the atmosphere was wrong. Words about the love and power of Christ sounded hollow. She had come to the crisis of her life. What followed is told in her own words.

"One day the old African matron came to me when I was sitting on the veranda, crying my eyes out. She sat at my feet. After a time, she said, 'I have been on this station for fifteen years. I have seen you come out, all of you saying you have brought us a Savior. But I have never seen this situation saved yet.'"

Florence says, "It brought me to my knees with a bang. I was the problem for myself. I knew enough of Jesus Christ to know that the enemy was the one to be loved before you could call yourself a follower of Jesus." The enemy is the one to be loved before you can call yourself a follower of Jesus.

"I prayed, in great ignorance, as to what it was that this same love might be in me. I prayed, as I have never prayed before in my life, for that one thing. Slowly, things rightened. Whereas before she had been going about upsetting everybody with long, deep, dreadful moods, and I had been going to my school, depressed and lifeless, both of us found our way to lighten each other.

She had a great generosity, and I must have been a cruel burden to her, worn out as she was. But I did see that as we drew together in a new relationship, the whole character of the work of the station altered. The children felt it and began to share in it and to do little brave unselfish things that they had never done before."

For a whole year, Florence read 1 Corinthians 13 every day. Do you know what 1 Corinthians is about? It's about God's definition of love. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

If you are contemplating going to law against someone, think of those words. Love is not self-seeking. You want the wrongs to be righted? Think about this one: Love keeps no record of wrongs.

For a whole year, Florence Alshorn read that chapter every single day. Though she rarely spoke of this experience again, her later teaching of missionary students was founded on it. In a talk given on the eve of her last illness, the hard-won truth is in every sentence.

"To love a human being means to accept him, to love him as he is. If you wait to love him till he has got rid of his faults, till he is different, you are only loving an idea. He is as he is now. I can only love a person by allowing myself to be disturbed by him as he is. I must accept the pain of seeing him with hopefulness and expectancy."

To the end of her life, Florence accepted the pain of seeing with hopefulness, suffering frustration and disappointment often, but never denying her central belief that we are made to love as the stars are made to shine.

We've been talking this week about the willingness to be wronged as Christians. Do you remember what happened to Jesus? "He was despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He bore our sins and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all are like sheep. We have gone astray and turned each of us to his own way. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Are you prepared to love in that way? To love the enemy against whom you were going to bring a court case? Or to love that person under your roof who acts like an enemy? May God give us grace to do just that.

Lisa Barry: Wow! What a challenge. I'm sure any of us who take up that challenge will see the power of God at work in a mighty way. But some might need a little more convincing. If that's the case, I'd recommend hearing these talks again. The best way to learn something is to repeat it, and you'll benefit for years to come if you'll take these talks to heart.

The title to ask for is UNREASONABLENESS AND INJUSTICE. The cost is $7. You can send that, along with your request, to Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or you can call us toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Thursday, Elisabeth talks about accepting wrongs done to us. Find out how to do that the next time we meet for Gateway To Joy.