While Pastor Phil was walking through the church one day, he happened upon Brother Sam praying at the altar. Realizing that Sam was praying about his brother, Charlie, whom Sam hardly ever mentioned, Pastor Phil stopped for a moment to listen. He was shocked when he realized that Sam was praying for God to bring all kinds of curses and calamities upon his brother.

Pastor Phil couldn't just let that go. After all, Sam was a deacon in the church. He felt that it was his duty as the pastor to say something to Sam. Sitting down to wait, he let Sam finished his prayer time. Meanwhile using the time to do a little praying of his own.

When Sam got up from the altar, he was a little surprised to see the pastor sitting there in the front pew. But, he'd known Pastor Phil for years, had hunted and fished with him, and wasn't at all worried. The pastor probably wanted to ask his advice on something or other, he reasoned.

Phil made small talk for a few minutes before mentioning Sam's prayer. He suggested that Sam take a little time to study First Corinthians, chapter 13, so that he could be sure he knew what love was.

Well, Sam wasn't much for studying, but he thought he was a good Christian and ought to do as the pastor had suggested. Going home, he dug out his Bible and blew the dust off of it. After five minutes of searching for First Corinthians in the Old Testament, he found First Chronicles. Thinking that the pastor had made a mistake, he started reading that.

Well, it didn't take Sam long to realize he was in the wrong place and he started looking again. Finding First Corinthians in the index, he turned to it and started reading. Unfortunately, he was still muttering to himself about his brother while he was reading.

Sam almost laughed when he reached the end of verse two, where it says, "have not love, I am nothing." "Boy," he said to himself, "there's Charlie right there, a great big nothing."

"Love is patient," he read in verse four. "Well, I sure have been patient with Charlie. I've waited years for God to strike him down. If that's not patience, what is. Let's see, what's next?" "Love is kind" "Yep," he said, "I know I'm being kind. Why, I haven't done a tenth of the mean things to Charlie that he's done to me. I know what the good book says, 'Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord' I'm just waiting for his vengeance to get Charlie but good."

Thinking that this stuff was pretty good, Sam went on. "It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." "Envy," he almost hollered, "Why there's nothing to envy in that no good brother of mine's life anyway. And, I've been quiet about Charlie for all these years, so I can't be boasting. I might when God finally gets even with him for me, but I haven't yet." Then he thought about the pride thing for a minute. "Am I proud?" he asks himself. "No, I've been a deacon in the church for twenty years. I've never missed a board meeting in all that time. I've got more Sunday school awards than anyone. I can't be proud."

The words "It is not self seeking" in the next verse catch his eye. "Well," he says, "I don't see how anyone could say I'm being self seeking with Charlie. I just want to see God's will be done. Charlie's a sinner and is just going to get what he deserves."

After that, Sam had to stop for a minute. He thought he'd seen his first mistake, when he got to the words "it keeps no record of wrongs." But, grabbing the little book where he noted all the bad things his brother had done to him, he quickly threw it in the fireplace to be consumed by the fire. "That was a close one," he thought, "I don't want to get caught like that again."

By now, Sam's starting to get a little excited. This is sounding more and more like the feelings he'd had for Charlie all these years weren't hate, but love. "Wow!" he said to himself. "It's great knowing that I've been doing the right thing all these years. Let's see what's next."

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth." "Yep! That's me, all right. I haven't gotten a bit of delight out of all the evil things Charlie's done to me throughout all the years. Not only is that part true, but I've always rejoiced in the truth of knowing he's going to hell! I hope they've got a real special place prepared for him down there. I can sit on my cloud in heaven and laugh at him getting what he deserves."

"Okay, I'm doing good so far, let's finish this out right. What do we have here in verse seven." "It always protects" "That's weird. What it the world would I need to protect my brother from?" "Always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." "That's more like it. Yes, I always trust God to get even with Charlie for me, I've got lots of hope there. After all, I've persevered in praying for that for 40 years now."

"Wow!" Sam exclaimed. "This stuff is great! All this time, I've been asking God to forgive me for my bad thoughts towards Charlie, and they haven't been bad thoughts at all. I have a true, godly love my brother, and didn't even know it. Praise the Lord!"

The first words of the next verse brought him out of his seat. He started dancing around and praising God, like he'd seen some of those radical fanaticals do. Grabbing the phone, he called the pastor to thank him. "That was the most encouraging thing I've ever read." Sam shouted into the phone. "Especially, that last part, 'love never fails.' It's like a promise directly from God to me."

Phil is pleased with the direction he'd given to the deacon, until he hears the next sentence.

"Since love never fails, I can be sure that God will answer all those prayers I've made about Charlie. He's going to get the worst that God can give him. I've loved him all these years, and because of that love God will get him. Thanks pastor, for telling me to study this."

Although we may laugh at how Sam acted in this story, there are many times we do more or less the same thing. How? By making up our mind what it right, and then interpreting scripture to match what we think. The Word of God is to be a mirror to our lives, showing us where we are falling short of the Glory of God. Don't let yourself be like Sam.

Be careful how you interpret scripture.