The Benefits of Love: Genesis 9:18-29
Our love for one another corrects sin and prevents sin from growing more predominant within the community. Time and time again in the New Testament we are encouraged to hold one another accountable and forgive one another. Love bears with one another while helping each other stay on the path God has granted for us to walk.
After the flood, Noah became a farmer. He planted a vineyard. He drank the wine, became drunk, and lay naked in his tent.
The Bible doesn’t have a problem with vineyards. Neither does the Bible have any issue with consumption of alcohol. The Bible does have an issue with drunkenness. The Bible has an issue with any behavior taken to the point of over-indulgence.
Noah sins when he allows himself to become drunk. This isn’t a big surprise, neither is it reason to condemn Noah. Nobody is perfect. Every single human leader in the Bible made mistakes. The more prominent the leader, the more mistakes we usually see. Even the prophets didn’t always get it right. Noah’s sin here makes him human.
We likewise shouldn’t gloss over the sins of Noah. Just because he’s human doesn’t make sin acceptable. It is reality, but it isn’t celebratory. It’s a reality we acknowledge and a story we learn from.
Ham enters Noah’s tent and sees Noah’s drunken nakedness. He finds it amusing. Interested in gossiping, Ham tells his brothers to get them in on the gossip.
Shem and Japheth don’t play Ham’s game. Instead of joining in on the joke, they go into Noah’s tent and cover him. They go in respectfully and don’t risk their own temptation to sin. While Ham responded out of immaturity, Shem and Japheth responded out of love.
This teaches us an interesting lesson about love. Shem’s and Japheth’s love for their father cannot redeem Noah’s sin. Only God’s love through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ can do that. Shem’s and Japheth’s love for their father does not ignore Noah’s sin. If God takes our sin seriously enough to send Jesus to die, we cannot possibly call anything love if it ignores sin.
Shem’s and Japheth’s love corrects Noah’s sin. Out of their love for their father, Shem and Japheth help fix Noah’s error. They aren’t trying to cover it up or pretend it never happened; they are trying to put Noah back on a good path.
Shem’s and Japheth’s love also prevents Noah’s sin from becoming worse and drawing others into sin. By covering Noah and allowing him to sleep off his drunkenness, anyone else who should come by won’t be tempted to gossip about Noah as Ham did. They don’t make Noah’s sin go away, but they do help it not get any worse.
This is what human love within a community looks like. Our love for each other doesn’t ignore sin or redeem sin. Our love for one another corrects sin and prevents sin from growing more predominant within the community.
