We are going to continue our study in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We have already discussed the importance of love as written in the first three verses of our text. Just to refresh... Love is the most important thing in a Christians life.
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
So, if love is this important than we should understand what it is, what is expected of us by the Lord, and how do we accomplish that. That is the whole purpose of this whole series is to learn how we can be more obedient and be more pleasing to the Lord. If that is not your goal then we need to start back at the beginning and be sure that you have been saved. We may have times that we resist God and his correction but overall we should have the desire to please God. Because one who is born again loves their Savior. Like a young child trying to impress their father. They still make mistakes but they ultimately want their fathers approval because they love and respect him.
On to our text...
1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We have already covered that love is patient and kind. Being patient is more than just waiting. It is not just I am going to sit here and be patient until my children come visit me. It is, my children never come visit me they are mean to me when they do come but I am going to be patient and still love them. Kindness is more than being pleasant or agreeable to others. It is aggressively seeking to do good to another. Kindness does not wait for a chance to act, it searches for a place where it can act. Patience waits to act, kindness does not. But both are love.
Next on the list is what love is not... Love does not envy...
Before you are too quick to dismiss yourself from this one and say that it does not apply to you. That you are never envious. You should realize that envy includes jealousy. Thinking that someone has something that should be ours, wanting something someone else has, and wanting someone else not to have the thing at all. It is resenting a person, being displeased when thy have success. Even if you don't think that they deserve it.
I worked with a young man for about 3 years and we contemplated becoming partners and starting a business together. I soon realized that we had different ethics and ideas on how a company should operate and he was not a Christian and lived a life outside of work that I did not approve of. So we shook hands and parted ways and both went and started our own businesses. We would occasionally contact one another to talk about business. If I am being honest we probably only talked when one of us had something that we wanted to brag to the other about. But we will get into boasting next time! But when he would tell me about a big sale that he made or how much business he had I found that jealousy would well up inside me. I couldn't understand how someone who was dishonest and lived a life of hell was getting all the business while I was trying to live a life pleasing to God and I was struggling. I deserved (so I thought) to be the one with all the business and making all the money. But I brought jealousy to a whole new level. Not only did I want to be the one busy and making more money than him, I realized that that might not be the proper Christian perspective, so I prayed that God would take away all his business (and give it to me!) so that he would “see the errors in his ways” and come to God. That may be all fine in some ways and God may actually allow “bad” things to happen to bring people to repentance. But I wasn't concerned for his spiritual well being at that time. I was concerned about my financial well being.
I was the one who needed to see the errors in my ways! I wasn't showing love. I tried disguising it as love but it was me trying to manipulate God. That never works!
Envy may seem to be one of the minor sins that really doesn't hurt anyone else. It is not like my envy actually caused him to lose business. The fact is that envy can be one of the most damaging sins. They call marijuana the gateway drug because people who typically smoke marijuana eventually want more than just marijuana. They move on to more destructive drugs.
I see envy as a gateway sin. Because it leads to more destructive sins.
Envy led to Cain murdering Abel
Envy led to Joseph's brothers to sell him as a slave
Envy led to Jesus' death on a cross
Mat 27:17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"
Mat 27:18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Do you see how envy and jealousy leads you away from loving.
Jas 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
Pro 27:4 Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?
Envy and jealousy can be more damaging than cruelty and anger. Where there is jealousy there is not love.
Now that we understand the gravity of envy and jealousy we must as Christians who want to please their father develop a strategy to prevent, as much as possible, being envious. It is in our sin nature to be envious and we will, if left to our own devices, fail in our attempts. We do not possess the power on our own to defeat envy and jealousy any more than any other sin that we may do. It is not just pulling up the boot straps and trying harder. You may be able to control some of the actions caused by envy some of the time. But the envious heart can only be subdued by the Holy Spirit within you interceding on your behalf to the Father.
Walking by the Spirit is the answer to envy.
Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
We walk by the Spirit by reading and obeying His word, the Bible. It is not some mystery that everyone can't understand. It is simple and plain. Mind you, I did not say that it was easy. Walking by the Spirit requires constant diligence. You can't be in the Word for an hour a month, or at church two hours a week or in fellowship twice a year and expect to be victorious over envy and jealousy. Or any sin for that matter. That is the part that is required by us. Diligent obedience to walk by the Spirit... God will take care of the rest. We spend all of our time trying to take care of the rest and not doing what God has told us to do. Be in Him and he will give you rest. If you are doing it any other way than you just become exhausted and fail and then most blame it on God. God has given us the answer. He offers us peace and rest in our obedience to Him. Proper submission is a wonderful thing.
God bless you as you seek His face and seek to walk by the Spirit. May God grant you peace and rest, regardless of your circumstances, in your walk.
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
So, if love is this important than we should understand what it is, what is expected of us by the Lord, and how do we accomplish that. That is the whole purpose of this whole series is to learn how we can be more obedient and be more pleasing to the Lord. If that is not your goal then we need to start back at the beginning and be sure that you have been saved. We may have times that we resist God and his correction but overall we should have the desire to please God. Because one who is born again loves their Savior. Like a young child trying to impress their father. They still make mistakes but they ultimately want their fathers approval because they love and respect him.
On to our text...
1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We have already covered that love is patient and kind. Being patient is more than just waiting. It is not just I am going to sit here and be patient until my children come visit me. It is, my children never come visit me they are mean to me when they do come but I am going to be patient and still love them. Kindness is more than being pleasant or agreeable to others. It is aggressively seeking to do good to another. Kindness does not wait for a chance to act, it searches for a place where it can act. Patience waits to act, kindness does not. But both are love.
Next on the list is what love is not... Love does not envy...
Before you are too quick to dismiss yourself from this one and say that it does not apply to you. That you are never envious. You should realize that envy includes jealousy. Thinking that someone has something that should be ours, wanting something someone else has, and wanting someone else not to have the thing at all. It is resenting a person, being displeased when thy have success. Even if you don't think that they deserve it.
I worked with a young man for about 3 years and we contemplated becoming partners and starting a business together. I soon realized that we had different ethics and ideas on how a company should operate and he was not a Christian and lived a life outside of work that I did not approve of. So we shook hands and parted ways and both went and started our own businesses. We would occasionally contact one another to talk about business. If I am being honest we probably only talked when one of us had something that we wanted to brag to the other about. But we will get into boasting next time! But when he would tell me about a big sale that he made or how much business he had I found that jealousy would well up inside me. I couldn't understand how someone who was dishonest and lived a life of hell was getting all the business while I was trying to live a life pleasing to God and I was struggling. I deserved (so I thought) to be the one with all the business and making all the money. But I brought jealousy to a whole new level. Not only did I want to be the one busy and making more money than him, I realized that that might not be the proper Christian perspective, so I prayed that God would take away all his business (and give it to me!) so that he would “see the errors in his ways” and come to God. That may be all fine in some ways and God may actually allow “bad” things to happen to bring people to repentance. But I wasn't concerned for his spiritual well being at that time. I was concerned about my financial well being.
I was the one who needed to see the errors in my ways! I wasn't showing love. I tried disguising it as love but it was me trying to manipulate God. That never works!
Envy may seem to be one of the minor sins that really doesn't hurt anyone else. It is not like my envy actually caused him to lose business. The fact is that envy can be one of the most damaging sins. They call marijuana the gateway drug because people who typically smoke marijuana eventually want more than just marijuana. They move on to more destructive drugs.
I see envy as a gateway sin. Because it leads to more destructive sins.
Envy led to Cain murdering Abel
Envy led to Joseph's brothers to sell him as a slave
Envy led to Jesus' death on a cross
Mat 27:17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"
Mat 27:18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Do you see how envy and jealousy leads you away from loving.
Jas 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
Pro 27:4 Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?
Envy and jealousy can be more damaging than cruelty and anger. Where there is jealousy there is not love.
Now that we understand the gravity of envy and jealousy we must as Christians who want to please their father develop a strategy to prevent, as much as possible, being envious. It is in our sin nature to be envious and we will, if left to our own devices, fail in our attempts. We do not possess the power on our own to defeat envy and jealousy any more than any other sin that we may do. It is not just pulling up the boot straps and trying harder. You may be able to control some of the actions caused by envy some of the time. But the envious heart can only be subdued by the Holy Spirit within you interceding on your behalf to the Father.
Walking by the Spirit is the answer to envy.
Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
We walk by the Spirit by reading and obeying His word, the Bible. It is not some mystery that everyone can't understand. It is simple and plain. Mind you, I did not say that it was easy. Walking by the Spirit requires constant diligence. You can't be in the Word for an hour a month, or at church two hours a week or in fellowship twice a year and expect to be victorious over envy and jealousy. Or any sin for that matter. That is the part that is required by us. Diligent obedience to walk by the Spirit... God will take care of the rest. We spend all of our time trying to take care of the rest and not doing what God has told us to do. Be in Him and he will give you rest. If you are doing it any other way than you just become exhausted and fail and then most blame it on God. God has given us the answer. He offers us peace and rest in our obedience to Him. Proper submission is a wonderful thing.
God bless you as you seek His face and seek to walk by the Spirit. May God grant you peace and rest, regardless of your circumstances, in your walk.
3 comments:
I just want to say AMEN! God is awesome and there is nothing more fulfilling than to be in Him and Him in me.
This blog should be renamed the Lazarus Blog, because it has arisen from the dead!
But I'm not envious...
Your text demonstrates that oftentimes, in the course of clearly defining what something is, you must delineate what it is not. Kielar often does this, as does any good teacher/preacher.
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