We are continuing with our series on love using 1 Corinthians chapter 13 as our text. This is part 5 in the series and there are many more to come. Lets start by reading our text again.
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.
The first three verses speak of the importance of love in the Christians life. We have looked at other verses that support that and moved on to defining what love is and is not and how to apply that to our lives in order to be obedient to the Lord, the One who first loved us.
We have covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Kindness looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. Love is not jealous of others accomplishments. Now we move on to boasting and arrogance. Love does not boast and is not arrogant.
Before we begin looking at boasting and arrogance I would like to bring us back to the context of the text. Paul is admonishing the Corinthians for their behaviors. They are arguing over which of the spiritual gifts are more important. They are allowing things to happen in the church that people in the world wouldn't even allow. Some are gorging themselves in communion and shunning those that don't have for communion. In chapter 13 Paul covers all these issues by teaching what love is and where the Corinthians were lacking. JD uses the phrase for these chapters “Love limits liberty” We are free to act as we want but our love for others should limit that liberty. Having a sip of wine is not a sin in and of itself. We are commanded to not get drunk with wine but having a sip is not getting drunk. So we have the freedom to have that sip. But if we cause a new Christian or even an older Christian or maybe a prospective Christian who may be struggling with alcohol to stumble by our drinking. Then our love for others should be strong enough to overcome our desire to drink. If it is not then we have a drinking problem already. If we look at these definitions that Paul uses of what love is and put them in practical, for today, situations then we can begin to understand some basic principles of how we are commanded to act by God. Love is self sacrificial. We are to follow the example that Jesus is for us. When Jesus was on the earth he could have been or done anything he wanted. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He didn't have to suffer, he chose to, out of His love. Would it have been wrong for him to come to Earth and take His rightful throne and prevent His suffering? No. He is God. Whatever He does is right. So He sacrificed himself, by choice, because of His love for us. We are called to do the same. To sacrifice ourselves for God and for others. Jesus gave up His right to boast to become a servant to the very people who would crucify Him.
As we look back at the Corinthians they were using their spiritual gifts to show off. To show that they were more “spiritual”. Obviously not the example that Christ left for them.
KJV uses the term...
vaunteth not — JFB injects this commentary... an indirect rebuke of those at Corinth who used the gift of tongues for mere display.
What does all this do with loving? That was running through my mind when I wrote this if I am being honest. If I am reading this correctly it says that love does not boast then reason would say... one who boasts is not loving.
Still, you may be wondering what does boasting have to do with loving? So was I! Lets look a little deeper then. It is obviously written here for a reason.
The Robertsons word pictures uses the phrase... to play the braggart.
If you are boasting in yourself then you are not paying attention to the needs of others. The Corinthians made a perfect example of this with communion. The rich would go to communion and eat like gluttons and get drunk while the poor had nothing in which to take communion with. But the rich were so tied up in themselves that they had no concern for the others.
Love extinguishes pride, arrogance and boasting. Love does not insist on power or respect. Jesus had the right to boast and did not. We don't have the right to boast and do.
1Co 4:7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
The reason boasting and arrogance are so opposing to love is that it raises yourself above other Christians. Which means that you think of yourself as superior. One who thinks themselves superior over others will treat them with contempt and those who are treated with contempt will despise the other. Doesn't sound much like love does it? Those who truly love will honor one another and seek to put others needs above their own.
Php 2:3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Php 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Php 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Php 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
I know what your thinking... I don't boast, I am not arrogant! Much like we discussed envy and jealousy last time. Lets make sure that we understand what boasting and being arrogant is and includes.
A proud, boastful, arrogant person will think of themselves as indispensable or irreplaceable.
They don’t need anyone else – they are self-sufficient.
They don’t need you.
They don’t need me.
And they don’t need God.
Do you fall into any of these? I did and still struggle with it in some areas of my life. In business I find myself thinking and sometimes even saying that nobody can do this job as good as I can. I am the only one that will do it right. If I didn't do it myself than everything will fall apart.
To an extent, as the business owner if I don't do my job then things very well could fall apart. But I want to get to the heart of why I say and feel those things. Usually it is because someone has done something wrong or not my way. The fact is that there are people out there that do a better job than I do and are more experienced or more qualified to do my job.
I have some of the same issues with my family. I tend to think that if my children or wife didn't have me to hold everything together than our family would completely fall apart. The truth is in all of these matters is that it is not me or my talents or wisdom or my strength that holds anything together. It is God who holds everything together. I may be a tool that He uses but I in my own strength can do nothing to fix or keep together any of these things. They are out of my control. Yet we, out of our boastful arrogance try to fix things on our own without including God, or even trusting God for the outcome.
If we disregard or lack in the faith to trust in the counsel of the God's Word for instruction in our life then it is our arrogance to think that we know better than God. If you knowingly do something, anything contrary to what the Word of God teaches for any reason than you are saying that you know better than God.
James chapter 4 verse 6 says...As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Love does not boast and is not arrogant...
I discussed how boasting is focusing on our own lives and therefore is not love but it goes much further than that. If my arrogance causes me to think that I know more than God about a situation then my counsel to others will be tainted with my earthly wisdom, be a lot or a little, but it will not be biblical counsel. Giving counsel that is not biblical is far from loving one another.
As you can see boasting and arrogance can go a lot further than maybe you considered. But we conquer these with love. We cannot esteem others above ourselves and still be arrogant. It is not possible. I pray that God will grant you ears to hear and a mind to understand and a heart to love today. God bless us as we strive to be obedient and submissive to our loving father and Lord.
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.
The first three verses speak of the importance of love in the Christians life. We have looked at other verses that support that and moved on to defining what love is and is not and how to apply that to our lives in order to be obedient to the Lord, the One who first loved us.
We have covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Kindness looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. Love is not jealous of others accomplishments. Now we move on to boasting and arrogance. Love does not boast and is not arrogant.
Before we begin looking at boasting and arrogance I would like to bring us back to the context of the text. Paul is admonishing the Corinthians for their behaviors. They are arguing over which of the spiritual gifts are more important. They are allowing things to happen in the church that people in the world wouldn't even allow. Some are gorging themselves in communion and shunning those that don't have for communion. In chapter 13 Paul covers all these issues by teaching what love is and where the Corinthians were lacking. JD uses the phrase for these chapters “Love limits liberty” We are free to act as we want but our love for others should limit that liberty. Having a sip of wine is not a sin in and of itself. We are commanded to not get drunk with wine but having a sip is not getting drunk. So we have the freedom to have that sip. But if we cause a new Christian or even an older Christian or maybe a prospective Christian who may be struggling with alcohol to stumble by our drinking. Then our love for others should be strong enough to overcome our desire to drink. If it is not then we have a drinking problem already. If we look at these definitions that Paul uses of what love is and put them in practical, for today, situations then we can begin to understand some basic principles of how we are commanded to act by God. Love is self sacrificial. We are to follow the example that Jesus is for us. When Jesus was on the earth he could have been or done anything he wanted. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He didn't have to suffer, he chose to, out of His love. Would it have been wrong for him to come to Earth and take His rightful throne and prevent His suffering? No. He is God. Whatever He does is right. So He sacrificed himself, by choice, because of His love for us. We are called to do the same. To sacrifice ourselves for God and for others. Jesus gave up His right to boast to become a servant to the very people who would crucify Him.
As we look back at the Corinthians they were using their spiritual gifts to show off. To show that they were more “spiritual”. Obviously not the example that Christ left for them.
KJV uses the term...
vaunteth not — JFB injects this commentary... an indirect rebuke of those at Corinth who used the gift of tongues for mere display.
What does all this do with loving? That was running through my mind when I wrote this if I am being honest. If I am reading this correctly it says that love does not boast then reason would say... one who boasts is not loving.
Still, you may be wondering what does boasting have to do with loving? So was I! Lets look a little deeper then. It is obviously written here for a reason.
The Robertsons word pictures uses the phrase... to play the braggart.
If you are boasting in yourself then you are not paying attention to the needs of others. The Corinthians made a perfect example of this with communion. The rich would go to communion and eat like gluttons and get drunk while the poor had nothing in which to take communion with. But the rich were so tied up in themselves that they had no concern for the others.
Love extinguishes pride, arrogance and boasting. Love does not insist on power or respect. Jesus had the right to boast and did not. We don't have the right to boast and do.
1Co 4:7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
The reason boasting and arrogance are so opposing to love is that it raises yourself above other Christians. Which means that you think of yourself as superior. One who thinks themselves superior over others will treat them with contempt and those who are treated with contempt will despise the other. Doesn't sound much like love does it? Those who truly love will honor one another and seek to put others needs above their own.
Php 2:3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Php 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Php 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Php 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
I know what your thinking... I don't boast, I am not arrogant! Much like we discussed envy and jealousy last time. Lets make sure that we understand what boasting and being arrogant is and includes.
A proud, boastful, arrogant person will think of themselves as indispensable or irreplaceable.
They don’t need anyone else – they are self-sufficient.
They don’t need you.
They don’t need me.
And they don’t need God.
Do you fall into any of these? I did and still struggle with it in some areas of my life. In business I find myself thinking and sometimes even saying that nobody can do this job as good as I can. I am the only one that will do it right. If I didn't do it myself than everything will fall apart.
To an extent, as the business owner if I don't do my job then things very well could fall apart. But I want to get to the heart of why I say and feel those things. Usually it is because someone has done something wrong or not my way. The fact is that there are people out there that do a better job than I do and are more experienced or more qualified to do my job.
I have some of the same issues with my family. I tend to think that if my children or wife didn't have me to hold everything together than our family would completely fall apart. The truth is in all of these matters is that it is not me or my talents or wisdom or my strength that holds anything together. It is God who holds everything together. I may be a tool that He uses but I in my own strength can do nothing to fix or keep together any of these things. They are out of my control. Yet we, out of our boastful arrogance try to fix things on our own without including God, or even trusting God for the outcome.
If we disregard or lack in the faith to trust in the counsel of the God's Word for instruction in our life then it is our arrogance to think that we know better than God. If you knowingly do something, anything contrary to what the Word of God teaches for any reason than you are saying that you know better than God.
James chapter 4 verse 6 says...As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Love does not boast and is not arrogant...
I discussed how boasting is focusing on our own lives and therefore is not love but it goes much further than that. If my arrogance causes me to think that I know more than God about a situation then my counsel to others will be tainted with my earthly wisdom, be a lot or a little, but it will not be biblical counsel. Giving counsel that is not biblical is far from loving one another.
As you can see boasting and arrogance can go a lot further than maybe you considered. But we conquer these with love. We cannot esteem others above ourselves and still be arrogant. It is not possible. I pray that God will grant you ears to hear and a mind to understand and a heart to love today. God bless us as we strive to be obedient and submissive to our loving father and Lord.
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