Love Part 7

Well here we are again still working on our series on love from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I have been blessed with what God has revealed to me as I study and speak on this topic. I have learned that I excel in some areas and have been found wanting in many other areas. I pray that it has caused you to consider what God has to teach you and that you will be receptive and open to God's encouragement and admonishing that comes from His word both read and preached. We are going to start as we usually do by reading the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

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 began with the first three verses that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. We cannot call ourselves Christians or even a follower of God or Christ if we don't have love. After that we covered characteristics of love. What love is and what it is not. We covered patience. Patience is slow to react and waits steadfastly. Then kindness, it looks for a place to act. It is active. Love does not envy. It is not jealous of others accomplishments. Love does not boast and is not arrogant. Remember me pointing out that if we don't rely or trust in God or His word then we are, in essence, saying we know better or are smarter than God? The last time I spoke it was about love is not rude. We used the word unseemly which seemed to fit the text much better in regards to the Corinthians and Paul's admonishment to them. We need to strive to not be offensive to others even if it seems silly to us. Now we get to move on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Just saying that phrase causes conviction in my heart. I know that I have a long way to grow in this area in my life. So I am praying for God's mercy and grace as I stumble along in life sometimes failing and sometimes victorious with this subject. Lord willing this message will give us better understanding and cause conviction that leads to repentance and encouragement to continue the race that has been set before us.

This attribute of love covers a huge area, and if you recall last week I commented that many of these attributes overlap one another. This particular attribute overlaps all of the others in one way or another. As I have been saying for all of these weeks...Love is about self sacrifice.
First, let me just say that this does not come easy and is not natural to our flesh. It will fight and argue and rationalize to the bitter end trying to convince you that you have to look out for number one because no one else will. We have been raised in a society that actually endorses and encourages this mindset. We live in “dog eat dog” world. Phrases in the business world like...”If your going to make it to the top you are going to have to step on some people to get there”.
Even a small “innocent”child will not naturally look out for another before themselves. I have seen that even in my own grandchild who I thought was a perfect angel! They have to be taught to share and to not hurt others. I bring this up to encourage you so that you aren't too beat up and think that there is something wrong with you because you have these feelings of selfishness. As I said earlier, I still struggle daily with issues of selfishness. We have to crucify our flesh and live in the Spirit moment by moment or we will fail. The only way to do that is to be in constant communion with God through prayer, praise and participation with God and His word.
Now that I have given away the end lets go back in and dig around a bit. One commentary I read on this phrase gave this definition for this phrase...(Love does not insist on its own way) Love is not possessive, demanding, stubborn, or dominating.
Have I stepped on any toes other than my own with that list? Don't worry if I missed you the writer goes on to include... Love does not talk too much but listens as well.
There.
That should include about everybody!
I would like to quote my good friend and pastor JD Hatfield on this text.
“This would also include shallow, self-focused lifestyles that refuse to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to them. In other words, people who don't have the right priorities for their prosperity. They are most interested in increasing their standard of living, without thinking of their standard of giving. Saving is good stewardship, but hoarding is not holy. We are to channel the resources God gives us and be a conduit of His blessings.”
This text is not saying that we necessarily have to live a life of poverty and give every penny and every morsel of food that you have to the poor. It is not saying that you should ignore the needs of yourself or your family. Although I think that sometimes, in some cases God does require that kind of obedience to teach faith. Remember the rich young ruler... Jesus told him to go sell everything he had and give it to the poor. But Jesus didn't tell everyone he met that they must do that. Because He knew the rich young rulers heart. He knew that his possessions were more important to him than God or others.
Let me give you a simpler more real to life example of love...
We are going to the Ocala drive in movie theater Friday night as it has just re-opened and is an inexpensive way to go to the movies and enjoy a night out. We get there an hour early and there is already a line with 50 or so cars ahead of us lined up on the side of the highway. So we pull off the side of the road and waited in line. As we are sitting there waiting a little Volkswagen bug cuts right through the line and pulls over. Of course the first reaction of some of the people were...Hey, they are cutting in line. That's not fair. Well as we continued to watch we were able to see that they were actually trying to get over so that they could help a stranded vehicle further off the road. But the first reaction by some was selfish and had an air of we deserve to be in front of them. We put in our time of waiting. Kind of reminds me of the workers who all started at different times of the day and all got paid the same amount. We were still going to get in to the movie with a good spot to park that one car was not going to effect our experience. So the people in the bug fix the other car and get it running and now are patiently waiting to get into line for the movie and again the first reaction of some... “There not going to get in front of us.”
This may seem like a silly example but it shows us that we are at our core... sinners that but for the grace of God would all kill and trample one another to get what we want. We are not naturally going to put others needs above our own. We are not naturally going to go out of our way to help another. God and His grace and love for us is our only hope.
As I close I would like for you to consider. If Jesus is love and He portrayed all these attributes while on Earth in human form. The ultimate act was His self sacrifice on the cross. He gave up the glory of heaven to come walk on the Earth as man, yet fully God, out of His obedience to the father because He loved us and chose to give His life up for us.
Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way. We must make sure our sacrifices are out of gospel gripped hearts; otherwise, it becomes a joyless and fruitless effort of self-righteousness. We should be struggling with the tension of doing things for our own self interest verses doing things for others because we are called to do so and because we have the ultimate example to follow. That of Christ dying on the cross for us and being raised again to the heavens at the right hand of God waiting to receive you.