Love Part 5

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.

LOVE PART 4

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.

Love... Part 3

Going back to our text in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 we are going to continue on in our series about love.

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.

As we covered the first three verses we were able to see the emphasis that is put on love. It would seem as though love is more important than anything else we can do. Love must come first. We see this in other places in the scriptures.

Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Joh 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
As we can see, it is not a suggestion that we love one another. Jesus spoke those words. Loving is a commandment.

1Pe 4:8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1Pe 4:9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1Pe 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

Here in Peter we also see that loving one another is placed on the top of the list. Did you notice that it says in verse 9 without grumbling?

Loving while grumbling is not loving at all.

We have to come to a point that the desire in our heart is to love one another.
It seems much easier, especially as we continue this study and learn what it really means to love, to just be a hermit and live by ourselves as much as possible. It seems easier if we would just not have any social interaction. People can leave me alone and I will leave them alone. The truth is that can be very appealing to me. I would like to be living in the woods up in Maine so I don't have to interact with others. But that would be in direct disobedience of God. We are commanded as we saw to love one another. We are supposed to be part of a body. If I am by myself then I am not able to do either one of those. That comes back to having a desire in our hearts. How do you get that desire? Be obedient whether you like it or not. Just because you know that you are supposed to do it. Your obedience will be rewarded and loving will become easier and easier.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Don't we all want to be encouraged? Meeting together as we are and one on one and loving one another is what helps us continue in our obedience. As we begin to love others you will start to see them change and become easier to love. If I am nothing but loving, caring and encouraging to my wife she is going to have a hard time getting upset with me. She may even want to be upset with me but if I show her nothing but love then it will stir her up to love me even though she may not like something that I've done. She is not going to respond in the same way then if I were always yelling at her, treating her poorly and calling her foul names. Of course there are some out there that just want to be contentious so this may not be effective to someone who is in rebellion to God or is unregenerate. But that doesn't mean we don't still have to love them. Remember whether we feel like it or not we are commanded to do it.

“Love is an action commanded by God not a feeling concocted by us.”

“Feelings are a result of love...not... love is a result of feelings.”

I spoke on patience last time, next we come to... Love is kind.

Matthew Henry writes this commentary on this...
II.It is kind - chrēsteuetai. (khraste-yoo'-om-ahee) It is benign, bountiful; it is courteous and obliging. The law of kindness is in her lips; her heart is large, and her hand open. She is ready to show favours and to do good. She seeks to be useful; and not only seizes on opportunities of doing good, but searches for them. This is her general character. She is patient under injuries, and apt and inclined to do all the good offices in her power. And under these two generals (Speaking of patience and kindness) all the particulars of the character may be reduced.

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. This is how we are commanded to love. When was the last time you performed a random act of kindness? Are you looking for ways to be kind to others or are you hiding in the shadows hoping that no one will see you so you don't have to be kind to them? I have been in both of those shoes. Sadly even just in this week. We are not going to be successful at this all the time. Jesus is the only one who is able to love us perfectly. That does not mean that we don't strive to love one another better. There is always room for improvement. If you don't think so, ask a friend or your spouse. I am sure that they can tell you where you are falling short!


I am going to close with our reference in Hebrews.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

My goal today is to stir you up today to do love and good works. Find a reason to be kind. So your sitting here in your chairs saying Dan what can I do? I can't hardly take care of myself right now. What could I possibly do for others? Sometimes just holding someones hand or giving them a smile or telling them that God loves them is more important than anything else they may need. The important thing is that we look, search and desire to find out how we can be kind to others.
Sometimes being kind can be rebuking. If my son is doing something that could hurt him and I tell him to stop that is being kind. Being kind is not just about warm fuzzy blankets and teddy bears. It is loving someone enough that even if they don't want to be your friend anymore you will still tell them that the life they are living is against the word of God and it is wrong.

God bless you as you seek to be patient and kind with one another. May God give us the strength and discernment to administer kindness as would be pleasing to Him.