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 back eight messages ago 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. 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? Next was 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. Then we moved on to another tough attribute of love. Love does not insist on its own way. Our love for others should cause us to not insist on our own way but to insist on God's way.
Now we move on. Love is not irritable. Most translations use the phrase... Is not easily provoked. Again I find that other translations seem to catch the essence of what Paul is trying to relay to the Corinthians. We need to read this in the proper context to be sure that we are not adding our own unfounded opinions to the text. Remember that this letter was written by Paul to the Corinthians because they were doing a lot of things wrong. This is a letter of rebuke and correction from Paul. Of course Paul includes encouragement as well, but the Corinthians were doing some very unacceptable things. Things that even unbelievers would say were wrong. They were giving in to human temptations and desires. They were mixing worldly behaviors into their Christianity. Much the same way many do today and many of us still struggle with. I consider myself guilty in this area and am thankful that through the forgiveness given to me by Christ I don't have to be condemned for my failure as a follower of Christ. God knew that we would fail, He knows that we are not capable of perfect love as he demands. That is why He sent Jesus, the only one who ever succeeded in loving perfectly to cover our sin with His grace.
So if Paul was writing to the Corinthians about not being easily provoked, what would he have been speaking about? We need to look specifically at what the Corinthians were doing. That doesn't necessarily mean that you can't apply this to other areas but we need to start with the literal.
1Co 1:11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
There was quarreling amongst Christians.
1Co 1:12 What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
1Co 5:2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
There was pride and arrogance
1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
There was division in the church
1Co 3:3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
There was jealousy and strife
1Co 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.
There was sexual immorality
These are just five examples from Paul's letter explaining to us a little about what was going on in Corinth. If you look at even just these few things that I have pulled from the letter they all seem very familiar to me. Firstly because it looks much like many of the churches of today and these are some of the issues that we still have in the church. Secondly if we look at our list so far on what love is and what love is not we can see Paul addressing each one of these issues that the Corinthians had and we have today. He spends all these chapters pointing out some major issues that the Corinthians had and in one chapter tells them how to fix them all. Because no matter what your issue is, the answer is always the same. Jesus Christ our savior and redeemer. Almost like he is saying that if we just had love we could overcome all these issues of sin in our hearts and in our churches.
Now, as we go back into our specific attribute of love for today with all that we just discussed in mind. Love is not easily provoked.
Love will restrain our improper passions and will not be exasperated.
Love alleviates our urge to argue, Love conquers our conceit
Love draws together our division, Love strangles our strife,
Love subdues our sexual immorality.
This is of course not the entire list, it is not even the entire list Paul gives in 1 Corinthians. But now that we have looked at the literal examples that Paul gives we can see how it applies to all areas of our lives in which we do not restrain our passions.
Matt. Henrey writes...
Where the fire of love is kept in, the flames of wrath will not easily kindle, nor long keep burning. Charity will never be angry without a cause, and will endeavour to confine the passions within proper limits, that they may not exceed the measure that is just, either in degree or duration. Anger cannot rest in the bosom where love reigns.
As I close I want to encourage you that if are easily provoked by improper passions, whether it be anger, conceit, sexual immorality or any other “feeling” that controls your actions. There is still hope for you as there was for the Corinthians.
Allowing your actions to be controlled by your feelings is not always a bad thing. But as Mr. Henry states it must be confined within proper limits. I have very strong feelings toward my wife and therefore my actions will show that. I will hold her hand or kiss her or do something special for her. I allowed my actions to be controlled by my feelings for her. But if I started to treat Lisa or Sue with with those same actions then I have acted on an improper passion. So Paul is not trying to tell us that we can't have passion or act on passion but we should control the direction and actions of our passions. Oh if we could have the passion for Jesus that we do for ourselves or others.
So how do we get that passion? How do we not be easily provoked to improper passions and be easily provoked to proper passions?
As I said I am passionate about my wife. I don't have to try to think about doing an action that will show my passion to her. It comes naturally to me. I do it without having to think about it. It is second nature to me. But it hasn't always been like that. When we first met I didn't even like her. I thought she was mean and rude and I didn't want anything to do with her. But then I started to get to know her and thought... She is not quite as mean as I thought. I guess she is okay. Then we went on our first date and I acted like a jerk to her and she vowed to never go out with me again! But my best friend was dating her sister and so we still saw each other. She finally agreed to go on a date again with me mostly because her sister begged her to and we spent hours just talking with each other and learning about each other and we began to fall in love that evening. That was 24 years ago and we have had some difficult times. But because I have devoted my love to her, know her intimately, I no longer have a struggle with being easily provoked to improper passions with another woman. I am easily provoked to proper passions because I want to show her my affection. But it all comes naturally now. It is not challenging, it is not difficult to remember or to consider how my actions would effect her. She is always on my mind.
That is where Jesus wants us and that is how we get there. We need to have such a close relationship with Christ that we would always consider how our actions would effect Him. Would it make Him happy, sad, proud, embarrassed etc. The relationship with my wife is a result of many years of constant close interaction with each other.
I would like to contend that if you are easily provoked to improper passions, the answer is a closer relationship with Christ. We get that closer relationship by constant close interaction with Him, in His word, in prayer. Living every moment of your life considering how your actions will effect the one you love.
