Love Part 12

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.

1 Co 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.

 

        Last time we covered verses 8 – 10 about the fact that love never ends. Love is the most important thing that we do as a Christian and is superior to tongues, prophesy knowledge etc. We also learned that if love is the root in your life than the fruits of the spirit will be what grows on you. I am not going to go over all the attributes of love that I have typically been doing on all these messages. Just bear in mind that love is always self-sacrificial and is always about others before you.

        We are going to cover the last three verses today and finish up this 12 part series. These last three verses have cause many theological debates to the actual meaning of the text. One such debate is on verse 11, which says…

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.

Some say that speaking refers to speaking in tongues, thought refers to prophesy and reasoning refers to knowledge. With that they say that all of those have ceased with the maturity of time and only love continues. While others will claim that this has nothing to do with those gifts. And then there is the big debate as to when all of this is supposed to take place or has it already taken place, it will take place when we are taken out of this world, etc. My point in all this is very similar as it was in my last message. It would seem to me that people spend so much time trying to decipher what exactly does the fact that there is 101 letters in that verse of which 42 are vowels mean. Of course I am exaggerating but not as much as you think. People do go that far in some cases. I understand the importance of studying the word of God and the importance of its correct interpretation but so often people seem to miss what would seem to be the most obvious.

If we put this all in context with Paul writing this letter of rebuke and correction and in light of the fact that he has spent a large amount of time telling the Corinthians that they are not paying attention to what is important.(As we spoke about last time). Is it possible that one of the things Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians is… You guys are acting like little children. Would you grow up and stop with this petty bickering and pride that you have. You’re not babies anymore stop acting like it!! I expect children, young Christians to act this way not you guys. There is obviously a lot more in there than just that but we should at least consider the obvious in context.

It does go on in verse 12 to say… 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.    

This seems to fall into the grace aspect of love. I am perhaps taking a lot of liberty in this area but it is a concept that is consistent with biblical truth so I believe it is still in line. Jesus is our example of love. If we look at all the attributes of love that we looked at, we can see that Jesus accomplished all of that perfectly while He was on the earth. Even though he was in the flesh He knew no sin.     

 2Co 5:21  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   

We can take all those attributes and replace love with Jesus.

Let’s just take a minute to do that.

Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on His own way. Jesus is not irritable or resentful; Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.   Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. Jesus never ends.

The grace aspect is this… Jesus loves perfectly and we are called to be imitators of Christ. We will fail to love perfectly. There wasn’t a single attribute of love that we have gone over that I have accomplished perfectly. Some I down right failed miserably in. But we are still in the flesh and will fail. It is His righteousness that allows us to some day when the perfect comes that we will see Him as He is, we will see him face to face and know Him fully as He already knows us. I believe at that time we will be able to love completely and perfectly as He loves us.

So as we move on to our last verse.

1Co 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Why is love the greatest? I believe that firstly when Paul wrote this, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that he indeed was describing Jesus in this chapter and pointing out to the Corinthians that they were focusing on themselves instead of on Christ. He was pointing them towards Christ which is the same thing we are called to do today. But let’s look at these three things. Faith, I have preached a lot on faith in the past and I have stressed the importance of faith and that without faith we are missing a vital part of our Christian walk. Then we have hope, which without hope what do we have? If I have no hope in Christ or heaven or in my salvation then it would cause me to fail. So we can see how important hope is to the Christian walk. But then we have love, why is love so much more important? Because as Paul stated earlier, Love never ends. When the perfect comes, Jesus has gathered up His saints. We no longer have need of faith. We have Jesus!! The evidence is now seen!! We no longer have to hope we are experiencing!! I am so looking forward to the day that I don’t have to have faith and hope. You had some faith and hope in Diamond Ridge this morning. You believed that they were going to bring you lunch today. Even though you did not see it you had faith and hoped that you would eat today. But when they placed the plate in front of you, you no longer needed faith and hope for that meal. But if your anything like me you still loved that meal!! You see, no matter what stage we are in life or resurrection, love will always exist. Even when we are living in the new earth that is waiting for us, we will still love and be loved by Jesus.

LOVE PART 11

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. 1 Co 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 I usually do, I am going to give you a refresher of what we have covered the past ten weeks. We will have at least one more message on this text and possibly even two more depending on how it all comes together.
When we started we covered the first three verses and in it we saw the importance and the necessity of love in the Christian’s life. Paul stressed that there is nothing more important in the life of a Christian than love. So Paul goes on not just to tell us about the importance of it but what it should look like. That is what we have been covering for the past several messages starting with…


Love is patient or slow to react and it waits steadfastly.
Love is Kind, 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; we are not smarter than God
Love is not rude or unseemly, don’t be an offense to others even if it seems silly to you.
Love does not insist on its own way, our love for others cause us to insist on God’s way.
Love is not irritable or easily provoked, it is slow to anger
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth, we should not be too quick to accuse others and we should be encouraging them when they are down.
And last time we covered…
Love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things which calls us to encourage and protect others even if it hurts us.
We are going to cover verses 8,9 and 10 today.

Vs. 8… Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues they will cease; as for knowledge it will pass away.
Vs. 9… For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Vs. 10… but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

There are several ways we can look at this and as far as I can tell they would all be accurate but let’s keep in mind the proper context of the book as we move on. Let’s begin by looking at the first phrase “Love never ends”. Some translations including the King James use the word fail. That is technically accurate for the day but by todays vernacular love never ends is a better translation. It means that true love is everlasting not that love always succeeds as one might interpret the word fail. The divorce rate of today speaks volumes to this. Of course some would claim that true love was never present to begin with if it ended in divorce and I do not totally disagree with that. Although no matter how much you love someone it does not guarantee that that love will be accepted. Of course that does not give us a license to stop loving though. Much like though we did not first love Him, He loved us enough to die for us and that love continues and will always continue.
If we go back to our context of this letter Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they were prideful and boasting about their gifts. As I read commentary after commentary about this text it seemed to me that most just wanted to use these verses to support their beliefs of whether or not tongues and prophesy and words of knowledge still exist today or not. I think that many are missing the bigger picture. Not that it has not bearing but we can get so wrapped up in the minor things that we miss the major thing. Just like the Corinthians were and that is the same thing Paul is admonishing them for. They, just like us, were focusing on the temporal, less important issues. All those spiritual gifts that they had and were so proud of, all the talents, all the riches, they are not going to last and are not important in comparison to love. Most everything that we value will fail or cease to exist but in the end love will replace all those things that failed you, with perfection. Our perspective of what is important has become twisted and we as a people have been deceived, just as the Corinthians had.

Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This is not only about material things. If your heart is full of pride than your treasure is in yourself. As we have seen in previous weeks love is about laying ourselves down for others. It is about esteeming others above ourselves. My question to you is this… Where is your heart today? Is it seeking to do good and to encourage others or is it just to better yourself. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that bettering yourself is bad, but if you place it above loving others than you are deceived about what is important. Just as the Corinthians were.

Loving God and others is our most important duty as Christians. All the other “things” even if they seem like good things. Tongues, prophesy and words of knowledge were not bad things that the Corinthian’s were doing. But they were not doing them out of a heart of love for others but they were doing them to raise themselves on a pedestal and arguing about which spiritual gift is better than the other.
I have been to churches with Sunday morning services that were a performance just like a secular concert. During praise and worship time you could sit at a small table and order and eat coffee and donuts…during the service!
The focus is no longer on love and on God. It is on gifts and talents that will expire.
I have referenced this text before and will continue probably for the rest of my life because it is so clear and it has affected my perspective in a tremendous way.

Mat 22:36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
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."

Loving God is our greatest command and loving others is second. There are no greater commands than those two. There are others obviously but they all have the same root. Love is the root. If love is the root in your life than the fruits of the spirit will be what grows on you.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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.

These fruits sound very similar to the traits of love that we have been discussing all these weeks. Paul lays all of this out very plainly and in many places and ways in the books that he has written.

Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We are called to walk in love, which is a sacrificial love, as Christ did for us, and lay down our lives for others. Our own status, our own talents, our abilities, whatever it may be, if it becomes more important than love or interferes with love than it is sin. I believe that is the main point that Paul is trying to make in the text. We should strive after love and everything else having to do with gifts, talents etc. will be done in a honoring and pleasing way to God as a sweet smelling sacrifice to Him.

Love Part 10

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. 1 Co 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 many messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. If we don't love than we are not a Christian. After that we covered the 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. We are not 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. Then we went on to... Love is not irritable or easily provoked. And the last time I spoke we covered the very end of verse 5 and verse 6, which covered how love is not quick to accuse others and that we should encourage others when they are down.
We move on to verse 7 this week which says… Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.






We move on to verse 6 this week, which is Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. King James version adds a phrase that is not in the ESV version. It adds thinketh no evil to the end of verse 5. I am going to add that to this message because it seems to roll properly into verse 6
1 Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

We are going to start with that phrase. Thinketh no evil. I am going to use a very trusted Matthew Henry’s commentary. Although I am going to put in an easier to understand manner with the goal of not changing the meaning of what he has written. As I studied this section of scripture I found that his commentary was as accurate as I could certainly determine, and judging by the way my flesh responded by kicking and screaming it would seem effective for admonishment and encouragement.

Charity (love) thinks no evil…
Love cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge. It is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge. It does not suspect evil of others. True love is not apt to be suspicious. It will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed. It will never indulge suspicion without proof, but will rather be inclined to disbelieve evidence against the person it affects. It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance only when the evidence cannot be resisted. It will never suspect ill or have a bad opinion upon mere appearances or here-say. Love will put the best face on that it can in circumstances that have no good appearance.
As I was reading this commentary I was reminded of an illustration that J.D. used to give on occasion. I don’t remember the exact way that he put it but I do remember the point so I am going to make it my own.
Before I go on to my example let me just make the disclaimer that none of this is true and is an entirely fictitious story.
If someone came to me and told me that they saw Ed and Marty out behind the bowling alley getting high and selling drugs to kids what would my first reaction be? If I am being honest I think it would be immediate disbelief. “It must be someone who looks just like Ed or Marty but not them. Maybe (God help us!) they have twins.”
But then my source said it was definitely them. They heard them talking and heard them call each other by their names. My reaction would be something like “They must have been drugged against their will and was then threatened harm to their family if they didn’t. Someone must be holding a gun up to their family. Or maybe they were in an accident and have suffered brain damage. Maybe you misunderstood what was going on.”
You see because I love them and I know that it is against their character to do such a thing. I would have to be convinced that they were intentionally doing and selling drugs to kids. But I would have to have hard evidence like a verbal confession.
Love is reluctant to accuse others. Not that it is blind, but that it doesn’t look for unfounded reasons to drag another through the mud.
Too many times the response to the above type scenario is an immediate phone call to 20 of their closest friends to “ask for prayer” for the downfallen men of the church. Sometime prayer chains can be nothing more than gossip chains. Then within 2 hours it is all over face book that Ed and Marty are druggies selling drugs to kids and I knew that Ed guy wasn’t right. I just didn’t trust him and now I know why. Must have been the Holy Spirit warning and protecting me from that terrible man. No wonder he has a camp for kids. He probable gives them all drugs and gets them hooked so they will come to him and buy later. And that poor Marty, Seems like such a nice guy but you know you hang around guys like Ed enough and even the good guys can be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals you know.
What was not considered in this scenario is love. What may have been happening is that Ed and Marty were out behind the bowling alley taking drugs away from kids so they had the drugs in their hands so it looked like they were selling it and they were actually witnessing to the kids because they both have a burden for the souls of young people even to the point of putting themselves at a physical risk with the drug riddled kids behind the bowling alley.
Again, that did not happen. I made the story up for an example. Let’s get back to Matthew Henry’s commentary as he continues on concerning verse 6.

Love rejoiceth not in iniquity…
Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, it will not intentionally hurt or wrong any and certainly would not make it a matter of its delight or rejoice in doing harm or mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will because it will gratify its spite of another. The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable (loving) spirit than its sport or delight and gives one no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity (love), to rejoice at such fall!
Love rejoiceth in the truth…
Love is glad of the success of the gospel, which is the truth, and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
As you can see in this verse there is a negative and a positive. Don’t do this but do this. Don’t rejoice in iniquity but do rejoice in the truth. Initially I would have told you that this is not an issue for me but when I look at the depth of this verse I start to see where I fall short. I do, at times, tend to look and dwell on others faulty aspects than I do their good aspects. I do, on occasion, suspect other people of things that I have no or very little grounds to believe. The truth, I believe, is that if we can find enough faults in others than it gives us, a sort of, “permission” to fail. We hold ourselves up and compare ourselves to others and it makes us feel better if we find them “worse” than we are. We are to hold ourselves up to Christ and compare. Then we can have the right perspective and know that we are filthy rags not worthy to wipe the sweat off Christ’s brow.
It is by His love towards us; Christ takes no pleasure in our sins but wants us to see His truth prevail in us. We are called to be like Christ to the extent we are able.
Matthew Henry made a comment that I have read already but I wanted to draw it out as I close.
“Love will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them…”
This is true love; it is what Christ has done for us. He has taken our faults and sins and covered them with His blood and has put His veil over them so that the Father sees only Christ’s righteousness when He looks at us. We are blameless to God and therefore able to share in His inheritance. I am overwhelmed at Christ’s grace and mercy.
I would like to leave you with this to meditate on. Is or has anyone ever been overwhelmed at your grace and mercy toward them? Have you ever shown anyone compassion and love when you and everyone else knew they didn’t deserve it? Is there someone in your life who has been accused of something? Whether they are guilty or not is immaterial. I challenge you to show the love of Christ to that person and reach out and help them. Uplift and encourage them. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. This is the time that many are at a place that they will accept Christ as their Savior. Don’t condemn them on what other people say or what they look like. It is Christ’s love and His word through you that will draw others to Him.

Love Part 9

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.
1 Co 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 nine messages ago that showed the importance and necessity of love in the Christian's life. If we don't love than we are not a Christian. After that we covered the 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. We are not 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. Then we went on to... Love is not irritable or easily provoked. And we were all convicted and begged for God’s mercy because we failed so dreadfully in that area. Or maybe that was just me!

We move on to verse 6 this week, which is Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. King James version adds a phrase that is not in the ESV version. It adds thinketh no evil to the end of verse 5. I am going to add that to this message because it seems to roll properly into verse 6
1 Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

We are going to start with that phrase. Thinketh no evil. I am going to use a very trusted Matthew Henry’s commentary. Although I am going to put in an easier to understand manner with the goal of not changing the meaning of what he has written. As I studied this section of scripture I found that his commentary was as accurate as I could certainly determine, and judging by the way my flesh responded by kicking and screaming it would seem effective for admonishment and encouragement.

Charity (love) thinks no evil…
Love cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge. It is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge. It does not suspect evil of others. True love is not apt to be suspicious. It will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed. It will never indulge suspicion without proof, but will rather be inclined to disbelieve evidence against the person it affects. It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance only when the evidence cannot be resisted. It will never suspect ill or have a bad opinion upon mere appearances or here-say. Love will put the best face on that it can in circumstances that have no good appearance.
As I was reading this commentary I was reminded of an illustration that J.D. used to give on occasion. I don’t remember the exact way that he put it but I do remember the point so I am going to make it my own.
Before I go on to my example let me just make the disclaimer that none of this is true and is an entirely fictitious story.
If someone came to me and told me that they saw Ed and Marty out behind the bowling alley getting high and selling drugs to kids what would my first reaction be? If I am being honest I think it would be immediate disbelief. “It must be someone who looks just like Ed or Marty but not them. Maybe (God help us!) they have twins.”
But then my source said it was definitely them. They heard them talking and heard them call each other by their names. My reaction would be something like “They must have been drugged against their will and was then threatened harm to their family if they didn’t. Someone must be holding a gun up to their family. Or maybe they were in an accident and have suffered brain damage. Maybe you misunderstood what was going on.”
You see because I love them and I know that it is against their character to do such a thing. I would have to be convinced that they were intentionally doing and selling drugs to kids. But I would have to have hard evidence like a verbal confession.
Love is reluctant to accuse others. Not that it is blind, but that it doesn’t look for unfounded reasons to drag another through the mud.
Too many times the response to the above type scenario is an immediate phone call to 20 of their closest friends to “ask for prayer” for the downfallen men of the church. Sometime prayer chains can be nothing more than gossip chains. Then within 2 hours it is all over face book that Ed and Marty are druggies selling drugs to kids and I knew that Ed guy wasn’t right. I just didn’t trust him and now I know why. Must have been the Holy Spirit warning and protecting me from that terrible man. No wonder he has a camp for kids. He probable gives them all drugs and gets them hooked so they will come to him and buy later. And that poor Marty, Seems like such a nice guy but you know you hang around guys like Ed enough and even the good guys can be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals you know.
What was not considered in this scenario is love. What may have been happening is that Ed and Marty were out behind the bowling alley taking drugs away from kids so they had the drugs in their hands so it looked like they were selling it and they were actually witnessing to the kids because they both have a burden for the souls of young people even to the point of putting themselves at a physical risk with the drug riddled kids behind the bowling alley.
Again, that did not happen. I made the story up for an example. Let’s get back to Matthew Henry’s commentary as he continues on concerning verse 6.

Love rejoiceth not in iniquity…
Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, it will not intentionally hurt or wrong any and certainly would not make it a matter of its delight or rejoice in doing harm or mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will because it will gratify its spite of another. The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable (loving) spirit than its sport or delight and gives one no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity (love), to rejoice at such fall!
Love rejoiceth in the truth…
Love is glad of the success of the gospel, which is the truth, and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
As you can see in this verse there is a negative and a positive. Don’t do this but do this. Don’t rejoice in iniquity but do rejoice in the truth. Initially I would have told you that this is not an issue for me but when I look at the depth of this verse I start to see where I fall short. I do, at times, tend to look and dwell on others faulty aspects than I do their good aspects. I do, on occasion, suspect other people of things that I have no or very little grounds to believe. The truth, I believe, is that if we can find enough faults in others than it gives us, a sort of, “permission” to fail. We hold ourselves up and compare ourselves to others and it makes us feel better if we find them “worse” than we are. We are to hold ourselves up to Christ and compare. Then we can have the right perspective and know that we are filthy rags not worthy to wipe the sweat off Christ’s brow.
It is by His love towards us; Christ takes no pleasure in our sins but wants us to see His truth prevail in us. We are called to be like Christ to the extent we are able.
Matthew Henry made a comment that I have read already but I wanted to draw it out as I close.
“Love will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them…”
This is true love; it is what Christ has done for us. He has taken our faults and sins and covered them with His blood and has put His veil over them so that the Father sees only Christ’s righteousness when He looks at us. We are blameless to God and therefore able to share in His inheritance. I am overwhelmed at Christ’s grace and mercy.
I would like to leave you with this to meditate on. Is or has anyone ever been overwhelmed at your grace and mercy toward them? Have you ever shown anyone compassion and love when you and everyone else knew they didn’t deserve it? Is there someone in your life who has been accused of something? Whether they are guilty or not is immaterial. I challenge you to show the love of Christ to that person and reach out and help them. Uplift and encourage them. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. This is the time that many are at a place that they will accept Christ as their Savior. Don’t condemn them on what other people say or what they look like. It is Christ’s love and His word through you that will draw others to Him.

Love Part 8

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 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.