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.

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.

Love Part 6

This is part 6 in my series on love using 1 Corinthians chapter 13 for the text. We will start as usual with reading our entire 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.

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. Now we are looking at a few things that love is not. Love does not envy. Love is not jealous of others accomplishments. Last time we covered boasting and arrogance. We saw that boasting and arrogance covers a little more than it seems on the surface. Remember that arrogance believes that we know more or better than God does. Now we move on to Love is not... Rude.

Once again if there is such importance in loving on another and this is God's definition of what love is than we need to do due diligence to understand what is being taught to us here. Is it as simple as don't be rude to one another? I am not usually rude. As a matter of fact I will usually go as far as I can the other way to not be rude. Not because I am some kind of a saint but because being rude causes conflict and I avoid conflict at almost any cost. Sometimes avoiding conflict is good but I am learning as I grow older that conflict is sometimes the only means of resolution. It is how I handle myself in the midst of that conflict that will determine how that conflict will effect me. Back to my point! I do not consider myself to be a rude person and usually go out of my way to be sure that I am not rude and I do everything that I can to be sure that no one else mistakes one of my actions as rude. As I began to study this I realized, as I have with all the other parts of this series, that there is more to being rude, as we understand it, than it appears on the surface.
Most versions render this text... Love doth not behave itself unseemly, some use the word indecently. I like the use of unseemly much better than rude because it covers a much broader definition and fits in with the things that the Corinthians were doing better than just being rude as we understand the word rude today.
The most common online definition for rude is... discourteous or impolite in a deliberate way. One of the less used definitions was not properly or fully developed.
The definition of unseemly is... not keeping with established standards of taste or proper form; unbecoming or indecoruos in appearance, speech, conduct, etc.
As you can see the term unseemly covers a lot more ground than just rude. Although rude could be in the definition of unseemly.

Again, I want us to come back to the context of our text like we did last time when I spoke on arrogance. Paul is admonishing the Corinthians because they were doing things that were not in line with what he was teaching them. We can see that rudeness played a part in that admonishment if we look at a few particular issues.
In chapter 5 we see an example of the rudeness or the unseemly behavior that the Corinthians were doing.

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.

An act that is not acceptable by even paganistic standards is a rude, unseemly behavior that is not acceptable by the standards of love. Love should be the example of a moral character that is above what is just considered acceptable.


Another example that the Corinthians give us I used last time.

1Co 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.
1Co 11:21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
1Co 11:22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

John MacArthur writes this on this text...

This is a person, a man or a woman, who has not the ability to discipline his behavior with others in mind. He's just rude and out of place and overbearing and totally self-centered. And this... there couldn't be a better definition of the Corinthians. They were so rude, for example, they came to the love feast and ate all their food before the people who had none got there. They over indulged. They were like hogs when it came to eating at the love feast. Their behavior at the Lord's Supper was so bad they got drunk, kept taking the cup. Women had overstepped the bounds of female propriety before God and the women were taking their veils off and usurping the role of a man in the church and he's saying. “ You are not acting in a becoming way.” And the undisciplined, rude conduct of the Corinthian glossolalias (tongues) had come to the place where it was the antithesis of love, Everybody shouting out. Everybody talking. Everybody trying to get the prominence and nobody considering at all the other. And when you do that, there's no love there. Love is never rude because love is always lost in how what I does affects somebody else.

This is about a lack of courtesy, civility, consideration, tact, manners and politeness. A person who is rude isn't concerned about how their bad behavior is limiting the enjoyment of others. It is like a loudmouth or constant complainer at the restaurant, or the person who eats with their mouth open, talks with their mouth full, and slurps their soup. These are practical, silly illustrations but the point is the same. It is not very loving to disregard decorum by carelessly demonstrating our own lack of discipline.

We are called to live a life of self sacrifice. If we love to wear hats in the house and we go into someones house who is offended by wearing a hat indoors. Then our love should cause us to remove our hat. If you walk in the front door of someones house and you see a pile of shoes next to the front door and a white carpet. Then our love for others should cause us to respect that individuals wishes and remove our shoes. We should be active in this and observant. Look for ways to not be rude or offensive to others. Be sensitive to others feelings.
You are going to think some people are silly or plain out crazy with some of the things that bother them but, again, we are called to give up our desires for God's desires. His desire is for us to not be rude or act unseemly as we love one another as He loves us and puts up with our little quirks.

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.