The past two weeks we have been studying the fifteen characteristics of love that are listed in I Cor. 13. We have covered the first seven. These are challenging! Love requires hard work and God’s enabling.
Maybe you heard about the guy who fell in love with an opera singer. He fell in love while watching her sing through a set of binoculars—from the third floor balcony. He was convinced he could live “happily ever after” married to a voice like that. He scarcely noticed she was considerably older than him. Nor did he care that she walked with a limp. Her mezzo-soprano voice would take them through whatever might come. After a whirlwind romance and a hurry-up ceremony, they were off for their honeymoon. He began to prepare for their first night together. As he watched, his chin dropped to his chest. She plucked out her glass eye and plopped it into a container on the nightstand. She pulled off her wig, ripped off her false eyelashes, yanked out her dentures, unstrapped her artificial leg, and smiled at him as she slipped off her glasses that hid her hearing aid. Stunned and horrified, he gasped, “For goodness sake, woman, sing, sing, SING!” Love can be challenging.
The first seven of the characteristics are: love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, love does not boast, love is not arrogant, love is not rude, and love is not self seeking. Now we will look at the next four.
8. Love is not easily provoked. The Message translation helps me comprehend this principle. It translates the phrase love “Doesn’t fly off the handle.” Some people have a short fuse. Some people are thin skinned.
If we exercise this trait we will not be easily angered by people at church, home, work, or school. Anger will cause a person to do illogical things. Maranatha Magazine carried a humorous story about anger and criticism: “The wife of a hard-to-please husband was determined to try her best to satisfy her husband for just one day. ‘Darling,’ she asked, ‘what would you like for breakfast this morning?’ He growled, ‘Coffee and toast, grits and sausage, and two eggs— one scramble and one fried.’ She soon had the food on the table and waited for a word of praise. After a quick glance, he exclaimed, ‘Well, if you didn’t scramble the wrong egg!”
A. Anger is its own worst enemy. Some people criticize the Bible and reject it as a bunch of do’s and don’t’s. The Bible is a common sense book that is given for our good. Anger is one such example. It causes high blood pressure, sleeplessness, stomach problems, and headaches.
Joke: Years ago I picked up a cartoon that illustrates this principle. In this cartoon Beetle steals Sarge’s candy bar.
Sarge says: I want to talk to you, Beetle.” (As he talks he kicks him in the seat of the pants.)
Beetle says: “About what?”
Sarge says: “You saw me buy a candy bar at the PX, didn’t you?” (while continuing to kick him)
Beetle says: “Yes.”
Sarge says: “Okay, where did you put it?” (while continuing to kick)
Beetle says: “In my back pants pocket.”
If God wants you to control your anger it is because He has your best interest at heart. If God wants you to control your lust it is because He has your best interest at heart.
B. A short fuse may indicate other issues that need attention.
Illustration: Some months ago I told you about a weird thing that happened to a dog of ours. This happened years ago. A tick got buried in the skin of this dog. The tick buried up in the dog’s skin just above the shoulder. The dog could not reach the tick to scratch it off. As a result the tick crippled the dog. That is a picture of what anger will do. Anger is often a reflection of other issues we are facing.
Illustration: The most difficult person I have encountered in a church was an illustration of this principle. This man had a teenage son who was killed in a car accident at the corner of the church property. That death seemed to be a burr under this man’s saddle. He took his frustrations out on other people.
C. The Bible encourages us to be in control of our anger. The Bible says “don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (Eph. 4:26) Notice the teaching of the verse. The verse does not deny anger. A Christian is not a super saint who never gets angry. The Bible recognizes that we are going to get angry. It encourages us to get control of our anger. That’s why it says “Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.”
Joke: I told you about the couple that agreed they would live by Eph. 4:26. They agreed that they would never go to bed angry. At one point in their marriage they testified they had not slept in a week.
9. Love thinketh no evil. The Holman translation says love “Does not keep a record of wrongs.” The word “thinks” (as used in the NKJV) is an accounting word. It refers to the act of entering something in a ledger. Thus, the Bible is teaching us to avoid keeping score of wrongs. We should not store up memories of wrongs.
In his book, Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal Artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain and cause bitterness.
—Michael Williams, Morganfield, Kentucky. Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4.
A. Whenever we store up memories we allow resentment to build in our hearts. Resentment will corrode your heart. The Bible tells us “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.” (Heb. 12:5 NASB)
Illustration: Have you ever seen any of this friendship bread? There is one recipe that has to sit for several days before it is cooked. As that bread sits in a zip lock bag it goes through a fermentation process. Each day you have to let the gases out of the bag. If not, the bag will explode. In fact, I was talking to a lady in Tuscaloosa that experienced this. Her bag of bread exploded and made a major mess in her kitchen.
There is another important thought concerning storing memories. When we store memories we usually plan to use them as a weapon in the future. I love to watch old western movies. In many of those westerns you will see card players who hide Dillinger guns up their sleeves. If they get into a tight situation they quickly pull out that concealed gun and use it to protect themselves. We use old memories and unforgiveness in much the same way.
B. Whenever we store memories we are disobeying the command to forgive.
Jesus said “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Mt. 6:14
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Eph. 4:32
We owe it to ourselves to forgive those who have harmed us. Our unforgiveness does not hurt the other person. It hurts us. When we fail to forgive we hurt ourselves.
I once heard a touching story that came from the life of Leonardo DaVinci. This story occurred while DaVinci was painting his famous picture, “The Last Supper.” It seems that DaVinci had an intense and bitter argument with a fellow painter. DaVinci pondered ways he could get even with this man. He came up with a devious plan. He decided to paint the face of his enemy onto the body of Judas Iscariot so it would be captured in time. According to the story DaVinci painted the face of his enemy onto the body of Judas. When people came to look at his painting, as it progressed, they recognized the face of the other painter. As he continued his work on this great painting he finally came to the face he had saved for the very end---the face of Jesus. According to the story, DaVinci could not paint the face of Jesus. He was greatly troubled knowing that he had painted the face of his enemy as the face of Judas Iscariot. He realized that his hatred and bitterness was keeping him from being able to face the face of Christ. So he went back to the image of Judas and painted some neutral face. Then he was able to paint the face of Christ.
If God doesn’t store up memories of our sins then neither should we. If you are storing up memories of your sins or someone else’s, you should throw those in the garbage can at the base of Jesus cross. The garbage disposal unit is here to take those sins away.
10 & 11. “Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” This verse represents qualities 10 & 11. One of them is positive and one is negative. They go together like Siamese twins.
A. Look at the negative command. Love does not rejoice in iniquity.” Moffett translates this phrase “Love is never glad when others go wrong.”
There has been a sad story in the news several times in recent weeks. This story concerns the pastor of a mega church in Denver. Several years ago this pastor was exposed for a sexual indiscretion. He spent several years in rehabilitation after which he returned to the limelight. Shortly after returning he was exposed again. That kind of thing should break our hearts. However, sometimes we participate in gossip and spreading bad news concerning a brother.
There is another side to this truth. “I do not delight in exposing other people’s failures.” If everybody lived by this principle there would be no need for the tabloids. Last week I went to the web site of one of these gossip magazines. Their headlines explain this verse.
• “Hollywood’s Nastiest Divorces.”
• Salma Nayak family addiction.
• Jen still in love with Brad.
• Taylor Swift wallops Miley Cyrus in Cyber-space.
• Jessica Simpson melt-down.
They speculate and sell magazines based upon someone’s bad luck or bad decisions.
B. The eleventh quality of love, which is the positive side of the 10th states, “Love rejoices in the truth.” Real love “rejoices whenever the truth wins out.” (NLT) I want to share a complaint. I wish the evening news would share more good news about good things that are happening. If you listen to the evening news you will come away depressed. Most of the stories focus on the prevalence of bad. Why not focus on the good things that are going on in our world?
Look at this truth again. “Love rejoices whenever the truth wins out.” An example from Jesus life illustrates this truth. There was an occasion when the legalistic religious leaders brought a woman to Jesus. They said she had been caught in the act of adultery. They wanted to stone her. Jesus did not condone her behavior nor did he condemn her. He tried to encourage and help her. Jesus encouraged her to go and sin no more. He offered hope. He offered forgiveness.
We have now covered eleven qualities of love. It should be obvious that love is to be active. It is not a passive quality. It is to be exercised. This reminds me of the first part of our vision statement. “We are to Love Jesus and share His love with people.” We are to be actively sharing Jesus love with people around us. Non of us are worthy of such a task. But when we give God a submissive heart He will take that and transform it into a God event. We have been encouraging you to perform kind deeds as a part of our focus on love. Kind deeds sometimes seem so insignificant. However, when God takes those small deeds He transforms them into a God event. This past week I was talking to a lady and she shared with me some kind deeds another lady had done for her. One of the kind deeds was inviting her to a parade. That simple act spoke volumes. God wants us to be actively loving other people.
