LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE, PART 6
Warsaw Christian Church (2/15/09)
Richard M. Bowman, Pastor
Text: I Corinthians 13:4-13
This will end this series on love. As Paul elaborates on the nature of agape/love in our text, he shows how love acts in our relationships with other humans. He does not discuss how love manifests itself toward God. He understands that we must practice love toward one another. If we fail here, it is foolish to speak of our love for God. As John expressed it, “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
To speak of our love for God when there are contentions, strife, jealousies, unkind judging, imputing wrong motives to others and just plain selfishness among us is to speak nonsense. In one sense, the best way to show our love for God is to express love toward others.
He begins with the word “patience.” Love is patient. The Holy Spirit begins here because this is one of our biggest problems. The Greek word Paul uses means to suffer long - - - to put up with the foibles, mistakes, and downright meanness of others with a patient spirit. It is a state of mind that can bear long when provoked by others, even when their words are intended to harm us.
Love is also kind. The word used here means to be good-natured, gentle, tender, and affectionate. Love wishes well. It is not harsh, sour, morose, ill-natured. Love is courteous. The idea here is that under all provocations and abuse coming from others, love is gentle and mild. Hatred prompts harshness, severity, an unkindness of expression, anger, and a desire for revenge. Love is the opposite of these things. A man who truly loves another will be kind to him, desirous of doing him good; will be gentle, not severe and harsh; will be courteous because he desires his happiness.
1 Peter 3:8,9 express this truth very well. “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
Next, Paul defines Christian love as being void of envy. The Greek word (Zäloi) means to be zealous for or against any person or thing; to be eager for or against anyone. It is to have strong feelings toward another, either positively or negatively. Paul uses it here in a negative sense. He means that Christian love is not grieved because another possesses more blessings. Love looks at the greater wealth, the greater wisdom, the greater talent possessed by others without any feelings of envy. Christian love simply does not react to others with jealousy.
As I look at the world, I can find many people who have so much more than I do, and many who have less. I know this is hard to believe, but there are people in the world who are superior to me! There are people wealthier, smarter, and better looking than me. To envy is to feel uneasiness, shame, or discontent at the sight of such people; to feel sorry for myself at another’s prosperity. It is to fret over the real or imagined superiority of others. Envy also contains the wish that bad things would happen to these superior folks. (The Germans call it “Schadenfreude,” feeling happy over anothers pain”),
Envy usually expresses itself against those in the same line of business, occupation, or social rank. The physician envies another physician more learned or more successful; the lawyer envies another lawyer; the minister envies another minister who seems to be so much more successful than he is. When envy rears its ugly head we usually try to reduce the status of others with our criticisms. “Rev. So-and-So has a much larger church than I do, but have you noticed how arrogant he is?” Or, “His predecessor really built that church. He can’t preach himself out of a wet paper bag!”
The antidote for envy is agape/love. If we loved others—if we rejoiced in their happiness, we would not envy them. People who are superior to us in some way are not to blame for these superior endowments. They are gifts from God, and God has gifted all of us in different ways. Love rejoices in the gifts that others possess even though we lack those gifts. Any time you feel envy creeping into your thoughts you need to get down on your knees, repent, and ask God to fill you with His love.
Paul next approaches the question of how we look upon those to whom we feel superior. Love is not boastful, proud, or arrogant. In a way, pride is a close cousin to envy. In our fallen human nature, we like to find persons who are inferior to us. We envy those who have more than we do, and we feel superior to those we regard as beneath us. Racial prejudice is a prime example of this. Gossip of all kinds fits in here. Why do we gossip about others? As we cut down others with our words, we hope others will see how superior we are.
Paul continues. Love is not self-seeking. This is the person who says, “I want what I want, and I care not for the rest of the world.” It may not be spoken that blatantly, but many show in their behavior this is how they feel. They are committed to that human trinity, “me, myself and I.” Self-seeking means to be devoted to self - - - to be wholly preoccupied with concern for one’s self. Sometimes even our duty to God is neglected because we are all tied up in the ropes of self-centeredness. Paul does not here reprove every kind of care or concern for ourselves, but excessive self-interest. Now the excess lies in this—if we think of ourselves exclusively and neglect others, or if the desire for our advantage distracts us from concern for others. God commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When self-love obliterates love for others, we have a problem, a big problem. As we learned earlier, those who claim to love God but who do not love their neighbor are deluded.
You may have noticed there are many words and phrases Paul uses in his description of love. I am skipping some in the interest of time. I want to move on to his statement in verse 5 that “love keeps no record of wrongs” (NIV). This is so important, especially in family relationships. When you live with someone, eventually things are said and done which offend your spouse. Love forgives, and does not keep reminding the offender of the error of his or her ways. Parents certainly say and do things that are hurtful to their children. If the children have been brought up to love and trust Jesus, they will also learn to forgive. Some children remember all the mistakes their parents made, and that becomes their excuse for their bad behavior.
What does God do with the sins we have committed against Him? In heaven, will He remind us constantly of all the times we failed Him? “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). That is simply a way of saying that God will not constantly remind us of how bad we were on earth once when we are in His eternal Kingdom. In Christ, our sins are forgiven and removed from us forever. When God’s love resides in us, we find a new power to forgive those who have sinned against us. If you feel inward pain because you remember some hurt done to you in the past, you need to pray that God’s grace will bring healing.
I want to move on to verse 8. Paul concludes this verbal symphony on love by declaring that “love never fails” (KJV), or “love never ends” (NRSV). I don’t usually prefer the NRSV but in this case, I think their translation is closer to the truth. Love never ends. That is, love is consistent. When Christian love abides in us it is permanent. While we do fail in expressing Christian love if it is a reality in our hearts we are constantly driven back to it. Because it is so much stronger than any other attitude we hold, love eventually asserts itself and overpowers that which opposes it. Once Christian love has entered the soul, it is indelible. While Satan throws his fiery darts against us trying to draw us away from love, he cannot finally succeed. Love never ends, never fails.
Paul tells us that love will endure forever. It will be the very language of heaven. Even the two great words “faith and hope” are eclipsed by love. Faith and hope will also endure forever. Love, however, overshadows these two great words. As we saw earlier, God’s very nature is love. Thus, love is greater than all. If the manifestation of love is not your primary goal in life, you are discordant with the heavenly Father. Since love endures forever it behooves us to put it into practice now.
I need to make one closing comment about the relationship between faith and love. While Paul states emphatically that love is greater than faith, in this life faith must precede love. It is only when we place our faith in Jesus Christ that love enters the soul. Faith is the road that leads to love. In 1 Corinthians Paul is, of course, speaking to Christians, persons who have already confessed their faith in Jesus Christ. Sometimes the issue is clouded when we say to an unbeliever that all they really need is love. Those outside of Christ can and do demonstrate human love (philos, eros, if you recall the first sermon in this series). However, they have no concept of divine love (agape). Those who have not yet placed their trust in the crucified Savior will never be able to manifest agape. Yes, love is greater than faith, but before you can begin to love in harmony with the will of God, faith in Jesus Christ must enter the picture first.
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” It is a song with a nice, but deceptive sentiment. What the world needs now is faith, glorious faith. It is only through faith that divine love enters the soul. Telling the world to be loving apart from faith in the Son of God is like telling a cow to admire a new gate you have installed. All you get from the cow is “moo.” She doesn’t understand “new gate.” Neither do those who lack faith in Jesus understand agape/love.
There are some similarities between human love and agape love and one large difference. If a neighbor has a house burned down, even unbelievers will want to help. They want to help because they feel sorry for the loss experienced by their neighbor. Christians want to help as well. The two kinds of help seem to be identical. The difference is that the Christian not only feels compassion for his neighbor but is also driven to help because of his love for Jesus. The unbeliever pleases his neighbor with his helping hand, but he does not please God. Why not? Because only acts which proceed from faith in the Father and the Son are pleasing to God. Whatever we do is to be done for the glory of God and in the name of Jesus (See 1 Cor. 10:21; Col. 3:17).
May we all trust in Jesus and then cooperate fully with those loving impulses he places in our hearts.
