The Love Of God-5

The LOVE Of GOD-V—1Corinthians 13:1-13

Attention:

In general people have a similar & genuine confusion about the meaning of love, & what it means to serve a ‘loving’ God. They suppose themselves to be ‘eating from’ the best that ‘love’ has to offer, when in reality they don’t have the first clue as to what they’re delving into.

Need:

To know & apply God’s self-giving(‘agape’) love, so as to prevent anything less from taking it’s place in our lives.

Paul highlighted the necessity of self-giving, sacrificial love to the proper outworking of Christian living.

Self-giving, sacrificial love is essential to true Christianity.

And thru these verses we are answering the question, ?•?How or Why is ‘agape’ love essential to the Christian faith?

1Pet. 4:8—“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”[Prov. 10:12]

1Tim. 1:5—“Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, & from sincere faith,”

The pinnacle of God’s agaph love cannot be attained by any of humanity, apart from their approaching it in & thru God in Christ, as empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Previously we found that:

As A Christian, the Love of God must Humble My...

1. SPEECH(:1)

2. ABILITY(:2)

3. SACRIFICE(:3)

4. SUFFERING To PRODUCE KINDNESS(:4a-b)

5. DESIRE & LOSSES(:4c)

Today we’ll find that:

6—As A Christian, the Love of God must Humble My...

SELF-IMAGE/Pride(:4d-5d)

Explanation:(:4d-5d)

:4—“Love suffers long & is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;”

“Love does not parade itself”

*In the free exercise of ‘self-less agaph “love”, I will never purposely call attention to my expression of love or purposely to the fact that I am being loving.

One who truly “loves” as God loves, will never “brag” nor “parade”, nor put that fact ‘on display.’ When a person puts themselves on display, they obviously have too high an opinion of themselves. To do so, would be to cut the source(God) out of God’s agaph “love.”

“Parade/Vaunteth/Brag”—perpereuomai—1) To boast one's self; 2) A self display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one's self excessively. Strong—middle voice from perperov(braggart); To boast Used 1X.?Perhaps by reduplication of the base of peran apparently from an obsolete derivative of—peirw(to “pierce”); Through(as adverb or preposition), i.e. Across.

“Love...is not puffed up”

*In the free exercise of God’s self-less agaph “love”, I am NOT prideful. I do NOT see myself as bigger, more noble, or better than others.

God’s agaph “love” thrives in humility.

Illustration:

I have had a few people approach me, who are ‘put-out’ & ‘put-off’ by my preaching. And I have had a few people who are ‘put-off’ & ‘put-out’ with my directly sharing the Gospel individually. They perceive my confidence in Christ as ‘arrogance.’ They see me—& all preachers of God’s truth—as ‘pridefully mean-spirited.’

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Balloons get puffed up...They can be painted to look fearsome on the outside, but they are ultimately thin-skinned, weak, & full of ‘hot air.’

* ‘Pride’ is the sworn ENEMY of God’s agaph “love.”

1Cor. 8:1—“....Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.”

“Puffed up/Proud/Arrogant”—fusiow—Present Passive Indicative 3rd Sing.—1) To make natural, to cause a thing to pass into nature; 2) To inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up—2a) To puff up, make proud, 2b) To be puffed up, to bear one's self loftily, be proud. Strong—To inflate, i.e. figuratively--Make proud(haughty). Used 7X.?From—fusiv—Growth(by germination or expansion & thus puffed up); Natural production (lineal descent); A genus or sort; Native disposition, constitution or usage. From—fuw—probably originally, To "puff" or blow, i.e. To swell up; but only used in the implied sense--To germinate or grow(sprout, produce).

:5—“does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

GENERALLY:

*Here the attributes of self-less agaph “love”, continue to be described by what “love” is NOT.

*These negating aspects of agaph “love” are much easier for us to envision, because being prone to sin, we have lived them out ‘naturally’, as we were at one point in our lives, unsurrendered to God. Before being saved by Christ, we ‘loved’ in the way of the majority of the world.

•God’s people in the world, are surrounded by & bombarded by that which is NOT God’s agaph “love”, but yet is openly touted by the world as ‘love.’

“Love”...“does not behave rudely”

*In the free exercise of God’s self-less agaph “love” I will not act in a manner that is inappropriate or improper.

•To act ‘inappropriately’ or ‘improperly’ would dishonor Christ as the designer & designator of what is proper(propriety).

*To NOT “behave rudely” is an act of self-less agaph “love.”

Some may think that, “behaving rudely” is limited to ‘cultural standards’, which range from one extreme to the other & vary from country to country, & vary even within people groups within countries! They have a ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ mentality. That is only true in scenarios where ‘inappropriateness’ is determined by human cultural reasonings that are solidly outside of God’s will!...