The Transformative Power and Nature of Love

So we continue now with our study of 1 Corinthians 13 as we see in it a reflection of the love of God itself, and we are told that love does not envy. In this case we're getting the way of negation -- now what Paul is telling us is not so much what love is, but rather he's saying what it is not -- and love is not envious. [00:00:08]

I think it's significant that one of the Ten Commandments, one of the top 10 sins that God prohibits is a prohibition against coveting, because covetousness lies at the heart of so much violence that we do one to another. It's out of jealously, out of envy, that people tear each other apart. [00:00:37]

Probably the most poignant story in all of Scripture about the consequences of envy is the story of Joseph in the Old Testament where because he received this magnificent coat of many colors from his father, the rest of his brothers became green with jealousy, and they turned their hostility against Joseph, and sold him into slavery that had him ending up languishing in prison for year after year after year, all as a result of the brothers' envy. [00:01:57]

And so if we would look at the world today and see how much damage is done to property and to human beings that is motivated by envy, we would see why God includes a prohibition against it in the top 10 commandments of Israel, and how it is the antithesis of love, because love rejoices in somebody else's prosperity, love rejoices in somebody else's happiness, if we love people we are delighted when we see them receive benefits that even we ourselves failed to receive. [00:02:35]

But the Pharisees sought an ostentatious display of their status, of their wealth, of their position, of their authority, they loved the best seats in the synagogue, they loved all the pomp and circumstance that went when people fussed over them, and we're all subject to that kind of enticement. But that's not love. Love does not seek its own. [00:05:00]

Love does not seek the spotlight all the time, and love does not seek an ostentatious display of itself, "it does not parade itself" is the way Paul speaks of it. We're sometimes described as being 'as proud as peacocks' because we see the way the peacock struts and fans its tail feathers with all the magnificent beauty, and I think of myself that what that parade is like is like a turkey more than like a peacock. [00:05:31]

And we are children of the King of kings. And children of the King of kings are not to be rude. Children of the King of kings are not to be impolite, but we as Christians are called even to a higher ethic than the daughters of the Queen of England. We are called to supernatural royal manners. [00:09:33]

The hardest thing for any Christian, for any person, is to seek the well-being of somebody else above yourself. Now, we live together, we have our families, we have husband and a wife, and wife wants something and then I say, "Well, that's cool that you want that, honey, but I would rather spend the money this way," or "I want to do this tonight, rather than what you want to do." [00:10:36]

Loving -- to love, does not seek your own, does not have to have its own way all the time, but love is sensitive to the needs and the desires of other people. That's what Jesus does. You know -- "take this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done, O Father." The last thing I want to do is to seek my own, I want to do your will, not mine. [00:11:04]

What Paul is getting at here is that we are to give other people what is called the judgment of charity. Not that we're supposed to be naïve, we know that people really sin, but what we tend to do is that we think that when somebody sins against us, we look at that sin as if it's been motivated by the worst of all possible motivations, like that person stayed up at night thinking of ways that they could injure us, when that is rarely the case. [00:19:39]

True love rejoices in the truth not in iniquity. And finally, Paul says that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love is the substance that makes it possible for people to persevere, for people to bear, to continue to bear and endure things, to continue in hope, to continue in faith. [00:21:21]

Finally he says, "Now abide faith, hope, and love," -- this classic Christian triad of virtues -- faith, hope, and love, "these three. But the greatest of these is love." Because this is the gift, this is the fruit that most clearly reveals the character of God himself. [00:23:25]