Learning to Love Like Jesus Part 3 - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

0:40Looking at 1 Corinthians 13, looking at what love is, let me go ahead and read those verses to you, beginning in verse 4. Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous, love does not brag, and it is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's what love does.

1:19Love is the more excellent way. Paul, beginning at the end of verse, looking going back a few verses, looking at Chapter 12 and verse 31, and now I show you still a more excellent way. And that excellent way, I'll just read through up to verse 3. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels but do not have love, I become a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And I give all my possessions to feed the poor and surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. That's a remarkable statement. You have all the gifts, all the knowledge, make tremendous sacrifices, and if you do not have love, it profits nothing. What a statement. I think one of the most important things that we can do as a church is to grow in our ability to love one another.

2:41Looking back at 1 Corinthians, the Corinthian church was a church of many divisions. They were prideful, impatient with one another, unkind. They were filled with all kinds of jealousy and self-love. And then Paul's message, as we just read, this is what love is, but the Problem is, you don't love because you're spiritually immature. So, it is the task, it is the duty, it is the journey of Christian sanctification, and or the Christian and Christian sanctification is to learn to love like Christ love. That's what real love is. And learning how to do that is really what we're to do. It's going to take a series of deaths. Love, by its very virtue, is by its very definition, is something that is flowing. It is something that is moving. It is like a river. It is dynamic. It is not static. And there are 15 verbs in 1 Corinthians 13:4 through 7. 15 verbs, 7 positive, 8 are negative. And each thing describes what is antagonistic to our self-ego.

4:06Right? Love does what our self-ego won't do. Love doesn't do what our self-ego does. And so, love is patient, kind, not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. It does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It does not take into an action a wrong. Suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. So, as we review, love is, we've already looked at this one, love is patient.

4:47The verb, I'm trying to translate these into verbs so that love is waiting. That's really what patience is: it's waiting, love is waiting, love is kind, that is, love is helping as its motivation to help. Love is not jealous, that is, love is not coveting. It's by very nature, if you're coveting something, you are not loving, you are loving yourself, you're not loving. If you're envious of somebody, you are certainly not loving them, but loving self.

5:21So, tonight, we want to look at a couple more in verse 4. We'll just hopefully get through this verse and look at two more. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant. We'll look at the first one: love does not brag and is not arrogant. These two are very similar, yet there's a distinction. And so, we want to walk through that. Love does not brag. It's a verb. Surprised.

5:56I don't know why we translated. I don't know why the translations go this way. But this is what they do, but they miss the verbal. It's the act of speaking arrogantly. That's what bragging is, right? It's the act of speaking arrogantly in a conceited manner, talking in a conceited manner. And love is absolutely not bragging. It is not going, and you think about that. Why is that? Just love, what does conceited speech indicate? You can talk to me. I'm better. I got something going here. I got something going that you need to know about, right? That's a self-love, right? That's not an arrogant speech, arrogant speech.

6:56It is not bragging. A bragging spirit seeks to elevate itself by basically showing off. That's what a bragging spirit does. That's what arrogant speech is. It's like, it's like, you may not catch this, but I'm really something. And most of the time, it's our own imagination. We're a lot greater than we, we think we're a lot greater than we really are. So we've got to tell everybody we're a lot greater than we really are. And so that we can convince them, right? But a bragging spirit, that's what it seeks to elevate itself. I want to show off. I want to see. Sport what I have that distinguishes me. That's what we do. We want to be distinguished. And so we look around, we look at others, and we think about, oh, I've got something going that this person doesn't have. I've got more than this. And so there is this bragging spirit. We use our mouth to say things, we use our language, our body language, or whatever, to say things that elevate ourselves by showing off.

8:05You know, you look back and it says, love is not jealous, right? Love is not coveting. Well, bragging, if you think about what it is, if you think about what jealousy is or what coveting is, it's wanting something that somebody else has. Well, bragging flips that around. Bragging seeks to make somebody else jealous over what you have, or are or have accomplished. You see what bragging does, right? You're trying to make somebody else envious for what you have or what you can do or whatever.

8:45I think of a military parade. You know what a military parade is, right? You see a nation go out and sport their military power. What are they doing? Showing off. Why are they showing off? To show their supremacy, right? They want to show you that, and they sport think, boy, look at some of these military parades. And you see all this equipment out there paraded up and down. Like, look at our might. Look at our power.

9:22That's what bragging is about. Setting yourself up, showing, displaying. And as you read the book of 1 Corinthians, you become very aware that the Corinthian church cared very little for order in their services, for true fellowship with one another. They cared very little about building one another up. What they cared about was showing off. Showing off their knowledge, showing off their teachers, who'd discipled them, showing off their gifts, showing off. They would interrupt. They'd all wanted to speak at once. That was a dysfunctional church.

10:16Paul loved the church nonetheless. And he, God loved the church nonetheless. But that's what they were doing. And as you look at Jesus, As we take this and now think about Jesus' life, we want to, all this is, we're wanting to learn what love is. We're wanting to learn to love like Jesus. And the one thing we learn very quickly is Jesus was not a braggart, was he? If there was anybody who had reason to brag, reason to show off, it was Christ. And yet he had all the reason, all the, all to show off, and yet he was certainly not a braggart. You can see this early on in the Gospels, certainly in this one, Luke. You remember when Satan tempted him? He took him to Jerusalem, some sort of satanic rapture, and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. He said, Look, if you are the Son of God, just show it out there. Temptation, just display, put it on display. Do this reckless thing. Put yourself on display. Show off.

12:01Show that you prove it. Show it. Boy, yeah. He could do that. And Jesus answered and said, It is written, answered and said to him, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. It's a guy, he knew who he was. He didn't have some inferiority complex, or he didn't have to go. Jesus in John chapter five talks about the contradiction between love and self-glory. You can, if you're seeking glory for something, you cannot be loving somebody.

12:51If your primary motive is to receive glory, you don't, you're void of love. And he says this in chapter 5 and verse 41. He says, I do not receive glory from men. I'm not out here. I didn't come here to make man ooh and ah. He came here to please his father. But I know you, speaking of the Pharisees, that you do not have the love of God in yourself. You don't have the love for God in you. Why is that? He says, How can you? How can you believe when you receive glory from one another? Another, one of the fundamental issues that was in the way was wanting the glory from people around them.

13:42And those that need glory, those that are seeking some sort of input, some sort of feel-good input, some way to feel elevated from man, they don't have the love of God in them. And so, if I'm looking to you to elevate me, I am not loving you, nor do I love God, nor am I loving like he loved. He goes on, I do not seek my glory. If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. He didn't come out seeking to elevate himself. He loved the Father, he wanted the heavenly Father elevated, he wanted his name vindicated, he wanted to honor him.

14:33And so, if we're looking for ourselves or something from somebody, we're not loving. Remember Jesus before the Pharisees. Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. Give us a sign. Sighing deeply in his spirit, he said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. It's very interesting when you look at the context. He had just fed the 4,000, he had just walked on the water, he had fed the 5,000, he had just sent his disciples out all over the area and had given them all kinds of power over all kinds of unclean spirits and sicknesses. And they were going, these were his disciples. And now here they come. Okay, regardless of all that, we want to see a sign. We want to see a sign. And if ever, if there was a time when, okay, let me show you. You know, let me show you. You still don't know who you don't know who I am. You still don't know who I am.

15:58That was Jesus. Think about him before Pilate. Pilate questioned him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, It is as you say. The chief priests began to accuse him harshly. Then Pilate questioned him again, Do you not answer? See how many charges they bring against you? But Jesus made no further answer, so Pilate was amazed. Why? Did you just hear what they're saying? And you're the king. You're their king. Jesus, yeah, I'm their king. I'm the king of the Jews.

16:42Yeah, let me show you. Let me show you what this king can do. None of that. Jesus was not a braggart. Bottom line is: if Christ is first in our hearts, we cannot brag. If Christ is first in your heart, you cannot be a braggart. Everything you have is given. Everything you have had to be redeemed. But if Christ is first, and if others, if you love others, you cannot brag. I think about it. Think about what bragging does. If you love someone, you really don't want to make them feel little in your presence, do you? But what does a braggart do? I want you to feel little in my presence. I want to be such a towering figure in this conversation, in this room, in this moment. And I want you to feel little before me.

18:03It's an awful thought, isn't it? Wanting to make somebody feel little in your presence. Well, that's what bragging does. And only the love of Christ in us can keep us from flaunting our perceived gifts, abilities, knowledge, or accomplishments. Listen, we are braggarts. Why? Because we're horribly insecure about ourselves. And so we have to, it's like we have to brag, we have to convince others that we're something because deep down we're troubled that we really aren't. And we have no satisfaction in ourselves. And so we have to.

19:00Well, love is not bragging. What are some ways that we might just invite some discussion in on this? Anyone have any thoughts? What are some ways we might display a bragging spirit as individuals or as a church or even as a nation? Talk to me. What are some ways we might do this? Something superior about the way we organize yeah and uh you know in First Corinthians we had the great they had great gifts, right? They had all these teachers.

19:46They had some high-profile teachers that had come through. You all haven't really yeah, you haven't you've had a couple of them, but their teachers were they're bragging about their teachers, bragging about their teaching, bragging about their their gifts. There's maybe it's their programs, right? You can you can certainly find things, but let me tell you who really does missions right. Uh-huh. Let me tell you that, right? But we could, we can, right? What are other ways? Yes, sir. I got an experience here in church when they sent me to a kind of house.

20:30The first thing that the pastor said was I I happen our stationer state convention, I have a server this capacity, I have a pastor in this place, and uh it was no more easy for me to listen to that. Let me read let me read to you my credentials. Before I say anything, I want you to know who you're hearing from. Because it ain't going to make sense unless you ain't going to make sense one way or the other, but I need to make you other thoughts. Patrick?

21:20He says, I've known preachers that would go 10,000 miles to preach across the street with this. Yeah, that's good. Other thoughts? Yes, sir. Sometimes it's forced. If you want to be promoted within the university system, you essentially have to work a hundred-page document dragging it or something. Yes. I'm back. Can you speak up a little bit? You're nothing. Well, Jesus sure is the exception to that one, isn't he? He didn't have a place to lay his head, right? Yeah, Jesus, you're nothing, right? Boy. Yeah. Very good. Yes, sir.

22:33First of all, it's probably I could sit down and something educated theology sense where it's like I'm reading a book right now on the rebuttal of the partner. But it's fascinating, it's interesting to me, and there's a sense where I come across other Christians, it's all like, you don't know this. How do you not know that? I haven't seen it. And then the second part that sometimes it's humbling, and you know, that sometimes the sense of recognizing that God is always willing to speech to someone who doesn't sometimes know a lot of theology, but they're practically living on why they're all on the terms, but they'll say, that's so cool. So I have to pray a little bit, love, love, and choices for excited about something that travels in their life. Wow, so I have to have you know, I'm going to dagger myself some time.

23:39Good. Thank you for sharing that. Let's keep moving. Well, certainly, what's the remedy for a bragging spirit? Pray for humility. Pray for humility, yes. Yeah, be careful. Pray for that one. That's one the Lord loves to answer. He's he wants us humble. Dangerous pair, Lord, humble me. Do whatever it takes to bring me into a humble spot. You know what you're praying. But yes, that's a good prayer. And he delights. And you can always add, humble me, but please do it as gently as possible. As quickly and gently, and bring all that in an optimic.

24:21Yes, sir. We talked about on red radio all the time about bragging being allowed in our mood as long as you've got some another. Yeah. And then the same thing with gossip. You're allowed to gossip as long as your gossip become out. Yeah. So a speech that is self-depreciating is a remedy against a bragging spirit, right? Just and elevating others, right? That's a good remedy. And all that is an expression of love, right? Loving people around you. I mean, we can, we can, sometimes the way we dress likes to, we like to sport ourselves, sometimes by the way we talk about who we know, sometimes the way we can, we can sure be pretty sophisticated. But in every manner, we can be very sophisticated in elevating ourselves, but in every manner we are to be thinking about other people, loving. That's what Christ, he came loving. And if you're loving somebody, guess what? You're not trying to make them. Feel little in your presence, right?

25:34Yes, sir. Something that just kind of clicked for me was in the point that you made about bragging makes yourself feel big, and others feel little. And with what Kevin was saying about needing to flip that around, is when John the Baptist writes, I must decrease so that you may increase. Very good. And that was always kind of like a, I don't know, like, how do you practically do that? But when you think about it in terms of flipping the bragging around, so that you're making the people around you feel big, you are small. Yes.

26:09You know, just like she just says, whatever you do for these, you did for me. Yes. By making others around you feel big and yourself small, you're elevating others. You're loving others. That's what loving, we'll come to that passage you just mentioned in a little bit because it bears on the very next thought. Bears on this one, too, right? Yes, John. I think good remedy is just remembering where you were when Christ saved you. Very good. Remembering where you were when Christ saved you. Very good. Very good.

26:49Let's move on. Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not jealous. Love does not brag, is not arrogant. So now we're going to. not arrogant. This is interesting. What is the difference? I mean, does not brag and is not arrogant. It seems like there's a little bit of redundancy here, right? Love is not arrogant. And guess what? Arrogant is a verb. Seeing a pattern here. But this is unique. It's a present verb, but it's passive. If you know the passive voice, like if you think about bragging, that's more of an active. It's more of your boasting or bragging over something you have or have done.

27:37Arrogant, the word here is passive. It's the idea of being puffed up or inflated. It's that idea of something is happening like an air pump plugging into you and right? That's kind of the idea. And that's what arrogance is about. It's about being it's something that is happening to you to make you inflated. Yes, sir. I've got to ask. And so I'm really hung up on the herd part right here. Sorry, I think. So the is and moms around me that know this stuff correctly, but we're not. The is is like a what's called a what is it? A living word?

28:36Okay, I'm just I'm just going to say I hear this in my house. I don't actually know how to teach it. All right, the arrogant would be an adjective. So are you saying that in Greek it's a it's a verb? It's a verb. The word arrogant is a verb. And in Greek, it is one word. It says, love is not arrogant. That's three words. Actually, it's to not, but it's it is being conceited. That's the word. Love is not being conceited.

29:09Yeah, so it's that is the verb. The word arrogant. Yes, thank you for asking. But the word arrogant, I'd like to try to come up with something that connects with the verbs, but being becoming proud, becoming conceited or haughty. There is a sense of like a quick anger, a reflex of haughtiness. You think about like, I remember when we were in Jericho, Jericho, there were all these peacocks everywhere. I don't know why peacocks hang out in Jericho, but they do. And lots. Of them. And if you've seen a peacock, they love to walk around, then all of a sudden they see you and you know, with their big, huge array, and they just kind of strut around. They want you to know, I don't know what they're trying to do, hypnotize me. I wish you spoke English because I'd like to ask you this question, you know. But they puff up. There's a strut.

30:25And it's interesting that six of the seven occurrences of this word happens here in 1 Corinthians. Six of the seventh occurrences of this word in the New Testament all happen arrogant, arrogant. And this is how I would translate it as a verb. Instead of saying arrogant, love is not bowing up. It's not bowing up. It's not reacting to something in a way that inflates you. I mean, it could be a lot of things, but as you go through in 1 Corinthians, how Paul uses it, I'll just run through a few of them.

31:13Now, these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sake, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf on behalf of one another. The other. So there's an arrogance that can happen in knowledge. And Paul's saying, I don't want you guys going beyond what's written, because then what happens? You become arrogant. You know, I've got this one figured out. Knowledge does that.

31:45Now, some of you have become, there's an arrogance in defiance. This is kind of that attitude. Paul is talking about. Now, some have become arrogant as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I shall find out not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power. So there are these people saying, oh, he ain't coming. What's he going to do? Come and take it. You know, that kind of, right? It's okay. I like that attitude, but it's like we just got to keep it in its right place, right?

32:22But arrogance, right? Then there's an arrogance, they had arrogance in their immorality. Paul said, it is actually reported that there is an immorality among you, and an immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles. That someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would have been removed from your midst. There is an arrogance in this defiance, an arrogance in immorality. Yeah.

33:02Boy, we see that all around our do things that are shameful, and we shouldn't be mourning, and instead we become a nation arrogant in our immorality. But then he goes on in chapter eight, and he says, Now, concerning the things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. Wow, what is he saying there? It's a fascinating passage, what he does in chapter eight. But he's saying, Knowledge makes one arrogant, but love edifies. That arrogance. And then he goes on: if anyone supposes that he knows anything, he is not yet known as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world and that there is no God but one. 1 Corinthians 8. And then he goes on to deal with this issue of sacrificing to idols and eating food. But it's interesting how he talks about what does love do? Love builds something up. Arrogance tears it down. And in that context, he's saying, Look, there are some of you that have. Knowledge. You are right.

34:33There is only one God. There is no God but one. And there is no such thing as an idol. You know that. But you're using it to destroy your brother. And that's what Paul is saying. Look, I won't eat meat if it causes someone to stumble. And you're right. And you hear that all the time. I'm right on this issue. This is correct. I am right. Yes, and in your rightness, in your knowledge, you're destroying somebody with that knowledge. And that's what Paul is talking about. But you look at Jesus's humility.

35:19Have this attitude in yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was God. And he was not inflated, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Talk about the opposite of bowing up.

36:02It's laying down your life. Remember Jesus' humble restraint? You remember on the cross? There were those that were passing by and hurling abuse at him. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Those are the passerbys. If you're the son of God, come down. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes and the elders, they're all out there. They're mocking him. And he's saying, they're saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him.

36:47And then there's these robbers next to him who had been crucified with him. They were also insulting him with the same words. There he is on the cross. Come down. I mean, from it's a chorus of taunts. Come down. If you are the Son of God, come down. What would you and I have done? Okay. Anything else? Right? Bowing up, right? Do you know who I am? You're messing with the wrong person here. That's it. We bow up. We have a there's a restraint. Why? Why? Was there restraint? Because he loved.

37:34He loved people. He loved them. John the Baptist. Jonathan, you're right on. Remember when John the Baptist came to him and said, Rabbi, he who is with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him. John answered and said, Did he bow up? Yeah, but do you know who I am? They shouldn't be banging. Let's get those numbers. No, John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. In other words, I don't want the bride.

38:27I want the bridegroom to have the bride. Why? Because I love the bridegroom. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. That's what love does, right? Love doesn't become bow up, become inflated. It loves to see good things happen to others. He must increase, but I must decrease. What a good, what a good way to live for the increase of others and for the decrease of self. Let that be true in all of your conversations, let that be true in all of your exchanges. Let that just be true about you. That's what loving like Christ is like.

39:40I'm going to go ahead and we're really out of time.