Lesson 3: Properties of Love
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Charity suffereth long, and is kind;
charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity
never faileth:
After Paul
shows that no activity, sacrifice or speech is of any value unless love is it's
motive, he begins to describe this love.
What follows is not a definition, for no definition could possible fill
all the nooks and crannies, all the height and depth of agape. The description Paul writes is the highest,
purest description of Christian love that has ever been written. No one short of Paul's talent and the Holy
Spirit's inspiration could ever write anything like it again.
Love's Character
Love suffers long, and is kind
"Love
is patient" Paul says. The word
used here means to patiently endure. The
idea of patient endurance is not passivity.
The fact that there is something to endure means that there is activity.
Love does not quit at the first injury or offense, by its very nature it is
conditioned to expect injury and to endure it without revenge or failure.
Remembering
that this love is God's love, given to us by Jesus Christ, what does the
following verse tell you about enduring through love's power?
Hebrews
12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
Next Paul tells us, "Love is
kind." In a sense he is giving us
the other side of the same coin. Or
considering the rest of the descriptions, the opposite facet of the same
diamond. We first saw that love has the
ability to patiently endure, but endurance alone would do injustice to God's
love. This love cannot be held down it
is an active power and a pro-active quality.
While it accepts and even expects the hurts done to it by the world,
love will not simply be a punching bag.
Kindness is an pro-active force of love. It seeks out others to bestow goodness and
mercy on. Even to those who are causing
its pain. Love finds opportunities or it
makes opportunities to reach out to others in kindness, helpfulness and
demonstrations of God's love.
Paul gives an example of this principle in Romans 12:19 -20.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is
mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink:
for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil
with good.
What acts of kindness is Paul telling the Romans to do?
Feed, give drink to your enemy.
What is the reason for these acts?
The enemy had done something to cause harm to the
Christian. Thus the need for vengeance.
What does Paul mean about coals of fire upon his head?
This is not a type of spiritual revenge. In Paul's time there were no matches. If your fire went out in the hearth, it was a
long tedious process to re-light it.
Often a neighbor would go next door and borrow hot coals from the
neighbors hearth and carry them home in a jar on their head. This speaks of causing our enemy to think and
see us differently because of the kindness we have shown them. They react to our kindness, rather than us to
their hurt.
Love's Control
Love envies not; Love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,
Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinks no evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
Now Paul
moves from what love is and does to what it is not and what it cannot do.
Love does not envy. This means it is not jealous of the success
or happiness or others. It counts all
good things as being from God and therefore it must share the joy of those
blessed of God and not begrudge it.
Love vaunts not itself. Love is not boastful. The Greek word Paul uses here is the word for
windbag. Love does not need to brag on
itself or call attention to itself. The
person who is under the control of this love will not need to boast either.
Love is not puffed up. In plainer words love is not conceited, this
again is a complementing facet of the preceding phrase. Boastfulness is the outward showing while
conceit is the inward cause. Neither of
these can rightly exist where true, Godly love dwells. How can I brag or think greatly of myself
when I consider who I was when God found me, what He gave in order to save me,
and what I would have been if He had not saved me? Boasting and bragging in a very real way, is
an affront to God. As Paul said in
Galatians, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world." Any other glorying
diminishes what He has done.
Love behaves not unseemingly. Love does not misbehave. The word used here means "not according
to proper form." Love deep within
us proscribes a proper course of action in every situation. If we are under the dictates of God's love we
will act according to that control. This
couse of behavior is not a mystery nor complicated, it is an understanding of
what is right, made knowable and doable by love within me.
Proverbs 11:22 a favorite verse of mine, (which shows that the writers of
scripture used humor.) How is it related
to love acting according to proper form?
A jewel in the snout of a pig is not right, it is unseemly and
ludicrous. So also is a pretty girl who
by a dirty mouth, dirty mind or dirty life makes a mockery of her beauty. She has no more understanding of God's gifts
to her than the pig to the person who gave them nose-ring.
Love seeks
not her own. Love does not work to take
advantage of others and better itself through the process. Love always, always gives more than it can
get. It is not God's love if it does
anything else. Is my interaction with
others often based upon what they can do for me? Do I often think in terms of how I can get
someone to help me out? If I view those
around me as a means to my own particular end then I am not under the control
of God's love. For God's love is ever
unselfish, it takes no thought for itself but only for others.
Love is not
easily provoked. Paul is simply saying
that love is not quick to take offense, it has no "chip on it
shoulder" it does not "wear it's heart on it's sleeve." Agape love has given up it's own rights for
the greater good of those who have not yet experienced God's love.
William
Barkley put it this way, "There are two kinds of people in this world,
those who think of their rights and those who think of their duty." As
Christians our duty is to not allow the petty offenses of others, whether
unintentional or intentional, stop us from loving them. Once anger begins love disappears often never
to be seen in that relationship again.
Let's listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:7, "Now therefore there is utterly a fault
among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take
wrong? why do ye not rather [suffer yourselves to] be defrauded?"
What is Paul saying the Christians should do simply because
he is a Christian?
Paul says give up your rights and lay down your rights,
allow yourself to be taken advantage of.
Love makes me see that my relationship to people is more important than
my relationship to things.
Love thinks
no evil. The word Paul uses here is the
same one used in Romans 6:11 when he
tells the Roman Christians to "reckon yourselves dead indeed unto
sin." The word is logizamai and it
was taken from accounting and finance, it meant to write it down, keep record
of it. In Romans 6 it is used positively
of realizing we are dead to sin, here in Corinthians it us used negatively to
show that love does not keep record of the hurt, pain and evil done to it. Love does not dwell on these things. Paul is not saying love is blind to sin, but
that love realizes the best means of helping others is to lift them up not beat
them down. A Jewish Rabbi, Juluis
Gordon, said, "Love is not blind- it sees more not less but because it
sees more it is willing to see less."
John McArthur said, "Love looks past a person's sin to his
potential."
Love does
not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in truth.
Love and the person under it's control finds no joy in sin or hurt. It sees no happiness or light-heartedness in
the sin of others or in my own sin.
Instead of finding pleasure in sin, it finds it in truth. The wording Paul uses literally says,
"Rejoices with the truth." As
though truth was a beloved companion whose company we long to share. A faithful friend who will never let us down
or bring us to shame. Real love cannot keep company with sin. Sin is selfish
and mean spirited. It demands more and
more of those keeping company with it. Ultimately it brings me to sorrow,
regret and ruin. But truth does not lead
me to such destinations. I rejoice in it because wherever it leads me, will be
a place of joy, strength and righteousness.
Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never fails
Paul now increases the power in his description of
love. Never would it be enough to just
say what love would not do, he now begins to show what love will always
do. Love now begins to show real
strength, real quality.
First, Paul
says love bears all things. We gain
insight by looking at the Greek word Paul used, for it means to cover with
silence. Love bears all things means
that it has the power to carry the ills and suffering of others and not
complain of the burden it bears.
The same truth is taught in Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love
covereth all sins.
Looking at
that verse, What power are we under when we gossip or backbite? Those times when we do not cover sin?
Is there any exception?
Is it ever all right to "bear tales"?
Paul goes
on the say that love believes all things. This does not mean love is gullible
or naive. It does mean that love looks
for the best in others. It is a positive
belief in its own power to overcome sin and faults in others in the same way
Jesus overcame those faults in me.
If a Christian must err in the area of human relationships
it should alway err on the side of love.
We should be guilty of trusting too much, of giving too much or caring
too much. We should never be guilty of
trusting, giving or caring too little.
In the book "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo a
convict by the name of Jean Val Jean is allowed to spend the night at a priest
house. During the night he rises and
steals the only thing of value in the poor priest's house, some silverware. The next day the police catch the convict and
bring him back to the priest home just as he realizes what has been taken. The police tell the priest that Jean Val Jean
was carrying a bag filled with silverware and told them that a priest had given
them to him. They did not believe him
and so brought him back to ask the priest personally. The priest looks at the miserable convict and
then walks over to the fireplace mantle where two silver candlesticks sit. He walks back to the convict and says,
"Here Jean, you forgot the candlesticks
I gave you also." With that
the startled convict was released by the police. The priest believed in the
power of love to overcome the power of sin within Jean Val Jean. And Val Jean was never the same man.
Love hopes
all things. Here again is another facet
of the gem of love. Belief is the short
range cut of the gem, it immediately steps forward to show its trust of
others. Hope is the long-range cut, it
steps in after belief has seen the faults and flaws in those we love, yet it
will not allow itself to give up. It
refuses to accept those failures and sins as final. It never gives up, it never quits looking
forward to the day when love will triumph.
Let me
share an illustration. George Mueller
was the last centuries greatest example of the power of prayer. Empowering the prayer, as Paul would point
out, was great love. Mueller had five
friends that he began to pray for their salvation, deeply, passionately
consistently he prayed. After five years
one of them came to Christ. In ten
years, two more of them found peace in the same Savior. He prayed on for twenty-five years, and the
fourth man was saved. For the fifth he
prayed until the time of his death. The
final friend went to Mueller's funeral a lost man, but then about two months
later the pray driven by love reaped its reward and that final man accepted the
Lord Jesus. In all Mueller had prayed
fifty-two years. That is the love that
hopes all things.
Finally in
this section Paul says love endures all things.
The word is a Greek military word that meant to continue fighting no
matter how violent or hard the battle.
Love's endurance means that we fight and endure because we know we will
win. Our greatest weapon is the love
that Jesus has shed abroad in our hearts.
It has conquered millions, it has overcome staggering obstacles and it
still continues to win. It wins because it will not quit, it will not
surrender. It is God's own weapon in our
hearts and no force on earth is more powerful.
It is no wonder then that Paul begins the next verse by
saying, Love never fails. It cannot
fail, it is of God. We may fail to be
under its power and control but it will not fail. When we are inundated and saturated with
God's agape love no task will fail, no battle will be lost, no loved one left
behind. God's love coursing through me
will meet every challenge and ultimately must win every fight.
Reflect back once more upon the powerful, sweeping
description Paul has just given to us.
Love suffers long
Love is kind
Love envies not
Love vaunts not itself
Love is not puffed up
Love doe not behave itself unseemly
Love seeks not her own
Love is not easily provoked
Love thinks no evil
Love rejoices not in iniquity
Love rejoices in the truth
Love bears all things
Love believes all things
Love hopes all things
Love endures all things
Love never fails
After
looking at the description, do any of us naturally have this type of love? No. it
is not possible of us to love like this.
Where
then can we find this love? Only in the
person of Jesus Christ in us.
If
as a Christian I don't find this kind of love in my life, what does it
mean? What must I do? It means I am not close enough to the source
of the love, Jesus. My failure is in not
strengthening my knowledge, walk and time with the source of agape love.
Will
greater determination or sacrifice or prayer or faith or discipline bring me
greater love? No, only a greater relationship
with Jesus. This love is supernatural,
it can only come from a supernatural source Jesus, through a supernatural means, the Holy Spirit
dwelling in me and then it will accomplish supernatural things.
Listen
to Oswald Chambers as he talks about love.
"There is nothing of mathematical certainty in Paul's category of
love. We cannot say- 'Now I am going to
think no evil, I am going to believe all things.' We do not set the statements of Jesus in
front of us as a standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we
live according to His standard without knowing it... The springs of love are in
God, not in us. It is absurd to look for
the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that
we do not love Him." pg. 87 My
Utmost for His Highest.
What
do you think Oswald is saying about agape love? It is not
within me, I cannot produce it or come by it naturally. It only comes when I am close enough to Jesus
that His love is my love and His life is my life.
What
do you make of his statement, "If we try to prove to God how much we love
Him, it is a sure sing that we do not love Him?"
If
you have trouble understanding what Oswald is saying, you will have trouble
living in the power of love that Paul has described. Yet in the Christian life, as Paul says,
"The greatest... is love."
What are we to do if we do not let God's love dwell in us and flow
through us. Paul has not given us ten
commandments about love, he has simply descibed the different facets of The
Love. The love that was God when he
created man, the love that was Jesus when he died for us on calvary and the
love that was in Paul when he wrote these beautiful words, "Bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never
fails."
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