Introduction: We will be taking a closer look at 1 Corinthians 13 and what real Bible love is and what it does. Real love is a gift of God. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Love never fails; hence, it even accompanies us to Heaven. Before we get to Heaven though, we must live and work here on this earth. The love God gives to us is to be used, not abused nor neglected, here in this life.
- We are to love the brethren, even those who are not very loveable.
- We are to love one another...regardless.
- We are to love the Lord supremely.
- We are to love the lost compassionately.
- We find that God loves us unconditionally.
- We find that God loves the world purely.
- We find that God loves those who love Him.
- We find that God even loves those who hate Him.
According to 1 Corinthians 13, this Bible love is what we call "agape" love. This word speaks of a deep, abiding love that is unselfish and self-sacrificing. Agape love seeks to love without seeking to be loved. Agape love concentrates on the loved and not on the lover. This is the kind of love we are commanded to have, not only toward God, but for one another, "Follow after charity..."
Last time, we learned four characteristics of this agape love.
1. Real love gives worth to work.
2. Real love suffereth long.
3. Real love is kind.
4. Real love envieth not.
In this study, I want to look at the next two characteristics of this agape love. Please remember that agape love is the greatest of all the gifts.
5. Real love vaunteth not itself. - 1 Corinthians 13:4
"...charity vaunteth not itself..."
- This means that real agape love is not boastful.
- This is one of the cardinal laws of agape love. One, with agape love, is not a braggart.
- Agape love, by its definition, is a love that does not focus on itself. Remember, agape love is love that is unselfish and self-sacrificing. It seeks to love without being loved, and it concentrates on the loved and not upon itself as the lover.
- For a Christian to be a braggart, is manifested proof that he does not have agape love.
- There are a number of areas this will affect.* It will affect your love for the Lord. When a Christian loves God with agape love, it is not what the Christian has done, but rather what God has done. Someone has said, when you brag on what you have done, it is pride; but when you brag on what God has done, it is praise. There is nothing quite as insincere as a Christian who is stuck on himself. You can often tell where a Christian is by whom or what he brags about.
* It will affect your love for others. When a Christian loves others with agape love, he will never try to outdo another believer by his words. He may be able to outdo them and may do it, but his words will not do the outdoing. Have you ever met a Christian who always had to "one up" everyone around him? When a Christian becomes a braggart, it affects his relationship with all those around him. He will act superior to everyone he meets. Perhaps his favorite song is "We're Great but No One Knows It."We're great, but no one knows it;
No one knows it so far.
Someday they'll realize
How wonderful we are.
They'll look at us, and point at us,
And then they'll shout, "Hurray!"
We're great but no one knows it,
But they will someday!- These unfortunate Christians have the unsightly blemish called "I'm stuck on me." They find it difficult to be humble, because they see themselves as "better."
- Christians need to learn that superior knowledge does not make one superior.
- Can you imagine how John the Baptist must have felt? He was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Jesus said that no man, up to that time, was greater than John the Baptist. When Jesus preached, the people thought that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. In his lifetime, John the Baptist said:* "He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." (John 1:27)
* "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)
* "...behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)
* "This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me." (John 1:30)
* "And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!" (John 1:36)- John the Baptist may have worn camel skins and eaten bugs, but he was a man of God with agape love for the Saviour!
6. Real love is not puffed up. - 1 Corinthians 13:4
"...charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."
- To be puffed up, is to be proud; not just proud, but very self-righteous.
- What a shame when God's own people become self-righteous in their living toward those around them!
- There are a number of places in the New Testament where the phrase "puffed up" is used. They give us insight into what is being said here.* "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another." (1 Corinthians 4:6)
* "Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power." (1 Corinthians 4:18,19)
* "And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:2)
* "Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." (1 Corinthians 8:1)
* "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." (Colossians 2:18)- A person, who is puffed up, is full of himself. It means he's self-inflated. It means he's full of hot air.
- In the church at Corinth, the people were very proud of themselves because of what they did and did not do. The most immature and carnal church in the New Testament was the church at Corinth, and Paul rebuked them for not growing up in the Lord. There is a lesson to be learned here. Immaturity and carnality breed puffed up Christians.* In the day and age in which we live, some have become so self-righteous that they are proud of what they do and do not do. They do not smoke, they do not cuss, they do not dress or act like the world, nor do they participate in worldly activities...and they are proud of it! Those, who are puffed up with pride, might as well wear a sign which says "I'm proud." Pride is one of the things that God hates according to Proverbs 6.
- Real Bible love, for God and others, will never be prideful because of where one is spiritually. It would be good to remember that God is not impressed with where you are as a Christian but in which direction you are moving. God's blessings are not determined, necessarily, by what a Christian does or does not do as long as that person is travelling in the right direction.
Conclusion: So, I ask again, are we practicing Bible love as believers? It is a fair question well-deserving of an honest answer.
- Real love gives worth to work.
- Real love will change your actions and attitudes toward others.
- Real love is kind.
- Real love envieth not.
- Real love is not boastful.
- Real love is not proud.