Life With Love

 

            The greatest example of love in the entire history of the human race was the love God manifested in the giving of his only begotten Son for the sins of the world.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).  The same apostle further explained: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).  Not only did God the Father love us enough to provide the atoning sacrifice for our sins; but God the Son loved us enough to volunteer to lay down his life for us.  “Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it up again.  No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.  I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again.  This commandment I have received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).

 

            The Christian’s love for one another originates from the love we have seen of God and of his Son.  The apostle John wrote: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God.  He who loves not does not know God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).  Later in that same chapter, the inspired writer expanded on what I have just read to you.  “And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as he is, so are we in the world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment.  He that fears is not made perfect in love.” Please listen carefully to this simple but powerful statement.  “We love him, because he first loved us,” (1 John 4:16-19).  The original Greek does not say, “We love him, because he first loved us,” although obviously that is true.  The verse says, “We love, because he first loved us.”  God almighty is the very source of love.  In other words, God provides both the motivation and the power for us to love him and to love one another.

 

            The greatest treatise on love in existence tells us what it would be like to live without love.  “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling symbol.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-3).  Can you think of a greater tragedy than to live without love?  But what does it really mean to live with love?  I shall address that question in our study today.

 

            As you know from your study of the Bible, it does not offer any definitions, although the context often helps us to know the meaning of words.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 does not provide a definition of love, but it does tell us how love behaves.  If you love someone, you are going to be longsuffering.  The word “longsuffering” comes from a Greek word that literally means of a long mind.  Dr. Hugo McCord renders the Greek “love waits patiently.”  The apostle Peter uses the same word of God almighty.  “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).  What if God were as “short-suffering” to us, to coin a word, as we are with one another?  When we rebel against him, he would simply wipe us off the face of the earth.  God threatened to punish the Israelites if they did not repent of their gross immorality.  He then said to them through Malachi: “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6).  We should be eternally grateful that God does not lose patience with us each time we sin against him.  Paul uses the same Greek word--the verb form--when he exhorted the Thessalonians: “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all men” (1 Thess, 5:14).

 

            What would this quality of love do for marriages and families in the United States and throughout the world?  Would it not considerably reduce the number of divorces and the number of unhappy marriages?  Did you know that many married partners are more patient with their fellow workers or with strangers than they are with their spouses?  Parents are often impatient with their children and children with their parents.  I know from experience and from observation that it is not always easy to be patient with one’s spouse or with one’s children or with one’s neighbors, but does not love demand it?  “Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

 

            Paul tells us that the love that Christians are to cultivate toward all others, including one’s enemies, is kind.  The Greek word translated “kind” is chrestotes and means graciousness, moral goodness, integrity or benignity.  Paul lists this quality of love as one characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).  It is also an attitude that Christians must put on as new creatures.  “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do” (Col. 3:12-13).  The Greek word is translated “goodness” in the following passage.  “Behold, therefore the goodness and the severity of God: on them who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off” (Rom. 11:22).

 

            Paul knew and we ought to know that showing kindness to some people may not be easy.  We often meet people who are stubborn, hardheaded, angry and immoral.  Some of these people are very hard to love.  But we can learn from the Lord Jesus Christ that we must love the unlovely.  Is that not what Paul meant when he wrote: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for us.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  For if, when we were sinners, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:6-10).

 

            The King James Version reads, “love envies not.”  However, the Greek word Paul uses (zeloo) really means “jealous.”  The two words--envy and jealousy--are very closely related.  In fact, thew two Greek words are sometimes joined together in the same context (Gal. 5:20-21).  Trench’s Synonyms of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1948) says the word “jealousy” can be used in a good sense, but envy is incapable of good, and is always used with an evil signification (pp. 86-87).  Paul apparently had in mind the kind of jealousy that is destructive of every relationship--not the kind of jealousy that seeks to imitate the good in others.  Jealousy, if improperly motivated, can and often does destroy good relationships.  Every marriage counselor knows the great damage unreasonable jealousy does to otherwise viable marriages.

 

            Paul next uses two words that have similar meanings. “Love does not vaunt itself and is not puffed up.”  The word “vaunt” refers to one who is vainglorious or a braggart.  Can love grow in a setting where a person--husband, father, or anyone else--is constantly bragging about his knowledge, skill or accomplishments?  We may endure the bragging of a politician, although such behavior ought to be offensive to good people, but such an attitude in an intimate relationship is destructive.  Most of us tire of people who constantly tell us how practically perfect they are and what they have done for the human race.  Such people need to be reminded of a fact that all of us know.  “For all have sinned and continually come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

 

            The second word used in this verse is Greek phusioo that means to be puffed up like a bellows.  The word appears only seven times in the New Testament.  It ought to be meaningful to every student of the Bible that six of the seven times the word phusioo is used in the New Testament it is used in 1 Corinthians.  Some of the Corinthians were puffed up because they had been blessed with the supernatural gifts of the Spirit.  Paul asked them, “For who makes you to differ from another?  And what do you have that you did not receive?  Now if you received it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it” (1 Cor. 4:6-7)?  The church members were puffed up--probably not because of but in spite of--having an incestuous brother in the fellowship of the church (1 Cor. 5:2).  It ought to be obvious that God’s people--either in their personal relationships or in their work for the Lord--cannot be filled with love and be puffed up.  I wonder if the Corinthians knew and I wonder if we know that “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18).

 

            Love “does not behave itself in unseemly ways.”  The New American Standard Bible renders the Greek, love “does not act unbecomingly.”  Did President Clinton act unbecomingly when he engaged in sexual promiscuity with Monica Lewinsky and with other women and then lied to cover up his transgressions?  Did Jesse Jackson behave in unseemly or indecent ways when he fathered a child out-of-wedlock and would not admit it until DNA proved he was the father of the child?  Do men act unbecomingly when they get drunk and embarrass their wives and children?  Do women behave in unseemly ways when they gamble away the money their families need?  No one truly loves when he or she brings shame on those they are supposed to love--their family members, their fellow church members or others.

 

            Virtually every marriage counselor in our country will admit to you that selfishness destroys many marriage relationships.  I remember reading an interview between a newspaper reporter and a prominent writer on family relationships.  The reported asked the writer: “What in your judgment is the biggest problem in marriage.”  The answer should not surprise anyone.  The writer responded with just one word: “Selfishness.”  Everyone knows or ought to know just how destructive selfishness is.  Selfishness demands that I have my way in all matters.  Such an attitude is the very opposite of love.  The King James Version reads: Love “seeks not her own.”  The New Revised Standard Version reads: Love “does not insist on its own way.”  The New English Bible says that love is “never selfish.”

 

            The Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest example of unselfishness the human race could ever know.  Two passages from Paul’s epistles make that truth so plain no one can miss it.  “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).  “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Look not every man on his own welfare, but every man also one the welfare of others.  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:3-8).  It was a shame for anyone to die on a cross.  But Jesus died the shameful death of the cross for you and for me.  Love does not seek her own.  What a great example Jesus gave us when he sacrificed the glories of immediate fellowship with God and came to earth to die for our sins!  Should we not strive to emulate our Lord’s example of unselfishness?

 

            What if every husband and every wife had the unselfish attitude expressed in the verses I have just read to you?  If your spouse always sought your welfare and not just his or her own, would you ever want to divorce such a person?  Tragically, many of us are like the man who prayed: “Lord, bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife; us four and no more.”  Very few of us would admit to being that selfish, but we show by our actions that we are.  Paul expresses the attitude all Christians ought to cultivate.  “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s welfare... Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved” (1 Cor 10:24, 31).  Should not local churches also follow Paul’s inspired advice?

 

            The King James Version reads: Love “is not easily provoked.”  The word “easily” does not appear in the original.  The translators added the word to try to make simpler the point Paul was emphasizing.  But adding the word “easily” softens and compromises the truth of the passage.  The word “provoked” in this context means irritation or sharpness of spirit.  Dr. J. B. Phillips renders the Greek: Love is not touchy.  I am not telling you that Christians are not tempted to be irritable under some circumstances, but we must work at being patient, as Paul has already taught in this great passage on love.  When we do become touchy in dealing with others, we need to apologize for our lack of love and understanding.

 

            Paul argues that love “thinks no evil.”  The Greek verb translated “thinks” means to add up, to keep an account of, as in a ledger book.  If our spouses or friends sin against us, we are not to keep an account of those sins.  We are to be ready and eager to forgive and wipe the slate clean, just as God does when we repent of our sins against him.  The apostle Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  Until seven times seven?” Jesus replied: “I say not unto you, Until seven times seven: but, Until seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:21-22).  Did Jesus literally mean “seventy times seven” or 490?  Seventy times seven means an unlimited number.  We forgive so long as our spouse or neighbor or fellow church member repents and asks for forgiveness.  When we forgive, we do not keep reminding the person of his or her past sins.  When we forgive, that means the person’s sins are gone forever.

 

            Love does not rejoice in iniquity.  Does Paul mean that Christians should not take pleasure in the tragedies that happen to others, especially to our enemies?  When we hear of some great evil happening to ungodly persons, we are not to rejoice in their heartaches.  Even though Christians have very right to support the death penalty for murderers, for rapists, for traitors and for other vicious criminals, we must never join those outside the prison walls who celebrate when the criminal is put to death.  Does it bother you when you hear people shouting when some violent criminal is being executed: “Burn, baby, burn?” Love does not behave in that fashion--ever.

 

            Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.  The Greek probably should be rendered “rejoices with the truth.”  Does Paul have in mind rejoicing when men and women tell the truth?  Our national leaders should set the example of telling the truth--always telling the truth.  But if many of them told the truth all the time, would they not be thrown out of office?  When a government leader is caught in a lie, his constituents ought to demand his resignation.  If he will not correct his grievous blunder, he ought to be impeached, even if he claims to have improved the economy and kept us from international conflicts.  As Americans--especially as Christians--we must always rejoice in the truth and never allow lies to go uncorrected.

 

            But maybe Paul also means preaching and supporting the truth of God’s word.  After all, the word of God is the truth.  Jesus prayed for his immediate disciples and for us: “Sanctify them through they truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).  Should not Christians rejoice--always rejoice--when the truth of God’s word is laid out plainly, simply and forcefully?  And should we not grieve when the truth is compromised for the sake of weak and sinful church members?

 

            The love that has God’s approval “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.”  The word “bears” means to offer a covering for.  Peter affirmed: “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).  The word “believes” must not be construed as meaning that Christians should be gullible.  But we should put the very best interpretation on all reports, especially when we are not sure of their veracity.  Love hopes all things, that is, it always sees the bright side of life.  The word “endures” means to persevere.  Christians do not give up when the going gets tough.  We keep on doing what is good.

 

            Paul adds to this list of qualities of love, “Love never fails.”  He concluded his discussion of love by saying, “Now abides faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).  May God help each of us to cultivate love in our lives!

 

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334

 

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