A Man Knows What Love Is
1 Corinthians 13
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always
protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
When we are young we look for that special someone to share our lives. What personal characteristics should we be looking for? Those of us who are joined in wedlock, how should we treat one another? All of us, how should we treat our neighbor and brother? How should we treat our sons and daughters? How should we treat our mothers and fathers?
We are all in relationships. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are someone's friend, we could be someone's spouse, a mother or father. Whether we are looking for someone to love and love us back, or we have found that special someone, we all wish for love.
If you are married, you have already promise to love someone for the rest of your life. What exactly did you agree to do? Some of you are approaching or in the age of courtship. Someday you may pick someone to share the rest of your life with. Do you know what to look for? What signals, or what behaviors indicate that someone loves you. Really loves you.
I recall a line from the movie Forest Gump. Forest told the woman he was smitten by "I'm not a smart man but I do know what love is". Do you know what love is? Do we know how to love? Do we know love when we see love walking down the street?
It helps me to understand something by looking at what something is and what it is not. Come follow me in this word journey.
How many times have we read and spoke this word love without thinking much about it? If you're like me you read the word love and just go on reading. I remember when I was in school I developed this skill of being able to pick up on what teacher was going to ask on a test. I would write the possible test question in my notebook. When it was time to study I would go through the notebook and put the questions on one piece of paper to build the study guide. The apostle Paul is our teacher. In 1 Cor 13:13 Paul leaves us with these words.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
The phrase "the greatest of these is love" is what I call an indicator of importance. The test question: What is love is going to be on the test. We want to get this correct. It may be the only question on the test. So you see, that is why we are going to explore this term love, to increase our understanding. In this way we can perhaps preserve and build relationships. More importantly, we can draw nearer to the imitation what love is and perhaps positively influence others.
From the reading we first see that love is patient. To further understand patience, let's look at what patience is and is not.
Proverbs 14
29 A patient man has great understanding,
but a quick-tempered man displays folly.
Proverbs 15
18 A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension,
but a patient man calms a quarrel.
What have we learned? We should look for and be: Patient people who have great understanding and bring peace to clashes. We are not to be quick tempered or spreaders of dissension but we are to be enduring. Enduring that has a sound of permanence doesn't it? Patient also means don't give up on people. Don't give up on people.
Back to our reading: Second we observe that love is kind.
Proverbs 11 Proverbs teaches us that a kind person is not ruthless or cruel. Further we study that love does not envy. Proverbs 14 Synonyms for the word envy are jealousy, greed, spite, and resentment.
Moving on we see that love does not boast. Proverbs 27 Definition of the word boast includes to brag or to sing your own praises.
I don't know about you but this one is a tough one for me. Being boastful is tied to being proud. Love is not proud. Proverbs 16 Proverbs 18 The lesson here is humility. Be humble and
look for those that are humble and not arrogant, conceited, egotistical,
bigheaded or self-centered. Humility comes before honor. Honor is not a word we use much.
Honor is respect. So we can say humility comes before respect. Love is not rude, or impolite, or
discourteous, or offensive. Therefore we
can deduce that love is nice, respectful and polite. Proverbs 18 Love is not self-seeking, not selfish, not
self-centered, not self-regarding, not egotistical, or not self-absorbed.
Love is selfless to the point of self-sacrificing
- self-sacrificing. Love is not easily angered. Pay attention here. The verse did not say the love is not
angered. The verse says not easily angered. Proverbs 29 So we can see that love is self-control in the context of having a lean and not a
full vent to anger. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Did you hear that? - Love keeps not records of wrongs.
Love absolves, it pardons, and it forgives. Love is not condemning. So its time for a review of what we have covered so far. From our reading:
4Love is patient, love is kind. It
does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. That puts us at verse 6.6Love does not delight in
evil but rejoices with the truth. Therefore if love does not delight in evil, then love delights in goodness and celebrates
with the truth. Ok. We are in to the home stretch. Verse 7 Love: 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
perseveres. And finally, but so important about love, love
preservers. Let me say it another
way. Love does not give up on
people. For how long? Forever! Fathers and mothers how long are you on the hook to develop the
generation you have caused? Forever!
Love never gives up on people. I see that I have some things to work on. So if we're looking for love what do we look for? So if we're married what did it
mean when we promised to love our spouse for the rest of their lives? To our
children and to our neighbor how are we to behave? I have made a list to keep me focused. I'm sharing it with you below: Love is: Love is not/does
not: Patient;
calms a quarrel; great understanding Anger
quickly, stir up dissention Kindhearted;
compassionate; considerate; sympathetic; and thoughtful Ruthless;
cruel; brings trouble to self Content,
satisfied Envy;
backbite Lets
praise come from others Boast Humble Proud Polite,
courteous Rude Selfless,
not about me Self
seeking Keeps
no record of wrongs; forgiving Keeps
record of wrongs, hold a grudge Delight
in goodness; rejoices with truth Delight
in evil Always
protects Careless Always
trusts Suspicious,
doubtful Always
hopes Despair Always
perseveres; continues; persists; keeps trying Gives
up Contributors: Indiucky
16 A kindhearted woman gains respect,
but ruthless men gain only wealth.
17 A kind man benefits himself,
but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.
30 A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones.
1 Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
someone else, and not your own lips.
5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
12 Before his downfall a man's heart is
proud,
but humility comes before honor.
1 An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;
he defies all sound judgment.
11 A fool gives full vent to his anger,
but a wise man keeps himself under control.
With
love and respect, the lesson is yours.