Saturday, September 15, 2007
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is not puffed up . . .
LOVE IS NOT ARROGANT
Arrogance is closely akin to the bragging of the previous love note. Love is not "puffed up." Indeed, picture a bellows which is inflated with air -- puffed up. It is the haughty spirit which precedes a fall, the sinful pride which goes before destruction (see Proverbs 16:18).
We can't claim that our particular age has a corner on selfish behavior. It does seem, though, doesn't it, that fewer and fewer voices are raised against the forces of self-assertion and self-interest? The cult of selfishness requires that one's own self is first. It is sinful pride to its core.
It's one of those sins we think we might be able to get away with because who can really know the condition of one's mind or heart. Aha! The Lord knows. He is completely aware of how we overestimate our own abilities and accomplishments, how we think we're better than others and how their abilities and accomplishments do not quite measure up to ours, or how we can't even properly evaluate our own limitations, thinking that our judgment of a situation is the only correct one there is.
Look at the sad situation in Corinth where the apostle concluded that many were "puffed up" -- arrogant. There was arrogance in connection with their choice of preacher heroes at the expense of the Gospel. They had diminished the saving word in order to champion one of the agents of that word (see 1 Corinthians 4:6-18). Some in the congregation had become "puffed up" in the way they had handled the problem of the incestuous man, evidently maintaining fellowship with one obviously impenitent (see 1 Corinthians 5:1-8). And the apostle is concerned about the effects of knowledge without love, especially in the way people might deal with those in the congregation who are weak and lack understanding (see 1 Corinthians 8:1).
And it is not just the apostle Paul who warns about sinful pride. Ancient Israel thought its military invincible and is warned by the prophet Jeremiah: "Your fierceness has deceived you, the pride of your heart, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill! Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the LORD" (49:16). "Thus says the LORD: 'In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem'" (Jeremiah 13:9). "A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor" (Proverbs 29:23).
The one thing that can release us from the grip of sinful pride: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The forgiveness in Christ conveys a new insight and understanding about who we are. God is the One who determines and creates the terms on which man can live in harmony with Him. The power of His Gospel-word creates an appropriate pride, not in ourselves, but in what He has done for us. We can indeed consider the welfare of others before our own because we do not have a status stake in the outcome. Our status is already fixed and the future assured. We can simply share what gave us such an advantage.
"For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Timothy 1:12).
