Review
 Last week we began chapter 13, the love chapter, by seeing God’s perspective of love
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To God, love is supreme
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It is who He is – His essence, it is the motivation behind all He does and it is our earmark, that which is to identify us as disciples
 To illustrate love’s importance, Paul gave us 3 examples the stress the need for love
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Without love, our most eloquent communications is little more than noise
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Without love, all our giftings, talents & abilities are of no benefit
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Without love, all our acts of service or sacrifice profit us nothing
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We mentioned that the love God is concerned with is agape love
 That selfless, other’s centered, unmerited, unearned, undeserved love
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Love that simply seeks an object to lavish it’s affection on
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It loves by choice of the lover, regardless of the beloved
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The conduct, response or attitude of the beloved has no effect on the love given
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The love of a mother for her newborn child
Introduction
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After expounding on the importance of love, how we are basically noisy worthless nothings without it, it would be terrible if Paul simply moved on to the next subject without describing that love
 Love’s important, now go figure out what love is on your own
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Most of us would be in big trouble, with at best tweaked definition of love
 Some of us didn’t really grow up with love, or at least not how God defines it
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Left to our own devices, our definition of love would be different from what God desires
 Thankfully Paul doesn’t do that
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In verse 4-8 Paul defines the agape God love
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Like facets on a diamond, Paul lists 16 characteristics of agape love
 They describe what this love looks like, how it acts, how it responds, it’s attitude and it’s applications
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According to 1 John, God is agape love
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In reality, Paul definition of love in these verses also serves as a definition of God
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It shows us who He is at His core
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Best of all, it tells us how God loves us
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We know He loves us, but often we feel His love fluctuates based on our performance
 As we’ll see, this love has nothing to do with the performance of it’s object
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As such, please know that God loves us in spite of us
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Our performance is actually a response to His love, rather than the motivation of His love
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These verses are not intended to be some kind of indictment to condemn us as loveless
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Actually, there really should be an encouragement to all of us
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First, they tells us the character and nature of the God we serve
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Second, they show us the kind of love that God has for us
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Third, they depict the love that that Spirit is working into us
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These verses become a measuring stick, a standard that we can compare our lives to
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Substitute your name every time you see the word love and reread these verses
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Would these verses remain true? Or does the Spirit still have a lot of work to do?
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The longer we walk with the Lord and surrender to the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the truer they should sound
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As such, we can use these verse as a progress meter of our sanctification
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 Now substitute Jesus’ name for love and reread the verses
 It fits perfectly and doesn’t detract from the truthfulness of the verse at all
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My prayer, for me & you, is that these verses come to describe us more and more each day
The Definition of Love (13:4-8a)
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First, we are told that agape love suffers long
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Most of us tend to avoid anything with the word suffer in it
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Agape love is more than just patient, it suffers long, it patiently endures
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It endures and bears with wrongdoing for an extended period of time
 There is a ‘stick-to-it-ness’ about it
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It is not quick to drop it’s object of affection at the first sign of difficulty or problems
 It doesn’t give up quickly
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So many times our love is conditional
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What have you done for me lately?
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If the answer is very little, or worse yet caused me to suffer, we are quick to drop our love
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Agape love is about committed faithfulness regardless of the situation
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This also conveys the idea is that it is not quick tempered, fast to react negatively
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Agape love is far from wrath or anger
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When we perceive we have been wronged, rather that suffer long and endure it, we are quick to want to retaliate, usually in a negative way
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That is not the way of agape – it is able to rise above petty things and continue to love
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How perfect a definition of God
 Aren’t you glad that God was longsuffering with you before you got saved?
 Aren’t you glad that now that you are saved, He continues to be long suffering with your failures and when you deliberately sin against Him
 Aren’t you glad that God never did, nor will, give up on you? –
Phil 1:6 “…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
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God is indeed longsuffering
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When Moses wanted to see God, God passed by and declared His name to Moses
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Ex 34:6-7 “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…”
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Peter even addressed the issue that some felt God was unconcerned because He didn’t bring His judgment swiftly – 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
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Is our love longsuffering or is it simply fair weathered and self benefit orientated
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Second, agape love is kind
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The best description of this kindness is actually tender compassion
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Compassion is more that just feeling sorry for someone or identifying with their situation and suffering
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Compassion carries with it a strong desire to intervene to alleviate that suffering
 In other words, it doesn’t simply shake it’s head and say what a shame, it actively looks for ways to improve the situation
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The word comes from the same root word for bowels – what the ancients believed was the seat of all emotions, in the pit of your stomach
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The bible sometimes renders the word as tender mercy
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Not only does love suffer long, it responds with active kindness
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Agape love is always seeking an opportunity to be kind and tender
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It wants to be an asset, a help, a benefit to those upon whom it is given
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No matter what or how much it must endure and suffer, agape love always seeks to be good and kind to others
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Naturally speaking, when we are wronged, kindness isn’t usually on the top of our response list
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Luke 6:35-36 “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”
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Needless to say, this describes God perfectly
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God is not some malevolent and maniacal being looking to pour out His anger or wrath
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He is the opposite – loving tender and always seeking to pour out His kindness and compassion
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Look at His response to sin
 He didn’t look down, shake His head and say too bad for you
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He sent His Son to alleviate the problem
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Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
 Throughout the gospels we read; ‘Jesus had compassion for the people’ or ‘Jesus was moved with compassion’
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He looked at the multitudes with compassion because He saw them as sheep without a shepherd
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Do we always respond in kindness?
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Third, agape love does not envy
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Envy is a desire for what another has or is – similar to coveting
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There are 2 types of envy
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Simple envy – you have it I want it
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Malicious envy – you have it, I don’t necessarily want it, I just don’t want you to have it
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This quality means that love is not jealous
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True love has an aspect of contentment
 It doesn’t have a wrong sense of ambition or competition
 Within the body it doesn’t look upon the call, gifts or influence of others with a sense of jealousy or covetousness
 Jealousy is an insidious thing and is often called ‘the green-eyed monster’
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When I think of envy, I think of king Saul
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He was so envious and jealous of David
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It infuriated him when the people sang of Saul killing his 1,000’s but David his 10,000’s
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So strong was his envy, that it moved Saul to chase David around the wilderness for years looking to kill him
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When Jesus died, what possessions did He have
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Nothing – even His clothes were gambled away
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He had to be buried in a borrowed tomb
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When approached by a potential disciple Jesus responded in Matt 8:19-20 “Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him,
"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."”
 But doesn’t the bible say that our God is a jealous God and that His name is Jealous
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Yes – but God is jealous for us, not of us
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He is jealous that we serve Him alone, because He knows that is what is best for us
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Fourth, agape love does not parade itself
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The old KJV says ‘charity vaunteth not itself’
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To vaunt means to push forward or push up
 Love doesn’t do what it does to be seen, to be elevated in the eyes of others
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I wish some of the TV Christians would understand this
 The idea is that love isn’t some kind external show
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It is genuine, not an act for others to see and admire
 It isn’t a braggart – It doesn’t need to be the center of attention, nor does it need or seek applause
 In actuality, love most often does it’s work outside of the sight of others
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We see this demonstrated in the life of Jesus
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He was never seeking the crowds, in fact He often withdrew from them
 When He did His miracles, He often said ‘don’t tell anyone’
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After He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead we read in Luke 8:56 “And her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened.”
 He wasn’t out campaigning for the popular vote
 Our love isn’t to be demonstrated in such a way that we are seeking to build up our image in the eyes of others
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Fifth, love is not puffed up
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Here we have the internal attitude of pride
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Pride is something we all have and struggle with – something we must fight against
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It was the 1 st
sin, the sin of Lucifer, and is really the genesis of every other sin
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Pride is simply seeing yourself as above others
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With that comes the need and attempt to prove that
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When this is the case, then any charitable deeds are done for an ego stroke
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Look what I did, boy and I great, I’m so much better than so and so because they didn’t do what I did
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This manifestation of love is really selfish in nature
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Plain and simple – God hates pride
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Both James & Peter tell us that “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble”
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Humility is really a fundamental cornerstone of the Christian life
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Sixth, agape love does not act rudely
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It is not short, curt or terse
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It is always polite, showing common courtesy
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Seventh, love does not seek it’s own
 True love doesn’t act based on what it can get for itself
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It is not selfish, self-centered or self-seeking
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Agape is always looking out for the benefit of others
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It is willing to give others the credit
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Agape is all about giving, not taking
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Eighth, agape love is not provoked
 Some people add the word ‘easily’ before provoked
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The idea is that there is a limit, a line not to cross
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Once crossed, then love is provoked
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That is not what the bible says
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Here we have the idea of not being over sensitive
 Love isn’t touchy, easily offended or easily frustrated
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Love has that staying endurance we talked about, and doesn’t give up in a huff
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Agape love has thick skin and a soft heart
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Ninth, love thinks no evil
 Agape love doesn’t operate with any kind of malicious intent
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It always focuses on that which is good
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It is not suspicious, it doesn’t think the worst about people or situations, rather it gives the benefit of the doubt
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It actively searches for the good qualities and accentuates them, rather than focusing on the bad
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It is innocent, not fault finding, or nit picking
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This can also be described as not keeping a record of wrongs
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We often keep lists of the way people have wronged us and if honest, we hope that some day they will get theirs
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Agape love is a quick forgiver, not keeping those lists
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As such, agape love leaves no room for bitterness or harshness of attitude to develop
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Once again we see this demonstrated in the life of Jesus
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One of the most simple and sublime statements about Jesus is in Acts 10:38 “God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
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He did good to all – His followers as well as His opponents
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His first words from the cross are also evidence of this goodness – Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
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Honestly, my prayer would have been just a bit different
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Tenth, love doesn’t rejoice in iniquity
 First this means that love doesn’t smile at the misfortunes of others
 It isn’t excited about other’s failures because they make us look better
 When something bad happens to someone who we feel deserves it, agape doesn’t celebrate
 It doesn’t take an attitude of ‘It serves them right’
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Example – Tagger hit on the freeway
 This also speaks of it’s attitude towards sin and ungodly behaviors
 Love isn’t tolerant towards, ignorant of or wishy-washy about sin
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It has a backbone and is willing to confront sin and rebellion with the truth
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Love refuses to compromise with sin but always seeks to do the right thing even when that is the hard thing
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Jesus identified and ministered to sinners while never condoning or identifying with their sin
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Eleventh, love rejoices in the truth
 Love is excited when people are right on, living in godliness according to God’s word
 God’s word is truth, it is pure absolute truth, thus love rejoices when people are living according to the precepts, judgments, statutes and commandments of the word
 As such true agape love does not compromise when it comes to God’s word
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Sometimes we feel loving if we overlook something in another’s life that is contrary to God’s word
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We like to think we are showing grace
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In reality, the most and best love we can show someone is to clearly show them what God says
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Agape love rejoices in biblical outcomes of all situations
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Twelfth – Fifteenth
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These four qualities each have that dreaded word – ‘all’
 All means all, and that’s all, all means
 For these to be completely true about us we would have to replace the word ‘all’ with the word
‘some’
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Bears all things
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Nothing is too strong for love so that it is crushed – It always hold’s up
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 It’s supply is greater than any demand
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Agape love comes directly from God Himself who has an endless supply
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What demand then could exhaust that supply?
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For this to be a reality, we must be constantly in fellowship with God receiving His love so that we then have love for others that bears all things
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Believes all things
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Here we have the honesty of love
 It isn’t mistrustful or distrustful but rather is willing to give the benefit of the doubt
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True agape doesn’t allow it’s faith to waver or fail
 It doesn’t become jaded in various situations
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Hopes all things
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Agape is always optimistic, never negative or cynical
 It doesn’t allow it’s perspective concerning the present or future to be dominated by the past
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Past experiences can not overwhelm it to the point where it becomes pessimistic about what is to come
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It is confident about what good will come
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Endures all things
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Here we have the final outcome of suffering long
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Agape love outlasts all other things – the wrongs done to it, the failings of others, the hurt, pain and sorrow
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In the end, agape love remains because it endures all things
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Sixteenth, love never fails
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The word for fail here actually means to fall off, fall down or fall out of
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It was used to describe a flower or leaf falling off a plant
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It was also used of an actor being booed or hissed off a stage
 When we read that love never fails, it means it holds it’s place
 It isn’t moved, diverted or detoured by anything or anyone
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It is firm, sturdy, unflappable and unshakeable
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When everything else is shaken and moved from the scene, love will remain
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It is permanent – which is what the rest of chapter 13 teaches us
Conclusion
 God’s definition is just a bit different from ours
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His definition is the only definition that matters
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This is the kind of love that described His nature and is the kind of love He has for us
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Does it describe the kind of love we have for Him and others
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If not, allow the Holy Spirit to work this love into, through and out from your life
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Next week, we see the permanence of love
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