[Steve Myers] Good to see all of you. Welcome to another session of Epistles of Paul. We've been studying 1 Corinthians and we've made it to Chapter 13. So we could say we're survivors. We made it all the way to Chapter 13. Thank you. And we've been talking about the last couple of chapters having major themes to them. Anyone remember the theme of Chapter 11? That's right. Traditions in the Church. How about Chapter 12? Spiritual gifts. We kind of continue that thought as Paul finished Chapter 12 and then talks about the most important gifts. He wants to show a more excellent way and that leads us into Chapter 13 where we'll begin today, and it is the love chapter. No, not the "love" chapter. Maybe we should delineate that just a little bit. The New Testament does identify a number of different kinds of love. And maybe we could just talk about a couple of those as we begin today.

One that is mentioned in the Bible is philia. Philia is one type of love. The base word that it comes from is philos. Now, you might recognize philos, especially if you pair it with the word that we talked about the other day, sophia, wisdom, so if you are a philosophio, a philosopher, you're a friend of wisdom, a friend of wisdom. So philia is a friendship kind of a love, a brotherly kind of love. If you pair it with delphos, you have philiadelphos or Philadelphia. Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, right? Thinking anciently, of course, there was a Philadelphia in what we would call modern Turkey today, way back in the day. And it was actually named...the ruler there named the city for his brother, Philadelphia. And so that's where that originated from. And so Philadelphia, or philia, love, is a friendship, a close brotherly love kind of a friendship, kind, benevolent, that type of a love. It's a kind of love… Actually, if you go to John 15:14, we find Christ using this particular word, philia, in John 15. Notice verse 14. You'll recognize this particular passage here.

John 15:14 Where Christ says, "You are my friends. You're my philos. You're my friends if you do whatever I command you."

And so you are my close friends. We have a tight bond between us, right? We're...what would you say? We're best buds, kind of in that regard. So Christ certainly used that kind of love, referred to that kind of love. It's the same type we find in Hebrews 13, right at the very beginning of that chapter. So if you want to flip with me over to Hebrews Chapter 13, we could highlight this type of love for just a moment at the very end of the letter to the Hebrews. Here it even delineates this kind of love a little bit more specifically.

Hebrews 13:1 "Let brotherly love continue."

Let brotherly love. So here you have the extra adjective there describing this particular word, even though the word is really just one, just one Greek word, but it's translated brotherly love. And so philia describes that kind of affection that you have for a dear friend. So that's one type of love that is mentioned in the New Testament. There's another that is from the Greek word storge. Storge is another type of love that's mentioned. And this is different from the friendship kind of love, the brotherly kind of love, you know, this tight bond that friends can have. This one is one that can be thought of as a familial kind of a love, a love between family members. Probably the best kind of idea you can come away with with storge would be the love that a mother has for her child or that children have for their parents when they have a close family relationship. It's a kind of love that's not just one way, but is a mutual kind of a love. So it's a mutual love between family members. You can probably think of lots of examples in the Bible of this kind of a love.

Anyone think of maybe a New Testament family that's mentioned that demonstrate the kind of affection that they had for each other? Brothers and sisters who loved each other, cared for each other, even if they were sick unto death? I'm giving you clues here to come up with the same ones I'm thinking of. One got all carried away with serving and was irritated with her sister when she wouldn't help out. Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. There was certainly a demonstration between them how much they cared for each other. They were illustrating the storge kind of love.

There's an example here in the New Testament over in Romans 12 that speaks to this kind of family love, that bond between mothers and children and fathers and their children, and mothers and fathers, and brothers and sisters, that kind of familial kind of love.

Romans 12:9-10 It says, "Let love be without hypocrisy." This is verse 9, "Abhor what's evil, cling to what's good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another."

Now, this one's emphasizing this family kind of love. New King James says brotherly love. Others refer to it just as love, just as love. Now, it's kind of interesting, this particular love puts these two words together, philistorge is actually the Greek word there in this regard. And it just speaks to the fact that as families, yeah, we should even like each other and be friends too to have this love of family.

Well, like, imagine, you think of I think of the Old Testament as well. So many examples there. Jacob and his sons and the affection that they had between one another, that mutual kind of love certainly demonstrated there. How vital is it? How vital is this kind of love? Well, wouldn't it encompass one of the commandments? What are children supposed to do? Honor your father and mother. Honor your father and mother. It's kind of reflecting that kind of an idea that family is absolutely vital and this kind of storge, familial kind of love is absolutely necessary. And so God even wrote it into one of the commands to remind us how important family is.

Also interesting that you fast forward to our day, go to 2 Timothy 3 for just a moment because here we have a reference to these difficult times. I think times that we live in, times that will even become more serious and stressful that are ahead.

2 Timothy 3:2 Says, "Know this in the last days, perilous times will come." Sets the tone for what time frame are we talking about? All right, here we're near the end. Notice what it says, verse 2. It says, "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers." Yeah, that lovers word there is kind of a variation of the philia, but it's a self-centeredness. That's the lovers of themselves, a selfish kind of a love. Proud blasphemers goes down the list.

Look at verse 3, first word used here in verse 3 to describe these individuals is unloving. Unloving. That's the astorge, not having family love, not having those. Think about that in our times. Is there really a love of family? Definitely not a love of what God designed the family to be. We can't even define what a family is today. And so that lack of love between family members is evidence of the kind of times that we live in. And so you'll find that a number of times in the New Testament, astorge. Another example would be Romans 1 where it's describing how God gives them over to just awful kind of behavior. And part of that behavior there is that astorge, a lack of family love. And so that's an interesting aspect of the kind of times that we live in.

So there's two examples. There's another type of love that the Greeks certainly referred to, and that is eros, eros kind of love. And that is the "love." Can we say it like that? I think so. Love. Talking about a romantic kind of a love, a physical, sensual kind of love. That's eros. Now, you won't find this word in the New Testament. It's not used, not used in the New Testament at all. That term itself doesn't appear in the Bible. But does that type of love show itself in behaviors in the Bible? Well, absolutely. You can think of examples of this. Paul referred to this even in this letter that we've been going through in 1 Corinthians. Remember, he talked about the fact that those that were unmarried, those that were widows, he said it's better if they go ahead and get married rather than burn with passion. Remember that section of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 7? So, even though he doesn't use the word eros, he's talking about that kind of a romantic kind of a love, a sensual kind of a love between a husband and a wife. Yeah, that's what that's referring to. Because God certainly created us and instituted His concept of what marriage is all about and how sex fits into that and all of those emotional and spiritual bonding that takes place in that regard. So that certainly refers to eros. Eros.

Now we come to Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, and it's describing another kind of love. And in Chapter 13, we have agape. Agape love. Agape love. And that's what's described in Chapter 13. And it perfectly describes the kind of love that Jesus Christ and God the Father share. It perfectly describes the kind of love that they have for us, for the Church, for God's people, for humanity. The kind of love that God displays toward us perfectly in this term agape. Interesting that Christ used this word in John 14:21...kind of just a precursor before we get into Chapter 13. If you go over with me to John 14, notice verse 21, another familiar passage here where Christ Himself is speaking. And notice what He says and consider the words that He uses here. We looked at Christ using that example of, "You are my friends, you're my philos if you keep my commandments." Now, here, it's interesting the word that He uses in this case.

John 14:21 He says, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

Now, this word for love is agape. Agape. So this is agape love, the kind of love that we're to have for each other. So what does that look like? What does that mean? How does that display itself? Well, fortunately, we have 1 Corinthians 13 that is a perfect description of that kind of love.

So rather than just throwing out a definition at this point, let's work toward that definition as we consider 1 Corinthians 13. Now, there's something we need to consider before we get into Chapter 13. I mean, if you want to turn over there, you certainly can. In fact, I'll go ahead and turn over there right now. 1 Corinthians 13. Just to have a little more background, we've talked a little bit about some of the challenges that Corinth faced. And certainly the worship of pagan gods had an impact on God's Church in Corinth. Many were called out of that kind of lifestyle where they serve pagan gods. And we talked about the worship of Aphrodite, how the worship of Zeus was certainly manifesting itself throughout the city of Corinth. It was big. It was huge.

Also mentioned all the way back in our introduction, the worship of Dionysus. Dionysus worship or deonastic worship, that was certainly prevalent throughout Corinth. Now, Dionysus was the god of...sometimes called the god of madness, sometimes called the god of partying, the god who is the god of wine, revelry, all of that sort of thing. And so begin to think about what that meant and how that exhibited itself. If you're going to worship the god of revelry, the god of madness, the god of wine, partying, Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, Bacchus, if you live in the South and ever been around New Orleans at Mardi Gras time, they have a team that's called Bacchus, and they put floats together where they're honoring pagan gods. And so some of this stuff goes on today, and some of that party spirit is certainly found in Mardi Gras as well. I don't want to get too far off track talking about that. We served in New Orleans for a number of years, and it certainly is a prevalent thing there. It is a party town, and some of the influence of that attitude certainly portrays itself even today.

So imagine this Dionysus, this Bacchus, as the god of revelry, madness, partying, all of these types of things. It was there in Corinth, and the Church was called out of that. Many of the members came out of that type of worship. I mean, there were even monuments. One very famous significant monument that was in honor of Dionysus and his worshipers, those that worshiped and honored him. And do you know what was one of the most prevalent aspects of Dionysus' worship? They would call it ecstasy or ecstatic worship. Of course, you think of ecstasy, whoa, that's just a wonderful, overwhelming kind. Well, what did that look like? Sometimes they called Dionysus the one who was glorified by mad honors. There was a guy named Plutarch, a philosopher, historian, that wrote about Dionysus worship. And he wrote, "They would honor him by the orgiastic cry. And they would call Dionysus the exciter of women, glorified by mad honors." That's what Plutarch wrote.

And so what would happen oftentimes, another philosopher, historian named Strabo wrote about this kind of worship. And this is what he wrote, "As a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy and in the guise of a minister, as inspiring terror at the celebration of sacred rites, by means of war dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums, and also by flute and outcry." So this ecstatic worship is where people are yelling and screaming and jumping and dancing and just going wild, just going wild. You think of spring break in Florida. Now, this takes it to a whole other level. Whole other level here. And so, in fact, people would get so wound up and excited that women, who was recorded during the worship of Bacchus or Dionysus, would actually tear apart young animals, rip them apart and they would eat them raw. And, of course, you can imagine thinking about the pagan worship, the pagan gods. We've talked about meat offered to idols, you eat this meat and the god becomes part of you.

In fact, it's been recorded that even Alexander the Great took note of these worshippers, these women who worshipped, and because of their wild savagery, that Alexander supposedly incorporated a group of these women into his army so that he could then go and supposedly conquer India. So this whole aspect of this kind of worship, and of course shouting was a big part of this rite, that was the function of women in this Dionysiac worship. Yeah, it was an amazing thing. And if you study into this, there's all kinds of information out there that portrays what this worship was like and how the women were involved in that.

Menander, another philosopher, historian, poet, describes this kind of worship, and he wrote this, "We were offering sacrifice five times a day, and seven serving women were beating cymbals around us while the rest of the women pitched high the chant." And so here the women were expected and encouraged just to be screaming out and yelling and chanting and dancing. And that also took part in the wine and the revelry and all of those types of things. So the drinking and the sex, of course, that would have also been involved. The behavior would have just been totally out of hand. Of course, drunkenness, the God of wine, revelry would also have been a part of that. So does it make you wonder, huh, people were drunk at the Passover, weren't they? Paul wrote about that. The different things evidenced itself in this letter that Paul wrote to them. Did some of these types of things have impact on God's Church? I think it did. I think it's almost undoubtable it had an impact.

And so Paul will refer to some of these things as he talks about the kind of behavior and the kind of love we're to have for each other. So as we read through Chapter 13, keep that in mind. Keep in mind some of these types of things that were a part of these Bacchic feasts and the frenzy that they would have gone under and the yelling and the dancing and all of these types of things, and even just the talking and the yelling kind of aspects that also become a part of what Paul is trying to instruct the Corinthians that that is not us. That is not what we're like. That is not what we do. That's not how we worship. And so you can kind of see that impact as we begin to take a look at what Paul says is the more excellent way. So with that little bit of background, let's go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 13. And here we can begin to see Paul describe the kind of love that we're supposed to have.

1 Corinthians 13:1 He says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men..."

Why start with tongues? Languages, Well, I think it probably ties into this Dionysus worship. This Bacchic worship, I think, was tied into that. And as he begins to describe this, they look, Corinth as a city, wow, they appreciated this ecstatic worship and how wonderful this all was. And he says, "Wait, you speak with tongues of men and of angels even, but you do not have love, you do not have agape. I've become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." Well, where would this...well, first of all, what would be sounding brass? Probably these gigantic gongs they had is probably what that's referring to. And they would beat these things or beat on the drums and crash the cymbal. Have you ever been around someone that just whacked a gong with these giant mallets? Boy, if you're not ready for it, it'll knock you out of your socks. I mean, these gongs that they have, played at the perfect time, you know, in the perfect setting with a beautiful piece, it can be amazing, absolutely amazing. But boy, if you don't know it's coming, wow, it'll just, you know, really startle you.

So here Paul refers to that. That's what they were doing in this Bacchic worship and the cymbals that were bashing. It was just this ecstatic kind of a thing that they appreciated in this worship of the pagan god. But he uses that to say, that's nothing. That's unacceptable in one sense, no doubt about that. But the fact is, I have to have agape. I have to have agape. And of course, when we begin to connect that with God the Father and Jesus Christ, well, what has Christ done for us? Demonstrated a selfless love, a sacrificial love. Sometimes it's called a godly love. Certainly doesn't take us to a complete definition of agape. But we begin to get an idea here about what it entails. Now, Old King James, this word for love is translated charity. Charity. We sing that in services, don't we? "If I have not charity, then I am as nothing." Right? We sing that. Well, we're singing Chapter 13. We're singing much of the lyrics from that hymn come from Chapter 13. Love. This deep abiding affection and care that God and Jesus Christ have for each other. And they have that same sacrificial love for us.

So Paul begins to show that this is the kind of love that should govern our relationships. We love because God loves us. We belong to God. And this love takes us beyond philia, takes us beyond storge, beyond eros. This is really getting down to just an absolutely revolutionary description of what relationships should be based on. Relationships between God the Father and Jesus Christ and His Church, us, have to be based on this. In fact, if you think of...well, maybe we should turn there for a moment. Hold your place here in 1 Corinthians 13. A passage just came to mind. It's over in 1 John. And I'll have to try to figure out where exactly it is. It's near the end, I think, where John writes about this very thing that is so critical. Yeah, it's 1 John 4:8. 1 John 4:8. Talk about agape love. Look how critical this is.

1 John 4:8 It says, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

God's character is represented by agape. And if we don't demonstrate that kind of love, this self-sacrificing kind of love, this kind of love that is indicative of the Father and of Christ, we don't know God. We don't know God. And when we don't know God, we are in trouble. We are in absolute trouble. And so it's that critical that we have to do that.

So interesting that...okay, if we flip back to 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak with the tongues of men," one of the things that Paul emphasizes here, it leads us to this ecstatic, Bacchic worship. But also the fact, what did the Corinthians emphasize? We just got done with the spiritual gifts chapter. Well, that was one of the big ones. Oh, I can speak in all these languages. And they kind of elevated that idea above some of these other gifts. Remember, they're comparing and challenging each other who's got the best gifts. And they thought this was such a fantastic...Paul starts there seemingly to point out, wait a second, that's not it. Gifts are nothing without agape. Nothing without agape. And so he begins to point that out, if you don't have this. Now, also interesting to think about this as we go through this, because it certainly emulates what the Father and what Christ feel toward us. And so you could even think in other ways that this love is representative of Jesus Christ. You know, do I have these things? Do I have these things, do I?

And as we get a little further, you know, we could even substitute, maybe a sneak peek ahead, verse 4 says, "Love suffers long." As we get into verse 4 and going on from there, I mean, you could substitute Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ suffers long. Jesus Christ doesn't envy. Father would also fit here as well. Question for us then, can we put our name there? Would this be descriptive of me? Does Steve suffer long? Is Steve kind? I think we can personalize this as we go through it. So consider that as we talk about this idea of agape. He goes on then, go back to verse 1, "I've become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." Yeah, that's that ecstatic lamenting, yelling, screaming. The gong word for the sounding brass is also an interesting one, only used twice in Scripture. It's used here, kind of representative of this giant gong kind of a thing. And just to give you an idea of this ecstatic kind of thing that Paul seems to be talking about here, the other place it's used is over in Luke chapter 21. And I'm not going to turn over there. In verse 25 of Luke 21, it refers to roaring seas. It doesn't even refer to a gong in that sense, but roaring seas, because that's kind of the idea that this is bringing. This idea of loud, brash, you know, out of control noise, kind of the frenzy that this Bacchic worship was all about.

But what's most important, big show? No, agape, self-sacrificing love, a selfless...And what kind of love did Christ emulate? Yes, sacrificial love, that He sacrificed His life. And so this is the highest form of love that you can have. Going back then to verse 2.

1 Corinthians 13:2 "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, but have not love, I am nothing."

I am nothing. So interesting that he ties in this mysteries, yeah, the unknown, some of that ties in with these ecstatic gifts. I mean, even think of the idea of feelings and emotions and excitement and all of that. Boy, that's worthless. And even when you compare the love to some of the gifts of the Spirit. I have the gift of prophecy. I have the gift of inspired speaking. Well, what good is that if your motivation is wrong? What good is that if you don't really have the sacrificial selfless love that's necessary? He says, it says, "I am nothing," at the end of that. Literally, if you were looking at the Greek, it's like it's an absolute zero. Absolute zero, nothing, zilch, nada, whatever you can think to say, nothing. There's no value in it.

You understand these things, you have knowledge. Yeah, well, that was one of the gifts, wasn't it? One of the gifts he talked about in Chapter 13, that you have understanding. Well, what good is being smart if you don't have love? If you don't have the right perspective, it's an absolute zero, an absolute zero. Now, we have to realize Paul is not condemning the other spiritual gifts. He's not doing that. What he's emphasizing here is the kind of love we're supposed to have. And so he's placing love above all those other gifts. That's why he says, "This is a more excellent way." This is a more So could we assume that maybe some of the Corinthians were demonstrating these spiritual gifts but didn't have the love to go along with it? I think we can assume that some were certainly in that condition. And so he's going to show exactly what are the attributes of this kind of love. And to set that up, he's comparing it to these other spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 13:3 He says, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."

Profits mean nothing. And so I might go and...feeding the poor here literally is talking about you're nourishing them, you're helping them. It's almost like you're putting the food right there in their mouth. Wow, how wonderful would that be, you know, to care for other human beings in that way? And I think...you have to check me on this, but I think they even use this word for...where he uses feeding, feeding here, implication feeding the poor, is kind of like a mother bird feeding its little babies in the nest. It's kind of like that. That's kind of the implication, which sounds wonderful. Well, yeah, sure, we should be doing that. But if we're doing it for the wrong motivation, if we're not doing it out of love, if we're not doing it out of agape, a selfless kind of an approach, he says, it profits me nothing. Profits me nothing. I haven't really helped. I haven't really helped is the implication here. And so I haven't helped the cause. I haven't done what's best.

Even if I've martyred myself, this idea of giving my body to be burned. Yeah, that's not saying after I die, like I'm going to be...and I lost the word. Yeah, if I'm going to burn my body after death, what do they call that? Cremated, there, thank you. Yeah, it's not talking about cremation here. Here it's talking about if I were to sacrifice myself. Yeah, there were some that would give their body in martyrdom. Think of some of those emperors, Diocletian and others. Yeah, it's amazing. But where does it lead you if you don't have sacrificial? Nothing. Even if you were to be martyred without love, there's no profit whatsoever.

And so now he begins to point out the characteristics, the traits of what this kind of agape love. What does sacrificial love look like? What does godly love look like? Give some examples of how it manifests itself. It's not just in the talk. It's not just there, it's in action. And so here we see the things that encompass this kind of love. Now, we could take a lot of time to go through these. In fact, Mr. Gary Petty has done a whole sermon series on agape love. I don't know if it's...I've forgotten now how many exactly. I always tease him about it. I say, well, maybe, what was it, 30 sermons that you gave on it or 45? I'm not sure. But I think it's under 10, actually. But actually, it just takes this whole concept of agape and really expands it. So I encourage you to read or listen through those sermons for even a more in-depth look.

For today's purposes, we're going to delve into it and begin to talk about those attributes of agape. And in verse 4, we have a description here.

1 Corinthians 13:4 It says, "Love suffers long."

Agape suffers long. We know Jesus Christ certainly suffered long, is long-suffering. That's an interesting word in and of itself. The word there is macrothumia. That's the base word, macrothumia. The macro, you know the difference between macro and micro. Micro is really little. Macro is really big. The thumia is where we get the idea of a thermos. What does a thermos do? We don't often call them that these days. Maybe you call it your Yeti or something else. It keeps things hot or it keeps things cold. Thumia refers to that kind of thing, the hotness, the thumos. And so macrothumos, macro, it takes you long to get hot. You don't get angry. Or sometimes it's translated as patient, as you're patient. And so this macrothumia connects with not only being patient, but it's pretty. It's pretty specific in the way that they use this word.

Macrothumia, being patient or suffering long, is referring specifically not to dealing with difficulty in circumstances or I'm going through this trial or I'm going through this circumstance that's happened to me. Not talking about that kind of patience. This is talking about the kind of patience it takes to deal with people, putting up with people. You suffer long when you're mistreated. Boy, does that emulate what happened to Christ, that He was long-suffering in that way? He suffers long. And so slow to anger that ability in those circumstances and putting up with people, putting up with people. And that's the challenges that we face as human beings, being able to do just that. But sacrificial love does that. That kind of love is the perfect demonstration of the character of God, that care and that concern. And that should rule our relationships. So we suffer long. We emulate Christ and we put up with people and we are patient in that regard.

He also then says, going back to verse 4, "Love is kind." It's kind. Kind of refers to a gentle side of things. Things here, being good-hearted, helpful to others. That idea that you're acting in a manner that helps and benefits others. That's the idea of kindness. And so, interesting use of that word in that regard. Yes, God has certainly been kind to us. Am I demonstrating kindness to others? In all this, interesting that it comes after macrothumia. You know, am I putting up with others? Even if they're not kind, can I be kind? Interesting that he puts it in that order. He then says, "Love doesn't envy." I think the King James says, "Envy is not." Envy is not. And that's kind of an interesting word too there. The word is zeloo. Let's see. I think there's two Es or maybe it's two Os. Now I've forgotten exactly what it is. Zeloo. Oh yeah, that's it. Pretty sure there's two Os at the end in the Greek word zeloo.

It's the same word we get zealousness from, zeloo, zealous. That's the good side of the word when you're zealous and you're enthusiastic about things. Yeah, that's good. But it could also be used in a negative sense. And the zeloo then is more like jealousy. Jealous. Our jealous word comes from the zeloo as well. And so that's why it's translated doesn't envy. It's not jealous, some translations say. In fact, he used this...where did he use that word? Yeah. "Earnestly desire the best gifts." This is in Chapter 12:31. Earnestly desire those best gifts. Have a zealousness. That's a good use of the word there. But now don't envy. Don't envy. Don't be jealous. Jealousy is not an attribute that is what agape entails. Not there. So we cannot be jealous. Was Corinth jealous? Were they separating into different groups? Were they divisive? My gift is better than your gift? Yeah, you see a lot of that. That's not an attribute that God's Church should have as we as individuals as well.

Okay, verse 4, going back there, it says, "Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up." Interesting, parading itself, of course, we talked about this Bacchic worship and there'd be parades and jumping and dancing and the whole frenzy kind of thing can tie in here. I think that's why many of the translations use this idea of parading because it does tie in, in that sense. If you look at more literally what it's getting at here, it's not, you're not arrogant, you're not boasting, you're not a big show-off. That's really the idea here behind parading itself. This is really the only place in the New Testament where this word is used, to parade yourself. And so don't be bragging. Don't be so arrogant. You know, don't show your vanity in that way. And so that's not love. That's not the self-sacrificing kind of love that should rule our character. It's not that way. It's not puffed up.

We've seen that before as well. We can go all the way back to chapter 3 where he talked about them being puffed up, filled with pride. It kind of takes this bragging vanity kind of thing to another facet that it's talking about, all right, don't be so prideful. Don't think you're so great. Remember we talked about having a big head, puffed up, that you're looking at yourself like you're so important. You got that contrast between selfless, agape, versus selfish, self-centered, self-important, involved with being puffed up and parading yourself. And so he says that's unacceptable. That is not an attribute of agape, not puffed up. Verse 5 then goes on to say, this is what sacrificial love, this is what unconditional love. Remember, God loves us unconditionally.

1 Corinthians 13:5 And so that kind of love “does not behave rudely.”

Doesn't behave rudely. And so this connotation seems to carry the way that we talk to each other, the way we address each other. The idea of rudely is that I'm not inappropriate with others. Sometimes the word is translated indecent. Indecent. So we're supposed to be decent people. Things should be done decently in an order. And so we're not rude in that regard. It says, "It doesn't seek its own." Well, that's exactly opposite. Selfless, unconditional, sacrificial love doesn't seek its own. It doesn't seek its own. So why? Where am I when it comes to that? Am I worried about the big three all the time? What's the big three? Me, myself, and I. The big three. Yeah, all too often, we as human beings, that's what we're most concerned about. I'm concerned about me. But agape is selfless. Agape is sacrificial. Agape is unconditional. And so we can't have this kind of self-seeking, self-interest, everything's about me and my interests, my personal gain. Agape is just the opposite of that.

So when you consider not seeking its own, you know, it also carries this connotation that I'm willing to step on others to get a leg up. I'll put somebody else down so I look better, kind of has that kind of a connotation as well, that I'll put others down so I look even better. "Well, at least I'm not like them. Look at how bad they are.N" And of course, we've seen some of that in Corinth, haven't we? Question is, do we see it in ourselves? Do we see that in ourselves? So love, agape, does not seek its own. Also says in verse 5, "Is not provoked." How easily do you get irritated? That's really what that's getting at. You know, how easily are you set off? I mean, this is opposite of macrothumia. Okay, you're not taking a long time to boil over. This is like flying off the handle immediately. That idea of not being provoked kind of carries that. Kind of an exasperation would be an example of that. You know, do you fall that direction or not? Do you have a short temper, a short fuse? He says, that's not godly. That is not godly love. That's not representative of selfless type of love. And so we've got to root that out if we have a short fuse. It can't be there. That did not describe what Christ was like.

It also goes on in verse 5 saying, "It thinks no evil." Thinks no evil. This is a pretty powerful few words here. Agape thinks no evil. All right, I should have good thoughts. I should think the best of people. Yeah, how often do we look to think the worst? How often do we find the faults, find the problems in others instead of seeing the good? Certainly it entails that, that it thinks no evil. But there's more to the Greek in this particular phrase, thinks no evil. Some of the translations kind of get to the heart of that meaning, where it says, "Keeps no record of wrongs." Agape keeps no record of wrongs. And I think that's pretty powerful when you think of that. They don't think evil. It has to do with actually kind of an accounting term. To keep a ledger, keeps no record. You keep a ledger. You ever done that? They did that to me, and I'm not forgetting it. Yeah, that's what they did. And I'm taking note of that. I think that's pretty important here when you think about thinking no evil, doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Let's build on that next time. We'll take a break right now. We'll come back and finish up talking about this idea of thinks no evil and put a little more meat on the bones for what agape is all about.