Love is Not Proud
13: 4e
The next link in the chain is that love is not proud (Greek: physioutai). When pride puffs up the heart, arrogance naturally follows. Pride forgets its own place and fails to respect others; love forgets its own place, but is thoughtful of others. Paul, himself, is a good example. No matter where he was, among friends or foes, before common people or before kings, he always knew how to conduct himself, so even kings were compelled to respect him.408
The Corinthian believers thought they had arrived at perfection (see Perfectionism by B. B. Warfield). Paul had already warned them not to go beyond what the TaNaKh says, proudly taking the side of one leader against another. After all, what makes you so special? What do you have that you didn’t receive as a gift? And if in fact it was a gift, why do you boast as if it weren’t? You are filled already? You are rich already? You have become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we might share the kingship with you (4:6-8)! Becoming even more sarcastic, he declared: For the Messiah’s sake we [apostles] are fools, but united with the Messiah you are wise! We are weak, but you are strong; you are honored, but we are dishonored (4:10)? Obviously not! A few verses later, the apostle is even more direct: When I didn’t come to visit you, some of you became arrogant (4:18). In fact, six of the seven occurances of the verb to be proud in the B’rit Chadashsh appear in this letter.
They greatly overvalued the opinion they had of themselves. Instead of seeing themselves as lowly pawns, they viewed themselves as mighty kings. Everything good that the Corinthians had, came from the King; therefore, they had no reason to be proud or arrogant about anything. Yet, they were puffed up and conceited about their knowledge of doctrine, their spiritual gifts, and the famous teachers they had had. They were so overestimated about their pride that they even boasted about their carnality, worldliness, idolatry, and immorality, including incest, which was even practiced by pagans. They were arrogant rather than repentant; they bragged more than they mourned (to see link click Ba – Failure to Discipline an Immoral Brother). But in contrast to all of their pride, love is not arrogant.
William Carey, often referred to as the father of modern missions, was a brilliant linguist, responsible for translating parts of the Bible into no fewer than 34 different languages and dialects. He had been raised in a simple home in England and as a young man worked as a cobbler. In India he was often ridiculed for his “low” birth and former occupation. At a dinner party one evening a snob said to him sarcastically, “I understand, Mister Carey, that you once worked as a shoemaker.” But Carey replied, “Oh no, your lordship, I was not a shoemaker . . . only a shoe repairman.”
Dear Heavenly Father, How wonderful all you did for those who love You so they could live eternally with You having Yeshua’s righteousness (Second Corinthians 5:21)! There is no room for anyone to have pride in salvation, for it is all by Your grace thru faith, and even this is not our accomplishment, but God’s gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). You so humbly came down as a man (Philippians 2:5-11) and bore our sin and shame. As we focus our joy on thanking and pleasing You, rewards from this world mean nothing. Life on earth will be over in a blink so how important it is to use the short time we have to prepare our gift of love for You.
What a wonderful thought that what we do on earth, with a godly heart attitude, has eternal rewards (First Corinthians 3:12-14). Any reward or crown that we may receive, we choose to give to You. Like the twenty-four elders we will fall down before the One seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. And they throw their crowns down before the throne, chanting, “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power” (Revelation 4:10-11a). You are a joy to worship! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
When Yeshua began to preach, He soon overshadowed the ministry of John the Immerser. Yet John spoke of Him as the One who comes after me, whose sandal I am not worthy to untie (John 1:27 NASB). When John’s disciples later became jealous of Yeshua’s popularity, John rebuked them, saying: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).
Like wisdom, love says: I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and deceitful speech (Proverbs 13:8). Other proverbs remind us that first comes pride, then disgrace (Proverbs 11:2a), that disrespect only produces strife (Proverbs 13:10), and that pride goes before destruction, and arrogance before failure (Proverbs 18:18). Pride and arrogance breed contention, which the Corinthian church was filled with. Love is constructive. It builds up the building (8:1); pride blows up the building. Arrogance is big-headed, whereas love is big-hearted.409
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