Sabbath School
First and Second Corinthians
Spiritual Gifts
Lesson 7 - Tuesday
Love Without Envy, Pride, or Anger
Read: 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
When Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13, he does something interesting. He tells us not only what love does, but also what love does not do. Why spend so much time describing the negative side of love?
Because love is more than a feeling or a collection of good intentions. Love changes the way we respond to other people. Sometimes the clearest evidence that love is growing in our hearts is found in the things we refuse to do.
Paul gives us eight powerful reminders.
Love does not envy. We may admire someone’s gifts, accomplishments, opportunities, or blessings, but love does not resent them because they have something we wish we had. We can desire spiritual gifts without becoming jealous of the people who possess them. Envy creates comparison and division; love celebrates the good God is doing in someone else.
Love does not boast. Love does not constantly draw attention to itself. It does not need to announce its accomplishments or prove its superiority. Genuine love is not obsessed with receiving praise. It is content to serve even when nobody notices.
Love does not puff itself up. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” There is a difference between knowing a great deal and using what we know to bless others. Pride makes us feel important; love makes other people feel valued.
Love does not behave rudely. Love considers how its actions affect others. It does not intentionally embarrass, humiliate, insult, or treat people disrespectfully. Even when we disagree, love remembers that the person standing before us is someone Christ values.
Love does not seek its own. This may be one of the hardest lessons of love. We naturally want our own way, our own rights, and our own preferences. But love asks a different question: “What will help the other person?” Sometimes love means willingly giving up something we have a right to have so that someone else can be helped or strengthened.
Love does not become easily irritated. Love is not constantly looking for reasons to be offended. It is not touchy, impatient, or quick-tempered. This does not mean that love never recognizes wrong. Rather, love refuses to allow every irritation to become an angry response.
Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Paul uses language associated with keeping an account. Love does not maintain a mental ledger of every mistake someone has made so that it can be brought out later. This is the difficult work of forgiveness. Forgiveness does not pretend that wrong never happened, but it refuses to keep using the wrong as a weapon.
Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing. Love does not secretly enjoy another person's failure. It does not celebrate when someone falls simply because we dislike them or because their failure makes us feel better about ourselves. Instead, love wants restoration. When someone makes a mistake, love does not ask, “How can I make them pay?” It asks, “How can I help them?”
Notice how deeply these eight negatives challenge us. Paul is not simply giving us a description of pleasant behavior. He is revealing the selfishness that love must remove from our hearts.
Envy says, “I wish I had what you have.”
Boasting says, “Notice what I have.”
Pride says, “I am better than you.”
Rudeness says, “I do not care how I affect you.”
Self-seeking says, “What about me?”
Irritation says, “You are getting on my nerves.”
Keeping records says, “I will never let you forget what you did.”
Rejoicing in wrongdoing says, “I am glad you failed.”
But Christlike love says something entirely different: “How can I bless you?”
This is why 1 Corinthians 13 is so challenging. It is easy to say that we love people. It is much harder to allow God's love to reshape our attitudes, reactions, conversations, and relationships.
Today, instead of simply asking, “Do I love others?” perhaps we should ask, “Which of these eight things am I still tempted to do?” Am I envious? Do I seek praise? Do I become irritated quickly? Do I hold onto people's past mistakes? Do I secretly enjoy seeing someone who has hurt me fail?
These questions can be uncomfortable, but they can also be transforming. When we recognize these attitudes in ourselves, we don't need to become discouraged. We can bring them to Jesus. He can replace envy with gratitude, pride with humility, irritation with patience, resentment with forgiveness, and selfishness with genuine concern for others.
The greatest evidence of love may not always be what we do. Sometimes it is what, through Christ's strength, we choose not to do.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for showing us what genuine love looks like. Search our hearts and reveal the attitudes that do not reflect Your love. Help us overcome envy, pride, selfishness, anger, resentment, and every desire to see others fail. Teach us to forgive rather than keep records of wrongs, to build others up rather than boast, and to seek the good of others rather than our own advantage. May the love of Jesus so fill our hearts that people can see His character in the way we treat them. Help us not only to speak about love but to live it every day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
More on Lesson 7: A Portrait of Love
3rd Quarter Sabbath School: 1st and 2nd Corinthians
