Love is NOT
Boastful
A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson
Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church
Scripture Text: I Corinthians 13:4c October 16, 2011 Sermon #0272
In his first letter to the Corinthian church Paul wrote these words:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant – I Corinthians 13:4
Love is NOT boastful.
I spent much of last week trying to determine what it means that love is not boastful.
- That I would say how much I love? - I wouldn’t try to show everyone that I love?
- Maybe that I don’t brag about myself? - or that I don’t try to make myself look good?
It seems like such a simple statement that should be easy enough to understand and practice, well at least understand. Because then I look at the second letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian church are see that they failed to put that into practice at all. Look at chapters 11 and 12…
II Corinthians 11-12 Paul’s foolish boasting!
The Corinthians did not understand the Love Paul wrote about to them before?!
Or was there something in the way, keeping them from loving?
Boasting of Thee
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! - Psalms 34:2-3
Listen to how Paul began his first letter to the Corinthian church (this same letter where he defined Love):
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men
– I Corinthians 1:20-25
He began the letter with this… and further added, “so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 1:31)
And He STILL had to write them again to address the SAME problem of pride and boasting!
Will we need to revisit this notion that pride is incompatible with Love, that Love does NOT boast? Or will we understand and put into practice… boasting Only in the Lord?
"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." – II Corinthians 10:17
It’s Not About Me
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." - Jeremiah 9:23-24
Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism. - Sigmund Freud
Even non-Christians understand that boasting is contrary to love!
In fact I read a quote online that said, “A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.” - H.L. Menchen
Did you catch what was being said? That people in the church do NOT love those outside it!
It’s All About Humility
Someone once said, “We’d all like to be humble… but what if no one notices?”
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. – Proverbs 27:1-2
Let another praise you… You praise and lift up others!
Benediction
Do Justice, Love kindness, and walk humbly with your God - Micah 6:8