Agape Love - Part 2

1 Corinthians 13v4-7

1^st July 2022

Last week we looked at 1 Corinthians 13v1-3 which talks about the vital importance of agape love. Paul next gives us a description of this agape love:

1 Corinthians 13v4-8a
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

As undeserving recipients of God's agape love, the love that caused Jesus to die on the cross in our place, surely we desire to show that same love to others, to live lives worthy of followers of Jesus. We can use these words as a checklist, an opportunity to see if we're truly motivated by the love of Christ.

Two words that describe love

Love is patient. Agape love is patient with the people who mistreat us and let us down. The King James Bible says love "suffereth long". God is patient with us. He waits for us to repent. We should be patient with others, and wait for them to get it right.

Love is kind. Agape love is kind to everybody. I could talk for hours about God's kindness to me, and I hope you could do the same. We can reflect God's kindness to us by showing kindness to others, especially to those who also require us to be patient and long-suffering.

Eight things that love never does

Love does not envy. A loving person never wants to take away something that belongs to another person, whether that's a car, or a ministry, or a friend, or a bank balance, or a reputation. A loving person never gets bitter or resentful if another person has something he doesn't have.

Love does not boast. A loving person never claims to be better than he is. A loving person never talks at length about how hard he works, or how much he's achieved, or how spiritual or gifted he is.

Love is not proud. A loving person is never arrogant. He never claims to be better than anyone else, or cleverer, stronger, more prayerful, kinder, or anything else, even if he is.

Love is not rude. A loving person never disrespects others. A loving person has time to say "please" and "thank you". He's not too important or too busy to stop and chat. Well, not usually; sometimes we need to do something urgently but, generally speaking, a loving person won't let himself be too busy to have time for others. A loving person never puts people down, but always lifts them up. Whenever anybody meets us, he should end that conversation feeling more positive than when it started.

Love is not self-seeking. A loving person doesn't go to church for what he can get out if it, but for what he can put into it. He doesn't go because he likes a particular preacher. He doesn't stay away because he thinks he's OK spiritually at the moment, and doesn't need a top-up. We go to church because we love God. We go to church because we love each other, and want to encourage each other. We go to church so that, if a non-Christian is looking for God, and comes here, we're a worshipping, loving community he can join until he finds God for himself. A loving person doesn't preach, or put chairs out, or drive people home, or make coffee, to feel good about how much he's contributing. He does it for the sake of the people he's serving, and for God. And if you can't serve with a smile on your face, don't do it.

The ESV translates this as "love does not insist on its own way". A Christian person, filled with agape love, doesn't need to win an argument. He's content to do things the way other people think best, even when he's sure they're mistaken.

Love is not easily angered. God is so very patient with us! He sees our selfishness, laziness, unkindness, indifference and sleaze, and He goes on loving us. Eventually, if we go on sinning with little regard for the righteous One who saved us, He will show us His anger, but even His anger is sent to help us to repent. Oh, if only Christians were as slow to anger as God is! If we truly love others with agape love, we will have patience with their sin, and compassion on their weakness, and refuse to be angered. Eventually, perhaps, we'll need to show a little anger, but don't be easily, or quickly, or frequently angered.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love has no interest in revenge. It has no interest in making people unhappy by telling them how much they've hurt us. Love never says, "Five years ago, you said…". A loving person lets things go. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God promises never to remember our sins. Hallelujah! We should endeavour never to remember each other's sins. If we can't quite forget, let's at least act as if we've forgotten. Let's not keep a little bit of anger or resentment back, stored away in case we get a chance to express it. They won't help anybody.

Love does not delight in evil. Some people seem to find stealing, adultery, cheating the tax man, skiving off from work, admirable or even amusing. A true Christian doesn't. He finds them sad and reprehensible.

Five things that love always does

Love rejoices with the truth. For the true Christian, everything aligned with the truth, everything in accordance with the Bible and with the character of Jesus Christ, is precious, and everything that opposes the truth is ugly and deformed.

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Christian love always seeks to protect the vulnerable, the weak, the oppressed, the poor, the outsider.

It is a simplification to take the words, "Love always trusts" literally. You wouldn't trust Vladimir Putin, or Stalin or Hitler. You wouldn't trust a gangster. In truth, sometimes Christians can be untrustworthy even to each other. But a loving Christian will always try to trust. We will be predisposed to believe what people tell us. That makes us a bit naïve. We will sometimes be cheated or mocked because we trust untrustworthy people. But I think that's better than doubting everybody. I want to believe my neighbour is a good and honest man, and I want to treat him like one, even if I'm not sure he is.

And however badly a person behaves, we can hope that he'll improve. We can hope he finds repentance and saving faith in the blood of Jesus. If he's already Christian, and he's behaving badly, we can hope he realises that his behaviour is sadness to God and disgrace to the church, and mends his ways. That must be better than judging him, and refusing to help him. Surely we must persevere in Christian love towards everybody. I know we have to be sensible, and there are limits to how much we let people hurt and cheat us, but the Christian heart at least wants not to give up on anybody.

How did you get on with the checklist? If you feel like you've failed to some degree, you can always go to God in prayer and ask Him to help you change.