Love Does not Boast

Good to see everyone today, and glad that you’re here. We had some good rain this past couple of days, and we’re certainly appreciative of that in this hot summertime, so we are glad for God’s blessings at every moment. Let’s continue thinking about love this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verses 1 through 8. And we’re going to be considering in this particular lesson that love does not boast. And that’s from verse 4. If you would, read it with me for just a moment.

Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not, and the New King James Version says, parade itself, but some translations say boast. Love does not parade itself. Love does not boast. It’s not puffed up. And then verse 5, “…does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

So, as we’re considering this list of the qualities of love, what love is, what love is not, this morning we’re noting that love does not boast or parade itself, as the New King James Version says. The Greek word here in this particular verse, in reference to boasting or parading itself, is an interesting word. It’s paraperuomai.

And it’s an interesting word because the idea is to brag or to boast or to be vainglorious about something. It involves some kind of self-display, you know, or an employment of rhetoric that embellishes oneself extensively. And so, boasting here or parading oneself here, the idea is to kind of be a show-off, you know, or someone who is so complimenting themselves that it becomes sort of embarrassing in some ways.

But, you know, this could include not only explicit braggadocio, but always, you know, maybe somebody who just constantly talks about themselves all the time and doesn’t really think about other people’s situations. Or maybe, you know, some people turn the conversation back to themselves. They start a conversation only to get you to talk about them or to listen to them.

That would be part of this attitude that Paul is saying, love isn’t like that. Or there’s other people, you know, who one-up someone. Let’s say, oh, I went to, I did this past week. Well, I did one more than you did, you know.

Some people have that kind of speech, and that would be included in this notion of love does not boast. Or maybe just flat-out attention-seeking. Or strutting around like a peacock. As if to say, hey, look at me. The adorning of oneself in crazy clothing, maybe, as some people do in the world. Or clothing that isn’t mainstream or something like that could be part of this.

But one doesn’t parade oneself. One doesn’t boast. It could include both actions and words. And so, it’s not just limited to speech. It’s not just limited to actions, but both of those things in such a way so that one is therefore lifting oneself up and then showing off to others somehow.

And so, this morning I thought we would think about, well, what are some good reasons, you know, not to do this? Love does not boast because. And we’re going to look at three reasons why love does not boast. Number one, because love considers others over self. Number two, because love values self-sacrifice. And number three, because love recognizes God’s supremacy over all.

So let’s think about those things as we think about the topic, love does not boast. Well, first of all, love does not boast because love considers others over self, and you know, the idea of boasting or maybe showing off or, as the New King James Version says, parading oneself, that is not really considerate of others.

You know, that’s just focusing on self. And others don’t get the necessary attention that they need when one is simply embellishing his own accomplishments or something like that. Well, it certainly doesn’t fall under the second commandment that Jesus talked about, right? You shall love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22 and verse 39. And the idea here is that we’re thinking about others before we’re thinking about self, and so we’re going to be more concerned with the accomplishments of others.

We’re going to try to lift them up and try to help them grow instead of just showing off or talking about self all the time. Paul explains what this commandment means in Romans 13, verses 8 through 10. And you’ll note that these sins that are discussed that Paul refers to in the Ten Commandments, these sins oftentimes have, as their motivation, selfish desires.

And that, again, is what’s behind the notion of boasting or parading oneself. He says, And the idea, you know, that we’re discussing here is how love isn’t interested in gratifying self. Love isn’t interested in boasting or bragging or becoming something that one isn’t as a result of pride and as a result of selfishness.

And so, you know, when that gets out of control, when it spirals into the place where you don’t want it to go, you end up committing these sins, right? And so that’s why love isn’t like that. And it doesn’t boast. And that, you know, that’s one thing that we can curtail within our own life. It goes toward preventing other terrible things that could possibly occur.

And so, when we think about love, we’re going to be thinking about considering others over self. Love starts in the mind with how we regard other people, primarily thinking about them before we think about our own selfish concerns or desires.

Romans 12, verse 3, Paul would make this note, that we don’t want to think too highly of ourselves. When it comes to thinking of self, for I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12 and verse 3.

So love does not boast because love is not going to think overly high of himself or herself. Consider also Galatians chapter 6 and verse 3, that if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

And so, when one boasts, when one attempts to put oneself out there in some flamboyant-type way, what is happening, actually? It’s self-deception, right? We’re not really telling ourselves the truth about who we are when we do that, and so we’ve got to think about how love is going to consider others above self.

And then we need to be mindful of others instead of just thinking about how we can aggrandize ourselves, right? Build ourselves up, present ourselves. And, you know, this is a real problem sometimes because people get counseled to do these kinds of things occasionally.

Like if you’re going to an interview, you know, and maybe there’s some appropriateness to talking about your good qualities and things like that. Okay, but then sometimes people get carried away with it, you know, and they start saying things like in interviews that aren’t true, right? Haven’t you heard? There’s been stories out there of people who’ve gone in and interviewed for a job and their whole portfolio is just fake. You know, it’s just false. They’ve just built up this wrong narrative of themselves and presented it like it’s the truth. And that’s part of what this is. Love doesn’t do that. It doesn’t try to deceive other people.

Well, Paul says, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, and boasting would certainly be part of that. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

And I think what’s important here is to understand that, you know, we’re not saying, and no one is saying, don’t take care of your own business. We’re supposed to do that, but not to the point where it causes neglect for those around us or creates problems for those around us, or so we’re just focusing on self alone. You know, love does not boast.

I like to use an interesting illustration as we think about this topic, you know, and thinking about what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18, verse 4. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. That’s really what we’re talking about, right? Practicing humility. You could even put that in sort of the opposite way.

Love does not boast. Love does not parade itself. Instead, what? Love is humble, right? And that’s kind of what the point is here. But think about this illustration that I heard years ago. It’s just an illustration. It’s not the truth, per se. It’s a nice little illustrative story, but the idea is that, you know, the difference between heaven and hell can be summed up in this sort of illustration of that.

People, picture a big table, picture a big table, and then around and on the table is the best food that you could possibly find. And I apologize, you know, we canceled potlucks, so I was going to say earlier, if you bring a dish that Sunday, just, I got two boys, you know, we could probably help you out with that.

But imagine, if you would, a big table, and all of the food on the table is just so amazing, it’s the best food ever, but then, when you get there to sit down, so you’re in heaven, there’s this big table, there’s all these food, or in the other place, there’s all this food on the table, and you sit down, and the spoons to feed yourself are six feet long, or 90 feet long.

Ten feet long, or something like that. And you try to pick up this spoon and get something, and there’s no way, there’s no possible way you can get it to your own mouth, right? And so the people in hell are like sitting there trying to feed themselves with a spoon. They can’t do it. And it’s eternally frustrating, you know. And so that’s what they’re doing. But the people in heaven, what do they do? They feed each other.

You can pick up that spoon and put something on it and give it to somebody else. That sort of illustrates what we’re talking about here, you know, that the idea that we want to be considerate of others and instead of just thinking about self all the time. I didn’t do a good job of telling the illustration, so don’t blame the illustration for that. But anyway, but you get the idea.

Secondly, love does not boast because love values self-sacrifice. And this is something, of course, that Jesus illustrated within His life. He both taught and gave us the greatest example of self-sacrifice. In John chapter 15, verse 13, it says, “…greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15, verse 13. Well, if you’re willing to lay down your life for your friends, then you’re not going to be a boastful person, right?

You’re not going to be someone who’s parading yourself out there all over the place. You’re going to have that attitude of self-sacrifice. And it takes self-sacrifice to sort of pull in the reins, you know, when you feel like, well, I want to talk about myself. I want to say something about myself that makes me look good, you know. We want to pull in those reins, right? We want to sacrifice that so that we’re not being boastful, that we can then show other people love within our life.

1 John 3 and verse 16 says, “…by this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” You know, a lot of times I think we think about, especially us guys, you know, oh, I’d be willing to sacrifice my life. But would you be willing to take out the trash? Would you be willing to wash the dishes occasionally? You know, would you be willing to make some sort of small sacrificial effort on your part?

And not just guys, but gals too, you know? I mean, we’ve all got to make those small sacrificial efforts that end up being, after our life is over, a life of living sacrifice, right? And that’s what this is about, you know?

Well, Jesus did lay down His physical life for us, but then He calls us to lay down our living selves in sacrifice to one another. And so love values that sacrifice. And boasting and parading oneself, that is just not a sacrificial spirit, right?

That’s not one who values sacrifice. Think about God loves those who practice self-sacrifice. Because they’re more like Him. And God is a sacrificer. You know, He gives of Himself all the time, constantly, and we receive the benefits of it. And so He wants us to be like that as well.

Psalm 51, verse 17 says, “…the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise.” And that’s what it takes, you know, to conquer the demon of boasting or of being a braggart or of some kind of display of some sort. We’ve got to sacrifice our spirits. We’ve got to have that broken and contrite heart.

In Isaiah 66, in verse 2, we read a similar statement. For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

That’s the kind of person we want to be. You know, that’s a loving attitude, one who is contrite, who is seeking to follow the Word of God humbly within their life, not being one who is out there showing off or being some kind of a boaster.

And as we think about the being, valuing self-sacrifice, that living sacrifice that we talked about earlier is something which comes to mind. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. You know, the person who is talking about himself all the time or boasting or acting out, that is not a living sacrifice, you know. That is not that kind of attitude. So we don’t want to be that person.

But then, as Peter discusses in 1 Peter 2, verse 5, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to do what? To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And that’s what we want. Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. What does that look like? It looks like loving one another.

It looks like considering others above self. It looks like taking on that task that no one else wants to do, you know, and getting it done. That’s what it looks like, and that’s what we want to be as those who do not boast, who do not parade ourselves.

But then finally, as we think about love does not boast, we see that it doesn’t boast because it recognizes God’s supremacy over all things. The bottom line is this, folks. There’s nothing really that we can boast about, right? If I tried to say, well, I accomplished this or I accomplished that, that’s not true. God is the one who’s in control of all things.

If I get anything done in this life, it’ll be because of the grace of God, not because of what I have done or what I have accomplished or my efforts. That is something that we need to constantly be aware of. God is supreme in everything. Of course, He’s supreme in the In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And that’s something that we need to recognize, you know, as we go about our day and interact with just the world and everything in it, do we take a moment to say, you know, God made this for me. God put this here for me. You know, I’m not talking about God made a miracle and poof, you know, your plate was there or something like that. That’s not what I’m talking about.

He’s talking about everything comes from this world that God has made. And we owe God our thanks and our gratitude for all that happens. Every little thing, really. And that’s recognizing God’s supremacy. And when we do that, we are not going to boast. We’re not going to show out. We’re not going to parade ourselves because we’ll recognize that God is the one who is behind it all.

Think about Isaiah 45, verse 18. For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited, I am the Lord, and there is no other. And truly, there is no other. He did everything here, and we are just simply the beneficiaries of His grace and love.

God is supreme also in salvation, and certainly we would never boast of our own accomplishments when it comes to salvation. Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 8 through 10 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, The works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God prepared the works that we should walk in them. I think that’s an important point. Even when we do good works, even when we think, oh, I’ve done something good, this is helpful to others, and I would really like to be recognized for that. Who really made that work? Who really set that out for us to do? It was God.

And when it comes to salvation as well, you know, everything that God says for us to do in the Bible, if we do it and we’re obedient to it, the credit still goes to God because He’s the one who had the plan. He’s the one who commanded us to do it. He’s the one who gave us the tools, so to speak. So He gets all of the glory and we get none.

And so Titus 3, verses 4 through 7, “…but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that, having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

When we recognize this, we are not going to boast. We are not going to parade ourselves, but rather we’re going to humbly submit to the Lord’s designs and give Him the glory for all things. And Romans 3 and verse 27, Paul writes, Where is the boasting then? It is excluded. By what law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Boasting is excluded because it’s not part of God’s plan. And so when we give ourselves to Him and love others as we truly love, we’re not going to boast or parade ourselves. Consider 1 Corinthians 1, 28-31. And the base things of the world, the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence, but of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom for us from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, as it is written, He who glories, let Him glory in the Lord.

And so, as we think about God and the way He works, you know, He chooses the small things to accomplish His will in this life. He chooses the little things, the things that we can’t boast in. You know, those are the things that God finds valuable, and those are the things He uses to accomplish His will. And so, He who glories, let Him glory in the Lord.

And then Ephesians 5, 25 through 27, you think about our relationship with God through Christ in the church and what Christ did for us. And it says, It says, “‘Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might,” and notice what it says here, “‘that He might present her to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.'” Who makes the bride holy? Well, it’s Jesus Christ.

Who makes the bride clean? It’s Jesus Christ. Through the washing of water, by the Word. Who makes the bride presentable? It’s Jesus Christ. He’s the one who does it. And so, there is no boasting here. All the glory goes to God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Love does not boast.

And I think that’s something we need to think about, you know, every day as we seek to apply these truths to our life. We seek to understand how to love one another really as God loves us. Love does not boast. It does not parade itself, you know, whether it’s through words or whether it’s through deeds. Love is going to be humble. Love is going to recognize that all things return back to the Lord.

Well, this morning, we plead with you to employ love within your life each and every day. We need to be a loving people. We need to love one another more and more, deepen our love at each moment as we go forward together, so that one day we can be in eternity with one another, experience God’s love in a very direct way, in a very way that’s going on.

It’s going to blow our minds, really, if you think about it. But how do we do that? Well, we’ve got to humble ourselves before Him, and that means hearing His Word and believing it, repenting of our sins, confessing Jesus as the Christ because He is the husband, right? He is the bridegroom. He’s the one who died for the church, and we’re the church.

And so we’ve got to confess Him, and we’ve got to experience that washing of water by the Word that Paul discusses, and that’s baptism. Humbling ourselves before the command of God to be immersed, to come into the likeness of His death, burial, and resurrection, and to be raised to walk a new life, a pure life, a holy life.

And when we do that, we can’t say that it was done by us. No, not in any means. It was all done by Jesus Christ. He’s the one who made us clean and holy and presentable. And so this morning, if that’s your desire, we’ll be happy to help you. Or if you need prayers so that you can love one another, we can love each other more, we’d be happy to pray for you.

Whatever you need may be, you can come right now while we stand and sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!