Love Is Not Proud

1. Read: “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4).

2. About the Text:

1) Love “is not puffed up” is how the NKJV translates it.

2) The Greek word here is φυσιόω – to inflate, puff up; to be proud or arrogant.

3) The idea behind the word “puff up” is to inflate one’s own ego. This is pride.

4) Contrast with περπερεύομαι – boasting, outward vs. inward. Love is neither.

5) The church at Corinth had a pride problem; Paul used the word 6 times to describe them.

6) “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

7) Frog illustration – Whose idea was this? “Mine!”

8) Love isn’t proud because love is concerned with God and others.

9) How is it that love is not proud?

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. Pride makes self the investment; love makes self the investor.

1) Pride is preoccupied with self; love invests time and attention, giving self away.

2) “Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side” (Luke 10:31-32).

3) “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).

2. Pride thinks what it has is its own, but love sees what it has as something to serve with.

1) The rich fool: “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21; read 12:16-21).

2) “Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1).

3) “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28; read 20:25-28).

3. Pride can’t praise, because others’ success feels like its loss, but love sees others’ success as healthy growth.

1) “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church” (3 John 9-10).

2) “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved” (2 Corinthians 12:15).

4. Love asks, “What can I give?” Pride asks, “What am I owed?”

5. Illustration: Young son wanted to be paid. Mother – “no charge.”

1. Pride shuts the door; love opens it.

2. Love invites correction, but pride resents it.

1) Love welcomes criticism, questions, and accountability.

2) “Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8).

3) “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1).

3. Love invites closeness, but pride keeps people away.

1) It opens its heart and home, asks for help, and goes first to reconcile.

2) “O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open” (2 Corinthians 6:11-13).

3) “And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:21).

4. Love invites Christ Himself.

1) Into the heart–“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

2) To rule–“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him’” (John 14:23).

3) To be seen in us — “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

5. Pride says, “Keep out.” Love says, “Come in.”

6. “Come in! and know me better, man!” – Dickens

1. Pride waits; love moves.

1) Proactive: love moves first without being asked.

2) “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

3) Jesus took the towel: “…rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (John 13:4-5; read 13:4-15).

4) Pride waits for others to come, to ask, or to apologize first.

5) Illustration of couple who had a fight – wake me up at 5 AM note, etc.

2. Productive: what love starts bears fruit.

1) “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

2) “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).

3. Persuasive: love moves others toward good.

1) “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works …” (Hebrews 10:24).

2) “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences” (2 Corinthians 5:11).

3) “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died …” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

4. Pride pressures or does nothing; love persuades.

1. How does love overcome pride?

1) Love Invests.

2) Love Invites.

3) Love Initiates.

2. Invitation