WHAT LOVE REALLY LOOKS LIKE

A little girl was invited for dinner at the home of her first-grade friend. The vegetable was buttered broccoli and the mother asked if she liked it. “Oh, yes,” the child replied politely, “I love it!”

But when the bowl of broccoli was passed, she declined to take any. The hostess said, “I thought you said you loved broccoli.” The girl replied sweetly, “Oh, yes ma’am, I do, but not enough to eat it!”

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Ten: Be Wise about … the Church Body (1 Corinthians 12–13)

Paul named five spiritual gifts: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, and giving (sacrifice). He pointed out that, without love, the exercise of these gifts is nothing.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Ten: Be Wise about … the Church Body (1 Corinthians 12–13)

“Speaking the truth in love” (

1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,”

Love is patient - longsuffering Ephesians 4:3 “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Love does not give up on people easily and keeps giving them chances to grow. You are longsuffering, slow to anger. You endure personal wrongs without retaliating. You bear with others people faults or imperfections. You give them room to make mistakes without coming down hard on them. This is what God does with us, he gives us room, he is longsuffering.

Love is kind - as God has been kind to us Ephesians 4:32–5:1 “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;” patience in action - dos things to help and be useful does not seek repayment. Tender and forgiving when wrong. Luke 6:33–35 ““If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.” kindness motivates others to towards positive change

Love is not jealous - 1 Corinthians 12:26 “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” Jealous because they get recognized or they get to hang out with them, they get all the attention. I see this a lot when the elders go after the lost sheep. What about all of us who have not gone astray. It would be nice if we got some attention (sounds a lot like the prodigal son’s brother) Love is happy for them and rejoices. James 4:2 “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.”

Love does not brag - boasting and bragging. If you make comments like you are smarter than someone or you have more knowledge or you do more than someone else then you do not have love. This is an attitude problem this is a self seeking self-centered attitude that makes unity impossible. If jealous was wanting what someone else has bragging is wanting others to be jealous of what you have. Trying to make himself look good (usually because he knows he is lacking).

Love is not arrogant - puffed up (1 Cor. 4:6,18,19; 5:2) 1 Corinthians 8:1 “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” To think that you are better than someone is to be arrogant and puffed up and that is exactly why the church in Corinth struggled with unity. Love is not about me. love seeks to build others up. love is humble

1 Corinthians 13:5 “does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,”

Love does not act unbecomingly - does not try to take advantage of others, it does not act inappropriately towards others. NIV says is not rude - does not needlessly offend. Is courteous, polite and sensitive to others feelings (tactful). Why are we rude? Because we are only thinking of ourselves and not others

Love does not seek its own - interests or its own gratification without regard to others. It is not selfish and does not demands its rights. “The secret of every discord in Christian homes, communities and churches is that we seek our own way and our own glory. love is self sacrificing. Ex. laying down my life for my sister (nap)

Love is not provoked - rouse anger, not touchy, not a hair trigger temper. They are easily offended so everyone has to walk on egg shells. usually leave devastation like a bomb.

Love does not take into account of a wrong suffered - it doesn’t keep a record of wrongs (accounting term) and keeps bringing them up to others periodically. love forgives people and moves on as God has forgiven each of us Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

1 Corinthians 13:6 “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;”

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness - or supports unrighteousness. It does not like it when others go wrong (I’m so glad they messed, or they deserved it). You should never gloat, you should grieve

Love rejoices with the truth - loves and rejoices with the truth . Love what is in accordance with the truth. Love does not overlook sin, it does not compromise the truth or take a soft view of sin. To allow someone to keep sinning is not seeking the greater good of another. 3 John 4 “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.”

1 Corinthians 13:7 “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Love bears all things - love is willing to bear all things. It can put up with much hurt, disappointment, and failure.  Love doesn’t broadcast the problems of others. Love doesn’t run down others with jokes, sarcasm or put-downs. Love defends the character of the other person as much as possible

Love believes all things - Love tries to believe in others and their potential. love is not suspicious and doubting of the other person’s character and motives.  love believes the other person is innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent. If there is a problem, love doesn’t jump immediately to blame the other person.

Love hopes all things - love hopes for the best in others. Is not pessimistic.  It does not expect the one loved to fail, but to succeed. This church will never change. It has always been that way and it always will. Love refuses to take failure as final.

Love endures all things - endures through all circumstances. military term meaning to sustain the assault of the enemy, holding up under trail, perseverance in spite of difficulties. Love hangs in there. There is an epidemic among Christians of bailing out of tough situations. People don’t like something that happens in a church. They go find another church more to their liking. They run into problems or disagreements in their marriage, grow tired of the effort and bail out. 

1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

Put Christ in instead of love in verses 4-7  and you have a description of Him. He is patient, kind, not jealous; does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; does not seek His own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. If we want to love one another, we must focus on His love for us and walk like wise.

All of these statements show that love is a commitment to keep on seeking what is in the best interests of others no matter what. That is what Jesus did for us Phil. 2:4-9. There is An old legend says that in his old age the apostle John was so weak that he had to be carried into the church meetings. At the end of the meeting he would be helped to his feet to give a word of exhortation. He would invariably repeat, “Little children, love one another.”

The disciples grew weary of the same words every time. Finally they asked him why he said the same thing over and over. He replied, “Because it is the commandment of the Lord, and the observation of it alone is sufficient.” There truly is nothing more important than loving one another John 13:34–35 ““A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”” Brothers and sisters I want you top really examine yourselves this week. Go through chapter 13:4-7 and see if you have the love that is described here. If not I would beg you to repent. The church needs us to love one another, God expects us to love one another like this, and the world needs to see love like this lived out in our lives. This morning you need to respond to God’s love in obedience and commitment or if you need to make a change in the way love please come while we stand and sing and let’s resolve to love one another