LOVE Lessons from First Corinthians 13 "Vaunteth Not. . . περπερεύεται"

This post is part of a series addressing the Apostle Paul's words in I Corinthians 13:4-8. The words Paul chose to teach the church at Corinth in 57 A.D. are just as powerful today. And just as necessary.

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. . . Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly. . . .

~ I Corinthians 13:4, 5

When Paul wrote I Corinthians, he alluded to the "super-spiritual" people in Corinth who boasted of their superior spiritual condition while exhibiting very little love in their lives. He said they were like "sounding brass" and "tinkling cymbal."

As noted earlier (see February 10, 2009), these particular phrases in the original Greek language refer to people who talk incessantly. It refers to people who annoy everyone around them with constant self-centered chatter.

In fact, the word translated into "tinkling cymbal," μακροθυμίᾳ - makrothumia (mak-roth-oo-mee'-ah), depicts the clanging of cymbals that announced the onset of a war.

This gives the word-picture and very clear impression that the bragging and non-stop self-centered talk that Paul was referring to made its hearers fighting mad!

Maybe this is why Paul makes a point of characterizing agape love by telling us that it vaunteth not. . . .

Sadly, the word vaunteth has lost its meaning in our vernacular, but in the Greek it is a very, very powerful word! περπερεύεται perpereuomai (per-per-yoo'-om-ahee) means a lot of self-talk!

In other words, it describes a person who endlessly promotes him/herself and exaggerates their own virtues. This person's self-promotion is usually nothing short of exaggeration that borders on flay-out lying. One Greek scholar has said that the word perpereuomai pictures a person who is full of hot air. Another has said this word refers to a windbag!

Even as I write, my thoughts focus on an individual who fits the description and if you know someone who fits the description, you're probably thinking of that person too. It's hard to forget people like this isn't it?

Okay. . . that said, do you know a perpereuomia? Who do you know that blows hot air? Wait. . . are you a perpereuomia? Do you blow hot air?

How does this apply to you and me?

Remember this: Paul was writing to people who thought they were spiritual. They were convinced that they were okay. They were religious and self-righteous. The self-righteous person does not realize they are self-righteous. What a conundrum!

If you were to confront a person who you consider to be a self-important "windbag," how would he/she respond?

Exactly! They'd deny it and call you judgmental.

What if someone were to confront you?

In what ways are we like the people of Corinth? In what ways do we vaunteth ourselves?

Do we vaunt in public worship? Do we vaunt in our dress? Do we vaunt by slighting others because of envy? Do we vaunt by filling conversation with our agenda and our accomplishments? Do we vaunt by overlooking others in need. . .

Agape love is so strong, so sure, and so confident that it does not need to speak of itself or its accomplishment, even if those accomplishments are great.

While I do not wholly agree with Rick Warren's all-inclusive ecumenical approach to Christianity, I do agree with the premise of his Book, The Purpose Driven Life:

"It's not about me."

It's about sharing Christ -- not ourselves -- with a lost world!

Part 1: I Keep Hearing the Word Tolerance . . . And in the same context as Agape Love!
Part 2: Love Lessons from I Corinthians 13 "Suffereth Long. . . μακροθυμίᾳ
Part 3: Love Lessons from I Corinthians 13 "Love is Kind. . . χρηστεύεται"

~ Esthermay

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I Keep Hearing this Word Tolerance . . . And in the same context as Agape Love!

Indeed. . . true Love never fails.

But does it tolerate?

Love needs to be based on character, if you know and love God you see He has a lot of character we are in love with. The best thing we can do . . . is to grow in character as listed in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s a love of choice. We choose to love God, He chooses to love us. Love of choice is the most powerful love, God calls that agape love, it’s a love that lasts, we should never settle for anything else between us and God and others. It’s a love that grows. Keep fervent in your love, allow it to stretch and strain as you watch it grow.

~ Wayne Corderio

In I Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul uses the word agape to describe the highest level of love in this world. While it is the kind of love that God expects every true believer to demonstrate in his or her life, the word agape itself describes a love so completely different from what the world offers that it is used in the New Testament only to describe God's love and the love that should flow from the hearts of believers.

In each expression of agape love, we find NO suggestion, reference or insinuation to Tolerance. Rather, we find that agape love underpins and strengthens every other attribute of God, including wrath, mercy, jealousy, anger and righteousness.

But let's back-up to the very beginning of the Chapter . . .

Paul had encountered a group of people in the city of Corinth who were "super spiritual." And Paul was quite unimpressed with them because of their obvious lack of love. Their deficit clearly bothered him and he alludes to this when he writes I Corinthians 13:1:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

The words "sounding brass" are very important. The word comes from the Greek chalkos which refers to metal. But is wasn't just any metal. It was bronze or copper to which a small amount of tin had been added. This tin caused the metal to have a hollow, empty sound when it was beaten. That is why Paul also used the word "sounding."

So when Paul wrote about a "sounding brass," he was borrowing from the pagan world of Corinth to make his point about super-spiritual people who demonstrated no real love. They were hollow and empty.

Q:
Do you think a comparison could be made between the Corinthians of Paul's day and the "super-spiritual" Christians of 2009 who have adopted the Gospel of Tolerance (in the name of Agape Love), so as to appear god-like and loving and accepting while neither understanding or practicing true Love?

Do you think the First Century Corinthians became "tolerant" of the culture (and thereby accepting of it) because they feared the reputation of being intolerant?

Is it possible that these First Century Corinthians were the forerunners of the "emerging church," the "post-evangelicals," the "postmodernists," the attempt to replot New Testament Christianity into a pluralistic and secular world?

Just wondering. . .
Indeed. . . true Love never fails.
But does it tolerate?

. . . if you know and love God, you see He has a lot of character.

It is, however, a dangerous thing to emphasize one attribute of God at the expense of His Full Character. Love is but one of many attributes . To place Love at the top as a supreme or preeminent quality is not Scriptural.

Yes. We can rely upon, emphasize, and live by the words of 1 John 4:16, "God is love," but in doing so, we forget that:

♥ God is also Truth (I John 1:6,8;2;21).

♥ God is also Righteousness (I John 1:9; 2:1, 29; 3:7).

♥ God is also Eternal Life (I John 1:2; 2:17, 25).
♥ God is also Hope (I John 3:3).
♥ God is also Purity (I John 1:7, 9; 3:3).
♥ God is also Confidence (I John 2:28; 3:21; 4:17).
♥ God is also Wrathful (Exodus 32:9-10; Deut. 9:7-8; John 3:36).
♥ God is also Righteous and Just (Deut. 32:4; Isa. 45:19).

♥ God is also Jealous (Exodus 20:5-6; 34:14)

The Apostle John is a desperately needed voice of Truth in today's pluralistic and tolerant culture. His writing is bold. It is very direct. It is very dogmatic. I don't believe there is another New Testament writer that is as authoritative in his writing. John is committed to absolutes. Committed to black and white. I like him. I like him very much.

John does indeed write that God is a God of Love -- that God loved His Son -- that God loved the disciples -- that God loved the world -- that God is loved by Christ -- that Christ loved the disciples -- and that Christ taught that we should love one another -- and, finally -- that love is the fulfilling of the whole law.

Indeed. . . true Love never fails.

But does it tolerate?

John never slid into sentimentality. John never slid into tolerance masquerading as love. John never tolerated deception. He never tolerated lies. He was always committed to truth. He never tolerated sin of any kind. And in his second epistle (II John), he calls for complete separation from all those people who aren't faithful to the truth. His third epistle says essentially the same thing.

To live the Christian life refusing to acknowledge each and every attribute of God is to invalidate His Divine nature as GOD. To deny the "black and white'ness" of the Gospel is as incompatible in the Christian as it is in God!

To accept that God is loving is one thing. To deny that God is also a God of wrath and anger and vengeance because these qualities just don't match-up with his loving kindness (in our human thinking) is quite another.

No where is Tolerance equated with Love in John's writings. Nor anywhere in the New Testament for that matter!

Yet a great number of Christians have made Tolerance synonymous with Love! A great number of Christians refuse to believe God's Word if/when it contradicts their own rigid belief system. A system rooted in a false understanding of God's Love.

Indeed. . . true Love never fails.

But does it tolerate?

We choose to love God, He chooses to love us. Love of choice is the most powerful love. . .

Absolutely! But regrettably, there is this growing phenomena in today's churches. It's called Tolerance. It masquerades as Love. It is a choice, but the only "power" it hold, is the power to keep church members from knowing and experiencing God's True, Powerful, and Unconditional Love!

It is the fashion in churches today to tolerate just about anything in the name of Christian love lest we “Christians” gain a reputation of being intolerant. And in doing this we have totally sacrificed the spiritual health and maturity of the Church for years to come.

Q: What kind of things do we tolerate?

I think most of my readers can answer that. . .

. . . But I personally believe that most evangelical churches in America have become completely useless when it comes to sharing the True Message of Salvation and the True Meaning of Agape Love because they have chosen to practice Tolerance.

Indeed. . . true Love never fails.

But does it tolerate?

. . . agape love, it’s a love that lasts, we should never settle for anything else between us and God and others.

And over the next few posts, I want to address the Apostle Paul’s words in I Corinthians 13:4-8, where he speaks of love because they are powerful, powerful words. Paul lists fifteen points about the love of God and how it behaves. By peering into these verses, we can determine if our lives are indeed a reflection of this highest level of love.

Please come back!

Indeed. . . true Love never fails.
But does it tolerate?

~Esthermay Bentley-Goossen
© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife

This installment of InOtherWords is hosted by Karen on her blog In Love W.I.T.H. Jesus.

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Saturday Selah: Taking On the Taste & Color of Wine. . .

". . .Thy will be done," will be our prayer and our delight. Just as a little drop of water mixed with a lot of wine seems to entirely lose its own identity as it takes on the taste and color of the wine; just as iron, heated and glowing, looks very much like fire, having lost its original appearance; just as air flooded with the light of the sun is transformed into the same splendor of the light so that it appears to be light itself, so it is like for those who melt away from themselves and are entirely transfused into the will of God.

This perfect love of God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength will not happen until we are no longer compelled to think about ourselves and attend to the body's immediate needs. Only then can the soul attend to God completely.

~ Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153)
From his treatise On the Love of God

Bernard of Clairvaux spent his entire adult life in a monastery and writes in his treatise that he is not certain that this degree of love can be attained in this life.

That anyone in the 21st Century -- with all our selfish endeavors and needless distractions -- thinks that they can attain it is bizarre to me.

Have you ever really thought about the lyrics to the children's song, Jesus Loves Me?

They've always troubled me. They don't tell the whole story.

YES! Jesus loves me. Duh! That's a given. . . .

The greater question is this: "How Much Do I Love Jesus?"

♥ When we love Him with all our heart, we love the same things that He loves. And it follows conversely that we hate the things that He hates.

♥ When we love Him with all our soul, we choose to act on the things He loves by reaching out to the world around us and helping those in need. It also means that we choose to stand against the things He hates and work to either prevent them from occurring or end them.

♥ When we love Him with all our mind, we understand that all of what we have learned and desire to learn academically belongs to Him.

♥ When we love Him with all our strength, we give up our will. . . and as Bernard of Clairvaux so eloquently puts it, we "melt away from [our]selves and are entirely transfused into the will of God." We become the drop of water in a beautiful vessel of wine. We lose our identity. And we take on the taste and color of wine . . . .

I'm not there. I'd like to be . . .

~ Esthermay Bentley-Goossen

© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife

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Saturday Selah a time of encouraging one another with words that have touched our hearts or made a difference in our lives over the past week. Your post could be a Scripture passage, a devotional thought, the lyrics to a song, or anything else that ministered to you this past week.

Your post can be brief. Your post can be long. Sometimes brevity speaks volumes. And sometimes God gives us much more to share!

To be encouraged and to encourage others, link up with Patricia at TypingOneHanded.

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The Love of God. . .

We have a beautiful crab apple tree in our backyard. It blooms for about a week and a half in late spring. It’s beautiful. And I highly doubt I'd appreciate its magnificent beauty if it were blooming today or last August 13th - or even if it bloomed an extra 2 weeks in May for that matter! That’s just not the way God created crab apple trees. To always be in fruit would kill a tree. As trees cycle from dormancy, to blossom, to fruitfulness, to loss, pruning, and dormancy again, without fluctuations in God’s blessing, so people basking in God’s blessing have seasons of growth and fruitfulness and seasons of loss, dryness and barrenness. The main difference between spiritual seasons and natural seasons is that nature moves in unison, whereas at any one time, different Christians in the same locality will be in different spiritual seasons. Some people will be over the moon, pampered with spiritual goose bumps, like John when receiving his revelation. Others will be languishing in the midst of an oppressive trial, like John was, as a prisoner on Patmos, when his vision commenced (Revelation 1:9). It would be a grave misunderstanding to think this means some have God’s favor and some do not, or to think you have fallen out of God’s love and blessing, when it is simply not your season for fruit. Just as nature is never not undergoing some process, God’s love is never absent from His children.

It's going on two years now since Pastor Mark did a sermon series from the Book of Job. He told me then -- and I've heard from others in ministry -- that studying and teaching from the Book of Job will inevitably bring about trials in the lives of both the teacher and his hearers. Have you had your share of trials? I believe I’ve had mine

Yes... Job crashed from prosperity to poverty, from health to sickness and from a large, happy family to devastating grief. Throughout it all there was not the slightest fluctuation in God’s love for him. And there's Joseph in the Book of Genesis who went from being the pampered, favorite son, to being a slave, then branded a rapist and incarcerated as a criminal, and finally exalted to political power, fame and fortune – all without any change in God’s attitude to him. And what about David? David moved from shepherd boy to giant killer, to King’s son-in-law, to fugitive, to King – with God being proud of him the whole time. We could talk too of Elijah, who slid from mountain top, to depression, to spectacular entry to heaven. Or we could burst out of the Old Testament into the New, and see the mightily blessed apostle Paul often having not even enough to eat, suffering horrific beatings, unjust prison sentences, pounded by natural disasters (snake bite, several ship wrecks, and so on) and God refusing to answer his prayers (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). On and on we could go, showing from God’s revelation to humanity that changing fortunes need not indicate changes in God’s favor or a lack of His Love.

When – as a congregation – we went through the Book of Acts last winter, I really took an interest -- more than any other time in my life -- to the conversion of the Apostle Paul. I think I was even envious of the Apostle Paul. Wouldn't it be awesome to be and feel so loved of God that the Lord would actually appear to you in blinding light as he did to Paul? But . . . would I feel loved of God if, like Paul, I reeled from one catastrophe to another – shipwreck after shipwreck, years languishing in prison, religious leaders wanting him dead, forsaken by Christians and so on? Not exactly the mind-picture we see when we think of the Love of God.

From the youngest age we learn the song, "Jesus Loves Me." Yes! Jesus loves us! A resounding “DUH!” This is a given. It's in His Word. What truly matters -- the only thing that matters -- is how much WE love God. This makes all the difference in how we LOVE others. Which is of course our mandate! (Luke 10:26). But have you ever wondered, “How can I love others when I don’t feel God’s love all that much myself?”

I have struggled myself with feeling God’s love. This along with my years of counseling people who didn’t feel "loved", has given me a compassion for the many of us who find ourselves "cheated" by God -- feeling that He is cold or distant. Some people simply feeling nothing. “What is wrong with me?” we worry, when feeling God seems so easy for our friends -- even unsaved friends. Over the next few months, this page will focus on seeking biblical answers for those of us who are perplexed and/or distressed over being unable to feel God’s love, or his presence or favor. How can we love others if we don't feel truly, deeply, passionately loved by God ourselves?

Christmastime is an especially difficult time for so many people: for those who’ve lost a loved one, for those who are single, for those who are elderly and alone. If we confuse circumstances with God’s favor, we are bound to suffer bouts of feeling unloved. Until we understand the heart of God and his plans for us. Nothing is more likely to crush our ability to feel loved than when God seems to be blessing others more than us. Don’t let that happen – to yourself or someone you know. Tucked in the heart of Scripture sleeps a tiny psalm of precious truth. David confesses that as a mother denies her baby access to her milk when it’s time for her darling to be weaned, so God sometimes denies us things we crave. Yet as a weaned infant lies warm and secure in its mother’s bosom, our soul can nestle into God, not knowing why we have been denied that which we have clamored for, but content to draw love and comfort from the Father’s heart. Sometime this Christmas season read it: Psalm 131. Then share it with someone else who needs it. Print it out on pretty paper. Tie it with a nice bow. And share what you’ve learned about The Love of God!

Esthermay Bentley-Goossen

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