What love is not.

by Norm Miller

“Love is … not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} does not rejoice in unrighteousness” 1 Cor. 13.4-6 (NASB).

After two words about what love does (exercises patience and kindness), above is the litany of how it doesn’t behave. Have you ever known an envious, conceited braggart? Maybe some Little League kid’s dad, or the person in the next cubicle at work. Nice picture?

Does your agape say, “Look at me”? If our works say, “Look how well I can love,” then there’s real question whether it’s agape at all.

What’s the personal perspective of envy and conceit? Obviously, self-centeredness, a spirit poles apart from outwardly-focused agape. Sometimes, entire churches become arrogant and conceited about its enrollment, its choir, its building program, or even that its pastor is prominent nationally.

Few Scriptures are more descriptive of what happens to the one consumed with self than Ezekiel 28.13-19, a passage symbolic of Lucifer’s fall. Jealousy and conceit contributed to his fall, and look how far he fell. He’s still falling. That’s one catastrophic ego trip.

Don’t trip and fall on your ego. Pray you keep the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne of your life. And ask the Lord to help you remember that, when you ascend the throne of your life, then you behave as did Lucifer. If Christ is your King, then the throne of your life is his. No one ever served the King by sitting on his throne.

© Norm Miller