You Don’t Love If…
First Corinthians 13 is a beautiful passage. In context, the description of love is meant to show the church at Corinth a “more excellent way” than even the miraculous spiritual gifts with which they were endowed. With the age of miracles passing, though, this description of love still challenges and loves Christians the world over.
Each individual aspect of this description of love is worth serious consideration, but there is one that I want to focus on for a moment today. It is one that should cause each of us to think, but it is one that should also be taught to our children and reinforced by everyone.
It is in the opening line of verse 5, where we are told that love “is not rude.” Some translations say something like “does not act unbecomingly,” and that actually gets more at the heart of the original word.
Simply put, if you are rude, you do not love.
Recently, my family enjoyed a concert at a symphony. It is an activity we try at times, and we greatly enjoy it. Sitting behind us at this particular concert was a group of about 6-8 young adult women. I would guess they were in their mid-20s to early-30s. As the concert began and the crowd grew silent, I knew quickly that this was going to be a problem. About every 5 minutes, I would have to turn around and look at one particular woman in this group who was talking out loud. She would stop…for a couple of minutes. Then, she and someone else would pick up and just jabber. The rest of the crowd was silent and trying to enjoy the music, but this group of women just would not be quiet.
Now, I could say they were rude, and that would be true. But put an incident like that back into the thoughts of 1 Corinthians 13 and what do we actually learn? They do not love!
Parents, teach your children not to be rude, but teach them for a deeper reason than simply that being rude is being rude. Show them that, when they are rude, they are actually showing that they do not love. They are not showing love for the recipient of that rudeness, toward their parents who are trying to raise them, or really to themselves because they are lacking self-control.
But, let’s call it like it is: there are a lot of adults who need to learn to love better.
Are you always interrupting your spouse? Then maybe you don’t really love him or her.
Do you lash out on social media in ways that are intentionally mean? Then you don’t love people.
Do you speak with no respect to law enforcement, politicians, or other leaders? Then your love is lacking.
When a server at a restaurant is a little slower than you might like, do you make snide remarks to him or her? Then you are not loving that person.
Love is not rude. It’s just that simple. Maybe it is time we really took stock of our actions and took accountability for how we treat everyone around us. Maybe it is time we went back to those “old fashioned” manners and started implementing them in all situations of our lives again.
It’s not just about making the world a better place (although it would). It is about being faithful to the command to love the way God would have us to. It is about having the kind of love that never fails.
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
