Human Love vs. Christian Love; 1 Cor. 13:4-7

Leviticus 19:18 ^NASB “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” The first part of this verse is a negation. It tells us what not to do, a prohibition. In other words, no mental attitude sins of anger, bitterness, jealousy, revenge motivation, vindictiveness, etc.. But in contrast, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” This is part of the Mosaic law which is a law code which governs Israel. It is for every citizen of Israel. That does not mean that every citizen of Israel is a believer. This verse is for both believers and unbelievers. Note also, “neighbour” is the object of love, and that would be love directed toward a believer or unbeliever. So this is a love that could be demonstrated by a believer or an unbeliever and it is a love that a love that is directed toward a believer or an unbeliever. Then third, he gives the standard for the love, and that is “as you love yourself.” This is human love.

Unbelievers can only operate on the sin nature, so this human love is a love—because it is directed towards unbelievers, is manufactured by unbelievers, and they can manufacture it toward unbelievers—that can come out of the sin nature. That is the only conclusion that we can derive. The unbeliever can’t do anything apart from the sin nature. The basic orientation of the sin nature is arrogance, so that tells us that the human love that is produced by the unbeliever is arrogant at its core. That ought to change our whole concept of love. Ultimately there is a self-motivation there. The Lord recognizes this in Leviticus 19:18 when He addresses the Jews and says they have to love their neighbour as themselves. In other words, the basic orientation of your sin nature is arrogance and to put yourself first and even as an unbeliever you can develop a pseudo-love that puts other people first. Even unbelievers living in a framework of a carnal cosmic system need to learn to put other people first and operate on a level of human viewpoint service in order to make society function, in order for marriage to work, in order for any social interaction to be successful, there is a type of love that is necessary. And God isn’t demeaning this kind of love.

The usual silly superficial concept of love is not the believer’s standard. We have a different standard, and this different standard is what is jacked up in the New testament and is first stated by Jesus in the upper room following the observance of Passover when Jesus inaugurated the Lord’s table: “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.” The first observation is that the love that Jesus is talking about here cannot be the same love that we saw in Leviticus 19:18 which spoke of a love that any unbeliever can perform toward another unbeliever and it doesn’t signify anything. If Jesus was talking about the same kind of love as Leviticus then it would not have a distinguishing characteristic: “all men will know that you are My disciples.” It would be no different from that kind of love that anybody can demonstrate in terms of just trying to stifle your own overt selfishness and arrogance. Jesus is saying that this love is unique in that it is the mark of a growing believer. That is what a disciple is. A disciple isn’t just a believer. Don’t make the mistake of falling into the “lordship” trap where lordship advocates try to equate being a disciple with being a believer. Being a disciple is a second aspect, it has to do with post-salvation experience and growing and maturing in Christ. So a sign that marks you as an advancing believer is that “you have love for one another.”

What does that mean? If we trace out the Greek word here, allelon [a)llhlwn] it references other believers. So in contrast to the Leviticus 19 command in the Old testament, which was produced by believer or unbeliever and directed to believer or unbeliever, the love that Jesus has here is a love that is from believers only and directed to believers only. This is a special kind of love. So how do we do this? Do we just go out and manufacture this because now all of a sudden I have to love other believers and I look across the church and see this idiot imbecile who couldn’t make a good decision on a good day if his life depended on it and love that person? That is what the text says. It is not based on who they are, it is based on who Jesus Christ is and what he did for us on the cross. That always becomes the standard: “that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” We are to treat that person the same way (in grace) that God treats that person, because even though you think they are a loser, that they are socially inept, that they are a political imbecile, that they have done malicious and harmful things toward you, none of that can measure up to the malicious, horrible, sinful inept things that they did to Jesus Christ. But we can’t manufacture that on our own, it has to be produced separately.

So now we go to Galatians 5:22 where we discover that this virtue in the Christian life is produced by God the Holy Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love…” That is why there is not a love command such as Jesus gave in the Old Testament. They could not produce it in the Old Testament, the best they could do was human viewpoint love based on an operation of the faith-rest drill in terms of claiming the principle of Leviticus 19:18. They might be more consistent at it than an unbeliever but they didn’t have the Holy Spirit to make it a different kind of life. If we take Galatians 5:22 in context Paul has been talking to the Galatians in terms of some problems from the Judaisers. Jesus quotes from Leviticus 19:18 but He is talking about simply fulfilling the law in terms of basic fulfilment from an unregenerate individual. Paul raises the ante when he comes to verse 16: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” As the flow of argument is developed in the next few verses he contrasts the flesh or the sin nature with the Holy Spirit and verses 19-21 gives the production of the sin nature, then in verse 22 the production of the Holy Spirit. The first characteristic produced by the Holy Spirit that is mentioned is love because that is what he is talking about. Notice that the next word is “longsuffering,” makroqumia. That is a characteristic of love. Same with the word “kindness.” Although it is a different word from the one used in 1 Corinthians 13 it is a synonym. So we realize that there is something radically different about the love that is being talked about in the New Testament. This is not the kind of love that any unbeliever can produce, it is a love that is uniquely produced in the life of the believer as their character is transformed through the intake of Bible doctrine, walking by the Holy Spirit in terms of application of that doctrine, and through the application of that doctrine the Holy Spirit brings the believer to maturity, and in that process manifests certain character qualities or transformations that are the result of the Holy Spirit’s work and not our work. You can’t manufacture this on your own, it is going to be the by-product of your walk by means of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 13:4 ^NASB “Love is patient” – makrothumia [makroqumia]. This word is used in another passage in conjunction with love that is foundational for understanding the concept of love: Ephesians 4:1, 2. “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience [makroqumia], showing tolerance for one another in love.” Note the emphasis here on humility, a foundational in love; in fact, humility is the foundational virtue in the Christian life. Humility is the polar opposite to arrogance. If the basis orientation of the sin nature is arrogance, the basic orientation of the believer who is in fellowship is humility. Humility is one of the key ingredients to grace orientation, and it is not humility towards other people, it is humility toward God. Humility toward God will manifest itself in terms of humility towards people but it starts with humility towards God. In other words, humility towards people without humility towards God is a pseudo-humility. That is what unbelievers produce. Humility is the idea of submission to authority. Moses was a meek man. He had to lead three million rebellious, cantankerous, grumpy Jews through the wilderness for forty years. He was a strong individual. But meekness has to do with strength under control and that control is under the authority of God. Moses was meek toward God, which means that he was completely oriented to the authority of God. That is the foundation of humility. If you are not oriented to the authority of God you cannot be humble.

So the first thing we have to recognize is that if we are going to love anyone we have to be oriented to the authority of God. If we are not oriented to the authority of God then when we say “I love you” it is nothing more than human viewpoint arrogant love; it has no integrity to it. For love to have any value it must be grounded on integrity. Human beings can’t produce integrity; genuine integrity can only be produced by God. That is why we have to start with authority orientation to God for love, because God’s integrity is the strength, the core virtue, to our love. Love is longsuffering, it is patient. Where does that come from? That only comes from an orientation to the plan of God because we understand what is going on in the plan of God and that God is in control of the details of life.

““Love is patient,” endures provocation without complaint. Why? Because the focus is not on the experience of rejection, hostility, it is focused first and foremost on the plan of God and the person of God and what he has done for us; “love is kind” – chresteuomai [xrhsteuomai] which means to show yourself mild in the sense of being morally good or benevolent. It emphasizes an element of service, being useful or helpful to someone else; “{and} is not jealous [zhlow],” which has to do with an uncontrolled outburst where you want what someone else has; “love does not brag” – the focus is on self, one’s own accomplishments; “{and} is not arrogant,” fusiow. So once again we have a contrast between the self-orientation of human love and the absence of arrogance in divine love or the unique Christian love.

1 Corinthians 13:5 ^NASB “does not act unbecomingly” – aschemoneo [a)sxhmonew]. When this word has the negative it means to be disgraced, to be shamed. It doesn’t do things that that disgrace the other person. You don’t run down that person or put that person you love in a position where it is going to expose their weaknesses. It would also include not being abusive; “it does not seek its own” – zeteo [zhtew] which means to put itself first. It doesn’t seek its own, it is not self-absorbed; “is not provoked” – paroxuno [parocunw] which simply means it is not easily angered, upset, or provoked, it does not become easily irritated with the object of love; “does not take into account a wrong {suffered,}” – logizomai [logizomai] which means to think, the same word we have for imputation. This is the idea that love does not impute wrong to others. Love always gives the benefit of the doubt to the object of love.

1 Corinthians 13:6 ^NASB “does not rejoice in unrighteousness [a)dikia].” In other words, it doesn’t rejoice in evil, it overlooks evil. It seeks to overlook the mistakes and the sin that is involved in the object of love. It has an optimistic orientation, not a pessimistic orientation, and this emphasizes the integrity of the love, it is not making an issue out of the sin in the other person’s life; but in contrast: “but rejoices with the truth” – it rejoices in integrity. This the Greek word sugchairo [sugxairw] which indicates rejoicing together. There is a positive orientation because love is consistent with integrity.

1 Corinthians 13:7 ^NASB “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” The first word, “bears all things,” is the verb stego [stegw], and it doesn’t means to bear something like carry a burden. It has the idea of concealing something, that love hides the faults of others or covers them up. This is the idea of protecting the privacy of someone you love; you don’t go around talking about their mistakes. It believes all things, i.e. to believe what is best in other people. It has a confident expectation, hopes all things. And it endures all things, it bears up under difficulties. When there are failings in the people that one loves then you don’t focus on those.