Study Notes is a peak into my sermon preparation for the week:
- ‘…Does not envy or boast’ (1 Cor. 13:4b)
The second pair of verbs in 1 Corinthians 13:4 is translated by the ESV: “[Love] does not envy or boast.” Envy is a straightforward word. When the verb is used positively it speaks of zeal and passion; when it is used negatively is speaks of covetousness and envy. The verb translated ‘boast’ is more interesting as far as translation is concerned. It likely comes from a root word meaning ‘over’ or ‘beyond’ and it appears in the middle or passive voice, indicating that the subject is involved as a receiver of the action. This leads to a fairly literal translation like this: “Love isn’t putting itself over.” That is, it does not boast of itself. The middle/passive element here is essential to understanding the meaning. The simple idea of boasting won’t do. Love is such that it does not boast of itself.
Modern cultural applications abound. If love does not envy, then we must realize that our Capitalistic society is fundamentally unloving. This does not mean that other types of systems are necessarily more loving; rather, we are simply pointing out that a culture of envy and covetousness militates against love. We are taught to envy from the cradle to the grave, and this cultural teaching opposes love, as the apostle expresses it. A culture of love does not teach its members to boil with envy; instead it teaches them the value of contentment. Could this be a major cause of the cultural state of marriage? How can we love our spouses when our culture tells us to envy the beautiful people? Instead of being content, we will always feel let down, desiring something more than we have, or desiring something outside of the bounds of God’s Law.
Next, if love does not put itself over, then we must realize that social media as it exists today is fundamentally unloving. It is an industry and practice based on boasting. Putting your vacation pics up on Facebook or Instagram may feel great at the moment, but who knows who you are discouraging. And such boasting, if nothing else, feeds into the culture of envy that much more.
The church must fight for contentment. We must live as though we lack nothing while living as though we have nothing to brag about in ourselves. We have everything, except something to brag about in ourselves. Hence we boast in nothing except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the case because ‘the Lord is our portion.’ Jesus, the pearl of great price, is ours. In light of our possession of him, through faith, we must order our affections in such a way that we find complete satisfaction in him. The ‘rare jewel’ of Christian contentment is found in the beauty and value of Jesus Christ. In him we have one who satisfies us to the point of putting off all envy, and one in whom we can make all our boasts while acknowledging our own weakness and unworthiness. As we boast in the crucified Lord, we are crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to us. Hence we are nothing in ourselves for this world, and crave nothing this world offers.
The apostle Paul’s great statement of contentment in Philippians 4:11-13 has been abused in many ways. What he is essentially saying there, when he says that he can do all things through Christ, is that he can live with contentment as a poor man or a rich man, because he has Jesus. Love can win the lottery and not be changed. Love can face a stock market crash and not be changed. Love is content whatever the circumstance, so long as it has a proper object to love.
