Read again 1 Corinthians 13:4–7. Why does Paul mention negative rather than only positive characteristics of love?
Yesterday, we focused on seven things love does; today, we will look into eight things it does not do. Love . . .
1. Does not envy (zeloō). Zeloō can be used positively as in “desire [_zeloō_] the higher gifts” (1 Cor. 12:31, ESV), “desire [_zeloō_] the spiritual gifts” (1 Cor. 14:1, ESV), and “desire [_zeloō_] to prophesy” (1 Cor. 14:39, ESV). Here, though, as in Acts 7:9, it is negative. It is OK to desire spiritual gifts but not to envy gifted persons. This causes division (1 Cor. 3:3).
2. Does not boast (perpereuomai). The verb perpereuomai conveys the idea of arrogance and desire for praise from others. Love, however, is not self-focused like that. This is even clearer in what follows.
3. Does not puff up (physioō). The verb physioō occurs in 1 Corinthians 8:1 in Paul’s remarkable statement, “ ‘Knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” (ESV). It refers to a person inflated with self-importance.
4. Does not behave rudely (aschēmoneo). The verb aschēmoneo may have an ample range of meanings. By and large, though, it means acting contrary to social and moral standards in a dishonorable, shameful, indecent, or improper manner. Paul likely is referring to the arrogant and rude behavior of the “strong” party toward the “weak” members in Corinth (1 Cor. 4:10, 1 Corinthians 8).
5. Does not seek (zēteo) its own [rights]. This is similar to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:24: “No one is to seek his own right, but rather that of others” (author’s translation). Love gives up its own rights for the sake of others (see Lesson 5). In a setting in which everyone seeks each other’s rights, all benefit.
6. Does not get easily irritated (paroxynō). The verb paroxynō suggests an inward state of arousal pointing to someone easily provoked to anger. This means that love is not short-tempered or touchy.
7. Does not keep records (logizomai) of wrongs. The verb logizomai has an accounting sense here, meaning that love does not take one’s wrongs into account. In other words, love also means to forgive.
8. Does not delight (chairō) in wrongdoing. Love not only keeps no record of someone else’s wrongs but takes no pleasure in them. When we truly love others, we do not rejoice at their mistakes but, instead, seek to help them.
Supplemental EGW Notes
Those who take pains to call attention to their good works, constantly talking of their sinless state and endeavoring to make their religious attainments prominent, are only deceiving their own souls by so doing. A healthy man, who is able to attend to the vocations of life and who goes forth day after day to his labor with buoyant spirits and with a healthy current of blood flowing through his veins, does not call the attention of every one he meets to his soundness of body. Health and vigor are the natural conditions of his life, and therefore he is scarcely conscious that he is in the enjoyment of so rich a boon.
Thus it is with the truly righteous man. He is unconscious of his goodness and piety. Religious principle has become the spring of his life and conduct, and it is just as natural for him to bear the fruits of the Spirit as for the fig tree to bear figs or for the rosebush to yield roses. His nature is so thoroughly imbued with love for God and his fellow men that he works the works of Christ with a willing heart.
All who come within the sphere of his influence perceive the beauty and fragrance of his Christian life, while he himself is unconscious of it, for it is in harmony with his habits and inclinations. He prays for divine light, and loves to walk in that light. It is his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father. His life is hid with Christ in God; yet he does not boast of this, nor seem conscious of it. God smiles upon the humble and lowly ones who follow closely in the footsteps of the Master. Angels are attracted to them, and love to linger about their path. They may be passed by as unworthy of notice by those who claim exalted attainments and who delight in making prominent their good works, but heavenly angels bend lovingly over them and are as a wall of fire round about them.—The Sanctified Life, pp. 12, 13.
Those who are sanctified through the truth will show that the truth has worked a reformation in their lives, that it is preparing them for translation into the heavenly world. But so long as pride and envy and evil surmising predominate in the life, Christ does not rule in the heart. His love is not in the soul.
In the lives of those who are partakers of the divine nature there is a crucifixion of the haughty, self-sufficient spirit that leads to self-exaltation. In its place the Spirit of Christ abides, and in the life the fruits of the Spirit appear. Having the mind of Christ, His followers reveal the graces of His character.
Nothing short of this will make men acceptable to God. Nothing short of this will give them the pure, holy character that those must have who are admitted to heaven. As soon as a man puts on Christ, an evidence of the change wrought in him is seen in spirit and word and act. A heavenly atmosphere surrounds his soul, for Christ is abiding within.—This Day With God, p. 118.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.