Explain Like I'm 5: Love = God, Part 2
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
“Love is patient, love is kind and 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, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NASB
(This is Part 2 of a three-part post; there was just too much to wrangle into a single post. You can find Part 1 here & Part 3 is soon to follow.)
Before we get into the second part of this three-part series of posts, let’s do a quick recap of Part One.
I have a difficult time remembering and internalizing that God loves me.
I decided to create a theological mnemonic to remind me of that.
Based on “God is love” from 1 John 4:8, I swapped out all instances of ‘love” from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and replaced it with “God”.
I’ve covered that God is patient, God is kind, God is not jealous, and God does not brag which brings us to…
God is not arrogant
I quite like the Greek word “phusioó” for arrogant. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines it as “to be puffed up” which conjures to my imagination a pufferfish inflating itself into a ball. Quite an image that arrogance just can’t compete with!
This is also another anti-attribute of love, and if you remember from Part One, each anti-attribute refers to an earlier passage in 1 Corinthians. Here Saint Paul is referring to Chapter 4 which deals with being a servant and steward of Christ.
Being a servant and/or steward can’t be done in arrogance, but as the Corinthians are some of Saint Paul’s most savage students, arrogance has crept into their mix. This entire Epistle is a “come to Jesus” talk but some parts are a bit sharper than others, and 1 Corinthians 4:18-21 (ESV) cuts quite deep:
“Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?”
We are an arrogant species. At least the pufferfish is trying to inflate itself out of self-preservation. We, however, do so to step over our fellow man and, if we’re feeling quite special, to step in and play at being gods.
God doesn’t need to play at being God. He is “I AM WHO I AM” from Exodus 3:14. Is it even ontologically possible for God to be “puffed up”?
And yet this same God became human in Jesus the Christ. To suffer on our behalf and be put to suffering by us. He came not as the Lion He could be but as the Lamb we needed.
Case closed; no arrogance in God.
God does not act unbecomingly
This could be dispensed with a single sentence: God isn’t a pervert.
As this is another anti-attribute, Saint Paul is referring to an earlier passage in the Epistle which is 1 Corinthians 7:36, “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter…”
Love does not wander nor does God.
God does not seek its own
Essentially, we are asking: is God selfish?
And asking this, I find myself pondering the similar questions to those I had when I questioned if God was jealous. Why does He require all glory to Him? Why are we made in His image? Are we here to just amuse God?
And, as I did with jealousy, I see that I am projecting my own limited human qualities onto Him.
God is all about relationship. Before mankind, the Godhead is the relationship of the Trinity. We are designed to participate in that relationship, and we are at our best when we are in relationship with Him.
All glory to God? That is us in peak condition like an athlete who gives all to the game and is at his or her best.
Made in His image? We are made to reflect the most loving Presence in the universe.
Am I here just to amuse God? Simply, no. I think you might need to be a parent to fully internalize this, but no.
God is not provoked
I think I’m faced with a much heavier lift with convincing you, and I, that God can’t be provoked.
First, what does “provoked” mean? Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines the Greek “paroxunó” as “to irritate, provoke, rouse to anger”.
Like in Part One with “jealous”, we can find the Old Testament is filled with examples of God being provoked: Deuteronomy 9:7, 2 Samuel 6:6, 1 Kings 15:30, and Psalm 78:58-59 are just a small sampling.
Theologian Michael Hardin shared in a Facebook post (YES…you should 100% follow Michael on Facebook; its a free theological education) an excellent take on understanding the violence of the Old Testament, and I think it will be useful in aiding us here:
The OT is a mixture of both religion (human projection onto God of violence and sacrifice) and revelation (God’s breaking through our projections with mercy, compassion and inclusion)…
There is revelation breaking through in the OT. There is also religion. We learn to distinguish them by following the anti-sacrificial, anti-violence project of the prophets, Jesus, Paul and Hebrews. This is why over and over and over again I have stated that we must begin all of our thinking about God from the perspective of the death of Jesus for here, in this death is violence exposed, sacrifice critiqued, and the alternative announced (forgives of sins freely, graciously, unconditionally). Christ crucified is the announcement that the foundation and maintenance of human culture and religion on sacrifice is cast down from heaven. God neither needs, desires nor takes delight in sacrifice, God is not a lover of death, but of life. When we get this we can begin to stop justifying ourselves, berating ourselves, and living as though God was a tyrant.
Mr. Hardin is much smarter and better educated about theology than I ever will be, but as a late arriver to Christianity, and arriving with a relatively open mind, I quickly recognized this “human projection” in the OT. I’ve spent this post, and the previous, cataloging all the instances I project onto God so is it possible the OT writers projected like me?
Can’t we interpret the OT as both revelation and religion as Michael suggests? Is Scripture any less inspired if, to quote theologian Peter Enns, “God lets His children tell His story?”
When we put on our Jesus’ lenses, we don’t see Jesus being provoked but just the opposite.
Comforting… “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, ESV)
Soothing… “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)
And bringing peace… “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27, ESV)
No, my Lord is not provoked. He is with me and with you thru thick and thin.
I encourage you to tackle these four statements as we did with the last four and use this theological mnemonic to strengthen your faith. Get to it, and I’ll see you next week when we finish up with Part 3.
References:
Thayer, J. (2019). Thayer’s Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament. Hendrickson.