What does it mean that love is not proud (1 Corinthians 13:4)?

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What does it mean that love is not proud? We're going to answer that question.

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You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org 1 Corinthians 13 offers tremendous insight regarding the

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Christian perspective of love. As love is described, the stipulation that love is not proud is included.

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The very word translated proud offers valuable information. It comes from a Greek word meaning to puff up or blow out.

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The English idiom having a big head communicates the same idea. To be puffed up is to have an inflated opinion of oneself.

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But pride cannot coexist with godly love. Christian love is not proud or focused on self.

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Jesus Christ is the perfect example of selfless love. Jesus, though he is in very nature

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God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

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And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

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Jesus did not focus on himself. Instead, he became a servant and in humility died to save us.

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As John 15 13 teaches, greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

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In contrast to the humility of love, the Corinthian believers were known for their proud behavior at times.

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They argued over which apostle they followed, spoke poorly of Paul, boasted of their tolerance of sinful behavior, took fellow believers to court with lawsuits, dishonored

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God in their taking of the Lord's Supper, and argued about which spiritual gifts were most important.

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Paul's exhortation that love is not proud provided a proper corrective for their self -centered attitudes.

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Pride is a sin. John taught that the pride of life is not from the

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Father, but is from the world. The Proverbs summarize God's attitude regarding pride.

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Pride and arrogance in the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. And pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

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William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, wrote, a proud man then is a kind of glutton upon himself, for he is never satisfied with loving and admiring himself, whilst nothing else with him is worthy either of love or care.

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This is exactly why love and pride are in hateful opposition to each other. In pride we become the objects of our own love.

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In humility we learn to love others. A person with godly love is not concerned with benefiting himself.

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The only thing love sees is the need. When the good Samaritan stopped to help the man in need on the

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Jericho Road, he didn't concern himself with how Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

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The good Samaritan did not care how it looked to others. He was there to help. His humble focus on someone else's need is the illustration

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Jesus used of loving our neighbor as ourselves. That answers the question, what does it mean that love is not proud?

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On our website, GotQuestions .org, you'll find a deeper discussion and recommended resources.

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