What does it mean that love does not envy (1 Corinthians 13:4)?
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"What does it mean that love does not envy (1 Corinthians 13:4)? What does 'love does not envy' mean in terms of how I show love to others?
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- What does it mean that love does not envy? We're going to answer that question.
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- You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. First Corinthians 13 offers one of the
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- Bible's richest expositions regarding love. Verse 4 notes that love does not envy.
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- So, selfish jealousy is at odds with God's type of love. The Greek word translated envy means to burn with zeal.
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- Literally, the sense is to be heated or to boil over with envy, hatred, or anger.
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- In the context of 1 Corinthians 13, the idea is that love does not focus on personal desires.
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- It is not eager to increase possessions. God's type of love is selfless, not selfish.
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- Envy is the opposite of God's command not to covet. Love is the fulfillment of the law.
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- The one who truly loves will be in conformity to the Ten Commandments and envy will be excluded.
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- In contrast to God's command, the Corinthian believers were ranking some spiritual gifts as more important than others and envying those who had the best gifts.
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- In chapter 12, Paul points out that the different gifts are meant to serve one another and build up the church.
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- No one person has all the gifts, but each child of God has at least one, and love demands that each gift be used to serve others rather than self.
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- Envy rots the bones. When we crave what someone else has rather than being grateful for what
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- God has given, we hurt ourselves. Instead of envying others, we are called to love them.
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- True love, God's love, rejoices when others are blessed. There is no room for envy.
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- Love does not seek to benefit itself, and it is content with what it has because its focus is on meeting the needs of the loved one.
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- That answers the question, what does it mean that love does not envy? On our website,
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- GotQuestions .org, you'll find a deeper discussion and recommended resources. If this helped you, give us a thumbs up and click subscribe.