REVIEW
 
So we are studying about the true nature of God based on one simple question—Would God give us a standard that He Himself is not first practicing Himself? In other words, would God tell us to treat our neighbors a certain way if He was not treating us the same? And the obvious answer to that is—No, of course He will not and does not. Therefore, a great way that I have found to learn about God’s loving nature is to look at how He commands us to love each other.
 
Now I have entitled this series of messages “Imitators of Love” because as we are told to imitate God as dear children, we can look at all of these other things God tells us to do as simply copying what He does.  
 
So, a couple of weeks ago, we started looking at a great section of Scriptures that teaches us about the characteristics of love – the great love chapter, First Corinthians chapter 13. We are doing this with the understanding that since God is love, all of these things the apostle Paul teaches us that love does, describe to us God’s characteristics.
 
First Corinthians 13:4-8 teaches us how “love suffers long and is kind. (how) love does not envy; (how) love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (how it) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (how it) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (yes, how love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
 
So we have been going through this list of the characteristics of love each week and what we have learned so far is …

• God (i.e., Love) suffers long – We saw how the apostle Paul starts off with the fruit of the Spirit, longsuffering, and how this is one of the chief characteristics of love. So love is characterized by how patient it is with people—which should not be strange to us when we understand the root of our impatience with others, which is usually just us being self-centered. In other words, we don’t put up with a lot in others because our flesh is tired of dealing with it. So once it becomes something we aren’t wanting to deal with anymore, our flesh starts showing out. But what we learned was that this is not just talking about our longsuffering; this is divine longsuffering that we are talking about—meaning, it’s God’s ability to suffer long and be patient, which I can assure you is much “longer” than our own ability to suffer long. So we saw how the Scriptures teach us that God is longsuffering—from how He waited in the days of Noah when He judged the world by water to how He is waiting in this hour when He will judge the world by fire. The reason why it seems to be so long before the Lord brings His judgment is not because He drags His feet, but because He suffers long. God’s longsuffering is always on full display to us! God suffers long!
• God (i.e., Love) is kind – Then we saw how love is not just patient; it’s also kind while doing it. And we learned how kindness (like longsuffering) is also a fruit of the Spirit, meaning that it is also fruit of God’s nature. Yes, all nine of these fruit of the Spirit are who our God is. And like we say God is good, we can also say that God is kind. Yes, there are a myriad of Scriptures that show us how God is kind - how everything from the giving of Jesus to so many other things He gives us throughout our life. Church, I’ll tell you—there is no one quite as kind as our one of a “kind” God. And He wants us to consider this kindness aspect of Him—for far too many of us have only considered the severe side of Him. But the truth is that there is a kind, gentle, and good side of God that He wants to reveal to us! God is kind!
• God (i.e., Love) does not envy – Then we started a section here where Paul begins teaching what love is not. And he begins by saying that love does not envy. We learned that envy is much more subtle than most think, and because it is emphasized so much in the Scriptures, that proves to us that it is more of a problem than most would like to admit. So we saw how a lot of situations such as Jesus being handed over to Pilate by the religious leaders was motivated by envy and also how Joseph was betrayed by his brothers because of envy (interesting that those two things parallel each other). But the fact is, envy—which is desire to possess something that someone else has—can be something that we all struggle with, and it also can be the motivation behind the things we think and do. But at the same time, we learned that God does not desire to deprive someone else of something they have. Rather, He desires to give—because there is no bigger giver than our God. However, we ended on more of a sober note last week—that while God certainly does not envy, He is a jealous God. This means that like a spouse who loves his or her mate, God desires to have all of His bride’s heart and possess us totally for Himself. No, not in a selfish way like mankind tends to do it, but in a healthy, loving way. Church, in His great love for us, God desires us—so much so, that He is unwilling to share His Bride with anything or anyone else.

 
LOVE DOESN’T BOAST OF ITSELF
 
Today, I want us to look at these next two things that the apostle Paul said that love is not. The second half of First Corinthians 13:4 says, “love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.”
 
Now this is certainly true of our God, isn’t it? He does everything but “parade Himself” before His creation, nor is He “puffed up.” In fact, He is the exact opposite. He purposefully does not put Himself on display when by all accounts, if anyone was worthy of doing so, it would be Him. But no, God has not made it a practice of His to reveal His glory to the world. In fact, very few have ever gotten a glimpse of just how beautiful He is.
 
But oh, how the majority of His creation have done the exact opposite. Yes, most people live their entire lives “parading” themselves—that is, promoting themselves and proudly displaying all their talents, knowledge, beauty, etc. for others to see.
 
Now the phrase “parade itself” comes from the Greek word that means to brag or boast of oneself, and Paul was saying here that this is not love. No, love for others doesn’t brag about itself. Sure, love for itself will brag about itself, but the truth we need to understand today is that we will brag about whoever we love.
 
I mean, it’s not hard to see this, is it? We’ve all seen mothers brag on their sons, fathers boast of their daughters, grandparents glory in their grandkids, etc. And why is this? It’s because they love their kids & grandkids. Yes, they have a special place in their hearts, so they brag, boast, and glory in their accomplishments and so forth.
 
But again, if we love ourselves, guess who we will brag on and boast about? Ourselves! And we’ve all seen that as well, haven’t we?
 
You see, one of the core characteristics of pride—which is anti-love—is how it loves to talk about itself. It loves to brag about what it’s seen, who & what it knows, where it’s been and what it’s done, etc. It’s not hard to spot it in a conversation either. And we’ve all got a little bit of it in us—some more than others 😊.
 
Now the reason why pride so easily manifests in our words is because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if our heart is full of ourselves, what do you think the main topic of conversation will be? Ourselves! Yes, there will be a lot of personal pronouns in those conversations—a lot of “I’s, me’s, my’s, etc.” However, if our hearts are full of others, we will brag about them. Yes, we will celebrate and “parade” them from our hearts when love is in our hearts towards them.  
 
So this is what love does. It doesn’t “parade” itself. It honors others. Yes, love seeks to celebrate others and not itself.
 
LOVE ISN’T FULL OF ITSELF
 
Now the next description of what love is, is very similar to love not “parading itself.” Paul says that love also is not “puffed up.” This phrase literally describes being “inflated, blown up, or caused to swell up.” Of course, Paul is talking about being full of pride here.
 
But let’s consider the terminology for a moment—if pride is being “inflated or blown up,” what do you suppose this person is inflated with? Themselves! Yes, they are full of themselves (as we like to say it). 
 
Now there is nothing much more repulsive than a person who is full of themselves, is there? Of course, it will make a person completely selfish & self-centered, but it does more than just that. It will cause a person to be wise in their own opinion, to think they know more than everyone else, to trust in their own abilities, to take matters into their own hands, etc. I could go on and on. But what I want you to understand today is that someone who is “puffed up” is not just arrogant and haughty; they can also be self-sufficient and self-reliant.
 
The bottom line is that this pride can take on many faces and it’s not just the traditional view of pride that’s glaringly obvious. In fact, I could have a lot of pride and appear to others like I’m very humble. How? By not necessarily bragging on myself or coming across as being better than others, but by being a person who doesn’t like to lose control. 
 
In fact, out of the seven times that this word is used in the New Testament, six of them are found in this epistle (i.e., First Corinthians). Therefore, the church of Corinth was a body of believers that apparently had a pretty big problem with this ugly stuff called pride.
 
In one of these verses, Paul tells us that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (See First Corinthians 8:1), and what he was saying here was how knowing facts and even the truth can actually have the tendency to inflate those who know such things with pride. But what is the lesson here? It is that while knowledge tends to puff up, love builds up. In other words, if you and I are walking in love, we will seek to edify others and not tear them down because we know something they don’t.
 
So as Paul was saying here in First Corinthians 13:4, if I am puffed up, I won’t be building others up in love. So again, while love is not puffed up, love does build up.
 
The terminology “edifies” or “builds up” describes a house or building that is being “built up”—thus the restoration of a building, the rebuilding or repair of a home, etc. This is what love does with others! When it sees a person who is broken or even demolished, love seeks to build them back up, restoring and rebuilding their lives.  
 
Now pride is not generally going to be so concerned with helping build someone else’s house, is it? But it most certainly will exert all kinds of care and concern with building its own, right? And I am not just talking about the building of houses. I’m speaking metaphorically about building our own kingdoms, things that directly affect us. So this could be our own families, businesses, ministries, etc. Church, it’s easy for us to have our affections set on our own stuff to where that’s what we seek, what we think about, what’s on our heart, etc.
 
But the love God has called us to walk in will set its affections on other’s kingdoms and seek first their welfare even above our own at times. Yes, love will have its heart full of others, which will result in it treasuring the things which concern them and boasting in their victories and successes. I mean, it’s what the Lord has done for us, right?
 
THE HUMBLE GOD
 
You see, our main point today is that God is certainly the definition of humility—not parading Himself and bragging on Himself, and also not being full of Himself. And again, if anyone ever had a right to do this, it would be Him. But because of His great love for us, He has chosen to parade us, to brag on us, and have His heart full of us. That’s what love does, saints!
 
I know some of us might have a hard time accepting the fact that God is the epitome of humility, being the exalted, great God that He is, but even in His sovereignty, He possesses the utmost humility.
 
Now there is no better way to see the humble side of God than in the Lord Jesus. As we know, He only did what He saw the Father doing and only said what He heard from His Father. Therefore, Jesus was the image of the invisible God and the express image of His person. So whatever we see in Him is who our God is.
 
Well, the Scriptures reveal to us how the life & ministry of Jesus was all about humility. No, He never paraded Himself—bragging about who He was. He wasn’t puffed up in pride being full of Himself. No, as Jesus said in Matthew 11:29— “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart …”
 
So even though Jesus was God, He came in a “gentle and lowly in heart” manner. This is what He wanted us to learn about Him. So let’s talk a little bit about this humble side of God which is motivated by selfless love.
 
 THE MIND OF CHRIST
 
Yes, we are told in Ephesians 5:2 that Jesus not only served & ministered, but that He actually gave Himself! Let’s look at it …
 
After the apostle Paul gives the exhortation to be imitators of God as dear children, he went on to say that we can do this by “walk(ing) in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” So what Paul is saying here is the way in which we imitate our Heavenly Father is by walking in love with one another the way Christ has loved us. And how He did this was by giving Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God! Amen!
 
So let’s talk a little bit today about how Christ did this: What was the process by which He “gave Himself” for us? Now I believe this action of love is actually perfectly described to us in Philippians chapter 2. So let’s go over to Philippians the 2nd chapter and look at how Paul describes the mentality and attitude of Jesus Christ …
 
Paul begins in Philippians 2:3 to give some instructions to this church. He says, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” Now obviously we are talking here about pride—for “selfish ambition and conceit” are descriptors of this enemy of love.
 
Regarding being conceited, this basically means “having an excessively high opinion of oneself” (Webster’s). In Romans 12:3 we are told not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. God wants us to think highly of ourselves. He wants us to realize that we are valuable to him and that we have an important purpose. He just doesn’t want us to think more highly of ourselves than we should. That is, thinking that our gifts and talents are of ourselves. God doesn’t mind us acknowledging our gifts. He just wants us to acknowledge the Giver of those gifts too.
 
Then Paul goes on to say things that are opposed to doing things through selfish ambition and conceit— “but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”
 
You see, lowliness of mind is the opposite of being “high-minded.” It describes having a low estimation of one’s own worth and value. Not in the sense of who we are in Christ but in a sense of who we are in ourselves.
 
One of the definitions of pride is to be enveloped in smoke. This means that a prideful person cannot see reality. They are blinded by the smoke of self-deception. If we fly too high, then we can get our heads caught in the clouds and blind ourselves. I love how the Amplified Bible describes this phrase “lowliness of mind.” It describes it as “in the true spirit of humility.”
 
So it is “in lowliness of mind” that we are able to esteem others better than ourselves. We have to see ourselves as not being the most important person in the world before we will be able to truly esteem others better than ourselves. To “esteem” someone means to honor them. In Romans 12:10 we see this definition of honor… It says, “in honor giving preference to one another.” When you allow someone “to lead the way” (def. “preference”) you are honoring them. Ways we can honor others is to:

1. Let someone else go in line in front of you somewhere.
2. Allow someone to share what is on their heart before you do.
3. Let someone else choose the restaurant that y’all will eat at.

 
These are just some of the ways that we can esteem others better than ourselves. And living a lifestyle of honoring others like this will result in God honoring us because “the last shall be first!”
 
Now I want us to skip down to verse 5: Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
 
Now Paul had just told us in verses 2-4 to walk in one accord with our brothers and sisters and to esteem other’s interests above our own. Now he gives us the perfect example of someone who fulfilled this to the uttermost—Christ Jesus!
 
Jesus strived to live in unity with God’s people - not at the cost of the truth but with the effort to reveal the truth to them. Jesus had no selfish ambition nor was He conceited. He truly esteemed others better than Himself. Jesus looked out for the interests of others above His own. He was the best example of humility that there ever was and ever will be!
 
The word “mind” here comes from the Greek word phroneo which means to think, to be mindful of, to have regard for, or to have a certain attitude. So Paul is telling us here to have the same attitude as Jesus. He wants us to think like He thought—to have His perspective on things.
 
Saints, this mindset that Jesus had has to be “in” us. It has to be an attitude that has become a part of us—that is, placed in our heart. It is only when this kind of thinking becomes a part of us that it will truly change the way we live. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) Our actions are a product of the way we think. Where the mind goes the man will follow!
 
So what was Jesus’ mindset, attitude and way of thinking? We need to find this out because this is how we are exhorted to think as well!
 
Beginning in verse 6, the apostle Paul goes on to tell us the mentality of Christ. He says, “who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God…”
 
Now the word “form” describes the “nature or essence” of something or someone. This means that before Jesus came to the earth He had the complete nature of God—for He was, in essence, God Himself as a member of the Trinity.
 
Now regarding the phrase “robbery to be equal with God,” the word “robbery” is a poor translation because it gives off the wrong impression of what Paul was trying to say. With this incorrect translation it would seem to mean Paul was saying that Jesus did not consider it “stealing” to say He was equal with God. But the whole context of what Paul was teaching was humility and laying down our own rights for others. Paul was teaching us that we are to lay down our privileges as children of God for the benefit of others.
 
The word “robbery” comes from the Greek word harpagmos, which describes “a prize held onto tightly, a treasure to be retained at all costs, or something valuable that is too good to let go.”      This is the “mind of Christ” mentioned in the previous verse, friends! Jesus did not consider or regard what He had in heaven when He walked in the full nature of God something that He could not let go of. Jesus considered us more precious and worth being apprehended than His own status and nature as God Almighty! That is awesome, saints!
 
In short, He loved and valued us more than He loved and valued His position in heaven! And this is how we are to regard other people: more valuable than our own position, fame, and glory. Sure, we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Sure, we are the King’s kids. But if we usurp those positions above serving others then we are not having the mind of Christ!
 
You see, Christ’s attitude here was the exact opposite of that of Lucifer’s (see Isaiah 14:12-15). Lucifer had one of the most important positions in heaven. He was close to the throne of God, but he was not satisfied. He desired to be on the throne of God. He was not satisfied with being a creature. He desired to be the Creator.
 
One of the main differences between Jesus and Lucifer was that Lucifer said, “I will” and Jesus said, “Thy will.” Lucifer thought only of his own promotion to benefit himself and Jesus thought only of His demotion to benefit us. Christ’s humility in love is a direct contrast to Satan’s pride in his selfish ambition!
 
Then Paul goes on further to describe Christ Jesus’ mentality in verse 7 … He said, “but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
By using the word “but”, Paul was saying that not only did Jesus not “consider” His position in heaven something that He had to retain at all costs, but He also acted on it by making Himself of no reputation.
 
We are told in First John 3:18 that we are to make sure we do not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth. James chapter 2 teaches us that faith without works is dead. We need to always judge our love walk to see if it is active. Jesus considered us of more value than His own position and then actively lowered Himself for us. Likewise, we need to not only see others as more valuable than ourselves, but we also need to willingly lower ourselves through selfless acts of love.
 
The words “made...of no reputation” come from the Greek word keno which means “to empty something.” This Greek word carries the idea in context that Jesus willingly emptied Himself of His divine privileges and glory that He had as being in the form of God. Saints, He willingly laid down all of His Godhead privileges! 
 
I do like how the word “reputation” is used here. A reputation is the general opinion of other people towards something or someone. Jesus had the greatest reputation while He was in heaven as God. All the hosts of heaven highly esteemed Him. But He chose to willingly forget about His reputation in heaven and come to the earth, where He became despised and rejected by His own creation. Jesus literally made Himself to have no reputation with man rather than having the best reputation in heaven. So many people worry about their reputation with men that they compromise what is right. In Christ Jesus we no longer have our own reputation. We died to ourselves on the day we received Him so we should no longer be concerned with what the world thinks of us.
 
Then Paul said that He “taking the form” … The word used for “form” here is the same Greek word translated “form” in verse 6. It means “nature or essence.” So after Jesus laid down His nature and privileges as God, He took up the nature and lack of privileges of a servant.
 
But what makes what Jesus did so powerful was that when He left behind all the glory and honor of heaven He came to the earth and took the least glorious and least honorable position attainable- a bondservant—for the word “bondservant” comes from the Greek word doulos and describes the lowest form of slave. Jesus said Himself, “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). He went from being the Highest to being the lowest!       
 
Then in verse 8, the apostle Paul went on to say, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Notice that it says that Jesus “humbled Himself”… The word “humbled” means “to make low.” This is what Jesus did by becoming a bondservant (vs.7)—He made Himself low.
 
THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS
 
But perhaps no greater example can be given of how Jesus did all of this other than John chapter 13. So let’s take a look at it. Of course, this is the account of Jesus washing His disciple’s feet that most of us are familiar with, but I want us to notice a couple of important points from this story … 
 
John 13:1-17 reads: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (So we see here that the topic of Jesus’ love for His own is the subject at hand of this chapter) And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are You washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.’ Peter said to Him, ‘You shall never wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’ For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, ‘You are not all clean.’ So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
 
Now does this mean that we need to have a ceremonial foot washing service from time to time? Well, not necessarily. You see, foot washing was something that was done in those days because it was absolutely necessary. They wore sandals which exposed most of their feet and they didn’t travel on asphalt. Their feet were exposed everywhere they walked and were absolutely in need of these occasional foot washings.
 
Now I’m sure as nasty as some of our feet are, they cannot compare to these guys! Therefore, foot washing was not an ordinance that Jesus was seeking to establish; serving one another was the true lesson that He was illustrating to us.
 
But the point is this is a great example of how the Lord became a bondservant & humbled himself while He dwelt among us. And what was the result of this humility? Paul tells us in Philippians 2:9 – “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name …”
 
The word “therefore” shows us that it was through Jesus humbling Himself by becoming a servant to man and obedient to the Father, God also honored Him by highly exalting Him and giving Him the name which is above every name. So it was only when Jesus decided to lower Himself through humility to the Father and man that God elevated Him and elevated His name.
 
The major lesson we can learn from this is how God will in turn reward us for our humility, servanthood, and obedience. While we will never be rewarded the way that Jesus was with the loftiest position and title, we will be exalted to a certain degree on the Great judgment day if we truly lowered ourselves through selfless acts of humility and love while we were on the earth.
 
So this is the way Jesus thought, and it is the way Paul said that we, too, ought to think. It’s the way love thinks, and Jesus loved us enough to not only lay down His Godhead privileges and to not only empty Himself, but to humble Himself and become the greatest servant this world has ever seen. Amen!
 
PRIDE – THE SUPER VILLIAN
 
But our point today is how true humility is the exact opposite of this pride that is full of itself and parades itself. In fact, I consider pride to be the biggest “anti-love” vice. In other words, our pride is the supervillain of love.
 
Yes, church, just like the Joker is to Batman and Lex Luthor is to Superman, pride is the archrival of our inner man. And just like it seems as though those comic book villains cannot be killed, this archrival of our inner man isn’t going to die either. It must be defeated daily because it will always resurface. Pride is the biggest enemy of our 'inner me'!"
 
But your inward man is meek, gentle, and humble. It has the nature & characteristics of Christ resident within it. Therefore, that villain called pride is simply a part of our carnal nature, which we are all born with. So it is for that reason that I don’t like to look at pride as mine. The real me—the eternal part of me that we call the spirit man—doesn’t have a lick of pride in it. Therefore, I see pride as my arch-rival and not a part of the real me. 
 
Like Paul teaches us in Galatians chapter 5:16-18, we have a war going on inside of us—the spirit versus the flesh. And while God wants us yielding to His humility and love that resides in our inner man, the enemy of our soul wants us yielding to pride and self-centeredness.
 
It’s a continuous fight, but it’s one worth fighting for—for the rewards of humility and love cannot be understated. Let’s let these characteristics of love become our priority and receive the Lord’s help and grace in the process. Amen?

REVIEW
 
Currently, we are studying the true nature of love in a series of messages that I am calling “Imitators of Love.” However, even though the series title might seem to indicate that we are looking at how we can imitate God, what we are doing is looking at verses that teach us how to love others, knowing that those teach us how God loves us.
 
I’ll tell you, church—this is a fun new way to study our Bible because it causes us to take a different look at verses. In this case, understanding that God won’t give us a standard that He isn’t practicing Himself, we can learn how God treats us by looking at verses that teach us how to treat each other.
 
Our golden text that we are basing this teaching on is Ephesians 5:1-2 where the apostle Paul instructs us to imitate God as His children. And I’ve made the point that being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him and for Him—because everything He tells us to do is simply meant for us to reflect the light that He is to this world.
 
So we spent several weeks looking at the verses that preceded Ephesians chapter 5 and learned how Paul got to this point of summarizing with this exhortation to imitate God—how God will not lie to us or steal from us, how He will speak to us in a certain way, and what His attitude is towards sin versus the sinner.
 
Then a couple of weeks ago, we started looking at another section of Scriptures that has been traditionally used to teach us how we are to love one another – the great love chapter, First Corinthians chapter 13.
 
First Corinthians 13:4-8 teaches us how “love suffers long and is kind. (how) love does not envy; (how) love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (how it) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (how it) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (yes, how love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
 
But what we are doing is turning this around and teaching these verses from the same perspective that we have been—how because God is love, these characteristics of love teach us the very characteristics of God Himself. So I encourage you that as we go through these verses, read them as so: “God suffers long and is kind, He does not envy, God does not parade Himself, He is not puffed up; God does not behave rudely, He does not seek His own, He is not provoked, He thinks no evil; God does not rejoice in iniquity, but He rejoices in the truth; God bears all things, He believes all things, He hopes all things, He endures all things; God never fails …” 
 
We looked at Paul’s first description of love—that it “suffers long.” So, at the forefront of all of Love’s characteristics, we see that God is “longsuffering” (you might also say, “patient.”).  
So we looked at several Scriptures that clearly teach us how longsuffering our God is—both how He suffers long with His creation before the inevitable judgment and also how He suffered long with the likes of Peter & Paul. In fact, we looked at Paul’s own testimony of how God’s longsuffering was on full display in His life by how He both saved him and used him. 
 
Yes, God suffers long with all of us. In His love, He is totally patient with His creation. This is who He is and not just what He does.
 
Then last week, we saw how God doesn’t just suffer long, but He’s kind while doing it. How many of you know that it’s one thing to suffer long or be patient with others, but it’s a whole other ballgame to be kind while you’re doing it? In other words, someone might appear to be longsuffering on the outside, but on the inside, they have the wrong attitude while they are waiting.
 
But the fact is—we have a lot of Scriptures that teach us about the goodness & kindness of God. And like longsuffering, this is more than just what He does; God is kind!
 
We learned how these virtues like longsuffering & kindness are fruit of the Spirit—meaning, they are the fruit of who He is and what He Himself does! Amen! In other words, God has called His children to produce His very own fruit—that is, His will is for us to be just like Him!
 
Yes, love is the first fruit listed because this is the core nature of God Himself. Therefore, our call to produce the fruit of love is to simply replicate God’s nature of love. Even the fruits of joy & peace are a part of the nature of God. Did you know He is called the “Happy God”? Yes, God rejoices and is the possessor of all joy. Not only that, but He is called the God of Peace, and He is the Prince of Peace! And the list goes on and on—God is also longsuffering, good, and kind.  
 
So, we saw how in First Corinthians 13:4 that love is kind. So, if God is love, then that Scripture is clearly revealing to us that God is kind. Therefore, as we saw earlier, God is not only longsuffering with us, but He is also kind in the midst of it! In other words, He will still pour out His kindness in our lives while He is waiting for us to repent of our mistakes. What an awesome God we serve!
 
You see, even the “select elect” out there who actually believe God is patient and longsuffering have a hard time believing that God remains kind in the midst of our continual stumbling. They think that He is longsuffering, but He is tapping His foot in the midst of it. But no! God changes not! Therefore, He is still doing good and being kind even while He is waiting on us to live up to our potential.
 
We looked at several other Scriptures that teach about how God is kind—not just to His children, but also to those who are unthankful & evil (See Luke 6:35-36). As we learned, it is going to take all of eternity to reveal to us all the riches of God’s kindness towards us (See Ephesians 2:7). This entails everything from our initial salvation to all the other ways that He has shown forth His kindness towards us in our walk with Him. Church, how many times in the Scriptures are we made aware of the “lovingkindness” of our God?
 
LOVE DOES NOT ENVY
 
Now the next thing that Paul includes in his description of love in First Corinthians 13:4 is that love does not envy.
 
The word “envy” here comes from the Greek word zeloo and is simply defined as “to burn with zeal.” And the obvious way it is being used here is to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, or anger. Therefore, it describes the warmth of feeling against someone.  
 
Now envy is very similar to jealousy, but they do have different characteristics. One difference is that while one might envy someone else’s spouse—desiring to have what they have—someone flirting with their own spouse might make them jealous. So, while jealousy can be involved with things that you already have, envy specifically desires to have something that someone else does. In fact, envy desires to have it even if that means depriving the other person of what they have.
 
So the fact is, envy is completely motivated by selfishness—yearning to take something that someone else possesses for themselves or, at the least, ruining it for them.
 
In fact, this is the word that was used to describe what motivated the chief priests to hand Jesus over to Pilate (See Matthew 27:18 & Mark 15:10)—for the root of their issue with Jesus was that they wanted the love, honor, and attention that He was receiving from the Jewish people. Therefore, they wanted Him crucified out of their envy.
 
So if I were to have asked you—why did the religious leaders want Jesus crucified? Well, some of us might have said it was because they thought He was claiming to be one with God and was violating all of their religious rules, etc. but the fact is they wanted Him dead because of their “envy & jealousy.”
 
This word “envy’ is also used to describe the envy that motivated Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery (Acts 7:9) and the jealousy that drove the Jews to gather a mob and attack a Christian’s home in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5).  
 
So while in both of these examples we might have just seen the sin of Joseph’s brothers harming & betraying him and the anger & hatred of the Jews gathering that mob to attack that believer’s home, the underlying issue was envy & jealousy.
 
So my point is that sometimes we might see something that a person does, but totally miss the root cause of why they did it.
 
Now envy is one of those vices that we see a lot about in the Bible, yet most Christians don’t see it as their problem. In other words, you will not find many believers who will say, “You know, I really struggle with envy & jealousy.” And I don’t think that’s necessarily because they are not owning up to it; I think it’s really just because most are blind to it in themselves.
 
But here is the truth—if the Bible has so much to say about things like envy & jealousy, that’s because it is much more of a problem in the Body of Christ than we might think. For example, both envy & jealousy are listed in Paul’s “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21. God even saw fit to include this in His Ten Commandments when He commanded His people to not covet what was his neighbor’s. These are just a couple of examples, but my point is that it is threaded throughout the pages of our Bibles.
 
For example, in both Psalms & Proverbs, notice how many times the Holy Spirit speaks about God’s people not envying the world:

• Psalm 73:3 – For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
• Psalm 37:1 – Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
• Proverbs 23:17 – Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day;
• Proverbs 24:1 – Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them;
• Proverbs 24:19 – Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked;

 
That’s a lot of instruction devoted to a people who don’t struggle with envy, isn’t it? But no, it must be more of an issue than most people think it is for it to be repeated throughout the Scriptures.  
 
But here is the main problem with envy—it’s that it’s not what love does. Again, the apostle Paul said, “love does not envy.” That means to envy is not to love because if you are jealous of what is your neighbor’s, then how are you loving your neighbor as you do yourself? No, if you envy what they have, you are just loving yourself. 
 
Now regarding envying what is our neighbor’s, let me remind you that Paul taught us that the commandments are fulfilled in this one word—the royal law of loving our neighbor as we do ourselves (See Romans 13:8-10). So when we fulfill this command to love one another, we fulfill the law because we won’t murder our brother, we won’t steal from our brother, and we also won’t covet what our brother has. Therefore, love will not envy because why would love desire to have what was someone else’s. Again, that is selfish & self-centered. Love will desire to give to someone what we have, not take from them what they have.
 
Church, true love—God’s love—rejoices when others are blessed. There is no room for envy. 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 ones it loves.
 
But we also need to understand that envy does not just cause one to do evil & wicked things; it can also cause someone to do things that everyone would think were good & noble.
 
For example, in James 3:13-18, we have an interesting section of verses that show that there were people in James’ church who seemed to be wise & have understanding. Heck, they were probably the supposed teachers and the leaders of this church!
 
And Pastor James describes their underlying motivation in verse 14—it was “bitter envy” and “self-seeking” in their hearts. And it was that envy & selfishness that was creating all the confusion and the evil works that were going on there (See verse 16).
 
In Philippians 1:15, the apostle Paul described how there was a faction of people who were actually “preaching Christ” from “envy and strife” and others who were preaching Him from “goodwill”—showing us again that even in one of the most noble things that a Christian can do – tell people about Jesus – it can be done from a bad motive.
 
So we need to be aware that this little fox that likes to spoil our vines can produce in us both good & bad things. But the underlying motive is what is important.    
 
GOD DOES NOT ENVY BUT HE CAN BE JEALOUS
 
But our point here today is that if love does not envy, then that means that God does not envy.
 
Now this one might be a little easier for us to swallow because certainly God has no reason to be envious of anything we have, for all that we have was given to us by Him to begin with. But we need to consider another description of this word “envy.” It also describes a desire to deprive someone of something they have. In other words, envy not only wants to possess something someone else possesses; envy also wants to deprive the one they are taking from.
 
But God is not like that, is He? No, He desires to add to us, not take away from us. Many like to quote verses like “He gives and He takes away” but that is not completely true. Although Job said that, when he said it, he did not have the understanding that Satan was the one who came to steal, kill, and destroy from him. Again, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy from our lives but love has come to add to our lives—and that more abundantly (see John 10:10)!
 
So God’s nature, which is love, does the opposite of what envy does. While envy desires to take from others what they have, God desires to give to others and add to what they have.
 
I’ll tell you—you’ll never find a bigger giver than God! I can give you Scripture after Scripture that talks about how His will is to bless you and I exceedingly, abundantly, above all we could ask or even think. Yes, pressed down, shaken together, and running over does He desire to add to us!
 
One that proves this is found in Second Corinthians 9:7 where it describes how God loves a cheerful giver. Why do you suppose this is? It’s because the saint who is a cheerful giver is imitating Him! God is the cheerful giver!
 
In fact, this is why there are so many Scriptures in the Bible that talk about us giving. It’s because God is wanting us to emulate Him by being givers the way that He has given to us! Amen! So God is certainly not in the business of envying because He does the exact opposite. He’s too preoccupied with giving to us!
 
But just as God does not envy (in the bad sense), there are other verses that teach us how God does operate in the good kind of envy & jealousy. You might say, “I didn’t know there is a good kind of jealousy & envy.” Well, there actually is.
 
Like I said earlier, the Greek word translated “envy” means “to burn with zeal.” And while this certainly describes the kind of burning with zeal for what others have (thus, envy), there is a good and even encouraged kind of burning zeal to possess good things that God said are for us. In other words, in the good sense, zeloo describes being zealous in the pursuit of good. So just as this word means to be zealous to obtain something another person has in a wrong way, it can also mean to be zealous for something good that God says we can have.
 
We see it used this way in Galatians 4:17-18 when the apostle Paul said, “They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you.”
 
The phrase “They zealously court” comes from this Greek word zeloo which, like I said, has both a positive and negative connotation. It is positive in the sense that it describes “earnestly desiring” the gifts of the Spirit (First Corinthians 12:31, 14:1 & 14:39). When Paul (back in Galatians 4) went on to say, “but for no good,” he was not insinuating that being “zealously courted” was wrong. Good godly leaders should show a love, desire, and affection towards the ones they are leading, just not for the wrong reasons. And Paul says here that the Judaizers were operating with “no good” motives. And as he goes on to say, it was so that they could “exclude” them—which means to shut or lock them out for themselves. And here was their motivation— “that you may be zealous for them.”
 
Again, Paul uses this Greek word zeloo in the negative sense because he exposes these Judaizers motivation for zealously courting these Galatians. They did it all because they wanted themselves to be the object of the Galatians’ affections. Yes, they wanted the Galatian believers to look up to them and envy what they had and were not willing to share this with the apostle Paul. 
 
But as Paul goes on to say in the next verse— “But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always.” Again, Paul was not saying that being zealous was a bad thing. On the contrary, he says here being zealous is a good thing, as long it is being “fervent, passionate, on-fire, and dedicated” (synonyms for “zealous) about good things. In fact, he goes on to say that we ought to “always” be this way about the things of God (i.e., good). 
 
So here is the point I want to leave you with today— If it is always good to be “zealous” in a good thing, then how does God do this? 
 
Well, if your heart is open to see it, you can see how His heart burns with passion for us! Yes, like a person’s heart can burn with a desire to gain something that someone else has, God’s heart is to gain us! This is the love story of God’s kingdom!
 
Like I said a moment ago, in First Corinthians 12:31, 14:1, and 14:39, we see this same word used to translate “envy” in a positive sense when Paul uses it to describe how we are to “earnestly desire” and “covet” spiritual gifts.
 
Now it is obvious that this is not describing “envy” in a bad way. No, these spiritual gifts are not things that someone else possesses and are not for us. They are obviously things that the Lord has made available to any and all who are willing to go after them. Therefore, with that same burning heartfelt desire for something that is off-limits, we are actually encouraged to “covet” the best spiritual gifts! That means that we are to earnestly desire them at all costs and do whatever we have to in order to get them in our lives!  
 
I wonder if God has ever “earnestly desired” something like that? I believe He has—and that is YOU!
 
In Second Corinthians 11:2, notice how Paul described that he was “jealous” for the Corinthian church with a “godly jealousy.” That means that while there is certainly an ungodly jealousy, there is also a godly jealously—meaning, it’s a jealousy that God possesses.
 
Of course, we know that this isn’t a sinful type of jealousy—for God is incapable of sinning. So what this does teach us is that God is a jealous God when it comes to certain things.
 
We see this in Exodus 20:4-5 when God, in giving the children of Israel the Ten Commandments, said, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God …”
 
Now it is important to realize what God was saying here: It was not that He is a glory-hog and can’t handle not being given all the attention, etc. No, it’s more like a marriage relationship: If a man and a woman are joined together, it is totally reasonable for either spouse to have zero tolerance for the other being unfaithful to them or even looking at another man or woman, right? This is more of what God was meaning when He described Himself as a “jealous God.”
 
You see, we have a great example of this in the New Testament, where in James 4:5 we see it revealed that the Holy Spirit yearns for something like this: In this verse, the Word says, “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?”  This is preceded by verse 4 that calls us “Adulteresses” if we make ourselves friends with the world. That is because we are “married” to God and when we try and have a relationship with our ex-husband, the world, we are being unfaithful to our current mate. The Holy Spirit represents that current mate here and the Word says that He “yearns jealously”.
 
A good paraphrase of this verse is “The Spirit that has come to settle down, make His home and permanently dwell in us, is bent with an all-consuming, ever-growing, excessive, passionate desire to possess us totally, and is envious and filled with jealousy toward anything or anyone who tries to take His place.” Ephesians 4:30 portrays this same picture. It says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The word “grieve” is the Greek word lupete. It is used to denote the emotions of a betrayed spouse, such as, being hurt, wounded, betrayed, misled, lied to, and abused. He is our spouse and partner, and He hurts when we are unfaithful.
 
But again, this is not that unhealthy form of jealousy that is only thinking about itself. No, whatever this “yearning jealously” for us by God’s Spirit is, we know it has to be done in love, because the Holy Spirit is God and God is love. Therefore, it’s not our own perverted form of jealousy that’s ultimately just love for ourselves. No, this jealousy is a healthy kind that is motivated by love for the one that this jealousy is aimed towards.
 
CONCLUSION
 
Church, in this world we live in, people envy those who possess things like silver, gold, and precious stones. Yes, they covet these things that the world says are valuable. But the truth is—the only thing of great value on this earth is the souls of men. That’s what God so loved the world enough to send His only begotten Son to redeem. Yes, we are the pearls of great price! Yes, we are the treasure hidden in this field! And that’s what God is jealous for. That’s what He earnestly desires to possess! It’s you. It’s me. It’s every human being on this planet, fully & completely.
 
So, what we must learn to do is to give Him everything. Yes, that means going into this lost and dying world and bringing people out of darkness and into the light. But it also means us giving our own selves completely over to Him—which is exactly what James was talking about in James 4:5.
 
So, while love certainly does not envy, love possesses a healthy kind of jealousy towards the ones He created in His likeness & image. He desires to own us completely and is unwilling to share us with the enemy and this world.
 
Hear the heart of the One that inspired the apostle Paul to utter these words today, the precious Holy Spirit, when he said in Second Corinthians 11:2 that he was “jealous for them with a godly jealousy.” This means that there is a jealousy that comes from God and that is the jealousy that a husband has for his wife to where he’s unwilling to share her with another man. That’s the way the Holy Spirit feels towards you today. He wants you as His own—because that’s what love does!
 
Church, while God certainly does not envy, He is jealous—and that’s because He loves you so much, He doesn’t want to share you with anything or anyone else. Amen.

REVIEW
 
In our series, “Imitators of Love”, we are looking at God’s true nature, but not in the traditional way. We are not looking at the verses that specifically teach us about His divine characteristics, but are looking at the ones that instruct us how to treat one another. In so doing, we are learning that if God tells us to love our brothers & sisters and even our enemies in a certain way, then that must be how Love Himself will love us. In other words, we are looking at the things He tells us to do and learning more about His loving nature because He wouldn’t instruct us to do something that He is not willing to do. 
 
Our keynote passage of Scripture that we are basing this teaching on is Ephesians 5:1-2 where the apostle Paul instructs us to imitate God as dear children. So, yes, being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him and for Him.
 
So we spent several weeks looking at the verses that preceded Ephesians chapter 5 and learned how Paul got to this point of summarizing with this exhortation to imitate God—how God will not lie to us or steal from us, how He will speak to us in a certain way, and what His attitude is towards sin versus the sinner.
 
Then last week, we started looking at another section of Scriptures that has been traditionally used to teach us how we are to love one another – the great love chapter, First Corinthians chapter 13.
 
First Corinthians 13:4-8 teaches us how “love suffers long and is kind. (how) love does not envy; (how) love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (how it) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (how it) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (yes, how love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
 
I made the point that unfortunately, most of us have mainly only heard these verses expounded on at marriage ceremonies. I for one love how these verses are used in weddings because, how many of you know, a newly married couple needs to know that these are the things that love does and they will have every opportunity to practice all of these various characteristics of love in their marriage? But the sad thing is that these descriptions & characteristics of love are not just for a married couple. No, they are applicable to every Christian for any & all relationships.
 
But what we are doing is turning this around and teaching these verses from the same perspective that we have been—how because God is love, that these characteristics of love teach us the very characteristics of God Himself. So I encourage you that as we go through these verses, read them as so: “God suffers long and is kind, He does not envy, God does not parade Himself, He is not puffed up; God does not behave rudely, He does not seek His own, He is not provoked, He thinks no evil; God does not rejoice in iniquity, but He rejoices in the truth; God bears all things, He believes all things, He hopes all things, He endures all things; God never fails …” 
 
So, last week, we looked at Paul’s first description of love—that it “suffers long.” So, at the forefront of all of Love’s characteristics, we see that God is “longsuffering” (you might also say, “patient.”)—meaning that longsuffering with people is one of the most telling signs of where one’s love is.
 
We learned that this phrase from First Corinthians 13:4 (“suffers long”) come from the Greek word makrothumia and comes from two words. The prefix is makros, which simply means “long”, and the other word is thumos, which describes “passionate anger or wrath.” So, when you combine these two words together, you see a person described that takes a “long” time to get “mad,” or you could say they are slow to anger.
 
But again, we are not just looking at how we are to be longsuffering ourselves; we can read this verse as God suffers long with us because of His great love for us. So we looked at several verses that describe to us God’s divine longsuffering:
 
We looked at the apostle Peter’s letters, understanding that Simon Peter was certainly a man who understood about the patience & longsuffering of God.
 
In First Peter 3:20, we saw how Peter describes that it was “divine longsuffering” (i.e., God’s patience) that had Him wait in the days of Noah before bringing the flood on the earth—which we learned that sometimes we make the mistake of seeing God as quickly judging the world during the days of Noah, but while we might read about this event in one chapter of the Bible, the entire timetable that led up to this was much longer than it seems by just reading Moses’ account of it. And I can assure you that this was a several hundred years at the bare minimum from the time God pulled the trigger to flood the earth and the time it started to rain.
 
And we also learned in Second Peter 3:9 that Peter talked about how this same longsuffering is on display even with us today: He said, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” The apostle Peter goes on, in this chapter, to describe this “longsuffering” of God as the grace & mercy He gives us until His Second Coming. So, like it was in the days of Noah, the human race is still here, and the Judgment has been staved off because our God suffers long!
 
Isn’t the Lord described in the Scriptures as being “slow to anger”? In fact, I counted that, in the Old Testament alone, there are at least nine times that He is described this way. That’s a lot, church! And we learned that this is not our version of doing something slowly either. For instance, in the Book of Revelation, Jesus said, “Behold I am coming quickly!” right? Now He said that how long ago? Around 2,000 years, right? So, if 2,000-plus years is God doing something “quickly,” what is Him doing something “slowly”? Selah.
 
Yes, God in His longsuffering has given each of us much more grace & mercy than we can comprehend. The fact is, if it were not for this “divine longsuffering,” many of us would not even still be here. The very fact that you and I are able to gather together today is proof of God’s patience. He has certainly suffered long with each and every one of us. Amen? He is incredibly slow to anger, and He is certainly longsuffering.
 
LOVE IS KIND
 
But looking back over at First Corinthians 13:4, I want you to notice that the apostle Paul does not just say that love suffers long; he says that love suffers long and is kind.
 
How many of you know that it’s one thing to suffer long or be patient with others, but it’s a whole other ballgame to be kind while you’re doing it? In other words, someone might appear to be longsuffering on the outside, but on the inside, they have the wrong attitude while they are waiting. Let me give you an example of this— say someone is putting up with or tolerating another person’s tardiness. In other words, they are showing no signs that they are bothered by the person being late. However, they are fuming on the inside while they are waiting on them. Sound like anyone we know? Don’t look at your spouse😊
 
So, based on this, I see “kindness” as more of the attitude by which we do things for people. Sure, kindnesses are physical acts and things we do, but its more of an act of the heart that God is looking for. This is why as we saw in the first few verses of First Corinthians chapter 13, Paul was letting us know that even the most noble behaviors like prophesying into someone’s life, having faith that moves mountains, or even giving all of our goods to feed the poor mean nothing if they are not done motivated by love. Therefore, being patient with others has no real value if I don’t have a kind attitude while doing it. Amen?  
 
So let’s delve a little deeper into this virtue called “kindness.” In fact, it’s not just a virtue; like the fruit of longsuffering, the apostle Paul said this was one of the nine fruit of the Spirit.
 
You see, in Galatians 5:22-23, we have two fruit of the Spirit “sandwiched” right in the middle that are generally not given as much attention to—these are the fruits of kindness & goodness.
 
SISTER FRUITS
 
What is the difference between these two fruit of the Spirit? I mean, they sound similar, don’t they? Well, they are strikingly similar, but there must be a difference if the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to mention them both as two distinct fruit of the Spirit, right?
 
Like I said, I see “kindness” as more of the attitude by which we do things for people. “Goodness,” on the other hand, is what I believe to be the action accompanying the right attitude that we possess. But my point is that these two fruit of the Spirit work hand in hand. We might describe them as sister fruits, seeing how closely related they are. For example, some of you might describe the fruit of kindness in the exact opposite way—as the action itself and not the attitude—and the fruit of goodness as the inherent quality of a person.
 
But here is what we must agree on: that both kindness and goodness are to be produced in our lives seeing as they are fruit of the Spirit. In other words, Paul is describing two virtues that we can see evidence of in one’s life and are not just what a person is versus what they do. No, every believer is called to both be kind and do kind things, to be good and do good things. And do you know why? It is because like it is with all nine of these fruit of the Spirit, these are not just virtues that God picked out as being good ideas for us to produce. No! They are fruit of the Spirit—meaning, they are fruit of who He is and what He Himself does! Amen! In other words, God has called His children to produce His very own fruit—that is, His will is for us to be just like Him! Sound familiar?
 
Yes, love is the first fruit listed because this is the core nature of God Himself. Therefore, our call to produce the fruit of love is to simply replicate God’s nature of love. Even the fruits of joy & peace are a part of the nature of God. Did you know He is called the “Happy God”? Yes, God rejoices and is the possessor of all joy. Not only that, but He is called the God of Peace, the Prince of Peace is He! Next, we see the fruit of longsuffering—which we learned last week is a big part of His nature as well.
 
Well, just as these first four fruit are fruits of God’s character, the next two are as well: God is absolute goodness, and He is total kindness!
 
Let’s look a little at how “goodness” is a big part of who our God is:
 
GOD IS GOOD AND DOES GOOD
 
Now our Lord and Savior Jesus walked in the light and bore this fruit of goodness as well, did He not? We are told in Acts 10:38 that He went about “doing good” and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Sure, Jesus performed miracles and healed thousands of people during His earthly ministry, but what people don’t talk about as much is all the good that He did aside from those spectacular things. Yes, Jesus bore an abundance of goodness in His life and ministry along with the healings and miracles He performed.
 
You see, over and over, the Scriptures speak to us about the fact that God is good, and He does good (Psalm 119:68). And these verses not only tell us He’s good, but some of them show us how He is good. Let’s look at a couple of them in order to learn how we ourselves can walk in His goodness towards others:
 
Psalm 34:8-10 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
 
When the Holy Spirit begins in verse 8 by inviting us to taste and see the Lord’s goodness, I can’t help but think of this fruit of the Spirit. And this fruit of His goodness can be both tasted and beheld. In verses 9-10, we see what His goodness produces— “no want, lack, or suffering hunger.”
 
Let’s now look at the 84th Psalm: Psalm 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” 
 
You see, our good God is described here as a “sun,” and there are not many other physical things that we’ve been given that illustrate God’s goodness more than the sun. James 1:17 describes Him as the Father of lights that gives us every good and perfect gift. So, the sun itself is one of those good and perfect gifts. All we would need to become acutely aware of how good God has been to the human race is have that sun in the heavens burn out. Life would not be good, I can assure you.
 
Not only is God our sun, but he is also our “shield.” That describes Him as our protector. Oh, how much each of us have been spared from!?!
 
But notice what He is said to give—grace and glory. Church, in His goodness, He shares His glory with me. You could say, in His glory, He shares His goodness with me! That’s right! No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly! And what are these good things? Things that benefit and bless you and I. All of His grace and glory work on our behalf to meet our every need. Oh my glory!
 
So, all of these Scriptures that illustrate to us God’s goodness teach us that the Lord is the giver of good things—and only things that benefit and never anything that steals, kills or destroys (John 10:10). No, God only gives “good” and perfect gifts, and He does not deviate from doing that very thing. Pastor James told us to not be deceived in this truth. (See James 1:16-17).
 
May it be so with us, church, that as it is with the Lord, those around us will be able to both taste and see the fruit of goodness in our lives! Amen! 
 
THE RICHES OF HIS KINDNESS
 
Now while we certainly see a lot about the goodness of God in the Bible, we don’t see a tremendous amount about God’s kindness. Or do we? Although we might be dealing with a matter of semantics when we attempt to differentiate between goodness & kindness, I think there is a lot more mentioned about God being kind in the Scriptures than we realize.   
 
For one, we saw how in First Corinthians 13:4 that love is kind. So if God is love, then that Scripture is clearly revealing to us that God is kind. Therefore, as we saw earlier, God is not only longsuffering with us, but He is also kind in the midst of it! In other words, He will still pour out His kindness in our lives while He is waiting for us to repent of our mistakes. What an awesome God we serve!
 
You see, even the “select elect” out there who actually believe God is patient and longsuffering have a hard time believing that God remains kind in the midst of our continual stumbling. They think that He is longsuffering, but He is tapping His foot in the midst of it. But no! God changes not! Therefore, He is still doing good and being kind even while He is waiting on us to live up to our potential. Isn’t that amazing!?!
 
In fact, the Lord Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that you are to “love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.” Why? “For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” (See Luke 6:35-36). Do you see how the idea of imitating of God is taught here by our Lord? And what is it that we are imitating? Yes, His mercy, but also His kindness. Amen!
 
So let me ask you this—if God shows such great kindness to His enemies, to those are unthankful and not reciprocating in any way, to those who are evil even, then how much more will He be kind to His own children? Selah and selah!
 
Church, the apostle Paul taught us that it is going to take all of eternity to reveal to us all the riches of God’s kindness towards us (See Ephesians 2:7). This entails everything from our initial salvation to all the other ways that He has shown forth His kindness towards us in our walk with Him.
 
Regarding the kindness shown to us at salvation, Titus 3:4 says that it was the kindness of God our Savior that saved us. We also see in First Peter 2:3 where after the apostle Peter encouraged us as newborn babes to desire pure spiritual milk that we may grow up in our salvation, that he said, “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” The word “gracious” here is the same word as “kind” elsewhere. So the ‘kindness” of God is meant to be experienced all throughout our Christian lives! I mean, how many times in the Scriptures are we made aware of the “lovingkindness” of our God?
 
Finally, look over at Romans 11:22 with me. In this verse, we see something very important about the kindness of God … In it, Paul said, “Considering both the kindness and the severity of God …”
 
Church, I think most of us have only considered the severity side of God and not the kind side of God. In other words, far too many Christians have been trained to be hyper aware of God’s wrath, His anger towards sin, in an attempt to instill the fear of God in His people. And there is certainly a place for this, but what about the kindness side of God? Have we become as conscious of that as we are of His severe side? Sadly, most Christians have not.
 
Church, we need to become more aware of this One of a KIND God. We need to consider that side of Him and let His goodness & kindness impact our hearts to the extent that it impacts our lives, and we start replicating His goodness & kindness. Yes, let’s begin to behold how good He is and how kind He is so that those fruits of the Spirit will start being produced in our lives. Amen? 

REVIEW
 
So recently, we have been on a series which I’ve entitled “Imitators of Love” where we are learning the true nature of Love Himself. In it, we are looking at the way God instructs us to treat one another being the way He treats each of us. Therefore, we can look at the things He tells us to do and learn more about His loving nature because He wouldn’t instruct us to do something that He is not willing to do. 
 
We are basing this teaching on Ephesians 5:1-2 where the bullseye of Christianity is us imitating God as His dear children. Yes, being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him and for Him.
 
We learned that this word “imitators” describes someone who “mimics, copies, or follows after” someone else. We saw how in the original King James Version, this word is used seven times and is always translated as “follower(s).” So what we are doing is mimicking, copying, and following after God’s example when we love others, do good, show mercy, forgive, etc.
 
We see how in verse 2, the apostle Paul used Jesus as the example of following after God—as He is the perfect example of God’s true nature. And we looked at how Jesus, the original “dear child” of God, was certainly all about His Father’s business in that He went about doing good and reflecting our Heavenly Father in both word & deed. In other words, as Jesus’ life reveals how God desires to do things, He is the best example we have for imitating God.
 
So what we have been doing over the past few weeks is we’ve been looking back at the last several verses in Ephesians chapter 4 and saw how Paul got to this point of summarizing with this exhortation to imitate God.

1. We saw how Paul’s instruction in verse 25 to not lie to one another is because God cannot and will not lie to us. Also, as we are told to speak the truth with our neighbor because this is exactly what He does. Yes, all of what God says to us is true and He will by no means ever lie to us.   
2. We saw how in verses 26-27, God certainly has the capacity of anger, but His wrath is aimed at Satan, sin, and the other things that destroy us. So essentially God loves the sinner while He hates the sin.
3. We then saw in verse 28 that God does not steal but lives to give—meaning, He is not the one who is the thief. That’s the devil. God is the giver of life and the One who adds to us, not takes things from us.
4. And most recently, we looked at verses 29-30 that teach us that God’s Word and His Spirit are not what many think they are. No, His Words do not corrupt; they build up! His Spirit does not condemn; He justifies! This is why we could call the Word of God, the Word of Love, and the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Love. The Spirit of God and the Word of God always agree! And what they specifically agree on is to communicate things to us that preserve us, that build us & edify us, and that add to us! This is always what God’s written Word and His Holy Spirit will communicate to us.

 
LOVE IS THIS!
 
Now this week, like we have been doing with these verses in Ephesians chapter 4, I would like us to begin looking at another section of Scriptures that has been traditionally used to teach us how we are to love one another – the great love chapter, First Corinthians chapter 13. Let’s look at these verses …
 
First Corinthians 13:4-8 teaches us how “love suffers long and is kind. (how) love does not envy; (how) love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (how it) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (how it) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (yes, how love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
 
Unfortunately, most of us have mainly only heard these verses expounded on at marriage ceremonies. I for one love how these verses are used in weddings because, how many of you know, a newly married couple needs to know that these are the things that love does and they will have every opportunity to practice all of these various characteristics of love in their marriage? But the sad thing is that these descriptions & characteristics of love are not just for a married couple. No, they are applicable to every Christian for any & all relationships.
 
But again, I want us to turn this around and teach these verses from the same perspective that we have been, in order to teach us the very characteristics of God Himself.
 
Again, do the Scriptures not say that God is love (See First John 4:8)? This means that in all of these characteristics where we are told love is this and love is that, we could actually substitute God for the word love. So I encourage you that as we go through these verses, read them as so: “God suffers long and is kind, He does not envy, God does not parade Himself, He is not puffed up; God does not behave rudely, He does not seek His own, He is not provoked, He thinks no evil; God does not rejoice in iniquity, but He rejoices in the truth; God bears all things, He believes all things, He hopes all things, He endures all things; God never fails …” 
 
Yes, these verses give us a clear description of the Lord’s character and reveal to us who He truly is. So let’s go through these characteristics one by one and learn about the loving and caring nature of our heavenly Father and what it is that we are imitating …
 
WHAT IS LONGSUFFERING?
 
Now the very first thing that we see love Himself being described as is the One who “suffers long.” So, at the forefront of all of Love’s characteristics, we see that God is “longsuffering” (you might also say, “patient.”)  
 
Now I see “suffering long” with others as one of the most telling signs of where our love is. In other words, if we want to “take our temperature” to see what level of love we are at, then we need look no further than our patience and longsuffering with others. I understand that this might be hard to swallow because for so many of us, our fuse might be very short when it comes to dealing with people who test every ounce of our patience, but the fact is, “love suffers long.” Yes, love is patient and will continue to be patient with others.
 
Now this certainly does not mean that if we are truly walking in love, we will have to endure any and every circumstance or people indefinitely. No, sometimes wisdom will dictate the time to remove ourselves from situations and to get out of certain relationships. So I say this to say, don’t think that you’re not walking in love because you do not continue to suffer through the situation & remove yourself from it. Sometimes that is necessary, and wisdom will show you when that time is. But what I would do is I’d suggest asking yourself in those times, am I looking to get out of this because I’m just tired of going through it or because the Lord is actually leading me to move on? Just objectively look for the love, and you won’t be led astray.  
 
But the fact is one of the major reasons that most people don’t “suffer long” with others is because they love themselves more than they love others. Therefore, we don’t allow ourselves to suffer very long because the “me” part of me doesn’t like suffering and certainly isn’t willing to suffer very long. Amen or Oh me?
 
Now the phrase “suffers long” here in First Corinthians 13:4 comes from the same Greek word that is used for the fruit of the Spirit called “longsuffering.” You might be more familiar with some translations that use the word “patience” to describe this fruit, but I personally like “longsuffering” better and let me explain why …
 
For one, the Greek word Paul used here in Galatians 5:22 (Greek makrothumia) is translated “longsuffering” many more times than it is patience. But the main reason I like the translation “longsuffering” better as it pertains to this fruit of the Spirit is because when you do a word study of “patience” and “longsuffering,” what you find is interesting …
 
You see, most of the time that this word for “longsuffering” is used, it is used in connection with someone being patient with another person. However, with the word for “patience” (oftentimes the translation of the word hupomeno), it is often used in connection with being patient in circumstances. Therefore, I believe that the difference between these two Greek terms is that one (the one that is listed as a fruit of the Spirit, mind you) is patience in regard to people (i.e., makrothumia) and the other (i.e., hupomeno) is enduring circumstances.  In other words, I think it is safe to assume that there is a patience that is used with people and that is called “longsuffering” and there is a patience that is used with circumstances and that is called “endurance.”
 
However, while longsuffering is certainly similar in nature to patience, the primary difference between these two virtues is that longsuffering keeps one from anger, wrath, etc. and patience keeps one from moving when the pressure is put on (Greek hupomeno— “staying under power”). So, longsuffering is not moved by negative emotions while patience is not moved by negative circumstances.   
 
Now is it incorrect to say that we can be patient with people? Certainly not! But since there are different words that were used in those days to describe how one patiently endures both people and things, I believe it is important for us to have different terms in order to make a distinction. However, based on the verbiage we use in our culture today, a better translation might be “patience” because the term “longsuffering” is not a commonly used word today. 
 
But this is where it gets interesting: As I stated already, both the fruit of the Spirit which we call “longsuffering” and this phrase from First Corinthians 13:4 (“suffers long”) come from the Greek word makrothumia and comes from two words. The prefix is makros, which simply means “long”, and the other word is thumos, which describes “passionate anger or wrath.” So, when you combine these two words together, you see a person described that takes a “long” time to get “mad,” or you could say they are slow to anger.
 
When it comes to makrothumia, I like to use the analogy of a stick of dynamite. But not just any ordinary stick of dynamite, but one that has a tremendously long fuse (i.e., that string that one lights on fire to ignite the dynamite). So, because its fuse is so long, you can “burn” it for a long time before it will ever “explode” on you. Therefore, the believer who is producing this virtue in his or her life is extremely “patient & forbearing” with others.
 
We see this described in Ephesians 4:2 when Paul says, “with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” In other words, it is with longsuffering that we bear with one another in love. So, the fruit of longsuffering enables one to bear with others because of their love for them. You see, the lack of being able to “bear” it, is a lack of longsuffering. But again, it is not bearing with them with gritted teeth; it is bearing with them in love.
 
CULTIVATING LONGSUFFERING
 
Now as we look at longsuffering, it’s important that we realize that in our flesh, we are limited in how long our fuse will be. But since it is a fruit of love and of His Spirit, then that means that it comes from God and enables us to do what we never could have done on our own. No, it, like all of the fruit of the Spirit, comes from the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life.
 
While there are certainly some things that we can do to help us become more patient with others, such as a changed perspective and a renewed focus, the fact is that if we are going to produce the fruit of God’s longsuffering, we are going to need the Lord’s help to do it.
 
In fact, in Colossians chapter one, Paul was praying for this church and said that he desired that they be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” (Colossians 1:11). In other words, this prayer was for the supernatural strength and power of God to be poured into a believer’s life which would enable them “for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” So, if you and I are going to produce all of the patience (for every difficult circumstance) and all of the longsuffering (for every difficult person), then we are going to need God’s strength to do it—particularly, in order to be joyful while enduring.
 
So, yes, it is going to take the Holy Spirit’s help in us producing this fruit to the degree that we ought. However, like I said, there is still a part we have to play in producing this fruit. Yes, in order to wear the fruit of longsuffering in my life, it is going to take a certain attitude and mentality. So, let me give you something that will help one to have the proper mindset to wearing this particular fruit: 
 
In Matthew chapter 18, we see in Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, how the servant goes from asking his master to be longsuffering with him to then hearing his brother pleading the same from him and showing no patience with him (See Matthew 18:26&29).
 
What we can gather from this is that one of the reasons we don’t “suffer long” with others is because we are not being mindful to how “longsuffering” God has been with us. Therefore, it helps me to cultivate the ground of my heart for this fruit by consciously remembering how patient the Lord has been with me and the great debt He has dismissed in my own personal life.
 
The apostle Paul understood this well: In First Timothy 1:16, he described his life & ministry as showing all of God’s longsuffering in order to teach all who would turn to Christ after him how longsuffering God will be with them. In other words, God’s own longsuffering in his life propelled Paul into a state of being longsuffering himself (Compare Second Timothy 3:10).     
 
So, both being the receiver of God’s patience and living in the awareness of how much He has suffered long with us is a key to cultivating the ground of our heart. Which leads me to the main point of what the Holy Spirit wants us to see today …
 
DIVINE LONGSUFFERING
 
So we are not just talking about how we to imitate God’s longsuffering ourselves, but how He Himself is the epitome of longsuffering …
 
We see this mention of God’s longsuffering a lot in Peter’s letters. And why do you suppose that might be? I bet it was because Peter was a man who was in desperate need of this longsuffering nature of God, and he knew he had received a lot of God’s patience. Amen? How many other “Peters” do we have out there?
 
In First Peter 3:20, he describes how it was “divine longsuffering” (i.e., God’s patience) that had Him wait in the days of Noah before bringing the flood on the earth.
 
Now I think sometimes we make the mistake of seeing God as quickly judging the world during the days of Noah, but I want you to understand that while we might read about this event in one chapter of the Bible, the entire timetable that led up to this was much longer than it seems by just reading Moses’ account of it.
 
You see, we do not know how long it had taken to get this bad on the earth before God even called Noah to build the ark. I’d assume it was hundreds of years of wickedness before the Lord made the final decision to flood the earth. Not only that, but the Lord even gave them an additional 120 years (the amount of time that most believe it took Noah to build the ark) before judging the world. In this “long” period of time, we are also told that Noah was preaching the truth.
 
So, in the flood, where God judged the world for the wickedness in it, God certainly waited for hundreds of years, showing great longsuffering in doing what needed to be done.    
 
And in Second Peter 3:9, the apostle of hope talked about how this same longsuffering is on display with us today: He said, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
 
The apostle Peter goes on, in this chapter, to describe this “longsuffering” of God as the grace & mercy He gives us until His Second Coming. So, like it was in the days of Noah, the human race is still here, and the Judgment has been staved off because our God suffers long!
 
We are familiar with a lot of this in our nation, aren’t we? It is clear that we are living in a world that is getting more perverse and twisted than we’ve seen it in our lifetime. And I’ve even heard many Christians question why this world continues to exist, and desire to leave this lost & perverse generation. But do you know things continue in this direction with God seemingly doing nothing to stop it? It’s because as Peter teaches us here, God is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
 
You see, those who are ready for the end to come are missing a very important point. And that is, that there are currently billions of lost people on this planet that Jesus came to die for. So, if Jesus were to return today, then all of those lost people will be condemned. Therefore, if we love people more than we hate the way the world is going, we too will pray for God’s longsuffering and patience on this world. 
 
Isn’t the Lord described in the Scriptures as being “slow to anger”? In fact, I counted that, in the Old Testament alone, there are at least nine times that He is described this way. That’s a lot, church!
 
And this is not our version of doing something slowly either. For instance, in the Book of Revelation, Jesus said, “Behold I am coming quickly!” right? Now He said that how long ago? Around 2,000 years, right? So, if 2,000-plus years is God doing something “quickly,” what is Him doing something “slowly”? Selah.
 
Yes, God in His longsuffering has given each of us much more grace & mercy than we can comprehend. The fact is, if it were not for this “divine longsuffering,” many of us would not even still be here. The very fact that you and I are able to gather together today is proof of God’s patience. He has certainly suffered long with each and every one of us. Amen? He is incredibly slow to anger! 
 
Finally, Romans 2:4 also describes this “divine longsuffering” when Paul said, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
 
We see in this verse that things like God’s kindness, forbearance & longsuffering are the fruit of His goodness. And the point Paul was making right here was that when we bear this fruit, it leads others to change. Thus, the importance of bearing the fruit of longsuffering: it helps others change.
 
For example, Peter talked about how this is one of the ways a wife can win her husband to the Lord (see First Peter 3:1-2)—by the fruit she’s producing in her life. So, do you suppose if I bear the fruit of longsuffering in my life, it might help convert someone? I guarantee you it can—for it’s the manifestation of God’s goodness (in us and through us) that leads man to repentance.
 
But what about God’s longsuffering with us? What do you think happens if we behold it? I guarantee you that it too will change us—and to a much greater degree.
 
This is why I believe Paul was encouraging us not to “despise” the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering. It’s because if we don’t value things like God’s longsuffering, it won’t change us. Let’s let His longsuffering change us, church! Let’s behold the beauty of His patience with us and learn to “suffer long” with others ourselves!