The Qualities Of Love (Part 4) — Love Vaunteth Not Itself

Love vaunteth not itself (1 Corinthians 13:4d)

Love vaunteth not itself mean love does not brag or boast. Boasting is the other side of jealousy. Boasting has this sinful attitude of “I want you to know about me, and to make you jealous of me (instead of me being jealous of you).”

The Corinthian believers were trying to show off their spiritual gifts, and they wanted to draw attention to themselves. Therefore, they started to compare their spiritual gifts, and many of them desired to have the gift of tongue-speaking because of the misconception that it was one of the most “desirable” gifts. They did not care about fellowship, edification, peace and harmony within the church, for they only cared about themselves. They were boastful!

Can you imagine the sin of boasting happening in our church? For example, people boasting about their piano gradings, “I am grade eight. What about you? Only grade three or four?” Or people boasting about their creativity in flower arrangements, or their cooking skills in the refreshment teams, and they are always competing with one another.

Let us pause for a moment and consider this. Who is the Source of all our physical and spiritual blessings? God! We are not the Source but recipients of our gifts and talents. Why do we boast as if we are responsible for all the blessings we have? Whenever we are boastful, we forget who the source is. But worse than that, whenever we are boastful, and we receive the glory, we are robbing God of the glory that He deserves. Whatever be the thing we are boasting about; whether it is our wealth, academic achievements, secular accomplishments, spiritual gifts, families, marriages or children, we have to ask ourselves, “Why did God give these things to us?” He didn’t give those things to us, just for our sake. He gave them to us to bless and serve others, and ultimately to glorify Him.

Why do we want to serve in the church? Why do we want to preach and teach? Why do we want to sing in the choir? Why do we want to be musicians? Do we really care to edify and encourage the brethren? Or do we desire to build ourselves up so that people will praise and applaud us? That is not love! For love vaunteth not itself!

With love in Christ, Pastor Paul Cheng