1 Corinthians 13:4d love is not proud.

The King James version says “is not puffed up”. If you go to the Greek the word is physioō and the primary definition, its first use context is “to make natural, to cause a thing to pass into nature”.

We who have made Christ our Lord are a new creature, old things have passed away, all things become new. I don’t have to quote chapter and verse to you, you know this to be true. Our very nature has changed.

The imagery of puffed up in the Greek is of blowing, inflation, and in the spiritual sense to breathe life back into the old dead man we once were but are no more.

Romans 8:6-7 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

I used “love is not proud” as my opener because it is easier to understand and brings us into a state of remembrance that God resists the proud. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins. When we think of pride we think humility, the opposing force. We could literally say love is humble, but humility is not listed in the attributes of love, not directly anyway.

What I wanted to do here is to point out our new nature and humility is not an action but rather a character trait. You cannot act humble, you either are or you are not. Humility is a state of being.

1 Corinthians 13 teaches us how love acts but in this one case, love isn’t an act. Humility sets itself apart from acts of love in being our new nature. Humility isn’t an act.

1 Corinthians 13:4c love does not boast

“I went 14 for 14 last night and scored 31 points.”

“I had 21 rushes for 280 yards and scored 7 touchdowns in Saturday’s game.”

Boasting? Yes, but I seriously do not think that God cares one way or another about your accomplishments in the world. Here in 1 Corinthians 13 we are looking at how love acts and that in connection with spiritual issues and not worldly.

Drawing once again on my experiences of the past, a man came into a church I once attended and announced that he was a teacher with the expectation of being placed into the teaching rotation of that church. The leadership of the church withstood him and denied him access. He soon left and sought position elsewhere.

Why was he denied? Self-promotion indicates an agenda of servitude and not service.

Matthew 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

God promotes service. If you come into a church with a servant’s heart, you will be received and used of God. Then over time as your gifts and talents are seen in service, promotion will come to fill the greater needs of the congregation.

Acts 5:6 For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.

It is the responsibility of leadership to ensure this does not happen to the flock in their keeping. If you have gift and talents, use them and others will recognize them without you having to say a word.