Every Christmas churches around the world reenact the story of the birth of Jesus. Proud parents look on as little Johnny leads little Sally down the church aisle pretending to be Joseph to her Mary.

Year after year as the tradition plays itself out people are touched by the sweetness of this young couple, lost in an unfriendly Bethlehem. Congregants smile and maybe shed a nostalgic tear as the children/magi gather around the altar to bring homage to the Christ child and his mother.

In every portrayal I have seen Joseph is left off in the corner. No one is looking at him, not the shepherds, not the magi. Joseph’s job is done when he gets the girl to the stable. But what a job that had to be!

“Love is not rude.” I Cor. 13: 5

Now that may seem rather a violent segue to you: Christmas story… Joseph… “Love is not rude” On the surface they don’t seem to have a lot to do with each other. Just bear with me.

“Love is not rude” is actually, “love is not aschēmoneō.

      Here in 21st century America being rude means being impolite.

When your mother says, “Don’t be rude!”, she means “Stop burping at the table” or “Quit picking your nose in front of Aunt Rosie. She’ll never pay for those piano lessons you want so much.”

But in first century Corinth, When Paul wrote “Love is not rude.”, the word had a much different connotation. Rude to Paul was unseemly behavior that not only brought shame and reproach to you but to someone else as well.

Paul was saying, “Love does not engage in behavior that puts other people in a dishonorable light.”

In First Corinthians 7:36 Paul uses the word aschēmoneō  when he is explaining how an unmarried man should treat the girl he is betrothed to.

“If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, [fn] if his [fn] passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry–it is no sin.” I Cor. 7:36 ESV

Paul is teaching that a man needs to marry his fiancée if his passions are strong and that he should not bring disgrace upon her by behaving in inappropriate ways with her outside of marriage.

You see love cannot bring disgrace on other people because it considers not only the wants of others but the honor of others as well. It is not love when a young man takes his girlfriend to bed and ruins her reputation. It is not friendship when a buddy asks you to break the law so that you can join his gang. It is biblical rudeness.

Let’s  go back to Joseph. In the eyes of all Nazareth Joseph had the right to not only divorce Mary (even though they had not been officially married breaking of an engagement required a legal divorce in their culture) but to have her stoned to death. But Joseph was loving. He was not rude. He did not want to expose her to any dishonor if it could be avoided.

In the end and with a little prodding from God and His angels Joseph took away Mary’s dishonor and Jesus’ by becoming the earthly husband and father Heaven had appointed him to be.

Joseph was a man who protected the honor of his wife and the  child she bore. In that way he was not rude. In that way he loved greatly.

What are some of the ways you can preserve the honor of those you love? How do you keep yourself from being rude?

I hope you have enjoyed this study on love. What was the biggest life application for you?

      Many different kinds of power exert their force upon our universe: Electricity, wind, water, gravity, atomic fusion and fission, all move nature to their whims.

Sin also is a power exerting its force upon the universe. Now maybe you have never thought of sin like that before. Maybe you  are among the millions who consider it to be weakness, but the Bible doesn’t describe sin that way. The Word of God declares sin to be a slave master under which the whole creation groans in hopes of liberation (Romans 6-8). Sin is a power!

Love also is a power. But of all the powers in the universe it is the one which will survive and never fade away.

“Love never fails.” I Cor. 13:8 NIV

“ἡ ἀγάπη οὐδέποτε πίπτει”

“agapē oudepote piptō”

      ” Agape” is the Greek word we have been using for love.

“Oudepote” is the Greek word meaning never.

“Pipto” is this little word just chuck full of meaning. Are you ready?

1) to descend from a higher place to a lower

a) to fall (either from or upon)

1) to be thrust down

b) metaph. to fall under judgment, came under condemnation

2) to descend from an erect to a prostrate position

a) to fall down

“1) to be prostrated, fall prostrate

2) of those overcome by terror or astonishment or grief or under the attack of an evil spirit or of falling dead suddenly

3) the dismemberment of a corpse by decay

4) to prostrate one’s self

5) used of suppliants and persons rendering homage or worship to one

6) to fall out, fall from i.e. shall perish or be lost

7) to fall down, fall into ruin: of buildings, walls etc.

b) to be cast down from a state of prosperity

1) to fall from a state of uprightness

2) to perish, i.e come to an end, disappear, cease

a) of virtues

3) to lose authority, no longer have force

a) of sayings, precepts, etc.

4) to be removed from power by death

5) to fail of participating in, miss a share in” (Blueletterbible Lexicon)

As we finish this study on love I want you to grasp just how powerful this thing called love is. The Bible teaches us that all other powers will be undone. Electricity will become a thing of the past. Water power? Undone at the end of time when the universe is unmade. Wind can’t exist where there is no atmosphere. Nuclear fusion and fission will be completely subdued when the elements are melted with a “fervent heat” according to 2 Peter chapter 3. Even sin will be done away with when God breaks its power, as He undoes the works of his hands at the end of the thousand-year reign (Rev. 18-22). Yet through it all love will remain supreme exerting its force upon everything that God does.

According to I Corinthians 13:8 Love will never fall down from its high place of strength. It will never be diminished by anything in this world or the next. Love will never perish, come to an end, disappear or cease. It will never lose its authority or lose even one iota of its reconstructive force.

Why will love never cease? Because according to I John 4:8 “God is love”. God and love…love and God. They are unexplainably intertwined. You can no more do away with love than you can do away with God.

One last time, I am not talking about the poor imitations of love the world system we live in has offered up. I am talking about the I Corinthians 13 love we have been discussing all these long weeks. I am speaking about the love that looks to us like a ferocious lion waiting to gobble up all our selfishness and pettiness. I am talking about the love we have looked at in the Bible and declared before God “I cannot love like that!”.

This love is the one power among the many powers in the universe that will never fade! It is the greatest power, and Christian it is the power that lives inside of you if you have given your life to Jesus.

Let us stop saying “I cannot love like Jesus did.”

Let us realize that if Jesus is in our hearts then that love of His is already there. We have only to believe, receive, and act on that which we already possess!

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I Cor. 13:13 NKJV

A-men!!

I’m the guy who missed the football in gym class and ended up on his butt. I’m the one whose kite always got stuck in the tree. I’m the one who walked to bat and the whole out field moved in. Heck, I even played Charlie Brown in our eighth grade school musical.

Now Charlie couldn’t kick a football. He couldn’t throw a baseball. He couldn’t fly a kite. He never could talk to the little red-headed girl. His dog belittled him and Lucy Vanpelt called him a “block head”.

Yet there is one quality, at least, which the Brown boy had in spades. He never gave up. Every year he walked to the mound with a renewed determination to win the pennant. Every year at camp he promised himself “this year I am going to talk to that red-headed beauty”. Every year he trusted Lucy to hold the ball again. He charged ahead with abandon believing this time would be different.

The apostle tells us, “ Love ‘always perseveres.’” I Cor. 13:7 NIV

The word is hypomenō- 1) to remain

a) to tarry behind

2) to remain i.e. abide, not recede or flee

a) to preserve: under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one’s faith in Christ

b) to endure, bear bravely and calmly: ill treatments

Love in us is that thing which refuses to give up or give in. It won’t recede even when it has to back off. It is the grandma who loves the grandson in jail and keeps sending him Scripture letters. It’s the parent who keeps praying for the salvation of the prodigal even after the child has told him “I don’t want to hear it anymore!”.

Love like this almost always looks like foolishness to those on the outside.

“Just give up.” the voices of the crowd say.

“It’s too much for you. You’re going to make yourself sick with this thing.” the masses intone.

If you have a Lucy Vanpelt in your life then perseverance has probably earned you the epithet, “idiot” or “blockhead”.

Now I’m not talking about boundariless co-dependence. I am talking about faithful perseverance. While on the outside the two things may look a little alike the roots are as different as ginger and strawberry.

Co-dependence like most “love look-alikes” is based in self. In a co-dependent relationship the enabler holds on because of what letting go says about her.

Perseverance is other centered. I persevere in the relationship not because of what I will ever get but in hopes of benefitting the other person. When such benefit becomes my sole motivation then I can persevere without ever worrying about earning something back on my investment.

Now if perseverance is the quality of a block-head, then I say “Let us Embrace our inner block-heads. For to such belongs the Kingdom of God!”