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Transcript - SF501 Discipleship in Community: © 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved. 1 of 12 LESSON 20 of 24 SF501 Corporate Disciplines – Part III Discipleship in Community: In the previous session, we were considering the negative characteristic of love, the fact that love does not envy. And when we finished in that session, we had just been talking about some Old Testament examples of envy in its negative sense. We want to continue looking at some biblical illustrations and teachings on this negative sense of the word by going to the New Testament. And we’ll begin by looking at Romans 13 first. And we’ll be looking at verse 13 as we look at this negative description here. In verse 13 we read, “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.” Now note in the passages we’re going to look at how the jealousy or envy, the word zelos that we have here, is always tied in or generally tied in with the idea of strife. Of course, strife is going to be just the opposite of the goal that we have in our corporate spiritual formation as we saw that described in Ephesians 4:11-16. Second Corinthians 12 gives us another illustration or another teaching on this. In 2 Corinthians 12:20, Paul writes, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish, that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.” Again here we see the word strife combined with this idea of envy and jealousy. And then over in Galatians 5:20, we’ll go up to verse 19 to get the context. “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now Paul, in Galatians 5 here, is making the point that we are to live according to the Spirit. And to live according to the Spirit is to live together in a life of love. To walk according to the Spirit is to love. Envy is a work of the flesh and not the Spirit. Therefore, love cannot have this envy. It cannot be a part of it. John R. Lillis, Ph.D. Experience: Dean and Executive Officer at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, CA.

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Page 1: ommunitDiscipleship in C y: Discipleship in Community ... · “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth

Discipleship in Community:

Transcript - SF501 Discipleship in Community: © 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.

1 of 12

LESSON 20 of 24SF501

Corporate Disciplines – Part III

Discipleship in Community:

In the previous session, we were considering the negative characteristic of love, the fact that love does not envy. And when we finished in that session, we had just been talking about some Old Testament examples of envy in its negative sense.

We want to continue looking at some biblical illustrations and teachings on this negative sense of the word by going to the New Testament. And we’ll begin by looking at Romans 13 first. And we’ll be looking at verse 13 as we look at this negative description here. In verse 13 we read, “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.” Now note in the passages we’re going to look at how the jealousy or envy, the word zelos that we have here, is always tied in or generally tied in with the idea of strife. Of course, strife is going to be just the opposite of the goal that we have in our corporate spiritual formation as we saw that described in Ephesians 4:11-16. Second Corinthians 12 gives us another illustration or another teaching on this. In 2 Corinthians 12:20, Paul writes, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish, that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.” Again here we see the word strife combined with this idea of envy and jealousy. And then over in Galatians 5:20, we’ll go up to verse 19 to get the context. “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now Paul, in Galatians 5 here, is making the point that we are to live according to the Spirit. And to live according to the Spirit is to live together in a life of love. To walk according to the Spirit is to love. Envy is a work of the flesh and not the Spirit. Therefore, love cannot have this envy. It cannot be a part of it.

John R. Lillis, Ph.D.Experience: Dean and Executive Officer

at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, CA.

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Finally in the book of James, James also picks up on this theme and describes it in chapter 3, beginning with verse 14. He says, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” It’s a pretty serious accusation that James is making here under the inspiration of the Spirit. Notice he says “where jealousy is there is disorder and every evil thing.” And notice how he relates jealousy and selfish ambition. Remember that desire to have something that someone else has but here going beyond positive emulation and going into this negative sense of bitterness and selfish arrogance leading to disorder. This is the result of envying, this emotion as it’s described biblically, that which Paul is explicitly saying love is not in 1 Corinthians 13 leads to disastrous results in the body when it exists. It can’t be allowed to exist. We must deal with that and be rid of it. Love does not envy. An earnest desire for a good or an honorable thing as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 14:1, that must not lead to bitter and envious resentment of a person having the desired thing. To earnestly and fervently desire the higher spiritual gifts and to seek after them indeed is a good thing. But envious and being bitter of people’s abilities in preaching, teaching, their personality, their intelligence, their looks, their relations with people we want to be close to, all of those cannot be allowed to creep into the body. We are to esteem others more highly than ourselves. This type of envy and selfish arrogance and selfish ambition causes problems between Christians. And by causing problems between Christians, it causes problems within the body and hurts the unity and the stability that should be being built up.

We might also have a zeal for our own status. We are zealous that we be raised to an important place in the eyes of others. That also can result in envy and resentment of the relative success of others. It can produce rivalry and competition. And indeed, as we’ve already talked about in this achievement and competitive-oriented culture in which we live, often does. There can be jealousy at the claims or reports of others in their ministry. I’ve seen this far too often in pastor fellowships in which pastors might gather for lunch or a monthly fellowship. And you can sense the envy sometimes in questions, in telling of testimonies, witnessing, whatever, what has been happening the past month. And there’s an envy of the claims or reports of others. We are to rejoice with one another because we are linked together in an interdependent way into a single body. There is one body, Paul tells us in Ephesians

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4. Then we rejoice with one another, just as in our human body we have that sense of contentment and happiness when all is going well with all of the members, each member in a sense rejoicing with all of the other members. So it is to be in the body of Christ. There is no room for this envy.

Sometimes people can even be doing that which appears to be a good thing for motives filled with envy. Paul talks about this in the first chapter of Philippians beginning at verse 15 when he said, “Some to be sure are preaching Christ (now notice this) even from envy and strife.” And again here, even when he’s describing those who are preaching the gospel, preaching the gospel out of envy, he ties it in with the idea of strife. “But some also from good will. The latter do it out of love.” Notice the contrast, love contrasted to the envy and strife. “Knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition.” There again, just as James tied envy to selfish ambition, so Paul does it as well. “Rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.” Not out of love but out of envy and selfish ambition, doing that which appears to be a good thing. Indeed preaching the gospel is a good thing. But here the motives are poor. The motives are wrong. What does the preacher gain? Nothing is the implication if we go back to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 in which Paul says I don’t care what you’re doing and how spiritual it might seem. If there is not love, it is worthless. It gains you nothing.

Now we might even suggest perhaps that Paul has some aspect of the positive meaning of the word in mind as well. Desiring for oneself may be a good quality, a good status through ministry effort with no resentment towards others. If we go back to 1 Corinthians 13 we need to be mindful of the words that follow. “Love is not jealous or envious. It does not brag and is not arrogant.” Sometimes we can be zealous for something to such a degree that we can become boastful. We can become arrogant in that. You see, love doesn’t devote its time and its energy to climbing for its own status. When Paul says, “eagerly desire,” be zealous for, using the word in a positive sense, “the greater gifts” in 12:31 and 14:1, he is not saying that we should do so in an effort to climb for our own status. But rather he’s saying, “desire the other gifts that by them you might edify and strengthen the body,” that by them you might help others. For love is to be outward-directed, compassionate acts on behalf of others. What we do we are to do for the benefit of others, not for us to have satisfaction in having certain abilities or talents or gifts. And this

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is a great temptation in full-time vocational ministry in which people are zealous for the gifts and zealous to achieve and to attain status, not necessarily bitterly resenting others or being negative towards them but at the same time not being motivated by love either, but being motivated by a desire for status in the eyes of others.

I know in my own ministry throughout the years, I constantly have to be reexamining my own motives. Why am I doing this? Am I doing this so people will look to me and say what a great person I am to achieve status, to climb the Christian ladder of success? Or am I being zealous in my ministry efforts desiring the greater gifts and the exercise of those gifts in order to serve the Lord Jesus Christ by ministering to His body? We are to esteem others more highly than ourselves. And we are to be content with our lot, two related themes that Paul develops throughout his writings. The one whose glory for which we strive in our ministry to one another is to be the Lord Jesus Christ and not ourselves. In the matter of which gifts to desire, yes, desire the higher gifts. But in the exercise of those talents and gifts which God has given us, let nothing be done with any hope or thought towards gaining any recognition, achievement or status on our own part. We are not trying to achieve anything however noble, for ourselves. Rather always for the betterment of our brothers, keep always in mind that model, that paradigm that is developed in Ephesians 4:11-16. The picture is the body growing together, not any one member attaining a higher status or glory than any of the other members but all members working together for mutual benefit and growth to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we go on in 1 Corinthians 13:4, we come now to the next concept here. We’ve seen that love positively is patient and it is kind. And then negatively, love is not jealous or envious or zealous in a negative sense. Neither now does love brag nor become arrogant. When a person is without something and is desiring it, the unlovely act which follows we have seen, is envy. When a person has or thinks he has something, the unlovely act which follows is boasting and arrogant pride. Now these two are contrary to love as we shall see because love is always to be directed towards others while these, like envy, like the jealousy that we’ve just seen, are directed inward. So let’s give some thought now to these next two words, and we’ll consider them together. “Love does not brag and is not arrogant,” or love does not boast nor become puffed up. And as we look at these, we need to ask ourselves and answer what kind of pride and boasting, what kind of bragging and arrogance

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is Paul talking about here. And then we’ll look at the terrible pride that existed at Corinth and how that gives us illustrations for how we should and should not act today.

Well what is Paul talking about here? First of all the word for bragging or boasting, what does he mean here when he says love does not brag? And we need really to ask this question especially with this word, because it’s a special word used by Paul. It’s not used any other place in the New Testament or in the Greek Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And there are other words for bragging. There are other words for boasting that Paul could have used here that are used in the New Testament. But for some reason, Paul chose this one contrasting to those others. The other words for boasting or bragging refer to boasting or bragging that involve lies. There’s one word that speaks of bragging or boasting in a sense of bragging or boasting about something that’s not true. Or there are those that involve an obvious, outward, haughty attitude. And they focus on the attitude, the arrogance that is there in the boasting. The word that Paul is using here is not so obviously an unlovely act externally. And it has to do with the fact that the emphasis in this particular word that Paul uses is on the actual words that are spoken themselves. That is, how an individual speaks referring to the actual rhetoric itself, the words are generally true. And it is not a physical arrogance, a haughtiness or an arrogance that is pictured here as in some of the other words that are used for boasting and bragging. But it’s the speech itself, the very words that are spoken. And the idea is trying to impress someone, trying to impress people with what we know so that there is a sense here of intellectual pride in the person who is boasting in this manner.

Now it certainly fits with the Corinthian love of knowledge and the word of knowledge that Paul speaks about that we’ll look at in a bit. We want the other person now to know by the way we speak, by the rhetoric that we use, by the vocabulary that we use to know how intelligent we are and, consequently sometimes, how, by comparison, dumb they are. This attitude is contrary to the basic attitude of love. And it’s something that those who are involved in ministry vocations, who have received graduate level training to become involved in that ministry vocation, need to be on guard against. Tillich in his Lecture to Students, the little book that he had, has a section talking about that in which he describes the seminarian who goes back to this home church and who now, when he teaches a Sunday school lesson, becomes all wrapped up in details of scholarship that really have no significance to those

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that are in the congregation. And the reason for becoming all wrapped up in this is basically to show off. There’s an intellectual pride. And it is the scholar’s temptation and what I call the seminarian’s snare that we need to be on guard against. Love is to be directed towards others. This type of boasting, this type of bragging is directed towards myself with the goal of demonstrating how superior I am to someone else. And so it can’t be love. So that’s the idea that we have here when Paul says, “love does not brag, love does not boast.” He’s referring to this intellectual type of boasting which is manifested by the very rhetoric itself, by the way we speak, the vocabulary that we use.

Well, what about love is not arrogant or love is not puffed up or proud? The word that is used here has as its root and original meaning “to fill with wind” or “to inflate.” And hence, one of the translations talking about love is not puffed up. The metaphorical meaning and consequently, I think, the meaning here is to be puffed up, to be proud or arrogant over one’s own importance or self-worth. And so you can see how this is tied up with the prior word. But here now we picture the arrogance or the pride more so than we did with the other word. So this is concerned with more than just the inner feelings of pride or arrogance. The emphasis here is on the action which is evidence of this attitude of pride being puffed up. Where I’m from in Kentucky, we have an expression to describe such a person as this that I think fits this Greek word. We talk about someone being “full of themselves.” And indeed, that’s what Paul is talking about here.

Now again, this attitude is obviously contrary to love as the New Testament defines it. Why? Well certainly because it’s self-centered. It endeavors to raise my position at the expense of others. Any time I promote myself, I am implicitly putting others down, saying that they are less than me, and that simply is not the way of love. And the metaphor here is very picturesque and very descriptive. When I am puffing myself up, when I am inflating myself and blowing myself up, relatively speaking what is happening to everyone else? Well, they are becoming smaller in comparison to me. And so I am belittling people by puffing myself up. And certainly, Paul says, love does not behave in this way. Love does not brag, and it is not arrogant or puffed up or proud.

Now to fully understand what Paul is saying here and to be able to make specific application for ourselves in terms of our own mutual interdependent life together in that interpersonal and relational matrix that makes up the local assembly, we need to look further

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at the terrible pride that existed at Corinth. For Paul has specific things in mind as he writes each of these descriptive words. And as you well know from the chapters that have preceded chapter 13 as well as the chapters that follow, there were specific problems that were problems manifesting a definite lack of love. Well the terrible pride at Corinth was manifested in several ways. The first had to do with the wise words, the words of wisdom and knowledge that were going on that Paul refers to throughout this letter. For example, in chapter 2 and we’ll just look at a few examples of this, in verse 1 of chapter 2 Paul says, “And when I came to you brethren, I did not come with (literally) superior words or (as the NASB says) with superiority of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God.” What Paul is picturing here is this rhetoric, this boasting by the way one speaks with superior words, putting others down, by lifting oneself up intellectually. And again in verse 4, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” And we might ask Paul, and he might answer, why were your words not this way, Paul? And Paul would say because love does not boast in this way. Love does not speak this way, and I come in love. Verse 13 of the same chapter Paul says, “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words,” and indeed spiritual thoughts and spiritual words are thoughts and words characterized by love, as is anything that is truly spiritual as Paul makes clear in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13.

And then over in 4:19 Paul says, “But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. And I shall find out not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.” And there we see the arrogance tied to their words. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Love does not brag or boast in this rhetorical sense. And then over in chapter 8 Paul says, “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge.” And it’s knowledge that stands behind that rhetorical boasting. He says, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” Do you see the contrast there? Do you see the point and the necessity for acting in love? This kind of knowledge leading to this kind of boasting doesn’t edify the body. It simply results in arrogance, whereas love, loving application of spiritual thoughts, knowledge, and words is for the purpose of building the body up just as Paul describes in Ephesians 4:16.

What we see here is the type of boasting to which we had earlier

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referred, putting others down with the way we say things, even spiritual things, because we’re trying to impress people with our eloquence. And sometimes we do that through our spiritual vocabulary as we use the bigger theological words so called in our teaching. Why are we doing that? It’s certainly not edifying the body, because often people don’t understand what we’re saying. And as Paul said when he was talking about tongues, he said I’d rather speak one or two words that people understand than a host of words that they don’t understand. I think the principle is certainly the same here. And again, that is a great temptation for those of us who have had the biblical and theological scholarship necessary for the vocations that God has called us to, whether that be in the pulpit or the classroom. And we need to be mindful ever that our goal is to build the body up. Remember that paradigm in Ephesians 4:11-16. We’ve been given the gifts we’ve been given that the body might work and grow together and not to impress others with our knowledge and our way of speaking. You see what was happening here in Corinth is that these people actually wanted to make Christianity more of a philosophy to be discussed and debated rather than a way of life to be faithfully followed in a mutual, corporate context.

There was another manifestation of this boasting and the pride, in addition to the words of wisdom or the superior words. And that had to do with the party spirit that was prevalent in the church at Corinth. As we go back to 1 Corinthians 4, for example, and look at verses 6-7, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes. That in us you might learn not to exceed what is written in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Here we see an example of the arrogance that Paul says is not in love. The outward issue appears to be the division over leadership. Some were saying, “I’m a follower of Peter.” Others “I’m a follower of Paul.” Others “I’m a follower of Apollos.” And then the very spiritual “I’m a follower of Jesus Christ.” It, at first, appears that they are proud for their leaders’ sake. That is, Peter is better than Paul or Apollos than all of them, Paul than Peter and so on and so forth. But what Paul is pointing out here is that the real issue is simple pride. They were just looking for reasons to be able to say that they were better than the other. I was baptized by Apollos, so I am better than you. Well I was taught by Paul, so I am better than you. And that’s very clear in verse 7 when Paul says, “For who regards you as superior,

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and what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you have not received it?” What he is saying here, the principle as we bring it into our own lives together as brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are living together in the church that we have no basis whatsoever to say that we are intrinsically better than anyone. Not our intelligence because our intelligence has been given to us by God. Not our looks, because our looks have been given to us by God. Not our abilities, because our abilities have been given to us by God. Not our wealth, because our wealth has been given to us by God. Not our spiritual gifts or even our spiritual commitment, because what we are in Christ, we are that by the grace of God. Not our present religious situation, whatever that might be, wherever we might be individually. We have what we have. We are what we are because it has been given to us by God. All of our physical characteristics, our salvation, our justification, our degree of commitment, has been given to us by God. And what Paul is saying is if it has been given to us, then why do we boast as if we somehow had earned it ourselves?

There’s a great tendency towards this kind of party spirit pride among Christians today. As Christians are working together, we have a temptation to fall victim to this party spirit, to this manifestation of the arrogance that has no part in love. In fact, love is not arrogant in this way. Sometimes it’s Christian workers and their school. People ministering together maybe in a para-church organization, in a mission effort, perhaps the staff of a church, and there is a bit of arrogant pride that is non-love in terms of one’s school, one’s seminary. Well, I went to this seminary, and I’m just a little bit better than those that didn’t. Well, this is my seminary and anybody that’s from this seminary is much better than anyone else. I’ve seen that manifested in the eight years that I spent on the mission field. And it’s not just something that’s limited to those of us from the Western world. I’ve worked with and met missionaries from other countries. And there is this pride and a party spirit because of which school they went to. And we see it here as well. Sometimes there is this division and party spirit by organization. Well I’m with this organization or I’m with that para-church group. And I realize we’re doing the same work, but we do it a little bit better. Now it might not be explicitly articulated in that way, but the attitude certainly comes across. And it’s arrogance. It’s an arrogance manifested in this party spirit which has no place in love. And because it’s not love, then what Paul says in the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 is the effort is worth it. Love is not arrogant in that way.

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Unfortunately, we see it throughout the world also; a party spirit in terms of ethnic background, social background, social groups, and that ought not to be. Christians should not be divided over their ethnic background. What this does, this party spirit regardless of the reason whether it’s school, organization, ethnic background, denominations and groups, this divides the body of Christ. It divides the family and creates just the opposite of what is needed for growth, unity as we bring this arrogance because of one reason or the other. I’ve seen people who have a party spirit who are arrogant because of their individual spirituality as measured by their type of legalism. They do these things and they don’t do these things. They wear these kinds of clothes, and they don’t wear those kinds of clothes. They use this Bible, and they don’t use that Bible. And there’s an arrogance that goes along with that that is not the love of Christ that should be manifested in our mutual interdependent corporate life together. It’s not love because it builds me up and puts you down.

There was a third manifestation of this arrogance that is instructive for us in our lives together as Christians. And we see this also in 1 Corinthians 4:19. We read this earlier, but let’s look at it now in terms of what it’s saying as an example of this type of arrogance. Paul says, “But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. And I shall find out not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.” Now as we look at the context of those two verses and that usage of the idea of arrogance, we see that there were certain individuals in the church at Corinth who were opposing Paul. They were speaking against him. They were claiming that they, and not Paul, had the true words of wisdom. They had the superior words. They were false teachers, people who opposed Paul’s leadership with a lot of talking, people who were arrogant in this defiance of Paul’s ministry, Paul’s position of leadership in their lives. They believed that because Paul was sending Timothy instead of coming himself that he was afraid of them. Therefore, they thought they had won the argument. And indeed that’s all that was really important to them was winning the argument, being the one with their superior words and their superior rhetoric to gain the upper hand, to win the day, and then to manifest this arrogant pride that they had. They thought that they had completely undermined his authority.

And that’s what’s going on here in these two verses as Paul responds to them. They were puffed up about their own importance. They were puffed up with their own leadership potential and position.

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They were puffed up with their own wise spirituality. These people were seeking positions of respect. They were seeking positions of leadership. They were seeking positions of influence through the use of their tongue, through their words. To do so, they, of course, had to undermine and belittle the existing leadership and authority that was extant in the church. Leadership, authority, responsibility within the church of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with the method of the world. As we’re reminded elsewhere, we do not war with the weapons of the world. And as you and I are both very much aware, the weapons of the world indeed include the superior words, the arrogant pride of superior words and wisdom.

Within the church of Jesus Christ, within this family that we constitute, within this body that is growing up together, God and not man chooses those who are to lead. Church leaders are to be servants and not lord. There’s a great deal developed throughout the New Testament with Jesus beginning by building on the whole concept of servant from the Old Testament and saying those who are to lead are to be servants, serving not only God but serving the body itself. The true leader of God, the servant leader who is a servant and not a lord will be evidenced by spiritual power in his life. And the evidence of that spiritual power in his life is character, the character that he manifests. If you look at the passages in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus that deal with the characteristics, the qualities, the attributes of those who are to lead in the church of Jesus Christ, those who are to have positions of leadership in the family, you notice that those characteristics focus on the character, the quality of the character of the individual, not their seminary degree, not even the nature of their experience but their character, the quality of their character. That’s spiritual power, and character is manifested bound together by love as Paul makes so clear in Ephesians 3:17 to 4:2, verses that we’ve looked at time and time again in which we see the power of God being manifested in the corporate context by unity, by the fact that we are to manifest that power by loving one another.

The true man of God manifesting the real power of God will be shown by how he lives. The true woman of God manifesting the power of God will be shown by how she lives and not by how either one of them talks. But it is life that manifests the power of God, a character that manifests the power of God. This kind of pride, this kind of being puffed up is very prevalent within the church today. And it’s destroying the unity and the stability. It’s deterring and hurting the growth process that should be manifested as we are formed together, as we use our gifts together with one another,

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Corporate Disciplines – Part IIILesson 20 of 24

as we use the education that God has made possible for certain ones of us, as we use our unique backgrounds that God has made possible for us, as we use the talents and the abilities, the wealth that God has made possible for individuals of us. Those are to be used in the humility that realizes they are gifts of God, the humility that is characteristic of love. For love does not boast or brag. Love is not puffed up and arrogant, lifting myself up over the others. But love realizes that all that I have has been given to me by God.

In our churches we have people who want to be important, who want to have some kind of leadership within the church but they don’t. They try to satisfy their pride by boasting of their own attitudes and putting the leadership down. And that hurts the church, and it’s exactly what Paul is talking about and speaking against both in chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians and then in 13:4 when he says love is not puffed up in this way. Love does not brag in this way. It is totally contrary to love, because it lifts me up at the expense of others. People who try to get their ideas put into action in opposition to appointed leadership, through clever words and argument using the rhetoric to impress the people and thereby trying to establish their power and their authority. That’s not love. That’s not how the church is intended to function together. That’s not how we are intended to grow up together in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Love does not brag. It does not boast. Love is not puffed up or arrogant. Why? Because the pride and the boasting that we’ve been talking about here seek to build up and promote the proud boaster by indirectly tearing down others. It’s me-directed. It’s self-directed. The biblical concept of love is to give sacrificially of myself to promote and build up others, to promote and build up the body of Christ. I do not use that process to promote myself. I do not use the gifts and the abilities that God has given me to establish myself in some type of status position for the sake of my own status, to be arrogant and boastful.