“What Love Really Looks Like!”.....Part 4......“Love Doesn't Act Unbecomingly!”

“What Love Really Looks Like!” #4

“Love Doesn't Act Unbecomingly!” - 1 Corinthians 13 vs. 5

Love acts right, respectable, good!

The cultural definition of love is vague at best, watered down, these days it's just a word used loosely, typically to get an advantage or a desired outcome! We're so removed from the practical use of the word but what's scary is how far removed we've become from the spiritual weight of the word! With this series I want to see the picture of what “agape”, true, biblical love looks like! I want us to see how Jesus' loved! In each blog I want to view the particular picture of love in these scenarios, Spiritually, Specifically, and Socially! This week is a little tough as I am not the best representation of this as I have been told by some before! Lol 

** Before we dive into what it looks like lets do a word study concerning our text **

Love does not act unbecomingly or doesn't behave itself unseemly.

The greek word here for act unbecomingly is – aschēmoneō – ä-skhā-mo-ne'-ō

which literally means to act unbecomingly.

It's from the root word – aschēmōn – ä-skhā'-mōn

which means – 1. deformed

2. indecent, unseemly

This word is used only one other time and it's in this letter to the Corinthians in

chapter 7 vs 36 when discussing a father acting appropriately and inappropriately towards his daughter.

- So here we see the depth of Paul's words! These few words speak boldly to our nature and cut even to the heart! Love is not indecent, unseemly, or deformed! Love is PERFECT! Love ALWAYS acts with integrity and in line with good moral character! -

- This means affairs aren't love but lust! -

- Love isn't crazy, it's respectable, calm, restrained, pure, clean, straight! -

1.) Specifically

* Person to Person Relationships, spouses, friends, siblings, etc. *

We see this beautifully in the relationship of Boaz to Ruth! Boaz takes and loves Ruth but before he does he does the right thing. See, Ruth's husband had died and she had no seed so the nearest kin was to marry her and there was one closer to her than Boaz so he sought him out. It wasn't until the other kinsman refused to marry her that Boaz took her to be his wife! He loved her! God blessed this Moabite woman and Boaz with a child named Obed, King David's grandfather!

-What it DOESN”T look like – Samson -

Samson's love for women continually got him in trouble, he loved passionately but irresponsibly! It eventually cost him his eyes and ultimately his life! Samson was always seemingly drawn to the daughter's of his enemies. His first wife tricks him and sides with her people then run's off with Samson's friend. Samson's reaction is to gather hundreds of foxes, tie them together, set them on fire and let them loose in the fields of his estranged wife's family! Of course we know the story of Delilah. How he never seems to see her trickery! He eventually gives in and reveals his strength only to be thwarted by his enemy! 

2.) Socially

* Individual to Society, to Individuals with which we don't have a “personal” bond. *

- This week we have to go back to the Gospel of Luke chapter 10 and we see the express image of a love that's decent, pure, and active! -

Luke 10:30-37 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Good Samaritan

30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and [a]beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, 34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 On the next day he took out two [b]denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ 36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do [c]the same.”

- Here, we see a picture of pure love of neighbor and humanity! The Jews hated the Samaritans! They believed them to be "half-breeds," worthless, they wouldn't even talk to them! That's why Jesus uses a samaritan as the example, it's also why the woman at the well in John 4 reacted the way she did when Jesus spoke to her because he was a Jew and she a Samaritan! Just put it into the context of the modern racial divide of America! But his man,  His love was deeper and stronger than rules, than the past, than stereotypes, than racial divides, than politics, than words, than social norms! His love was beautiful! He did the right thing! The others acted indecent, their love was deformed and imperfect as their rules, their appearance weighed more heavy on their conscience than the wellbeing of a fellow human being! -Sometimes our true character and integrity finds us and is revealed when we least expect it, like when no one is looking!

D.L. Moody - “Character is what you are in the dark.”

3.) Spiritually

* God to Man and Man to God! *

- Spiritually is the most important as it's correct position will produce the first two! -

** Man to God! **

We see this evident in the story of Job! If anyone had even the slightest right to question God, to reply to the Mighty in anger, to rebel in anguish it'd be Job! Yet, Job stood in his integrity! He stayed inside the bounds of what he knew was good and right! -

Job 2:9King James Version (KJV)

9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

Job 27:5King James Version (KJV)

5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

He was justified in his strife with his friends yet Job chose the right reaction, the right thing, the right actions! God blessed his enduring love, evident in his integrity!

** God to Man **

This week we have to rewind a little. For the past few weeks the reflection of love in Christ has been at the cross but this week to see Christ's love that isn't acting unbecomingly we have to go back slightly. It starts at the end of supper as he girds himself and washes his disciples feet. It continues in the Garden when he stops Peter from killing the soldiers. It continues as he remains silent in the face of his enemies. It remains as he graciously carries his cross with no resistance, lays down on it and accepts his purpose! -

It's summed up in some of his last words when, as he hangs upon the cross of Calvary, he doesn't wail and scream out in anger or disdain but in love he cries out to God the Father for those who put him there and cries “Father forgive them, they know not what they do!” 

In Closing:

We must take these pictures of a patient, kind, not jealous, not bragging or arrogant love that doesn't act unbecomingly & put them into action and produce them in our own personal lives. 

- Specifically, Socially, & Spiritually -

Love acts right!

1 Corinthians 13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Excellence of Love

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.