Godly Love vs. Carnal Love #2

Fred Coulter

(Return to Love Series)

Now let’s continue on with the Carnal vs. Godly Love, and let’s come to 1 Corinthians 13. And now what we are going to do, we are going to come to these things which show the very attributes of God. And this is very important because love is the essence of being godlike. Or godlike love is the essence of God-likeness, if you could put it that way.

1 Corinthians 13, and we finished with verse 3. Now let’s come to verse 4. And I want you to understand something very clearly as we are going through. I’ll give you a little summary before we get into it in detail. What we have are 14 descriptions of love, given in seven pairs. Let’s read them. We’ll just go right through them.

Verse 4, “[Love] Charity suffereth long, and is kind;…” That is one. Number two, now I’m going to give you the pair. Second pair: “…charity [love] envieth not; [love] charity vaunteth not itself,…” That’s the second pair. Three: “…[love] charity is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,…” Four: “…[love] seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,…” Five: “…[love] thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity,…” So you see how all of these are connected together. “…But rejoiceth in the truth;” Number six: “…[love] beareth all things, believeth all things,…” Number seven: “…hopeth all things, endureth all things.” And then you could tie it all in at the end here: [Love] Charity never faileth:…” (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

So what you have with the love of God, the agape love, you have a sure guarantee that will not fail. The love of God cannot fail. Because if you say that the love of God fails, then you’re saying God is a failure, are you not, because God is love. Yes, you would be doing that. So all of these are the attributes of God.

Hold your place here and let’s go back to Exodus 34. What you might do, put down in your notes if you want a study. Get out your handy-dandy little concordance and look up all of the things God is. God is love, God is merciful, God is gracious, God is kind, God is longsuffering. And put all of those together and that then is summarized here in 1 Corinthians 13.

Exodus 34, and this is when the LORD descended, let’s pick it up in verse 5, to show His glory to Moses. “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,…” (Ex. 34:5-7). And I might mention here that God is going to keep mercy for thousands. Let me just mention this: I talked to a young woman yesterday who’s, I think, just in her early 30’s, who grew up in the church and didn’t pay much attention to it. Went out into the world. But you see, God didn’t give up on her. Now she’s been called back and God has opened her mind to understand. And I talked to her yesterday, and she wants to be baptized. So you see, remember this: it is not over till it’s over. And God is not done with the children who have been in the church. Now they may have to go out and become like the prodigal son or daughter, but God is not done with them. So you see, that’s why we need to hope all things, believe all things, and all of that because God is going to do greater than what we expect, brethren. And I was really happy to hear that. Actually we have the toughest job of all. To try and teach all of the various factions of the Church of God to heal all the problems of all the Churches of God, and the only way it’s going to be done is with the love of God. It isn’t going to be done with reorganization. It isn’t going to be done because of a corporate structure. It isn’t going to be done because of an organization. It isn’t going to be done because of what I’m doing. It’s going to be done because of what God is doing. And I want to do what God wants me to do. And so, it will. God is merciful, kind, and longsuffering. Listen, if God can forgive Manasseh and Ahab there’s hope for everybody who’s attended church. Think of that. You know, I’ve mentioned Manasseh is like 55 years of Bill Clinton. Aren’t you glad he’s restricted to two terms? [laughter]

“Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,…” But you see, that is upon repentance. If there is no repentance, “…and that will by no means clear the guilty;…”, if there is no repentance. “…Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (vs. 7). And so these are all some of the attributes of God.

Let’s come back to Galatians 5 and let’s see the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22. And I think if you put this together with it then you will see how God wants it done. That this agape love from God comes from God’s Spirit, comes down from God to us.

“But the fruit of the Spirit [that is, this is what the Spirit is going to produce] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). Why? Because these are the very attributes of God. There’s no law against God, is there? No, God is lawgiver. Just the opposite, you see.

Now notice over here in verse 6. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision;…” In other words, you can’t start out in the Spirit and finish in the flesh. So you have to grow in the Spirit. “…But faith which worketh by love.” Now then, how do we grow in faith? Faith works by love? So how do you grow in faith? By growing in love, because love is the greatest. I mean, there it is all the time, right? See, there it is right there. You’re not going to grow in faith by browbeating. You’re not going to grow in faith by sending out desperate letters. Now maybe there’s a time for correction because we’ve sinned. That’s true. But then ask God for repentance, Who leads us to repentance, correct? Yes. So that’s what’s going to happen here.

So love in suffering. Now write this down: love in suffering is kind. Longsuffering also means that you suffer long. Now one of the, as we could say the founding Christian Biblical Church of God… See, when we first left Worldwide we began the Biblical Church of God and immediately grew to 250 and had five congregations, 11 elders, and we had a constitution. It was déjà vu United. So we didn’t really repent, we just reorganized, and we went from the dictatorship of one to the dictatorship by committees. The only difference is, one is more political than the other. And so that fell apart. And that’s when I hit bottom. But in that situation I can look back and see that there wasn’t the love of God that God wanted. God didn’t want that. Since love is the greatest, He wants that. So, we’ve all been put through trials so that we know that’s what God wants, and we know that’s the only thing that is going to really heal and fill the void. Nothing else is going to do it. And so that’s why it’s very, very important that we understand this concerning suffering, and so forth.

Well, this woman, Esther Greisinger, she was a diabetic. She was nearly blind. She had the tendons in her right leg pulling up so that she could hardly walk, and had to walk with a cane or walk with a walker. And after a while she had to just be in a wheelchair suffering terribly with pain. Gradually she couldn’t see at all. Her husband, who had been attending church while they were in Worldwide, but unable to quit smoking, he was finally told to leave because, “You can’t quit smoking, and you’re an evil man.” So he would bring her to church and sit out in the car and smoke. But she was very diligent, and she was very kind, and she would encourage everyone in her longsuffering. And though she was in pain, people who were depressed would call her and she would cheer them up. And yet she had everything in the world to complain to God that was wrong. But not one word.

Then when they were in their worst most and desperate straights, her husband Robert had a massive stroke and almost died, and was in the hospital. So here she is in a wheelchair at home nearly blind, and her husband in the hospital nearly dead, and it finally gets to the point he can come out of the hospital and come home. Have to have home nursing come in. There he is confined in the bed. And you know when you have a massive stroke your one side is such that you can’t walk, and there he was that way, and having to have the therapy and the nurse come in, and Esther taking care of him. And it was really a sad, pathetic situation. And everyone would say, “God, if You’re a God of love, why would You let this happen to these people with all the suffering, and suffering upon suffering, upon suffering mounted up so high. Where is Your love, where is Your mercy?” His mercy and love was shown in the suffering, because Robert gradually was healed, and he asked to be baptized. He did quit smoking. He knew all the commandments because he’d been keeping them for how long anyway because of his wife. And I had the blessing and privilege of baptizing him. And then he kept his first Passover, which was a very, very moving event.

And then before the Passover of the next year, Esther died. And at the funeral Robert cried out and said, “Why Lord, why Lord?” Because he had depended on her for so much. And so I just stopped the service, walked over to him and I said, “Robert, Esther was ready. That’s why.” But even in that suffering, Robert had to prove that he could stand by his own before God. And he did. And he died right after the next Passover. There are a lot of brethren out there like that. And I can’t reach them, but you can. But they’re both going to be in the resurrection.

Now question: was all that suffering worth eternal life? Yes, it was, because all that suffering was just in the flesh, wasn’t it? Yes. Was God merciful? Yes. Was God kind? Yes. So you see, not everything appears as we view it. So that’s why it says, love is longsuffering and kind.

Now let’s come back to 1 Corinthians 13:4. “…[Love] charity envieth not;…” You don’t want what other people have. If someone is blessed and increased, you rejoice with them, even if you’re not. You don’t go to God and say, “God, why did you bless him instead of me? I’ve gone to church longer than that person’s gone to church. I’ve kept so many Sabbaths and feasts. I’ve tithed. I’ve done all these things.” No, you don’t envy. See, and it ties in with love vaunts itself.

Here, let’s go to Luke 18. Let’s see the opposite of this kind of love. Here’s what happens when you have envy, and you have vaunting of the self-boasting. And that means boasting of itself. Yes, boasting of how good they are. You know, blow your own whistle. Puff up yourself. Tell everyone how good you are, how much you know, who you know, where you’ve been. God could care less. So you’ve been around the world 50 times. Do you love God?

Luke 18:9, “And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves…” Because they boasted about themselves, and envied and lusted against others. And envy comes in two ways. By comparing yourself that you are much better, and by saying that you need what the other person has. “…That they were righteous, and despised others:…” See, there’s no love there. No love there.

Let me look at another scripture, just came to mind, Luke 11:42. Here’s the same kind of attitude, you see, without love. “But woe unto you, Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God:…” Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I know you. You don’t have the love of God dwelling in you.” Should we go back and do what the Pharisees do then? Should we follow their Sedar, should we follow their practices? Should we wear their yarmulkes and their prayer shawls? Should we do their praise dancing? None of that has the love of God in it. You see, that’s all physical things. “…These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

Ok, back to Luke 18. Here the Pharisee doesn’t have any love, but he sure loves himself, doesn’t he? Doesn’t have the love of God. Notice what he said. Verse 11, “…I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” He’s judging, criticizing, putting down, right? Yes, he is. Look at that. Well, we shouldn’t be extortioners, and we shouldn’t be unjust, and we shouldn’t be adulterers. But you know brethren, all of those things are required anyway. And what did Jesus say? When you’ve done all that you’re commanded, you’re what? You are unprofitable servants. This is what you ought to do. This is nothing to brag about.

“I fast twice in the week [so I’m better than anybody else], I give tithes of all that I possess [to the tiniest little teeny-weeny seed]. And the publican [that he was judging and criticizing], standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” See, so God is looking on the heart as well as on the knee, so we don’t need to envy. Let’s be happy and rejoice. If someone succeeds in something, praise God and thank God for it. Be happy and rejoice. “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased;…” And that’s what happens when you are envying and when you’re vaunting, and when you’re having this kind of behavior. Notice what he says, “…shall be abased…” Not just brought low, abased. So the day is coming. So remember as the wheel turns, it’s going to happen. As the chickens come home to roost, it’s going to happen. We don’t have to worry. God will take care of it. “…And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (vs. 12-14). And the way you humble yourself is with the love of God. You don’t put on a pseudo humility and say, “Oh, I’m humble. I fast, I’m humble. I tithe, I’m humble. Oh God, I deserve this.” No, be thankful that God has called you and you have the Spirit of God. What we are all worthy of, every one of us, the wages of sin is death.

Now let’s come back to 1 Corinthians 13. So this leads to judging other people. Then you judge people physically. You’re too fat, you’re too thin, you’re too tall, you’re too young, you’re too old, you’re a woman, you’re a man, you’re bald, you have too much hair. Right? Yes. You are what you are. Jesus said you are not going to think and make yourself one cubit taller. And you’re not going to think and change your hair one white or black, unless you have Clairol. (laughter) So accept all these things. We don’t look down upon a person. If a person is sick and ill, don’t say, “Well, you deserve it. You sinned.” Well, maybe they did sin. What if they do deserve it? Should you rub it in and stomp them into the ground? No. Pray for them. Pray for them, that God will heal them and help them, and give them the understanding they need, you see. It’s all very important.

Now for lack of time, I’m going to give you four scriptures that I want you to write down which goes into this section concerning envy. Showing that envy never profits. Proverbs 14:30. You can look all these up a little later. Mark 15:10, Romans 1:29. These are all the works of the flesh. Titus 3:3-7.

Now, let’s continue on here in 1 Corinthians 13:4. “…[Love] charity vaunteth not itself…” Now I like to watch some professional sports. But after a while I get tired of it. You can only watch so many passes caught, so many touchdowns run in, so many tackles made. And what happens? They’re all number 1. And they vaunt themselves and they taunt each other. See, all that competition is not the love of God. That’s of the world. I’m not saying don’t watch football, don’t watch basketball, but just understand what you’re watching. It’s just in the flesh. And if you’re team looses, don’t go into a depression. God doesn’t care one way or the other. (laughs)

Now, to vaunt means to puff up or blow up. Some people puff themselves up so much they ought to literally blow up. That’s why in what I do you don’t hear me say anything what I do, this or that or the other because if I’ve done it, so what? That’s yesterday, isn’t it? Is that going to change today? No. Is it going to make me better today? No. How about tomorrow? Well, if I don’t do today what I need to do today then what am I going to do tomorrow. So it doesn’t matter how many people you’ve met. It doesn’t matter who you knew. If you don’t know God, it doesn’t matter if you know the most important person in the world, does it? So we need to understand that. Let your boast be in God.

Here, let’s go to 1 Corinthians 1. Hold your place right here. Now here in 1 Corinthians 1:23. “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock…” Because they can never understand how God became a man, not realizing that in the very first chapter of Genesis it said, “God said, let us make man in Our image after Our likeness”, for the very purpose that God could become man and man could become God. So it’s a terrible stumblingblock. They have never recovered to this day. Judaism has never. “…And unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” And that’s where our hope lies, brethren. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men [if there be any foolishness of God, we could add]; and the weakness of God is stronger than men [if there be any weakness in God]” (1 Cor. 1:23-25). You see, he’s using oxymoron’s here to drive home a point.

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,…” And yet you’re trying to act like wise, and you know everything. All puffed up, you see. “…Not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and [the] things which are despised, hath God chosen…” Maybe you’re in God’s church, some people say, “Well, why did God call me?” Well, maybe just because you’re despised. Maybe just because you’re an oddball and don’t fit anywhere and God had mercy on you. Sometimes I feel like that. And that’s just the way it is. “…And things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let Him glory in the Lord” (vs. 26-31). Don’t boast in yourself, boast in God. Thank God for what He’s done.

1 Corinthians 4:7, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” You see how foolish to get all puffed up about yourself. Whatever you have you received from God. Everything that there is, every thing that’s physical, everything that’s spiritual. “…Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” In other words, why are you saying to yourselves and each other, “I am spiritual.” Which if you may be, it came from God. Be thankful and be humble, and don’t be boastful, “For God had to call me.” No, God is not compelled to call anybody. He chooses of His own will and volition. See, so it’s all foolishness to brag and boast.

Let’s come back to 1 Corinthians 13 again. “…Vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,…” Now verse 5. “Doth not behave itself unseemly,…” That means in a rude and a brash way. And boy, how many lives have been ruined in the church because of that? We don’t need that. I remember when I was going to Ambassador College, when I came there I thought that everyone was going to live by the truth. And when I was in the ministry I thought that’s how all the ministers treated each other. Boy, was I in for a surprise. When I came and I was down in Pasadena the years 72 to 75, I didn’t know it, but upstairs in the exalted evangelist lounge at the handball court, where no one unless you were politically correct, could get up there. Well, of course I was never invited up. I was never politically correct. I was really shocked and dismayed that what they did, they sat up there and told dirty jokes and played cards. Now brethren, that’s unseemly behavior. And then get up in the pulpit and blast and condemn all the brethren for not sending in enough money. “We want more racquetball and more beer.” Those that were there, they would come to work at nine, and they would go play handball at 11:30, and they would finish about 1:30, and then they’d go have lunch with a martini and come back to work, and work from 3 till 4:30 and go home. And those were the ones who were making what, $200,000 a year. No, it doesn’t work. You can’t behave yourself unseemly. Those things are not right.

“…Seeketh not her own,…” You don’t have your own agenda. See, you don’t have your own way. You try and always follow the way of God. Because what happens if you just seek your own? Well, you’re going to be in real trouble. So if you have the love of God, what do you really seek?

Let’s go to Philippians 2, let’s see what it’s like. Here’s what you are to seek. Here’s how we are to be with the love of God. Brethren, this is what I hope God will grant us in His church. Grant us with all this. I don’t know where you’ve come from, your background, but I have certain ideas in talking to everyone, and I know that you’ve all had different stories and different problems, and difficult things. And I know most of you here because you’re rejects, or you have left those who have sinned. And in doing that you also become a reject from them because you’re not politically correct. And you go to church and you hear all of these lies, and you hear all of these smooth things, you see. God doesn’t want that. It’s going to come to an end. It’s going to come to an end.

Here’s what God wants, Philippians 2:1, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,…” And that’s what we want because see brethren, our fellowship first begins with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and if we have that on a daily personal basis, when we come together on the Sabbath can we not leave behind all the picayunish little physical things that trouble us and drag us down? Yes, we ought to be able to. God loves everyone that He’s called. Let’s ask God for the love for those that have {been} called to assemble with us, because we are a motley crew as I read there 1 Corinthians 1. And by our own volition and choice and will out in the world, we’d never associate with each other, would we? No. But God has called us with His love so that we do associate with each other. So we can learn the love of God. So we can understand each other, so that we can appreciate each other. Fellowship of the Spirit.

“…If any bowels…”, that means deep inner affection. If someone hurts, you hurt with them. If someone suffers, you suffer with them. “…If any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy,…” And I tell you what, wouldn’t this be a joy to God, and joy to everyone if we could do this. “…Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded,…” And we’re going to see in just a minute that that’s the mind of Christ. “…Having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” Not that we’re robots and automatons, but joined and knit together in such a way that we have that love of God. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory;…” And I hope we’ve all fled that. We don’t need that. I hate it when there’s strife. I hate it when there’s pomposity, and human vanity, and stupidity. That doesn’t work. What does it do? Just offends the brethren. Turns them off. God doesn’t want that. “…But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:1-3). Now that’s the opposite of exalting the self, isn’t it? Yes, it is. And besides, you never know, the person that you may look down upon may in the kingdom have a higher reward than you. And you never know. So you esteem the other better than yourself. You don’t compare and say, “Well, ta-da-da-da-da. I’m this and that person is ta-da-da-da-da-da that, therefore I am better or whatever.” You see. No, you esteem the other person better and you help them, and you pray for them, and you encourage them.

“Look not every man on his own things, [not just for yourself], but every man but every man also on the things of others.” To make sure that the other person is growing in grace and knowledge. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (vs. 4-5). Boy, that’s a tremendous thing, brethren. Let the mind of Christ be in you. Now notice how He humbled Himself. The very epitome of love. Didn’t Jesus say, “I love you with the same love that the Father has loved Me.” See, you have no savior unless Christ loved you. You have no savior unless Christ humbled Himself. You think you’ve given up something? Look what Christ gave up. He emptied Himself.

“Who, being in the form of God [meaning existing as God], thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation,…” He didn’t come down to this earth and say, “Why, you people, don’t you know I created all of these things. What’s the matter with you? Why don’t you accept Me?” He came down and took it. When He was reviled, didn’t revile again. He came down and healed. He came down and helped, came down also to rebuke and correct, but to instruct and to raise up His apostles and start His church. No, to be the sacrifice for us. That covenantal sacrifice for the New Covenant. “…and took upon Him the form of a servant,…” (vs. 6-7). Which in the Greek is doulos, which means a slave. So that no slave is ever going to say, “Well Lord, You were God and came down here to be a human being, but you don’t know what it’s like to be a slave.” Yes He did. He served everyone, didn’t He? He was rejected, He was despised in a greater way than you and I. Now we can be rejected and despised, but what are our accomplishments? Nothing. What were God’s accomplishments? He created everything, and yet He was still rejected and despised.

“And being found in fashion as a man,…” Means everything. I was thinking on that the other day. When He was a baby, He had diapers. He nursed at His mother’s breast. He had to learn to crawl, had to learn to walk. But the Father was with Him always, and He was filled with the Holy Spirit from conception. “…And became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (vs. 8). And some people aren’t even willing to be obedient to keep the Sabbath. Do you think they are going to be in the kingdom of God when Christ was obedient unto the death of the cross? Not going to happen.