CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE DAILY DEVOTIONAL ON YOUTUBE
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (4b)
In 1 Corinthians 13:4b we learn that, “love does not envy;” To understand this properly we must understand what it means to envy. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus envy means, “painful or resentful awareness of another’s advantages.” Some synonyms of envy are covetousness, jealousy, resentment, hatred, and ill will. So in this Bible passage of 1 Corinthians 13:4b we learn of what love is not. If we do not know the opposite of what something is, it becomes hard for us to understand the true meaning of the word or action. In 1 Corinthians 13:4a we learned that “love suffers long and is kind.” Any time there is suffering happening, there is a possibility of push-back against the suffering. And when there is a possibility of push-back, there becomes a possibility for wrong/incorrect attitudes. Love does not produce envy. Love does not produce jealousy, resentment, hatred, or ill will. But as we have learned in 1 Corinthians 13:4a, “Love suffers long and is kind.”
This is a promise of what love is.
Many people have trouble believing in God because they believe that God, described as Love in 1 John 4:8, 16 would never allow evil and suffering. But the opposite must be true for us to truly understand love and the suffering that Jesus felt for us on the cross in paying our debt to sin. John 3:16, the most memorized verse in the Bible states (NKJV), “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” If we did not know sin and suffering, then love would truly be blind to its own self. God is not blind, but God knows of our suffering; He knows of our sins. And He loves us so much that He sent His own Son to cure us from our sin; to save us from eternal damnation. In this world we can feel and experience sin; we can also feel and experience love as God Himself calling us to Him to save us from sin. We all, individually, must make a choice in this world as to which one we would like to experience for eternity after we die physically in this world and enter into our permanent spiritual home. If we choose to put our faith in Jesus and follow His guidance through His Holy Spirit that He gives each one of us to live within us, we will experience true love in heaven in God’s glory for eternity. But if we choose to continue living in sin until our physical death, we will experience the treachery of spiritual darkness out of the presence of God where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30). Choose Jesus today and live for eternity in heaven in God’s glory.
Dear LORD,
Envy has no place in love. Let it have no place in our hearts and in our lives as we answer Your calling on our lives to live in the Spirit of Jesus and follow Your guidance through Your Holy Spirit living within us. In Jesus name I pray, amen.