Originally Aired On: Wednesday, July 26, 2006
EXAMINING 1 CORINTHIANS 14:5 . . . “LOVE DOES NOT BEHAVE RUDELY”
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Wednesday, July 26, 2006
"Love does not behave rudely" (1 Corinthians 14:5).
IDEA: If we love people, we will not be rude to them.
PURPOSE: To enable listeners to understand how loving people produces good manners.
When your children were growing up, did you try to teach them manners?
What did you teach them?
What did they learn?
Why do you go to the trouble to teach manners?
I. Do you think it would be wise for Christians to include a course on manners in the church?
What would you teach?
II. Love gives culture a soul.
Have you ever been around people who observe the formal rules of etiquette but who don’t have love? We call them snobs.
Why, then, should Christians be concerned about the rules of etiquette?
Paul tells us that love is not rude.
If I observe the rules because they put others at ease, that’s being considerate. The rules of etiquette keep us from smashing against each other like rocks in a landslide. They smooth out the flow of life so that we don’t unthinkingly offend others.
III. The grace of God makes us gracious. The same word is used in Greek for grace and for charm.
If we love people -- which is the grace of God at work in our lives -- we will not be deliberately rude to them.
Manners or etiquette can help us do things automatically to make others feel comfortable.
Have you ever been in another culture in which the rules of etiquette are different from our own?
It helps to know the rules to make other people comfortable.
If you don’t know the rules, you’re always thinking about that and you tend to offend people unnecessarily.