Thursday, July 27, 2006
"Love does not behave rudely" (1 Corinthians 13:5).
IDEA: Love is considerate of other people’s feelings.
PURPOSE: To help listeners not let the society around them pour them into its mold.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul says that love is not rude.
Putting that positively, he’s saying that love has good manners.
Do you think it’s easier to have good manners in some places more than in others?
If so, what makes the difference?
I. We can sometimes let the world around us determine the way we relate to other people.
I have a friend who spent a year near Rome, Italy. He had been a relatively considerate driver when he lived in the USA. But he discovered while in Italy that if he drove in a thoughtful manner, he would never get anywhere. When he returned to the USA, he drove like a terror and picked up 4 or 5 tickets in a year.
Sometimes society around us gets us to copy its lifestyle and we become rude
when we drive
with clerks in stores who are rude to us.
Sidney Harris, the newspaper columnist, was with a friend who purchased a newspaper from a newsboy. His friend made a gracious remark, but the newsboy said, “You want a paper or don’t you? Forget the conversation.” Harris’s friend said in a kind way, “I’m sorry I offended you.” As they were leaving, Harris commented on the response. His friend said, “I refuse to let someone else set the tone of my life.”
One test of good manners is to be able to put up graciously with bad manners.
II. Rudeness comes from not caring about the feelings of others.
The church at Corinth could have used a seminar on manners. Some of the problems in the church came from rudeness.
In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul refers to the custom of the church to share a common meal -- a pot-luck supper. Everyone contributed to a shared meal: the rich brought much and the poor brought little.
Apparently some of the rich began meeting in groups by themselves. When the slaves came, there was little left. That conduct was a sin against love. It defiled the communion table. The people there were selfish and rude.
We may carry on that tradition today.
In the church we form little groups with friends after a service and ignore the stranger who has come to visit. We don’t give a visitor a cordial welcome. Non-Christians can go away, believing that churches are unfriendly.
We may buttonhole someone with evangelism. We practice our virtues without love: honesty without sympathy, candor without kindness. People who call “a spade a spade” often end up treating other people like dirt.
III. Courtesy is simply love in little things. Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices on behalf of others.
It’s the ability to make a point without making an enemy.