Love Does Not Envy

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

The greatest proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit in an individual or a congregation is the expression of love. But what is love? Today we’ll continue to look at Holy Spirit directed love as found in the love chapter of the Bible….1 Cor 13!

We pick it up in verse 4: 1Co 13:4; love does not envy, in other words, it does not covet.

 

So here we have a measuring stick of what is not a display of love. As a Holy Spirit filled individual or congregation jealousy is very much out of place. Think about it.

 

Where did you or that person next to you get their physical and spiritual gifts.  You got them from God. Before He formed you in the womb, He knew the very sperm and egg, replete with all its DNA that He was going to use to craft you BEFORE He formed you. Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

Your physical gifts or lack thereof come from God, just as your spiritual gifts came from God when you wee “born again.” Your material blessings also come from God! How did Job put it? Job 1:21 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

 

To covet what someone else has is a sin against God, because in effect you are saying, “God you don’t know what you have done.”

 

And of course, the Holy Spirit would never say, “What was I thinking” in His distribution of gifts.  He would be warring against Himself! Therefore, we can say that Holy Spirit love is an absence of envy. It is genuine satisfaction with the hand that God has dealt you.

 

Sometime I find myself wishing I could preach like pastor X,Y, or Z! How foolish! It would be a man=made distortion of what God has made me to be. Rather than coveting, maybe I should just be thankful that God has allowed me to preach at all!

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.