Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Love Does Not Dishonor Others | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through 1st Corinthians 13, Paul's definition of love. In 1998, Disney released Moulon. The movie was about self-expression. So Moulon, she is a warrior at heart, but her culture is trying to force her to become a prim and proper housewife. Mulan, she expresses her true self by sneaking off into the military. Now, Disney expected Mulan to be a hit in China, but it wasn't. It was a total dud.

Starting point is 00:00:48 Chinese audiences disliked Disney's Mulan so much that they called her fake Mulan and American Mulan. What happened? Well, the original Chinese folktale called Mulan, it wasn't a little Chinese folktale called Mulan. it wasn't a story of self-expression. It was a story of honor and shame. It was the story of a family facing public shame because they couldn't send a man to war. And in the Chinese version, Mulan, she lays down her rights, she lays down her self-interest by disguising herself as a male and going to war. Why does she do it? It's not self-expression. It's so that she can protect her family's honor.

Starting point is 00:01:36 We Westerners, we don't live in an honor or shame culture. Right now, we live in a self-expression culture. I think the difference between these two kinds of cultures is nicely summarized by the kinds of advice we give our kids. In the West, we tell our kids to stand out, to express your true self, to be unique. But in the East, they've got an old proverb. It says, the tallest blade of grass is the first to get cut. Save face.

Starting point is 00:02:10 Do what's honorable in the eyes of the community. Don't cause your family disgrace. When we in the West hear this, we often start judging. But that's a two-way stream. Because when people in the East hear about our culture, they find it self-absorbed. They see us selfishly sacrificing the well-being of the community, or the well-being of a family, for me, for what I want. Did you know that Jesus, Peter, Paul, virtually everybody in the Bible, they lived in an honor, shame, culture? And in some ways,

Starting point is 00:02:48 they resisted their cultures. For example, they warned that honoring God is a higher calling, a higher priority than honoring your family. But they also saw the good things in honor, shame cultures. things that, again, we in the West tend to miss, tend to ignore, sometimes even judge. In 1 Corinthians 13.5, Paul continues his definition of what love does and what love doesn't do. And he writes this, love does not dishonor others. When we hear that, we tend to think that Paul is saying, love doesn't gossip. love doesn't disrespect others. Love doesn't internet shame. Love does not dishonor others. And those are all probably true statements, worthy of a different podcast, but that's not Paul's

Starting point is 00:03:42 point here. Remember, Paul lived in an honor, shame, culture. And here, in this verse, he's using the vocabulary of an honor shame culture to teach us something about love. He's saying that love doesn't bring disgrace to others. Love doesn't bring disgrace to others by its actions. Love doesn't cause others to lose face by its actions. Love is not shameless. Love cares how what it does affects the family, affects the community. Paul understood something really clearly.

Starting point is 00:04:21 When we start following Jesus, we actually become a part of Jesus' family. And from that point forward, we are expected to bring honor to the family name. It's just assumed. The problem in Corinth was that people weren't bringing honor to Jesus' name. They were disgracing Jesus' name. They were causing his name dishonor. Believers were suing each other, sleeping around, getting drunk during communion, flaunting their wealth, worshipping in a way that made Jesus look totally crazy.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Honestly, not much has changed today. Believers, we still sue and divorce each other. We still hook up and cheat, get drunk, flaunt our wealth by wearing expensive clothing and jewelry. We do bizarre things at church that make Jesus look crazy. And Paul is pleading with them in 1st Corinthians 6. He says, honor God. Stop disgracing God with your action. Stop dishonoring his name. with your actions, he says, honor God with your bodies. Love doesn't dishonor the name of others. Love doesn't cause disgrace to others. Love does not cause disgrace to the name of Jesus. Love does not dishonor by its actions the name of Jesus. Instead, love sets aside its own rights. love sets aside its own interest, its own self-expression for the sake of others.

Starting point is 00:06:04 How do we know that? Well, it's because that's what Jesus did. In Philippians 2, Paul writes that Jesus, although being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very form of a soul. servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Jesus underwent the worst shame and pain imaginable.

Starting point is 00:06:46 Why? To bring us honor and glory. Jesus set aside his rights. Why? To bring his father honor. and glory, to give us honor and glory. Love sets aside self-expression, self-interest, my rights, my needs, what I want. It sets all those things aside to bring honor to others. This is a utterly countercultural message today, and that means it's something that we desperately need to hear.

Starting point is 00:07:23 There was a Christian family living in South Africa, and they agreed to take in an Indian foreign exchange student who had been educated in England. Anyways, the student, he wasn't a Christian, but he was incredibly interested in Jesus. He read his New Testament. He loved the Gospels. And so, as you can imagine, I mean, this Christian family, they're pretty excited. They're getting someone in their house. They're not a Christian, but they're interested in Christianity. They were excited, but they were lots of other things too.

Starting point is 00:08:00 The husband, he constantly demanded his rights from his family. And the wife, she was always expressing herself with passive, short, cutting remarks. And the children, they constantly put their own needs first. They disparaged each other. They disparaged their parents. And after spending a year with this family, The student watching them, seeing how they lived, he finally gave up on Jesus. The student's name was Mahatma Gandhi.

Starting point is 00:08:35 That family, they chose self-expression. And in the process, they disgraced the name of Jesus in front of their guest. Love doesn't dishonor others. Love doesn't cause disgrace, especially to Jesus. Does your life bring honor to Jesus's name? Or is your life dishonoring Jesus's name? Today, I want you to confess the ways that you've dishonored Jesus's name with your life. We all do it.

Starting point is 00:09:12 We all fall short. But I don't want you to stop there. I want you after that to receive the honor that Jesus gives you by loving you. And remember how he did it. He gives you that honor by setting down his own. rights, his own self-interest, his own self-expression. Let his love for you, let it free you to set down your own rights, your own self-interest, your own self-expression, and instead to honor the family name of Jesus by loving others sacrificially.

Starting point is 00:09:49 Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. that helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Love Does Not Dishonor Others | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

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