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#WordForTodayDevotional

Thursday June 16, 2022

CHARACTERISTICS OF YAHWEH’S KIND OF LOVE (3): IS NOT ENVIOUS

…love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, …
I Corinthians 13:4 (AMP)

First Corinthians 13 offers one of the Bible’s richest expositions regarding love. Verse 4 notes that love “does not envy.” So, selfish jealousy is at odds with Yahweh’s type of love. Some Bible versions rendered ‘love is never envious’ in our text as ‘it is not envious’ (NET), ‘it does not envy’ (NIV), ‘love does not envy’ (NKJV), ‘is not jealous’ (ERV), ‘charity envieth not’ (KJV), etc. The Greek word translated “envy” is ‘zeloo’ which means “to burn with zeal, to have warmth of feeling for or against, to affect, covet (earnestly), (have) desire, (move with) envy, be jealous over, (be) zealous(-ly affect).” Literally, the sense is “to be heated or to boil over with envy, hatred, or anger.” In the context of 1 Corinthians 13, the idea is that love does not focus on personal desires. It is not eager to increase possessions. Yahweh’s type of love is selfless, not selfish. Envy is when you want what someone else has and you resent them for having it. Spurgeon says it this way “There is a spirit, resident in the natural man, the human nature of man, which is always inclined toward hate and envy, always wanting to get somewhat from other men, and always grieved if other men seem to be or to have more than the person himself has.”