1 Corinthians 13:4b-5a: Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
Is thinking you're good at this stuff boasting?
Seriously, though, I had to marinate on these for awhile because I found it tough to put envy and boast in a love context. I looked at Matthew Henry's commentary and he talked about in the context of loving your neighbor, which made sense, so let's look at that.
For envy, Henry says, "it is not grieved at the good of others; neither at their gifts nor at their good qualities...If we love our neighbour we shall be so far from envying his welfare, or
being displeased with it, that we shall share in it and rejoice at it."
I honestly think I'm generally good with that. I'm content with what I have, I'm happy for others when they succeed--unless I feel they really didn't earn it, and then I struggle. Every now and then there's a gadget that I get overly obsessed with and want for awhile, but I've learned to move past this.
The second part though, was convicting. Henry says, "True love will give us an esteem of our brethren, and raise our value
for them; and this will limit our esteem of ourselves, and prevent the
tumours of self-conceit and arrogance."
I don't believe myself to be outwardly arrogant. I'm bad at self-promotion, I don't like to talk about my own accomplishments and get embarrassed and uncomfortable when publicly recognized at work.
However on the flip-side of that, I do have have an inward arrogance that rears it's ugly head in allowing myself to gossip or speak poorly of those who do their job poorly. And that's just as bad if not worse. Too often I find myself complaining about someone's poor performance instead of helping them be better or seeing if there's a deeper issue that's causing them to struggle.
This is a hard pill to swallow and definitely something I need to get right if I'm going to be a good example in the workplace.
How does envy and boasting play into your life? How have you found to fight the "tumors of self-conceit and arrogance?
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