1 Corinthians 13:4b “…Love is not envious or boastful or proud or rude.” God is not envious: God has no need to be envious because he is the best thing out there. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. How can you be envious of something that isn’t close to being a match for you?

One thing of note: God is a definitely a jealous God. There are many sections in the Bible where God is said to be jealous for his people.  This is true and doesn’t conflict with the statement that God isn’t envious. In the original text that the Bible was translated from, envy and jealously were two different words, but in English these words are often interchangeable.

When it comes to the word jealousy in the Bible, this means to desire something that is yours. If I own a bike and someone steals it, I can be jealous for that bike and want to get it back.

On the other hand, to envy something means to desire something that is definitely not yours. This word is similar to the word used when the Bible says, “Do not covet your neighbor’s wife.” The person that stole my bike envied my bike and took it from me.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make: When it comes to God, he doesn’t desire anything that isn’t his. He created everything and deserves everything.

When it comes to us, if we are loving and full of love, we only desire what is ours. Since Jesus died for us, what is ours is substantial. We should not be envious of the things that are not of God because they are not ours and won’t bring us joy in the end.

God is not boastful or proud: Since both of these words have similar roots and actions associated with them, I’ll take them both on at the same time. God is not boastful or proud whenever he is speaking of himself in the Bible. He desires for us to discover his awesomeness, so sometimes he talks about this in the Bible, but never in a boastful or proud way.

When it comes to us, boastfulness and pride come from a self-absorption that leads to us being satisfied in ourselves. The biggest problem with that is that we leave God out of the equation. When we leave no room for God’s awesome righteousness and perfection, we leave no room to receive his salvation. We must give up trying to do things our way and let him take over. We must stop talking highly of ourselves and, instead, shout out God’s greatness! Doing anything else is hopeless.

God is not rude: God doesn’t just push us around and make us do whatever he wants. His desire is not to rudely force us to do anything but to see us come to him because of his love and our love for him.

Aren’t you glad that God is not envious, boastful, proud or rude? Isn’t it wonderful that the one true God is greater than our human faults and shortcomings? Let us praise God for his awesomeness and his love that is both knowable (in that we can see that it exists and is wonderful) and unfathomable!

Everett