Love…is not arrogant.
1 Corinthians 13:4b
C.S. Lewis once said, “It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.”
This is why Paul says that love “is not arrogant”. Love is the opposite of pride. Pride is obsessed with self. Love thinks more about the other person.
What does love that is “not arrogant” look like?
True love does not walk around with its chest puffed up like it is a bigger deal than other people.
True love does not act like it alone has the superior knowledge and that no one else knows what they’re talking about.
True love does not come across as smug (no matter how “important” that person might be).
True love does not act like it is above ever being corrected for saying or doing something wrong.
True love does not merely talk the talk but it walks the walk.
True love does not treat other people as if they could never be right about something.
True love does not act like it has a monopoly on knowledge, giftedness, or holiness.
True love does not act like it already knows everything there is to know.
True love is not obsessed with one’s own status in the community.
True love does not stand up in the pulpit acting like it is the Messiah.
The curse of sin means that we are “curved in on ourselves”. We are all building our own Tower of Babels. Thankfully, God is in the business of destroying our towers so that we might live in His Kingdom and His People. Only the Holy Spirit can do this work in us to cause us to love others in a Christlike way.