Love is not provoked

1) When was the last time someone irritated us? This morning? Yesterday? Last week?

2) Are there certain actions that really irritate us?

3) It may be something done by a husband, wife, child, or coworker.

4) We all know what it means to be irritated.

a) In 1 Cor. 13:5 Paul said love “is not provoked.” The KJV has an extra word: “easily.”

b) Paul meant that people who have matured in New Testament love are hard to provoke.

5) Provoke is an interesting word, and it is a word that really has its roots in the Old Testament.

6) About 250 years before Jesus came into the world the Old Testament was translated into Greek.

a) Scholars took the Hebrew text and translated it into one of the most fascinating languages every used.

b) As this translation was made the writers used the word translated “provoked” in 1 Cor. 13:5.

7) They used this word about 45 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

8) It may surprise you, but this word is often used of God and His dealings with Israel.

a) First on your outline is Num. 14:11.

b) Israel was complaining; they said it would have been better if they had never left Egypt (Num. 14:2).

c) The Hebrews made some tentative plans to return (verse 4).

d) God then spoke to Moses – verse 11 – READ.

e) Heaven had redeemed a people from bondage and then these people began to bellyache.

f) God said to one of His servants, “This nation is provoking me” (KJV). ASV: despise.

9) We then find this word again in verse 23 – God said He had been provoked and people would not see the land.

10) In Num. 16 we find the authority of Moses and Aaron being challenged by more than 250 men (verse 2).

11) These men had “provoked” God (Num. 16:30) and they died for their sin.

12) A third passage that has this term is Prov. 14:31.

a) The wise man spoke of those who “oppress the poor.”

b) Helping the poor honors God, Prov. 14:31b.

c) In the first part of this passage the Bible says those who oppress the poor “reproach their maker.”

d) If we oppress the poor we provoke God.

IN THE VERSES I HAVE CITED, WE ARE TOLD ABOUT GOD BEING “PROVOKED.” YET, IN 1 COR. 13:5, THE SCRIPTURE SAYS LOVE PREVENTS PEOPLE FROM BEING PROVOKED.

a) How do these seemingly two contradictory things go together?

b) If God is all loving, how could He have ever been provoked?

c) God was provoked based on what we might call “righteous anger.”

d) There are times when it is right to be provoked.

e) There is something that we may describe as “righteous anger” and that is not wrong.

2) This type of reaction is not what is in view in 1 Cor. 13:5.

a) J.B. Phillips translated the point in 1 Cor. 13:5 as, “love is not touchy.”

b) God was not touchy when dealing with the nation of Israel.

c) He had people who whined, moaned, complained, groaned, protested, criticized, grumbled, and nagged.

d) Because of how these people acted, divine provocation was the result.

3) Knowing a little more about this word allows us to apply it to our lives.

4) We want to live in such a way where we do our best to not be provoked.

a) Earlier I said the KJV has the word “easily” in the text.

b) This term is not part of the original text and you can see that with the italics.

c) We are not exactly sure why easily was inserted, but an interesting suggestion has been made.

5) King James wanted a translation of the Bible and a translation does bear his name.

6) It has been suggested that King James had a bad temper so “easily” was put in for his benefit.

7) That may or may not be the case; for us, we want to work on not being easily provoked.

a) If we sum up what Paul is saying in this verse 5 it boils down to a bad temper.

b) A person is provoked by what someone says or does and they blow up like a volcano.

c) I have heard people say, “I do have a nasty temper but it only lasts for a little while.”

d) That may be true, but such is also true for a nuclear bomb.

e) It detonates and then it is over, but consequences often linger for a long, long time.

f) Paul says work on diffusing the bomb before it explodes.

8) When a person is easily provoked they make life difficult for others.

9) Others feel as if they have to watch every single word, action, and even their looks.

10) One never knows when a person with a terrible temper will explode.

a) Our world may not understand a lot of things about Christianity.

b) It does understand, to some degree, the quality described by the apostle.

c) Who here has not heard of “anger management”?

d) Anger management is controlling anger before it controls us.

e) The world thinks it has really found something new and important.

f) God’s word recognized and addressed this problem long ago.

g) God’s remedy does not require psychotherapy; it simply requires people to understand and grow in love.

11) When we look at people we find that individuals have varying tolerance levels of frustration.

a) Some can be provoked all day long and they never fly off the handle.

b) Others have the slightest thing go wrong and they light up like the 4^th of July fireworks.

c) To avoid being easily provoked we may need to back and study some things again.

d) There is the “Fruit of the Spirit” in Gal. 5:22-23.

e) Paul said, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self control.”

f) Meditating on these qualities and working to apply them will have an effect on people.

g) Pursuing these qualities will eventually cause a person to become provoked less and less.

12) 2 Cor. 5:14 says Jesus’ love “constrains” us.

a) I think of the word “constrained” as “hemmed in.”

b) Imagine parking a car, leaving it, and then when we return, our car is “hemmed in.”

c) After we left our vehicle other people arrived.

d) One parked a car to our right and another left of our vehicle.

e) The car to our right and left are so close we cannot open any of our car doors.

f) God’s love is to operate like that in the life of a Christian.

g) When a person is filled with the love of Christ, provoking them is very, very difficult.

h) Love can constrain us.

13) This can be a difficult lesson to learn.

a) Even for mature saints it can be a challenge.

b) At this point in our study I want to turn our attention to the book of Habakkuk.

c) This book has only three chapters and it is the story of a frustrated prophet.

d) Habakkuk called out to God and asked how long it would be before God listened (1:2).

e) God told him that heaven was well aware of what was taking place (1:5).

14) In 1:12-17 the prophet offered some more of his thoughts to God.

15) Would God use people worse than the Hebrews to punish the Israelites?

a) When the second chapter opens we find him saying he would wait to see what God would do.

b) Hab. 3:1 says the prophet was looking to God.

c) Let’s skip down now to verse 17 of Hab. 3 – READ.

16) God’s prophet said the fig trees would not flourish.

17) If we have just one crop fail in America, it is all over the news.

18) In ancient Israel figs were going to be destroyed.

19) God’s prophet also knew the “olive” would fail.

20) A third consequence involved the “fields” (they would offer no food).

21) The flocks would be “cut off from the fold” (livestock would die).

22) The “no herd in the stalls” means there would be no cattle in the barns.

a) Habakkuk could have been angry. He could have been provoked.

b) He could have said, “this is not fair and I am done with you God.”

c) “Find another prophet if you are going to act in this way.”

23) Do you know what this man said? We are told in verse 18 – READ.

24) We also have this statement in the last verses of the book – verse 19 – READ.

a) God’s prophet was provoked earlier in the book, but he finally overcame that.

b) Such is also true for us.

c) Being provoked is often related to circumstance.

d) Something bad happens and the result is that we may be severely provoked.

25) We need to choose (decide) how we will handle bad circumstances in life.

a) We receive bad news, have a bad experience, meet an unpleasant person, or something else.

b) Rather than choosing to fly off the handle, we can choose to be constrained by love.

c) We handle the matter in a way that is kind, courteous, and Christian.

26) This quality for love reminds us that we have the power of choice.

27) We will get plenty of chances to practice this quality.

a) Last night we decided to have a little cookout; one of my jobs was to go to the store.

b) I did, put some things in a shopping cart that included two packages of meat.

c) When I got to the checkout line, the meat was gone. It was in the cart but someone removed it.

d) Perhaps when I stepped away from the cart someone decided to snatch it.

28) I had to tell the cashier to hold my order and I would be back with replacement beef.

29) I go more, checked out, got home, and Teresa said, “where are the carrots?”

30) They too had been in the cart but they came up missing.

a) I could have lived without them, but another trip was made back to the store.

b) I really did not want to make a second trip back to the store.

c) Neither was I really enthused about going back and trying to find some more been on clearance.

d) All types of unfavorable situations arise. How do we handle them?

e) Things needed to be done and there was no reason to be provoked.

f) This is just one more way to demonstrate that Christian living is the best way to live.