1st Corinthians 13:5
1st Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Leighton Flowers: “Love does not seek its own. Yet, that’s all God is doing with the reprobates of Calvinism. He is seeking His own by damning them from the time they are born till the time they die. They have absolutely no control over it whatsoever. He is damning them to Hell for His own edification and glorification and praise. How in the world can you define that as love, in any way, shape or form?”
Calvinist, John Piper: “God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking his own praise is the ultimate loving act. For him self-exaltation is the highest virtue.” (quoted in Self Serving Grace?)
Restated in a better way: “God is the only Being in all the universe who actually deserves to seek His own glory, praise and self-exaltation, but instead chooses to empty Himself for the sake of worthless humanity in the ultimate act of love on Calvary. (Philippians 2:5-11) This act, once accepted by faith, leads us to freely praise, exalt and glorify Him for the self-sacrificial God He is.”
While Calvinists believe “God’s highest virtue” is His “self-exaltation,” the Cross reveals otherwise. God’s highest virtue, as evidenced at Calvary, is His gracious, self-sacrificial love for unworthy vessels.
Calvinist: “The most important aspect of God’s love is that it’s not about you! It’s all about God’s glory.”
If that’s the most important aspect of love, then why did Paul forget to list the most important thing about love in the greatest definition of love in the Bible? Nowhere in Scripture do we ever hear God, or anyone else, ever saying: “It’s not about you; it’s all about God’s glory.”
Furthermore, is God’s genuine love and provision for all humanity the true reflection of His glory? Or, is it God seeking His own glory at the expense of most humanity? If it is truly “more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), then Christ’s giving of Himself for all humanity amounts to a greater self-blessing than for God to receive glory at the expense of humanity.
