| STUDY LOVE |
| Commentators N-Z |
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Robertson's Word Studies:
{Seeketh not its own} (ou zetei ta heautes). Its own interests (10:24, 33).
BT Internet: zhtew, seek, search for, look for eJauto, eJauth, eJauton, him/her/itself 'not preoccupied with the issues of self' cf. Rom 15:3; 1 Cor 10:24; Phil 2:4,21. The Theologian: The Internet Journal for Integrated Theology: Ouj zhtei' taV eJauth' - Paul has already indicated that they should imitate him in this and seek not their own advantage but the advantage of others. Self-centredness is immensely divisive, and could cause them to be "touchy" when they felt their interests were not being adequately addressed. Bill Turner: Love seeketh not her own, and does not insist upon her rights. "Ou zetei ta heautes." Love does not seek its own interests. This follows on from the last quality of love, it is the cure for disorderly conduct and other misuses of the gifts. Love does not think of its own profit or interests. It considers how it may best profit others. The present tense shows us that the permanent guiding principle of a heart of love, is service, not self-seeking. Jn.13 all. Mt.20v20-28. Rom.15v1-6. N.B. v3. 1Cor.10v23, 24. Wesley's Explanatory Notes: Seeketh not her own - Ease, pleasure, honour, or temporal advantage. Nay, sometimes the lover of mankind seeketh not, in some sense, even his own spiritual advantage; does not think of himself, so long as a zeal for the glory of God and the souls of men swallows him up. Wesley, Sermon 22: And in becoming all things to all men, "love seeketh not her own." In striving to please all men, the lover of mankind has no eye at all to his own temporal advantage. He covets no man's silver, or gold, or apparel: He desires nothing but the salvation of their souls: Yea, in some sense, he may be said, not to seek his own spiritual, any more than temporal, advantage; for while he is on the full stretch to save their souls from death, he, as it were, forgets himself. He does not think of himself, so long as that zeal for the glory of God swallows him up. Nay, at some times he may almost seem, through an excess of love, to give up himself, both his soul and his body; while he cries out, with Moses, "O, this people have sinned a great sin; yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin -- ; and if not, blot me out of the book which thou hast written;" (Exod. 32:31, 32;) -- or, with St. Paul, "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh!" (Rom. 9:3.) |
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