An Unseemly Idea

Paul says that love does not behave unseemly, or disgracefully, or improperly. But how do we determine what is and what isn't unseemly behavior? It is extremely naive to think that we can know what is right and wrong without God's objective, unchanging standard that He has revealed to us and preserved in the Bible. If we are not becoming more and more self-conscious about obtaining all our ethics from the Scriptures alone, then we are going to be buffeted around by all the constantly changing ideas our world throws at us. There are very strong opinions in the world that are forceful, sophisticated and popular, yet they are dead wrong. Many people embrace these wrong ideas and live their lives according to them, thinking that their behavior is good. A great danger we face is our tendency to formulate our ethics by our own experience and traditions and in this way overturn the commandments of God. When Paul says that love does not behave unseemly, he is saying that we need to have more than warm fuzzies inside telling us what is right or wrong in any given situation.