The first fruit:Love

I'm going to start today with a dad joke!

Why should you not marry a tennis player? Because love means nothing to them.

The fruits of the spirit are the instructions to believers on how to overcome the flesh. Galatians 5:16-25 explains to us the way we are to live as Christians. I have previously preached on the importance of living in the spirit and allowing God to control our actions. Starting today through the next 9 messages we will explore together the fruits of the spirit, we will look at each fruit in detail and understand the biblical principals of living in that fruit. Remember that the fruit is the evidence of the change inside you and a branch that bears no fruit is cut off and burned. The 9 fruits of the spirit listed in verses 22-23 are these, Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This week we jump in with both feet and we land on Love. Why did Paul list the fruits in this order and why is love the most important? Today we will explore this in 3 phases. First is the importance of Love, next we will look at the meaning of love, lastly we will look at the practice of love. Keep your Bible handy, we will also have the scriptures on the screen.

The Importance of Love

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Why is love so important to Paul in listing the fruits of the spirit? The book of Galatians was written in Koine Greek and when you create a list in the Greek you will always start with the most important. Love is the first fruit that Paul lists and that is because it is the fruit that is absolutely impossible without the spirit of God.

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Love is not a natural trait to humans because we are born into sin. While there is an illusion of love without the spirit of God you will never be able to truly love. The most important fruit of the spirit is love because without God you just cannot do it. The love that we give without the spirit of God is a counterfeit love. How can you say that Ryan there are parents who love their children and they are not Christians? Do they? Ok let's test that theory. A parent loves their child but teaches that child that it is ok to be selfish at times. Is that love? A parent loves their child but passes along to them characteristics that are against the spirit of God. Is that love? We know what is a counterfeit love a selfish love you could say. Without Christ we are loving for our own good. This is how it is possible for a father to kill his children then himself bexcuse he does not truly know how to love. The “love” we se apart from the spirit of God is a counterfeit love. I read a study on “selfish lovers” for those in the younger group please don't start humming the song. The study states

The result of being a selfish lover is often either to find an extraordinary giver who can tolerate what feels like immense restrictive behavior or to have multiple “superficial” relationships. This keeps the selfish lover in an unthreatened mode and they then can feel as though they don’t have to answer to anyone. Perhaps the greatest obstruction to the selfish lover is that he or she is afraid to learn at a later stage in life. It is like asking an adult to start to learn how to swim. It is much more difficult later in life.

this is absolutely true about every person outside of a relationship with God. People love for what they get out of it not what they can put into it. This study comes close to what a person should do when they are in a relationship with a selfish lover and they give a list of things to help like encouraging the other person and building them up but then it ends with a very selfish option....Just leave. That's right try to make things good but if they don't make you feel good just leave. This my friends is why divorce rates are through the roof. This is why we have apps that help you meet up with people just to satisfy your desires. This counterfeit love is a part of the devils plan to destroy things. You can feel like you love while never really loving at all. Without God and His spirit which you cannot receive apart from Christ it is impossible to love. Paul writes to the believers about the fruits of the spirit and starts with love because there is no point in moving on to other fruits without love

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Peter 4:8 ESV

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 John 4:20 ESV

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

counterfeit love will not cut it with God, He sees into your heart, He knows your true self.

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Paul wanted us to know that real love, true, love, the love that only comes from God is the love that is expected of believers. Love is the most important because it is the first sign of life from those who have moved from death into life. Are you alive? Is your love real? Are you a selfish lover?

The meaning of love

Galatians 5:22 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

The word used here in the Greek is the word Agape. While it was used more in the writings of scripture and was primarily a term us3d by the church it did appear in secular writings in the greek libraries and was used in a general sense of unselfish love. For the believers it was the type of love from God and when used in secular writing it was used to describe sacrificial love. The meaning of love in this scripture is to point us to sacrifice. Giving up of ourselves for others. Listen to what Jesus said to his disciples.

John 13:15–17 ESV

For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 15:12–14 ESV

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

the meaning of love displayed in our scripture today is to sacrifice. To give up yourself for the better of others. What greater example do we have than that of Jesus Christ? Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

A certain medieval monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel. There was nothing else to say.

The meaning of the word love is the same meaning that was given when the Bible spoke about the love that Jesus had for us on the cross. In our scripture today it states that the fruit of a believer will be the same sacrificial love that was given by Christ to us. How do we do that? What does this look like? This leads me to our last point today. The practice of love

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Putting the word into practice is absolutely the most difficult part when you are trying to fake your Christianity. When you do not really believe in what you say you do and you don't really want to do it, it truly is difficult. For those who truly believe the practice of love will come naturally because of the spirit of God inside them. There is a sense in which you will have to learn new behaviors but your characteristics should be from the spirit and come naturally. Wow Ryan that's a pretty tough line to draw especially since you fail. That right but I fail when I decide that I'm not going to live by the spirit I do not fail because the spirit is not inside of me. You need to make that determination for yourself today. Are you not truly loving because you are not filled with the spirit of God? Are you not filled with the spirit of God because you have bought some fake brand of Christianity that is more focused on how it makes you feel to be a Christian than the sacrifices this life calls us too? You must decide that.

I'll take you back again to Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Philippians 2:4 ESV

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Matthew 10:39 ESV

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 10:45 ESV

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Boarding the SS Dorchester on a dreary winter day in 1943 were 903 troops and four chaplains, including Moody alumnus Lt. George Fox. World War II was in full swing, and the ship was headed across the icy North Atlantic where German U-boats lurked. At 12:00 on the morning of February 3, a German torpedo ripped into the ship. "She's going down!" the men cried, scrambling for lifeboats.

A young GI crept up to one of the chaplains. "I've lost my life jacket," he said. "Take this," the chaplain said, handing the soldier his jacket. Before the ship sank, each chaplain gave his life jacket to another man. The heroic chaplains then linked arms and lifted their voices in prayer as the Dorchester went down. Lt. Fox and his fellow pastors were awarded posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross.