Love
Fruit of the Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Context
Context
We begin a series on the fruit of the Spirit this evening. We are familiar with the fruit of the Spirit, which is outlined in
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
But as we begin to think through these virtues, keep in mind the exhortations Paul issued earlier in this chapter:
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
and also
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
What we see here is the conflict between our flesh and the Spirit of God which resides in all who have placed their faith in Christ. This is why Christians find it difficult to live for Christ. It’s not that we struggle. As those who have received new life in Christ, our struggle is to believe that God’s will is best. To put this another way, we struggle to no gratify the desires of our flesh. Christians have been given the Spirit of God but we continue to contend with our flesh. It is all out warfare.
Before the fruit of the Spirit is outlined, the works of the flesh are named:
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
As one commentator pointed out, whether it is the Tower of Babel or modern totalitarianism, or Aaron’s golden calf or contemporary idols like sex, money and power, the works of the flesh are clear enough and they bring misery, violence and death. The works of the flesh are the products of human effort to devise, connive, manufacture and self-actualize.
The fruit of the Spirit is framed different. The shift from works to fruit was intentional. First, works are plural where fruit is singular. The works of the flesh are many (and things like these v. 21), but the fruit of the Spirit is one fruit that manifests itself in nine virtues.
As has been said before in our series through Gal. 5, the people of God have been made spiritual people. Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in His people, and as indwelled people, we are able to manifest evidence of this indwelling. We are able to show the love of God, the joy of God, the peace of GOd. We can be truly loving, joyful, peaceful etc. Who we are, spiritual, will be manifest, that is, the fruit of the Spirit.
Introduction
Introduction
In his treatise entitled, The Nature of True Virtue, Jonathan Edwards describes love in two categories:
Love of complacency
Love of benevolence
To quote Edwards he says:
Love of complacency is to delight in something or someone for its beauty.
In the treatise, he describes what true beauty is, but to give a shallow example of this kind of love, someone might say, I love pizza. Why do people love pizza? People find themselves pleased with the qualities of pizza, namely its taste. We might say we love a particular time of year like the Fall, or a particular place or a time of day; all because some find these things pleasing in some way.
Quoting Edwards again:
Love of benevolence is that affection of the heart which causes it to incline well-being to someone, or disposes it to desire and take pleasure in its happiness.
So, the love of benevolence is not based on the loveliness of the object of your love, but rather on your good will or benevolence toward the person or thing you are loving. You could say you are loving them because they are pleasing to you.
To get a handle on the virtue “love” in the fruit of the Spirit, we will first consider
The Love of God
The Love of God
God’s love is a benevolent love
God’s love is a benevolent love
Here are some important considerations as we consider the love of God:
God’s love is undeserved: People do not merit nor deserve God’s love.
God’s love is costly: A price was paid for people to be loved by God.
God’s love is benevolent: God desires the highest good for those He loves.
God’s love is undeserved
God’s love is undeserved
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
What this passage shows is not so much what shows the love of God but what the love of God is. while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God’s love is sacrificial in nature but also undeserved in nature.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul emphasizes the same idea:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
even when we were dead in our trespasses. God loved sinners… trespassers.
God’s love is costly
God’s love is costly
As noted before, the love of God is fundamentally sacrificial. A payment was made in order for people, that is, for sinners to be objects of the love of God and not of His wrath.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We can attempt to plunge the depths of God’s love by spending some time meditating on the price He was willing to pay to love us, namely the life of His Son.
God’s love is benevolent
God’s love is benevolent
This is redundant. We are suggesting that God’s love is a love of benevolence, and part of our support of this proposition is to say that God’s love is benevolent.
What I’m trying to get at here is that God desires the highest good for those He loves. His love is not an indifferent love.
Ultimately, our highest good is God Himself.
You know the phrase, absence makes the heart grow fonder. The idea that if two people are apart from each other, their love or affection for one another will increase. This is not true of God.
God is never absent from those He loves. He will never be absent from those He loves. His heart is fond of those whom He loves, and this is not dependent on anything including the behavior of those loved by Him.
Our highest good is God Himself, and He never withdraws from His people.
I suppose this brings us back to the costliness of the love of God. Jesus experienced the deepest agony on the cross. He bore the penalty of His people’s sins. God’s people suffer, but in our suffering, we must know our suffering is not evidence of God’s withdraw of love. We never have to ask, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Our debt has been paid in full.
So we will have a clearer picture of what it is to show the fruit of love as we dwell upon the love God has for us. His love is the most beautiful love in the world which is shown in that it is undeserved, costly and benevolent.
But what about the fruit of the Spirit? What about being spiritual people? What about showing love?
Love for God
Love for God
People who are recipients of Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit are able to express the love of God. Love for God is fueled by a contentedness in Him. By being satisfied by God. Love for God is a love of complacence, to use the language of Edwards. We love of God because He has given us the gift of being able to see His beauty. We have bee so changed by His work of regeneration that we can be satisfied in Him. No doubt, we struggle to find our satisfaction in Him… to be satisfied by His work of grace in our lives, but those loved by God’s love of benevolence can love Him with a love of complacence.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
So, what does showing the love of God look like?
Committed to the truth
Committed to the truth
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but it does rejoice in the truth.
Of course, we know that the world does not share this conviction. Love for what is false, for what is evil is all too familiar to us. And we admit that we struggle against finding satisfaction in what displeases God. Envy, revenge, grudges, fleshly desires… these are wrong, but we could find joy in them anyway. To be loving is to rejoice in the truth.
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
This is the ultimate consequence of persisting in a love for what is false instead of what is true: Condemnation. Being saved is connected to loving the truth. Rejoicing in the truth.
As we live out of a love for the truth and a joy in the truth, we express the love of God. This is who we have been transformed into being. From being lovers of wickedness and falsehood to lovers of the truth.
Obedience to God
Obedience to God
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Jesus says that those who believe in Him will do the works that He did. Jesus was offering encouragement to His disciples to make clear that they would be empowered to do what He has done in His ministry, but notice the connection Jesus makes between believing in Him and doing.
But verse 15 makes it clear. If we love God, we will obey Him. To put it another way, we show that we love God by obeying Him.
Verses 16-17
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Our obedience to God is possible through the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent to dwell in God’s people. We are spiritual people who can show the love of God, and we do this by obeying Him.
This is picked up again later in this same chapter:
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
We show love through obedience to God, and our obedience to God is possible because of His presence through the Holy Spirit.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
Showing the love of God is also seen through
Loving others
Loving others
34 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. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The command to love one another is clear, and the love we express to love one another is to reflect the love that Jesus has shown to us.
But verse 35, as familiar as we might be with it is striking. How do we show we are disciples of Christ? Is it demonstrating the depth of our knowledge of theology. Knowing theology is important, but that’s not what Jesus says here. Love one another.
Do you see what is at stake when it comes to followers of Christ showing the love of God? That Christ has followers in a world that hates God and those who follow Him is seen through the love His followers show to one another.
And this is often what God uses to draw His own to Himself
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Conclusion
Conclusion
What was true about the early truth. The Holy Spirit had come. What did they now love?
The word of God
One another
Being together
And what happened? The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
The love of God as expressed in is a commitment to the truth, obedience to God and love for one another is an effective means of evangelism.
We possess the fruit of the Spirit. We should be the most loving people in the world. Why? Because we possess the Holy Spirit, and we bear His fruit.
