Fruit: Love

Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:16–26 ESV

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. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 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. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Here we find the list of the fruits of the spirit or the products of a heart submitting to the spirit of God

English Standard Version Chapter 5

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

We can’t separate this list from the paragraph it is found it where we see the contrast to the fruit of the flesh. While our focus tonight is to look at the first fruit of love we can start with what love is not and therefore what is not fruit of our faith.

“sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”

These things are so against love that Jesus himself says that they actually cause love to actually diminish or lessen in our lives

Matthew 24:12 ESV And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

So Paul makes it clear for us that these things are not fruit of the spirit of God and therefore has another source, our flesh. In order to combat our flesh lets take a look at the first fruit of the spirit namely “love.”

Lets start with our motivation for love, while we are selfish I do not think it is always bad. I think its fair for us to strive for rewards from the perfect gift giver. As believers we are told in God’s word that those who submit to the spirit inherit the kingdom of God. Paul writes in this list of fruits of the flesh that those submit to this life are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. That is a pretty serious statement that should give us a holy unrest that I believe God uses to push us out of contentment and to lean onto the spirit to combat our own desires.

We can begin to be stirred towards love by first recognizing its source:

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Ro 5:1–5.

We must also recognize its significance:

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Col 3:12–14.

F.F. Bruce comments on Paul’s significance of Love to the faith with:

Paul has already spoken of love as the expression of faith (v 6) and of practical neighborly love as the fulfilment of ‘the whole law’ (vv 13f.). As for its being the fruit of the Spirit, he enlarges on this in Rom. 5:5, where the love of God has been ‘poured out’ (ἐκκέχυται) into the hearts of believers by the Spirit. This is God’s own love, as manifested in Christ (cf. Rom. 8:25, 38f.), which floods their lives and springs up in a responsive love to God and Christ and to one another, and overflows to all mankind (cf. 6:10 πρὸς πάντας). ‘The love of Christ’ is the motive force behind Paul’s own apostolic ministry, as he beseeches men and women on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:14f., 18–20). Paul’s classic celebration of divine love is 1 Corinthians 13, where, as many expositors have said, his description of love could be a pen-portrait of the character of Jesus. ‘Christian love springs to life when Christ is incarnated again in a man [or woman] who has given himself [or herself] absolutely to him’ (W. Barclay, Flesh and Spirit, 76). (See the bibliography at the end of the note on v 14 above.)

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1982), 252.

Then John Stott writes:

for a Christian’s first love is his love for God

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 148.

Christ centered love is what distinguishes us as Christ followers, is displayed through obedience, and is the actual outflow of our faith to others. Love is the undertone to all we do!

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Romans 13:10 ESV

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

1 Corinthians 16:14 ESV

Let all that you do be done in love.

Love is how we share the truth and the how the church grows

Ephesians 4:15–16 ESV

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Because of Christ’s love, imitate Him and walk in the same way

Ephesians 5:1–2 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We can not have a discussion about love without looking at the physical example given by God for us to immitate

Imitate Christ in Christ centered sacrificial love

Read Philippians 2

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Sacrificially Love Someone

Prayer

Ephesians 6:18 ESV

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Colossians 4:3 ESV

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—

In the Spirit (with Love), Sacrificially pray for our goal see people come to know Christ in this ministry despite any of our circumstances.