TEXT: Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance (self-control): against such there is no law.
Galatians portray Christ as LIBERTY,
showing that the believer is no longer under the law but is saved by faith
alone. The “law” is that portion of God’s Word found in the first five books of
Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy) by which every phase of Israel’s life was to be
guided.
Paul is the author and founder of the
Christian Churches in Galatia. “Stand
fast,” one of Paul’s favorite expressions, meaning, “maintain your position
of erectness: in the faith (1st Corinthians 16:13); in the liberty (Galatians
5:1); in the Spirit (Philippians 1:27);
and in the Lord" (Philippians 4:1). Paul
wants the Galatians to hold fast to their personal liberty.
Our freedom hinges on John 15:4, “Abide in ME and I in you.” The word “abide” in the Greek is meno, meaning to remain, continue, to live, and we shall be free to bear much fruit with God.
Our text list nine graces/fruit in
order and clustered into three groups:
Love, joy peace, has to do with our
relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, has
to do with our relationship and interaction with other people.
Faith, meekness, temperance, has to
deal with our own inner state of being.
The word "fruit" in Greek is harpos, a singular term, not plural, but a collective noun taking a singular verb. It can be traced to the Latin word "fructus" derived from "frui", meaning to enjoy or delight.
So regarding the fruit of the Spirt, its quality fruit and the flesh can't produce these fruit, remember, it's the "fruit of the Spirit." It's a whole fruit, a singular fruit originating from God and has to be consumed wholly, meaning, all of its essential nutrients (joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and temperance [self-control]) are wrapped up in love. “Fruit of the Spirit” is called “fruit” singular and not “fruits” plural, are fruit that’s produced in us and not nine different fruits, but one singular “fruit” manifested in nine distinct qualities. So, you can’t have one without the other eight. If one’s missing you don’t have any of them because they all have to be there at once.
Today, of the nine listed here, I’m
going to focus on the fruit of love in the life of the believer. Are you aware
the fruit of love has to do with your attitude towards other people?
Do you have a loving attitude or an
unloving attitude?
Are you giving towards others, or do
you tend to be selfish? If your hand is always closed, nothing can get in nor
get out.
Do you view others in the worst possible
light or the best possible light?
Do you judge people, or do you give
them grace?
Do you tend to hold grudges, or do
you forgive other people, freely?
These all have to do with your
attitude towards other people – are you loving or unloving in your attitude?
Note: your attitude is different from
your feelings. Everyone believes that love is important, but love is usually
thought of as a feeling. When in reality, love is a choice and an action,
meaning you can choose to love other people even when you don’t feel
like it. It all comes down to your attitude toward others. My question! Are you
showing this cluster of fruit in your life?
1st Corinthians 13:4-7 tells us that
God is the source of our love; He loved us so much that HE was compelled to
give and sacrifice His SON for us. That’s what it means to love. John says,
“God is love” (1st John 4:8), not “love is God.”
What the world has done with its shallow
and selfish view of love has turned these words around and contaminated our
understanding of love. The world think that love is what makes a person feel
good and that it is all right to sacrifice moral principles and others rights
in order to obtain such “love.” But that isn’t real love instead it is the
exact opposite, selfishness.
God is not that kind of love. Real
love is like God, who is holy, just, and perfect. Now, my friends, how well do
you display your love for God in the choices you make and the actions you take?
Often times, we talk about needing an
attitude adjustment, but according to the Bible what we need is an attitude
transformation! We are born selfish, and we will continue down that path until
God helps us and changes us. We need God’s help to love other people as HE
would have us love them. I want to share
three basic aspects of the fruit of love:
First: LOVE, “the first fruit”
This word “first” is that which is foremost in position, rank, importance, coming before all others in time, order. There was nothing before
Jesus Christ. He has always been even
before the world began: Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created. Jesus said
in Revelation 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty: vs 17: I am the “First and the Last.” He also says the same things about Himself in Revelation 22:13. Without Him it would be no universe, no you
and no me. He is the Creator and the Great “I AM.” HE is great and greatly to
be praised.
Looking at the lineup of the fruit,
love is the first one listed setting the tone for the others. “Love” in the Greek is “agape” meaning unconditional,
sacrificial love, referencing the love that God is (1st John 4:8); that God
shows (1st John 3:16; 1st John 4:9). This is the love that God gives as a
manifestation of His Spirit bearing fruit in the heart of a yielded saint.
This fruit called "love" is greater
than anything you can speak, know, understand, possess or give away according
to Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 13.
It’s great because it’s the basis for
all the other commandments. Matthew 22:37 Jesus was talking to the
Scribes, the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, so here they
come asking, “Which is the first and
greatest commandment”? Jesus said, “You
shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all your mind.”
Vs 38 “This is the first and greatest
commandment.” Vs 39 And the
second is like unto it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s no doubt “love” is the paramount
fruit (meaning more important than anything else) in the life of the believer.
It’s not only the greatest and most
important, but it contains all the other fruit as well. Apostle Paul explains
the absolute necessity of real love in 1st Corinthians 13:1-3: He said, “Though I speak with tongues of men and
angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal.” “And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits
me nothing.”
So without love this magnificent manifestation of gifts and the most heroic
self-sacrifice, means absolutely nothing.
Look how Paul defines real love, vs
4-7.
Love suffers long, having patience
with imperfect people. Love is kind, active in doing good. Love does not envy;
it’s non-possessive, and non-competitive, it wants other people to get ahead. It
doesn’t parade itself.
It’s not puffed up, treating others
arrogantly; it does not behave rudely, but displays good manners and courtesy.
Love is not provoked; it is not irritable, rough, touchy, or hostile, but it’s
graceful under pressure.
Love thinks no evil; it does not keep
an account of wrongs done to it; it erases resentments. Love does not rejoice
in iniquity, finding satisfaction in the shortcomings of others and spreading
an evil report, rather, it rejoices in the truth, aggressively advertising the
good.
It bears all things, defending and
holding other people up. Love believes the best about others, credits them with
good intentions, and is not suspicious. Love hopes all things, never giving up
on people, but affirming their future. Love endures all things, Persevering and
remaining loyal to the end. Ask yourself again, Is this the cluster of fruit
manifesting in my life?
Now, can you see how many of the
fruit of the Spirit are listed in Paul’s description of love? Love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—they
are all there because they are all part of the first fruit of love. Our society
confuses love and lust. Unlike lust, God’s kind of love is directed outward toward others, not inward toward ourselves. It is utterly
unselfish. It’s impossible to practice this kind of love without God helping us
to set aside our own desires and instincts. There’s no doubt about it, the only
way we will be able to give love while expecting nothing in return:
·
Colossians 3:12: “Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,
meekness, longsuffering.”
Paul offers us a strategy to help us
live for God day by day:
- Imitate Christ compassion and have
a forgiving attitude;
-Let love guide your life
-Let the peace of God rule in your
life and keep God’s Word in you at all times and you will be able to build
bridges and not walls.
·
vs 13: Forbearing one another, forgiving one another, if any
man have a quarrel against any: even as
Christ forgave you, so also do you.
If anyone has a complaint against
another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do and over all these
virtues put on “love,” which binds
them together in perfect unity. This is how the fruit of love functions, to
bind all the fruit together. You can’t have any of the other fruit without love. John Edwards’s calls love “the sum of all grace.”
SECONDLY, LOVE AND GOD
1st John tells us that God is love, and
all love comes from God. 1st John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
knows God. Verse 8: Whoever
does not love does not know God, because God is love.
God is described in many ways in the
Bible; loving, kind, patient, glorious, majestic, all-powerful, all-knowing,
everywhere-present! There are only a few times the Bible describes God in terms
of what HE is.
We are told God is Spirit (John 4:24): God is light (1st John 1:5): and twice we are told God is love (1st John 4:8, 16). In other words God is not, only loving but He
is love. He is the spiritual embodiment of love, just as Jesus in His
incarnation was the physical embodiment of love. All His attributes such as
power and holiness, are marked by love.
Then, God wants to develop His love
in your life. 1st John 4:11: Beloved, since
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Vs
12: No man has ever seen God; but if
we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Keep in mind, the fruit of the Spirit is part of your
witness for Christ.
People can’t physically see God, but
they can see God in you when you allow God to develop His love in your life.
One of the strongest ways to be a good witness of Christ is when you display
the fruit of God’s love in your life.
LASTLY, GROWING IN LOVE
The fruit of the Spirit is all about
growing more like Jesus. Once you surrender your life to Christ, the Holy
Spirit resides on the inside of the believer to help you and change you. The
Holy Spirit works to develop the character of Christ within you. As you allow
the Holy Spirit to transform your attitude, you will grow in the love of God.
Today, there are a few things you can do:
Meditate on God’s Love—Remember, love has to do with your attitude and when you realize how
much God loves you, it can’t but change your attitude toward others.
Jesus tells us in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Vs 35, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love,
one to another.”
Jesus is referencing back to the
theme in John13:13-17, regarding servanthood (washing feet of the disciples), a disposition of the heart and
spirit expressing itself in action. Here, HE speaks of it as a “new commandment” to love one another. It’s new because it presents a new
standard—which is the love of Jesus. The servant, like, selfless love that
Christians display toward one another witnesses to the world, that they are
true disciples.
The disciples were continually
plagued with passion to be great, to be first. Christ wanted them to see the
desire to be first, to be superior, and honored above fellow Christians is
contrary against the Spirit of the Lord (Luke 22:24-30); (John 13:12-17); (1st Peter 5:5): Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder. Yea, all of you be
subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud and gives grace to
the humble.
We can’t love until we know what love
is. This is how we know what love is: 1st John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for
us: and we ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren.” Jesus Christ laid down His life for us and we ought to
lay down our lives for our brothers. It also speaks about the Father’s love in
sending Jesus.
Choose to forgive others.
It’s not always easy to forgive. We
don’t always feel like forgiving. But, remember, love is more than just a feeling.
It is a command. It is a commitment. It is a choice. When you chose to forgive
someone, you are choosing God’s way of love.
Ephesians 4:32: “And be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Colossians 3:13 tells us, “Bear with each other
and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as
the Lord forgave you: vs 14: “And
over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.”
You still may not feel like
forgiving, but that’s okay. Sometimes you just need to make the right choice
first and let your feelings catch up with you later.
Ask God to develop the fruit of His
love in your life
Keep in mind, the fruit of the Spirit is something God
does in your life rather than you. So, ask God to develop the fruit of love in
you.
Luke 11:9: “Ask and it shall be given to you;
seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.”
James 4:2: “Yet, you do not have because you
do not ask.”
Learning to love is a process, it’s
an action, meaning, you’re about the things of God.
2nd Timothy 2:15: “Study, investigate the Word, and spend time in God’s Word, because it’s
a fertilizer to grow the “Fruit of Love”
in you.
Remember 1st Corinthians 13:13: “And now abides faith, hope, charity, these
three; but the greatest of these is charity (love).”
Praise the Lord
Evangelist Brenda Hansley
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