The Fruit of Love

Happy Sunday! Today we continue our study on the fruit of the Spirit. The list of attributes, or fruit, is found in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. We set this up last week; I hope you watched that video. Verse 22 of Galatians 5 begins by saying, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love."

Love is followed then by eight more characteristics that must be evident in the lives of believers. The Greek word for love here is the word agape. Agape love is illustrated by God's love for us. Some define it as unconquerable, unconquerable benevolence. Perhaps it's best described in First Corinthians 13, and I suggest you read that at home.

Agape love is God's kind of love. Love should be most evident in the lives of believers. As Christians, we are commanded to love. Jesus said this to his disciples in John 13:34. He said, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."

Do you remember what Jesus had just done before he said that, before he taught that? He washed the disciples' dirty feet. Like a slave, Jesus got on his hands and knees and washed the feet of the twelve men that were not deserving. In fact, Jesus washed Judas's feet, knowing that Judas would betray him. He washed Peter's feet, knowing that Peter would deny him three times on the night of his crucifixion. He washed all of their feet, knowing that for a while they'd run the other way.

Can you imagine how you might react at that moment if you knew what Jesus knew at the time? Would you have washed their feet and blessed them, or would you have blessed them out? If we live in the flesh, we understand blessing people out, and we understand vengeance and spite and hatred and pettiness and prejudice and getting even. Walking in the Spirit, however, is different. It's all together different.

Love becomes our default position. That day at the table, Jesus showed love to the undeserving. He still does. We then are called, we are commanded, to be the same way: to love by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to love the world the way Jesus did, all of the world.

Now, it's fairly easy to love those that love us. Even non-Christians can do that. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5, verses 43 to 47. He said, "You've heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, and that way you'll be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his son light to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much."

Verse 47, Jesus says, "If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that." Here Jesus is clear: we are to love everyone, including those who should be considered our enemies. We're to love everyone on this planet, and you and I both know only by the power of God in us can we ever do that. There are so many things that are, so many people that we could consider unlovable.

We live in a divided, hateful world. There are things that divide us: Republicans and Democrats, and liberals and conservatives, and vast and unvaxed, and rich and poor, and educated and uneducated, and pro-life and pro-choice, and I could go on and on. We need to remember that Christ died for all of them, all of us. And we need to know that God loves them all, and we need to know that we are expected to love everyone.

I admit again, that's hard. That is why we are told to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh, to let God take control. With the Spirit of God in our lives, we can do it. We must do it. It's fun when it happens.

I vividly recall a man coming to Christ that was living a miserable life. When he became a Christian, he became a loving husband, and his bad marriage was healed. He could finally love as God intended, and it was not just his wife who benefited. He displayed the fruit of love to all he encountered. He was a totally new man.

That's the way all of us who claim to be Christ followers should be. There's not another alternative. It's either the fruit of love, walking in the Spirit, or not loving and walking in the flesh.

My friend Ron was a bad man. There's no other way to say it. He was a gang member, and fighting was just something he did. I have no idea the extent of the old, of his old wicked ways, but I do know the new man. Ron became a believer later on in life.

He loved me, and we became friends, and he told me that if I needed anything, that he would be there for me. And I knew he meant it, because he loved me. But he became a person of love. His parents, who loved him when he was unlovable, benefited from his change. He took care of them in their old age.

His kids from an estranged marriage got to know their father, and he was totally different from what they had heard. The Holy Spirit of God caused him to bear fruit, not just love, all of the fruit, and we'll look at the that list in the following weeks. Next week we will look at joy. Until then, go out and bear the fruit of love, always, to everyone.

Join me in our prayer. Father, it's difficult in a tough world, but this world needs love. Our neighbors need it, our households need needed, our co-workers needed, all around us need love. And Father, help us to be the people that let that light shine in this dark world, and we can only do that through your Spirit living in us.

Help us to remove any hatred that we might have, because it does not belong in the life of a believer. And Father, we want to follow you and do what you expect and what you command, so help us in that this day and forevermore. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen. God bless.