Fruit of the Spirit - Love

Fruit of the Spirit  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Have any of you ever had an apple tree in your yard? Or some other type of fruit tree? I want you to imagine for a moment you go out to that apple tree when the apples are ready to pick and you are so ready to grab one and bite into it. Imagine biting into that apple and it tastes just like you imagined it would. It appeared good and then tasted good.
Now imagine that apple looking good and ready to pick. You go out to pick that apple and bite into it, except it tastes very sour or bitter. It is obviously bad. It wasn’t as good as it looked.
This analogy is very similar to our own lives when we talk about the fruit that we bear in our lives. It can appear very good, but when you get to know someone better and grow a deeper relationship, is that fruit good or is it sour, bitter, or rotten?
Have you ever wondered what it means in Scripture when it says in Matthew 7:20, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them?” This passage is talking about how a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. However, in this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is talking about more than just trees. He is telling his disciples that we will know about someone by the fruit their lives bear. If they claim to be a follower of Christ, there are certain fruit we should expect to see. If a life is bearing a certain type of fruit, it will be visible to others, especially the more we are around them and get to know them. You can’t hide the fruit of your life forever.
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Galatians 5:13-26

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Love

First and last word in Christian theology and ethics. It is therefore important to understand clearly this exceedingly ambiguous term.

The word love in English translations of the OT may represent any one of a variety of Hebrew terms. In translation, love appears with the wide range of meanings usually associated with this term in English usage: affection, friendship, loyalty, desire, liking, attachment.

The word love occurs 686 times in the New International Version of the Bible, 425 in the Old Testament, and 261 in the New Testament. (Bible Gateway) “Peace” occurs 249 times, “hope” 180, and “friend” 170. The Old Testament was originally penned in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. In those languages there are multiple words for love, depending on the kind of love the author was referring to. C.S. Lewis broke it down into four categories in his book, “The Four Loves.” Here are four words for love:
1. storgē: Jack Zavada writes, 
"Storge (Pronounced: STOR-jay) is a term for love in the Bible that you may not be familiar with. This Greek word describes family love, the affectionate bond that develops naturally between parents and children, and brothers and sisters. Many examples of family love are found in Scripture, such as the mutual protection among Noah and his wife, the love of Jacob for his sons, and the strong love the sisters Martha and Mary had for their brother Lazarus."
2. philos: Philos is the love between friends. Proverbs 17:17 says,

A friend loves at all times,

and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

The friendship of David and Jonathan epitomized this kind of love. Jonathan reached great lengths to help protect David from his own father. For these two friends, their faith in God and trust in His will over their agenda drove them to a deep friendship. Though Jesus had hundreds of disciples, he held twelve closer than the rest. Of those twelve, three were particularly close to Him. Of those three, John was Jesus’ closest friend. In the story of Lazarus, in John 11:35-36:

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

3. eros: Eros love is a physical, romantic love, much like what we see at the end of most Hallmark movies. Song of Songs is filled with this type of love, in chapter 1, verse 2 & 4 we read:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—

for your love is more delightful than wine.

Take me away with you—let us hurry!

Let the king bring me into his chambers.

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4. agape: Agape love is selfless and unconditional. Strong’s defines it as “brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence.” When we love with this kind of love, we are seeking to give of ourselves. The most extravagant example of this love is the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for us, and the willingness of God to give His one and only Son on our behalf. He’s seeks nothing from us. Nothing we have to give God would provide Him any gains. He simply loves us. “ 1 Corinthians 13:12 reads, and then Mark 12:29-31:

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ m 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ n There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus emphatically proclaimed love as the most important command to obey. Love for God and love for others. The four Gospel accounts reveal an up close and personal journey of Christ’s life on earth. His life fulfilled the Old Testament, and his legacy continues to prepare us for the future by connecting those truths to New Testament teachings. If we want to learn what love is, Scripture has all of the answers. Galatians 2:20 says:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Greek word for live and lives in the above verse is zao. It means “to enjoy real life …living water, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul.” (Strongs) It goes on to further define this type of life as “fresh, strong, efficient, active, and powerful.” God’s agape love, fleshed out for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is alive and active in all those who believe in Him. We love by letting it flow back out of and through us to others.

How is the world's definition of love different from Scripture's?

Both dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster define love first and foremost as an affectionate feeling toward someone. The problem with defining love mainly as a feeling is that feelings are fickle. Feelings come and go, they change. Marilyn Meberg, an author and psychologist once said, “Feelings don’t have brains.”
This is one reason we see many broken marriages. The common phrase is, well, I don’t love them anymore. It is not always easy to love other people, even those who are our family and even our spouse. Loving others takes work, sometimes uncomfortable and difficult work. We must choose to love.
C. S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.”
You see, when we love the way we are called to love, we will get hurt at times. We will be broken at times. But it is worth it.
Avoiding or running at the first painful feeling love brings leaves us to live our lives alone, a fate we simply weren’t created to embrace. Genesis 2:18 NIV tells us:

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

In the New Testament, Jesus continued to expound upon the principles of love vs. loneliness. The Message paraphrase of Matthew 19:11-21 reminds us that marriage is not the remedy for loneliness, nor are all called to be married. Yet, how many times and ways do we see people being pushed toward marriage whether it is by the church, by media or some other source. We like to think that it is critical to find a life partner to find true love. We see in Scripture that this is not the case.
The dictionary definition of love says we get a solid solution, an affection, a romance, and a stability from another person. The Biblical definition of love is sacrificial, a love that gives first and expects nothing in return. Biblical love grants believers a peace that surpasses all understanding, because it comes only from Christ.

How can we choose to love when we don’t feel like it?

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

Loving others goes far beyond just being a good person because true love still operates when we don’t feel like it. The grace we’ve been given provides the strength we need to pass it on. We see people through the eyes of Jesus, which changes us to love them as Jesus would love them.
Jesus didn’t want to go through the pain of the cross, but “the love Jesus has for the Father defined His allegiance.” He cried in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; yet, He obeyed the Father in His duty to save the entirety of the human race.
In life there will be quarrels, fights, animosity, manipulation, justification, entitlement, and a slew of other tempting options to embrace. We see many of these more all the time in our culture, and certainly are seeing them in these uncertain days in which we live. In faith, we choose daily to surrender our inclinations so that His love can move through us. Then what we are able to do is not of us, but of Him.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, “God in the Dock” ---- “Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

How should Christians talk about love?

Faith is an individual journey with God, and we aren’t always privy to the details. What we don’t know, is exactly who we’ll see on the other side. We don’t know everybody’s story.
We do know that Christ is Love. Christians should model His kindness, forgiveness, and inclusionary grace. Regarding every human being as the creation of God that they are and treating them with the unconditional love of Christ.
Dr. Charles Stanley, Life Principles Bible Notes writes, “By His very character, God is love, and to know Him is to extend His love to those around us. However, we must also be careful to walk in His truth, acknowledging that: “Jesus Christ the righteous…is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1, 2)."
John 13:35 says:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Billy Graham preached,“As we see a war-torn world-a world that is sick, pained confused and bewildered- we believe the this is the hour for the church to speak out. This is the hour for the church to show forth the love and grace of God. This is the hour for the world to hear Christ saying through the church, ‘I am the way, the truth , and the life.’ (John 14:6)”
These days are the days for the church to speak out. There is so much frustration, anger, confusion, loneliness, isolation, and many other emotions right now. There are people looking for hope, and we have the answer church! Jesus is the answer that our world needs today!
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Now, I want to get practical for a few moments. I want to talk about how do we love in our everyday life. First, we need to love God the way we are called to. This love results in an attitude of worship in our everyday lives. The natural response to God’s love is our praise, worship, and adoration of Him. Mark 12:30-31 reminds us:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ m 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ n There is no commandment greater than these.”

So let’s take a look at loving God, loving ourselves, and loving others.

How we love God - Worship

Dueteronomy 6:5 reads:

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

10:12 reads:

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

and 11:1 reads:

Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.

If we look at these verses, we get a picture of what it looks like to love God. We should love God with everything, our whole person. Worship is the work on which everything else depends. Scott Jones reminds us that “The gathering of our community to praise God, give thanks to God, hear God’s Word read and proclaimed and participating in the sacraments in essential to Christian life......All of life is to be seen as worship in the deepest sense of the word, and the gathering of the Christian community on Sundays is simply one form that it takes” (Jones, 56).
We should walk in His ways, follow His example, and serve God with everything we have and in everything we do. We should obey His ways and live life the way that he calls us to live. Worship is our everyday response to God. It is our attitudes, our habits, our thoughts, not just our time together on Sunday mornings.
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How we love ourselves - Formation

We love ourselves by attending to our own spiritual formation. Scott Jones, in his book The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, writes, “True spiritual formation creates a loving character that both motivates persons to bear witness and helps them persevere in it” (Jones, 55). Attending to our own spiritual formation allows us to continually seek more and more of God, and he will fill us with more and more of himself. We do this by spending quality time with him through His Word, prayer, silence, and a number of other disciplines.
2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate a the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

One of my favorite passages in Scripture gives us a glimpse as to what it looks like to surrender ourselves to God allowing him to transform us. Romans 12:1-2 says:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We cannot properly love others or bear witness to Christ if we do not attend to our own spiritual formation. How do we love others? By bearing witness.
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How we love other - Witness

Acts 1:8 reminds us:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We bear witness to others through the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us. We bear witness by how we love others. If we are not properly caring for ourselves, allowing the Lord to fill us to overflowing, how can the Spirit continue to work through us? I would contend that when we do not attend to this, we bear fruit that does not look much like Jesus Christ. Sure, we might be able to fool someone for a short time, but in time our true fruit will come out and we will bear witness as that fruit.
John 15:8 reminds us:

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

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As we close this morning, I want to challenge us with these question:
Are you loving God daily through your worship?
Are you loving yourself by attending to your own spiritual formation so that you can love others the way we are called to as disciples of Christ?
Are you loving others by bearing witness to Christ in our everyday lives?
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