The Fruit of the Spirit - Love - 1 John 4: 7-16

Love is a much abused term. The most prevalent notion in the Western world is that love is a warm, topsy-turvy feeling, a thrill one gets in the pit of the stomach or a tingle running up and down the spine. We think of it as a warm sense of regard, a strong desire to be with or be satisfied by someone or something.

According to verses 7 and 8 in 1 John 4, love comes from God. God showed us his love through Christ's incarnation (taking on humanity) and death. God's love broke through history in the person of Jesus Christ, and breaks through again every time Christians show love to one another. He is its Source. It is agape love. Human love apart from God is at its best a mere pale and vague reflection of what God is eternally.

Biblical love is not something we have innately. True, some forms of love arise by nature, but this is not so with the love of God. It comes through the action of God through His Spirit, something supernatural.

In Romans 13: 8-10 Paul injects love into the context of law, showing that it is the sum of all duties. He does not say love ends the need for law but that it fulfills - performs or accomplishes - the law. In Colossians 3:12-14 Paul puts love "above all," showing that love is the epitome of virtues. Its importance is as "the bond," something that binds or holds things, like a congregation, together.

1 John 5:3 is the Bible's basic definition of love. The commandments define, make clear, what the basic elements of love are and what direction our actions should take if we would show love. This means that obedience to God is the proof of love. Obedience is an action that submits to a command of God, a principle revealed in His Word and/or an example of God or the godly. In a sense, this is where godly love begins in a human being. Obeying God's commands is love because God is love. Because His very nature is love, it is impossible for Him to sin. Thus He gives us commands in love, and they will produce right and good results. Any command of God reflects that He Himself would do were He in the same situation.

What is the standard we should try to measure our love by? In Matthew 22:39 it is to love our neighbor as ourselves - we sacrifice a great deal to please ourselves. He raises this a notch or two in Matthew 5:44 when he says bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who spitefully use or persecute us. And in John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." In Ephesians 5:25 we are to love "just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it."

Love, godly love, is the fruit, the product of that Spirit which now courses through our lives. That Spirits guides us and leads us into truth. Obedience to His commands is godly love, the fruit of His Spirit that empowers us, the supreme virtue of the Almighty Creator.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Galations 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.

It might be helpful to note that Paul wrote "fruit" in the singular, indicating that we should understand that the fruit has a number of components, but at the same time, all of them will be produced within each person the Spirit leads. This does not mean that each component will be in exactly equal proportions like so many segments of an orange. Nor does it give any indication of its quantity or quality in each person. However, it ought to encourage us to know that some part of each of them will be produced.

Paul drew attention to the source of the fruit as being "of the Spirit" to make us fully aware that these qualities do not flow from our natures. The vices or "works of the flesh" listed in Galations 5:19-21 are the product of our human heart.. But the spiritual fruit is produced by means of a "foreign" influence, the agency of the Holy Spirit. Even after conversion our heart is not the source of this spiritual fruit.

The Gift

My Savior was born. That’s all that needs to be said. The actual time of year is of no consequence to me.

I grew up thinking that part of celebrating Christmas was giving gifts to one another because the three wise men gave gifts. But it’s not about the gifts brought to Joseph, Mary, and our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s about the gift Christ brought from the Father – to us.

His birth was planned so that He could die for a specific purpose – to save mankind. This was the true gift of his birth…what we call Christmas.

It is a gift that surpasses everything imaginable on this earth.

It is a gift that waits as long as your lifetime to be received by you.

It is a gift of life everlasting that would soon be unwrapped on the cross… where His blood would redeem those who would accept His gift.

So, if I truly want to celebrate Jesus’ birth, then I guess I also need to celebrate His death – as this is the true gift given us.

As I shop through the various department stores I hone in on the small children screaming and crying from visual overloads that spark the greed that has never been tempered with the story of Jesus. I realize the children in America are actually very poor.

I dread buying anything red or green, or that resembles a commercial I zipped past while trying to land on some significant broadcast that isn’t laced with Santa and all the other jingle bells. But, I still buy this stuff out of being a good mother with good cheer and sincere love. I like giving to people…but I want to focus on the true celebration.

If we could give a gift to one another in the same spirit as He gave us, then know that that gift would be called love. That is the perfect gift this Christmas, in case anyone asks.

Don’t forget to accept the Father’s gift, and have a Merry Christmas.