Love - The Fruit of Fruits by Boone Baker
Boone serves as a Co-Regional Champion in Influencers Kansas.
There is ONE fruit of the Spirit, but nine parts.
“The fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23)
Let’s look at the fruit of LOVE. This particular fruit has to do, a lot, with our attitude toward God and toward others. Do we have a loving attitude or an unloving attitude? Some seem to think of love as just a feeling. But, I believe our attitude is different from our feelings. Scripture shows LOVE as both a command and a choice. Which means we can choose to show and express love, even when we don’t feel like it.
As followers of Christ, we don’t just need an attitude adjustment (as some say), we need an attitude transformation. We were all born SELFISH, so the only way that we can truly operate in the fruit of LOVE, is through God’s help. Only He has the ability, through the Holy Spirit, to develop the Fruit of His Spirit in us, and conform us into the image (or character) of Jesus, His Son. LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT IT THROUGH SCRIPTURE:
1. God is Love, and all love comes from Him
(1 Jn. 4:7-8) “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God is not just lov-ING, or doesn’t just show love. HE IS LOVE! All of God’s other attributes (holy, glorious, powerful, majestic, patient, kind, wise, all-knowing, etc.) are all marked (characterized) by LOVE.
2. God expressed His Love
(1 Jn. 4:9-10) “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Love is a deliberate ACT! God so loved us that He showed His love by sending His Son to die for our sins. We too, should show action in our love for others – (1 Jn. 3:18) “...let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions...”
3. God wants to developed His Love in us
(1 Jn. 4:11-12) “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
People can’t see God, but they can see Him in us, when we let Him develop His Love in our lives. Jesus said that the world would know that we are disciples, when they see how we love one another. (Jn. 13:35)
Scripture also tells us that LOVE is ABOVE everything else.
1. Love is the greatest COMMANDMENT
(Matt. 22:37-39) “Love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind. This is the FIRST and GREATEST command-ment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Yes, all of the other commandments are important, because they tell us HOW we are supposed to love God, and others. But LOVE is the greatest commandment.
2. Love is also the greatest THING of all
(1 Cor. 13:13) “And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE.”
We see this in Paul’s description of LOVE in the previous verses in 1 Cor. 13.
(1 Cor. 13:4-7) (4) “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (5) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps not record of wrongs. (6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
What’s interesting is that each element of the Fruit of the Spirit is found in this description of LOVE.
Love = the whole description in verses 4-7
Joy = “Love rejoices with the truth.” (v. 6)
Peace = “Love does not envy, boast, and is not proud.” (v. 4)
Patience = “Love is patient” (v. 4)
Kindness = “Love is kind” (v. 4)
Goodness = “Love does not delight in evil.” (v. 6)
Faithfulness = “Love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.” (v. 7)
Gentleness = “Love is not rude . . . and keep no record of wrongs.” (v. 5)
Self-control = “Love is not self-seeking or easily angered.” (v. 5)
There’s a reason that love comes first in the list of the fruit of the Spirit. LOVE is not only the greatest commandment, but contains all the other fruit, as well. They are all included here. Every part of the Fruit of the Spirit springs from LOVE.
Love is the key. Goodness is love’s character.
Joy is love singing. Faithfulness is love’s habit.
Peace is love resting. Gentleness is love’s pattern.
Patience is love enduring. Self-control is love holding the reins.
Kindness is love’s touch.
The first three verses of (1 Cor. 13) tells us that if we don’t possess the fruit of LOVE – nothing we say, know, believe, give, or accomplish, means anything!
3. Love is the greatest MOTIVATION
(Col. 3:12-14) “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on LOVE, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
(Jn. 13:34) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Notice how Jesus refers back to His own love for us, as he commands us to love each other. His love is our example, as well as our motivation to love others.
OUR WHOLE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IS A DISCOVERY OF HOW GOD LOVES US, AND HOW TO LOVE OTHERS.
(Jn. 3:16) “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
God wants to develop the fruit of His LOVE (and all the others that come with it), in our life, through the working of Holy Spirit. When we are truly surrendered to, and filled with the Holy Spirit, we will also be filled with LOVE.
If we’re not filled with LOVE for God and for others, and the fruit of LOVE isn’t revealed in our daily lives, we’re probably not filled with the Spirit.
The fruit of “Love” is the key to everything – our relationships (vertical & horizontal), our effectiveness and influence, as a devoted disciple of Christ!