Love as a fruit of the Spirit is action-oriented and choice-driven, not a warm fuzzy feeling. Believers choose to treat our neighbors well because the Spirit has taught us some fundamental truths about who we are before God. Love as a fruit of the Spirit is active forgiveness, patience, compassion and seeking the welfare of another.
Key Points
- Fruit represents the thing that is eventually produced. When you plant an apple tree, eventually it grows apples.
- The items on this list result from the Spirit working in believers.
- Love (like all the other fruit of the Spirit) isn’t an emotion It is a perspective change brought about by the Spirit teaching us wisdom and truth that results in action and attitude.
- Love as a fruit of the Spirit is rooted in understanding our essential equality before God.
- Love as a fruit of the Spirit is becoming people willing to see our place under God, standing next to our neighbors, equal in dignity and equal in guilt and willing to act for the benefit of others in the way we would want them to act for our benefit. This is both our hope and the result of the work of the Spirit.
- Passages: 1Timothy 1:5; Leviticus 19:18; 1John 3:16-18; Luke 6:27-35.
- Greek Word: Strong’s G26
Summary
Love as a fruit of the Spirit is becoming people who are willing to see our rightful place under God, standing next to our neighbors equal in dignity, equal in guilt and willing to act for the benefit of others. This is both our great hope and the result of the Spirit working in us. One day, God will make us people who love this way naturally and easily, but not today, not yet. We can expect God to work in this area in our lives. We can expect to see this kind of love growing in our lives, but we can also expect to fail.
The fact that we recognize we are not the kind of people who love like this and want to be that kind of person is evidence that the Spirit of God is working in us. We shouldn’t expect to be exactly like Jesus in this life, but we have the promise that we will be like him in the next. What marks us as children of God now is that we want to be like him. We turn to God to change us. We’re not there yet, but we are heading that direction because of the work of the Holy Spirit. The challenge is not can I be like Jesus in every moment of every day. The answer to that is no. The challenge is do you want to be like him. Start there and trust the Spirit for the rest.
Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.
Next: Fruit of the Spirit: Love Part 2
Previous: Fruit of the Spirit: Introduction
Series: Fruit of the Spirit
Photo by Bill Williams on Unsplash
Season 24, episode 02