Introduction
This morning we begin our consideration of the fruits of the Spirit by looking at love. Significantly, love only appears in the book of Galatians here in chapter 5, but its place in Paul’s argument is significant. In vs. 6 and vs. 13-24, love is the answer to the twin dangers of legalism and license. Paul says at the end of vs. 14 that the entire law is summed up in one word: love. Jesus says the same thing in Matt. 22:36-40: Love is the summary of the law. This should not surprise us if we understand that the law is a picture of God’s character. The reason that love is the fulfillment of the law is because, as John famously declares, God is love (1 Jn. 4:16). This gives us an essential starting point in our desire to understand this first and most foundational fruit of the Spirit. Here is the first principle: Our practice of love is rooted in God’s love for us. Or, to put it as John does in 1 Jn. 4:19: “We love because He first loved us.” God’s love comes first and it’s the reason we can love at all. Jesus not only shows us that His love is prior to our love, but it is also the pattern of our love. Listen to how he puts this to His disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Love is so important and foundational that without it all of our good works become meaningless (1 Cor. 13:1-3). So, let’s look at four important features of how God’s love teaches us how to love each other.
Love Conquers Fear
The opposite of love is fear. John says that we fear because deep in our hearts we know that we deserve judgment. Our sins bring about real guilt and the consequence of guilt is fear. Man-centered psychology tries to help people deal with their fear by explaining away their guilt. God does exactly the opposite. He doesn’t paper over our guilt or hide it under a cosmic rug. Instead He loves. His love takes all of our guilt on Himself and deals with it decisively and forever. Instead of pouring out judgment on us, He pours His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The outcome of His love is confidence in the day of judgment (1 Jn. 4:17). This confidence gives us the ability to love others selflessly even when that love hurts. Jesus’ love is the only source of true, humility-filled, confidence.
Love Gives Regardless of the Cost
1 John 3:16 shows us another remarkable feature of God’s love: His love gives freely even at great cost to Himself. “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 the brothers.” God loved us even though that love involved the infinite sacrifice of His beloved Son. In fact, it is precisely this sacrifice that shows us the character of His love: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).
At the heart of this definition is the reality that God’s love and God’s gifts are inseparable. God loves and therefore He gives. God’s love is a self-giving love. So too, John tells us that this kind of giving should characterize our love as well. John is not abstract and philosophical here, he shows us in very concrete ways what this is supposed to look like: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
We have a striking example of this kind of generosity in the Macedonian church. In 2 Cor. 8:2-4, Paul writes, “for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.” The Macedonians’ love had opened their hearts to their brother’s needs.
But we must not forget that monetary needs are not the only needs we have. “Often, we need a listening ear, a word of encouragement, or a helping hand. But to meet those needs requires us to give of ourselves. This can be more difficult than giving money. Paul says of Timothy, “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (Phil. 2:20). As he compliments Timothy, Paul adds a striking indictment of others: “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (vs. 21). To meet the nonmaterial needs of others costs getting out of ourselves, our concerns, and our interests. We cannot take a genuine interest in the welfare of others, as did Timothy, unless we are willing to become involved in their interests and their concerns. And we cannot do this unless we are willing to forego our own interests. But love willingly pays the price.” –Jerry Bridges
Love Forgives
A third way God’s love shapes our love is found in 1 Jn. 4:9-11: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” John is saying that God gave as an expression of His desire to forgive and so should we.
The striking thing about God’s love here is the way it came to forgive us when we were still His enemies. God didn’t wait for us to seek forgiveness before He was willing to forgive. He forgave first. We are to do the same. This is only possible when we give our desire for justice to Him. This is Paul’s point in Rom 11:19-21: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Loves Selflessly Reaches out to Others
Finally, God’s love isn’t just to shape our actions, it should also shape our attitudes and affections. An “I can love him, but I don’t have to like him” attitude isn’t a sustainable motive for Christian love. Peter says that we are to “love one another from the heart fervently” (1 Pet. 1:22) and Paul tells us to “be devoted to one another in brotherly love” (Rom. 12:10). A fervent, affectionate, devoted spirit should not be a substitute for loving actions, rather it should accompany them. We can’t settle for merely doing good, we must desire to do it as well. This is not to wave away the difficulty. Note how Paul address the Corinthian Church, which caused him much grief: “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.” (2 Cor. 2:4). Love is the proper context for speaking the truth (Eph. 4:15).
If you are having difficulty loving others (and you will!), you should: (1) Go to the source of love, God Himself, and ask Him to fill you with His love so that it is your delight. (2) Study the pattern of His love for you, the cross of Christ, and purpose by His grace to follow Jesus’ example.