LOVE – FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

“But the FRUIT of the SPIRIT is LOVE, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” – Galatians 5: 22-23

The First Fruit of the SPIRIT is LOVE: “But the FRUIT of the SPIRIT is LOVE…” (Gal.5:22a). That’s the fruit that manifests in the recreated, born-again human spirit. Love is the evidence that believers have passed from spiritual death unto spiritual life: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death” (1Jh.3:14). Love could be a matter of life or death!

This is another way of saying that Love – love for the brethren, in particular – is the proof that we’re saved and born again. The Lord Jesus Christ had emphasized the LAW of LOVE: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you ae My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jh.13:34-35). It takes the spiritual, not the natural person to do this. At the new birth, the Holy Spirit comes to reside within the spirit of the believer, with the enabling grace to love: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom.5:5). His love has been “poured out in our hearts”! We can love even as Christ loved us, because we have the same kind of love in us that He had in Him!

Love is fruit, and because fruit grows, we must mature in all areas of our Christian walk, including the Love-walk. Indeed, Love is the first fruit that will show up in the spirit and life of one who is born again. To fellowship with God – to walk in His realm – we must walk in love, for God is love (1Jh.4:8). This is not the natural human love; it is divine love, the love of God. When we become born again, the love God becomes our Father. We are love children of the love God, because we have been born of God, and God is love. We have God’s nature of love in us – in our spirit, not in our flesh. So, we’ve got the flesh to contend with and crucify: “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (v.24).

God’s family is the Love family. No true believer can claim to not have this Agape Love, because it is bestowed on every member of the family of God – or else they’re not in the family. Love is a fruit and we can grow in love as we continue to feed the love nature within, on the Word, and exercise it in practical living. Rather than spending time praying to have love, we need to confess that the love of God is in us, keep feeding it on the Word of God and exercising it, and we’ll develop, grow, and mature in love. We often pray for things that are already ours. What we need to do is acknowledge whatever it is we need, confess it, believe it, walk in the light of it, and we’ll develop in it. That’s true concerning God’s Love in us.

Natural human love is selfish; it is concerned about self – about me, what is mine, and what I can have. Divine love is unselfish; it is concerned with what I can give, not how I can use the other person or what I can get from him or her. Human love can turn into hatred in a moment. People fall in and out of love at will. Christianity stands on the Law of Love: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (v.14). This law can however be fulfilled only in the power of the Spirit: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (v.16). More than ever before, the Church needs to better understand and walk in the light of divine love.