Love is What We Need!

The Spirit of Grace desires to produce love in the experience of each believer in Christ Jesus. Many relationships suffer because of self-centeredness, impatience, insensitivity, jealousy, insecurity, pride and the list goes on. Christian marriages, homes, friendships, and lifestyles would be more than favorably impacted by a generous dose of divine love. Relationship complications range from communication problems, sex, money, household chores, deprioritizing the relationship to conflict and trust issues (Sorgen, www.webmd.com).  While there are many self-help articles and books on the market offering many well thought out solutions, I believe there is one fundamental problem at the root of most relational challenges. In most cases Christ and His truth are blatantly missing because the individuals are unsaved and uninterested in God’s Word. With regards to believers, His love can scarcely be detected in the average relationship; this is a tragedy of embarrassing proportions. While shallow, token and superficial ‘love’ abounds in many places, deep abiding agape-love is often missing or has been minimized. In contrast, the Apostle Paul exalts the potency of agape-love saying it, “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth” (1 Cor. 13:7, 8a). While every relationship has challenges at times, still there is absolutely no force in the universe more powerful than divine love. It is always a key element in real relational solutions! Even better, such love is prescribed for every child of God as a way of life for us followers of Jesus Christ. None other than the Spirit of the Living God can produce this transforming fruit of the Spirit in a yielded life. Every relationship on the planet needs this dynamic type of love.

LOVING

In the listing of the fruit of the Spirit, love appears first because it is the foundation of the other graces. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22, 23). Thus love lays at the foundation of healthy relationships. But what kind of ‘love’ is this?  Obviously this is divine love; it can be described as spiritual, sacrificial, unconditional, volitional, enduring, and triumphant (1 Cor. 13).  It is supremely supernatural and wonderfully sublime. Often love is characterized as a feeling, sentiment, or an emotion. We love our mother, football, and even the house we grew up in. Though love is used widely in these manners in our society, none of these are what the Apostle Paul had in mind when He wrote the word “love.”

Love is not merely an emotion, but a choice to do what is best for the ones cherished.  Love acts to secure the highest good spiritually, physically, emotionally, and relationally. Love has been described as the steadfast command of the will to secure the lasting good of another; even for those who do not love in return.  It is both love for God and for one’s fellowman (Matt. 22:37-39; Jn. 14:15; 15:10). Clearly the fruit of the Spirit will entail expressions of love toward God and man as a normal course of daily life. In his book The Work of the Holy Spirit, Kuyper (1946, p. 533) observed,

The means employed by the Holy Spirit in the shedding abroad of the Love of God in our hearts is simply Love. By loving us He teaches love. By applying love to us, by expending love upon us, He inculcates love on us.  It is the love of the Holy Spirit whereby the shedding abroad of love in our hearts has become possible. As according to I Cor. xiii., Love ought to manifest itself in our lives, so has the Holy Spirit wrought it in our hearts.

The Bible reveals the three principal qualities of the Christian life, which are faith, hope, and charity. Of course charity is the greatest of all according to First Corinthians 13:13. Love is the preeminent quality of Christian character. Yes, faithfulness is important and certainly hopefulness is too.  But the greatest and most excellent trait the Spirit of God seeks to ‘stamp’ upon the believers character is love. When this virtue fills a life, it provides the most persuasive evidence of a genuine personal discipleship to Christ (Jn. 13:35; 1 Jn. 3:10-24). True faith must always lead to a life of love for God and others (Matt. 22:37-40). This is one of the central purposes and most crucial evidences of genuine people of God in this life. Another critical purpose of believers is to glorify Him in all facets of our existence. Cultivating loving character certainly glorifies God! It was Kenneth Osbeck (1990) who said, “Our love relationship with others should be characterized as sacrificial, sensitive, and sharing.” This is heavy-duty love and it is not for the faint of heart. That is, believers are to relate and interact with others much as the Lord Jesus did while here on earth. Christ obviously loved individuals simply for themselves. They were His creatures bearing His image and no matter how obscure and marred that image was, He genuinely loved them, accepted them, and met them at the place of their personal need.  While He never condoned sin in anyway, He readily reached out to sinners and the unlovely to save them and help them know life free of the bondage of sin (Luke 19:1-10; John 4:6-42).

The Bible declares that “God is love” and He loves the world (1 John 4:8; John 3:16). Love is the very nature of God,

John is emphasizing that God is love. Love is His nature. There is no love in the true sense but that which finds its source in Him. The words “God is love” are well worth all the languages in earth or heaven (MacDonald & Farstad).

Therefore, what is true of God can become true of abiding believers who depend on Him for this quality. Yes, this awesome divine love can be communicated into the lives of genuine believers,

Since God is love, intimate acquaintance with Him will produce love. Like light (1:5), love is intrinsic to the character and nature of God, and one who is intimately acquainted with God walks in His light (1:7) (Walvoord & Zuck).

Since love is what God is, it is also what His children ought to be—willfully compassionate, willfully tenderhearted, willfully loving individuals, and willfully obedient to God. This is not merely a love rooted in admiration, or natural affection, but it is anchored in the human will—the power of choice. The Spirit of Grace produces love through our yielding and choices. It is not about feelings primarily, but it is decidedly about choices first and foremost.  We must choose to govern ourselves in a loving manner regardless of personal feelings toward another. I know that statement sounds strange, but it is biblically accurate. This is why love can be directed toward all men—to include one’s enemies (Matt. 5:43-48).  We are not commanded to have warm feelings toward someone who is antagonistic toward us, but we are instructed to pray for and do good things for them in return for their animosity. We make the choice to show love.

Love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13 as sacrificial, service oriented, placing others first, showing deference, exhibiting patience, and consideration. Love is brilliantly proclaimed in all its fullness at the cross of Calvary where Christ freely and willingly shed His precious blood for undeserving sinners (Rom. 5:8). He suffered greatly for our faults and sinfulness when He knew just how dark and wretched we truly are deep inside. As expressed through Christ, not even His own life was too great a price or sacrifice to secure the people He loved unto Himself. What an awe-inspiring passion! Such self-sacrificing love that moved Christ to embrace the cross for us sinners is the same type the Spirit-controlled believers will manifest also.  This conclusion is inescapable!

SHARING

Love is often evidenced in the form of giving. This is seen in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit’s gifts towards humanity and the people of God.  God gives generously into our lives every singular second of every day for the entirety of our lives. We are to love others as He loves us. Love towards our fellowman is wonderfully captured in Paul Tan’s anecdote, His Brother Was Spurgeon from his Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations (Tan 1979, p. 1202).

It is related of the late Mr. Spurgeon that on one occasion he found a boy on the streets, ragged and hungry. Taking him with him home, the good pastor fed and clothed him, and then, kneeling down, prayed for the friendless boy as only he could pray. Several times in the prayer he referred to the Almighty as “Our Father.”

When the prayer was finished the boy said, “Did you say “Our Father”?” “Yes, my boy, yours and mine.” “Yes,” was the reply, “then we are brothers.” “Yes,” gravely replied the pastor, and then he talked to him of the Lord Jesus Christ, and finally, on taking leave of him, gave him a letter to a certain boot dealer for a pair of boots.

A few days after, Mr. Spurgeon was passing the boot shop, when the dealer saw him and called to him. “I had a strange thing the other day,” he said. “A boy came into the shop and asked for a pair of boots, saying that his brother had sent him, and when I asked him who his brother was he said you were.” “That is right,” said Mr. Spurgeon, “and he is your brother, too, and if you like we will share the cost of the boots.

Who can forget that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16)? Love must be the most powerful force in the universe because it motivated The Father to take extreme measures to His own detriment to redeem us sinners. Clearly, Jesus “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Ephesians 5:23). Why was Christ on that tree on Calvary? It was because He loves His church, His bride, and willingly sacrificed Himself for her! It took far more than mere nails to impale the Sovereign of the universe to a cross. It took holy, pure, righteous, Son of God agape-love! How amazing is this! My heart is overwhelmed as I reflect upon this tremendous truth. When I was of no value at all to God, He meticulously sought me out, refused to give up on me, gently wooed me to Himself, completely redeemed my exceedingly sinful soul, generously granted me a new place of honor in Christ, and one day He will come to receive us unto Himself when He takes us home to Heaven! I am saying that God is the greatest Lover, and thus He is the greatest Giver ever! Should not the “love of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:14) constrain us believers today to give?  Selfishness and stinginess should be extremely strange in Christian circles! Paul told the Corinthians to “prove the sincerity of your love” (2 Corinthians 8:8) by giving to the needs of others. Give to support the New Testament church you belong to. Give to sustain missions’ endeavors around the world through your home church’s worldwide outreach efforts. There should be convincing evidence of genuine Christian love; the proof is in our generosity.

CARING

Love also enables God’s children to express meaningful care one towards the other. We can overcome “personality conflicts” and avoid the many troubles a church may experience because of infighting and bickering (1 Cor. 12:31-13:8).  Why? Well, because we care for one another, care about the testimony of our Lord, and care to influence others for Christ instead of against Him. Biblical love would solve most marriage problems modern couples grapple with. Caring for one another must far outweigh pettiness, insensitivity, senseless hairsplitting, and even restore family/work balance. Adultery, unfaithfulness, two-timing, disloyalty, and many communication problems will evaporate once believers start living out godly love. Spirit-wrought love seeks to conceal and not reveal an embarrassing or awkward matter about another (Prov. 10:12; 17:9; 1 Cor. 13:4; 1 Pet. 4:8). This means private issues do not end up on the internet or on social media outlets. One simply does not embarrassingly expose those they love! This is how we behave when we truly care for family, friends, our church, and associates. Godly love ensures the needs of others are met and fuels the fires of ministry fervor to the saints (Eph. 4:15-16).  Training, discipleship, and mentoring ministries must be empowered and motivated by love. This will sustain them and keep them progressing in the right direction. In a loving context the elderly are cared for with sensitivity and tenderness, the handicap are ministered to according to their special needs, and the helpless secure real help without further mistreatment.

Godly love also inflames the saint with passion to reach the lost for Christ (2 Cor. 5:14; Acts 4:19-20). Precious souls are deeply valued, sought out, witnessed to, brought to church, encouraged to trust the Savior, and presented with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Human beings are treated with dignity and respect because they bear the image of God. They are genuinely and routinely loved. Loving sinners to Christ with the truth of the Gospel is completely consistent with holy love. There is no desire to merely label and condemn the unsaved, but there is an honest recognition of their sinfulness compelling us to reach out to them with the only solution for sin in the universe. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what they need, just as it was for every believer. Oh for the grace to love more sinners to the Savior! Love is why Christians obey God and treat their neighbors the way they would like to be treated (Mk. 12:31; Gal. 5:14; Js. 2:8). As Believers, we need to be filled with the Spirit to evidence divine love.  Every honest child of God knows we cannot live up to these divine expectations in our human energy! Lord Balfour upheld the biblical mandate in a piece entitled The Best Gift (Tan 1979, p. 459),

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.

Brethren, let us love one another for love is of God. Let us put away our excuses for not loving as we ought and follow the Lord Jesus in this regard as well. Loving, sharing, and caring are what our Heavenly Father expects of all His children. We must rely on the Spirit of God to bear this fruit in our experiences. Let us ask God to fill us afresh that we may love as Jesus did. 

Filled and Fruitful!

The Holy Spirit confronts our sin to reduce its dominance, and He creates positive developments nudging each Believer towards Christ-likeness. While convicting and cleansing are essential activities of the Spirit of Grace, they are incomplete without Him creating the character of the Lord Jesus within us. Spiritual transformation is not only concerned with those wrong patterns of thought and deed we must discard, but also those good traits and qualities that must be imparted to us as children of God.  Creating Christlike character in Believers is the specialty of the Holy Spirit; He is the key to fruit bearing in our lives.

A RENOVATION PROJECT

Spiritual formation is much like renovating a living room in a home.  There are some items that will be removed. Perhaps an old couch, the end tables, some lamps, and old pictures will be removed and discarded. The project may be as extensive as taking out a wall and the existing flooring.  But the work would be grossly incomplete if new flooring and furnishing were not installed. The wall that was removed gives way to an enlarged room and a more open floor plan. The old flooring tiles can be replaced with hardwood flooring. New furniture items and fresh wall paper would finish out the project nicely. In the renovation process there is both removing the old and installing the new. If there is only taking out without a putting in, the room would be uninhabitable and incomplete.  It would not serve its full purpose.  So it is with the renovation work of the Spirit.  He endeavors to remove sinful habits and install saintly habits.  He must root out godless character and install godly character. Anything less would be incomplete. The Spirit must rid believers of inconsistency, low integrity, hatred, anger, and worldliness.  He would love nothing more than to refurnish our soul with righteousness, all goodness, truth, love, joy, peace, virtue, godliness, brotherly kindness and many other graces typical of Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:9; Gal. 5:22-23; 2 Pet. 1:5-8).

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

Regarding the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22), we believers must undergo something of an internal renovation. When the Spirit’s endeavor is well under way, it will display the most brilliant creativity in the entire universe. The Spirit of the Lord actually fashions Christlike outgrowth in each of us as we yield to His authority. This is nothing less than an absolutely astonishing reality for us Believers. In this function, the Spirit produces our new character—Christ’s image (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). This is a wondrous undertaking when one considers how glorious the Lord Jesus truly is and how much unlike Him we are! The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 5:22–23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith [faithfulness], ²³ Meekness, temperance [self-control]: against such there is no law.” He portrays this creative labor as “the fruit of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit fashions within Christians this new distinctive character all the while evidencing supernatural life in us.

Supernatural Fruit

First, it is important to observe that this “fruit” is not produced by us believers ourselves, but by the Holy Spirit growing “fruit” within our souls. Fruitfulness is possible through our vital union with Christ (John 15:1-8). Without Him we, the people of God, can do nothing at all to produce personal holiness (Jn. 15:5). We are called upon to abide in Christ because through the Lord Jesus we can become absolutely everything He requires (Phil. 4:13). All the listed virtues, the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22, 23), describe the life of the truly spiritual child of God as we abide in a fruit bearing relationship to Christ. This fruit can only grow out of supernatural life.

Spirit Filling

Secondly, the way to become fruitful is to be filled with the Spirit of God (Eph. 5:18). It has been recognized (Murray 1984, p.7) that Spirit filling is the yielded believer being continually controlled, dominated, and governed by the Holy Spirit for daily living and service. We are not interested in running our own lives for our own agenda. Spirit filling is commanded, conditional, experiential, repeatable, and God’s will for every believer. Many of us good Christians will never know the fullness of God’s Spirit because we are so caught up in doing many good things and are involved in several worthy causes. We are so busy leading our own lives that there is no room for God to lead us. We have failed to realize that we are often filled with ourselves rather than the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, our actions are the expression of our own will, desires, values, and motives and not God’s plans at all. Consequently, our strength and power is merely human. We desperately need to rediscover the crucified life (Gal. 2:20) and the Spirit’s crucial empowerment.

Being filled with the Spirit is being controlled by the God (Eph. 5:18). God’s positive command is, “Be filled with the Spirit.” The verb “filled” has nothing to do with contents or quantity, as though believers are empty containers needing a required amount of spiritual fuel to keep going. In the Bible, filled means “controlled by.” “They... were filled with wrath” (Luke 4:28) means “they were controlled by wrath” and for that reason tried to kill the Lord Jesus. “The Jews were filled with envy” (Acts 13:45) means that the Jews were controlled by envy and opposed the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. To be “filled with the Spirit” means to be constantly controlled by the Spirit in one’s mind, emotions, and will.

And it should also be noted that the verb “filled” is passive. We Christians do not fill ourselves but we permit the Spirit to control us. Thus as Believers, rather than controlling ourselves, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. It may be more accurate to say that the Holy Spirit is the “Agent” of the filling (Gal. 5:16) and Christ is the “Content” of this supernatural filling (Eph. 3:16-19). Thus in this relationship, as we are yielded to the Lord and controlled by Him, He increasingly manifests the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), which is the very character of Christ. Yes, this is how believers can evidence this spiritual fruit.

Being filled is to be repeated and continuous. It is not a once-for-all crisis experience in the life of a disciple; ‘filling’ is not an once-in-a-lifetime moment of spiritual exhilaration from which one will never have carnal moments again. Rather it is a continuous appropriation where the Christian regularly prays (Murray 1984, p. 9) “Fill me for this day, this decision, this meeting, this activity, this encounter, or this chore.” Then we depend upon God to control our thoughts, emotions, and actions. God desires for us to ‘keep on being continually filled with the Spirit.’ It may begin as a crisis experience, but it must continue thereafter as a moment-by-moment dependence upon the Spirit for fresh power/grace (MacDonald & Farstad). Today’s filling will not suffice for tomorrow. And certainly it is a spiritual blessing every believer should greatly desire. In fact, it is the ideal condition for us Believer here on earth. It means that the Holy Spirit is having His way fairly unhindered in our experience. As such believers, we are therefore fulfilling our role in the plan of God for that time (MacDonald & Farstad).

Just as wine can control a person, God desires to control the believer’s life by His Spirit. Such believers are not afraid to express themselves to the glory of God. We will experience the beautiful manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

A Singular Fruit

Thirdly, the word “fruit” is singular. This indicates these nine qualities constitute a unit, all of which should be found in us believers as we live under the control of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).  These qualities will not all be manifested to the same degree or strength, but will still be evident in each believer’s character.  The more we mature in our reliance on the Spirit, the more pervasive Christ’s image will become in our character. As Christians we must consciously depend on the Spirit to produce fruit in and through us.

Christ’s Life

Fourthly, in an ultimate sense this “fruit” is plainly the life of Christ lived out in a submissive Christian. Character influences what we do—behavior. Character can generally be described as the peculiar and distinctive qualities of a person. The original and simple meaning of the word “character” is an engraving—something carved or inscribed in a person’s nature. It is the potential fact about the individual: “the inmost truth of them written upon their personality” according to Practical Bible Illustrations from Yesterday and Today (Steele, Jr. and Stoner, 1998). Thus life is an expression of one’s character.  Remember, the Holy Spirit endeavors to transform us into the image of Christ. Our Lord’s thoughts, desires, motives, ambitions, values, and qualities become a part of each Christian’s inner man greatly exerting influence upon our behavior. 

It has been wisely pointed out that every one of these qualities is foreign to the soil of the human heart. The method whereby Christ is formed in a believer is the handy work of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 1:21). Max Anders (1995, Chapter 11) observed that the first three of these virtues of the Spirit are habits of mind which find their source in God. The second triad reaches out to others, fortified by love, joy, and peace. The final three graces guide the general conduct of us believers as we are led by the Spirit.

It was Dr. Tim LaHaye (1966, p. 45) who pointed out how this process works itself out in his book Spirit Controlled Temperament. He affords a rather comprehensive overview of a Spirit controlled and fruitful life. LaHaye observed, “Needless to say, any individual manifesting these characteristics is going to be a happy, well-adjusted, mature and a very fruitful human being.” These nine qualities reveal God’s desire for His children.  There is a healthy desire in every one of us believers to please our Lord by living a truly spiritual life.  Again spiritual fruitfulness is not the outcome of human effort (LaHaye 1966, 46), but the supernatural production of the Holy Spirit controlling all facets of our experience.  It would be helpful at this juncture to explore these traits individually as Paul presented them in Galatians chapter five.  Believers’ new disposition in the Spirit is marked by these nine qualities (Gal. 5:22-23). Allow Him to carve out the character of our wonderful Lord Jesus in your life daily.