Fruit of the Spirit is Love
The very first fruit of the Spirit is love. Why?
Part of me loves passages like the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and part of me hates them. I love them because they paint a beautiful picture of life lived in Christ. I hate them because it’s easy for me to look at a list of characteristics like this and start grading myself; upon which I would see that I have some work to do. I don’t think I’m alone.
It is easy for us to see a list like this and feel like we need to work on being more of each one of these things – or at least the ones we aren’t so good at. After a lot of effort, self-help books, and maybe even some prayer we realize that we still aren’t as loving or joyful or gentle as we think we should be and are at a loss of what to do.
The Fruit of the Spirit series is not about telling you all the ways you should be more of something, because that isn’t how Paul presents the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five.
Before listing the fruit of the Spirit, Paul lists the acts of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). The comparison he is trying to make is not just between the lists themselves, but between the driving force behind the lists.
The negative characteristics are listed as “acts of flesh.” The greek word translated “acts” also means “work.” Living by the flesh is a life characterized by constantly striving and straining to protect yourself. Consequently, this life is also one of dominating others. Think about it, everything listed as being contrary to the Spirit is self-centered.
- sexual sin turns other human beings into objects to meet my desire.
- idolatry places myself or something else in the place of God
- hatred usually comes when I feel threatened
- jealousy is desiring something that someone else has, simply because they have it and I don’t
All of these things are framed as a striving or straining toward self. In other words, the life lived according to the flesh is a constant worry about self.
Compare that to the fruit of the Spirit. Paul doesn’t talk about these characteristics as “works” or “acts” of righteousness. Instead, he calls them fruit. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, etc. aren’t things we strive for, they are things that blossom in us through the Spirit of God. I don’t know about you, but I have always seen the fruit of the Spirit as an intimidating list of the qualities I had to achieve (work for) in order to be considered righteous.
Here is the good news: The fruit of the Spirit is the character of God made manifest in the believer! As the Spirit of Christ lives in you, the character of Christ shines through you! This means you can put away any guilt for not “being more joyful” or “possessing more gentleness” and simply pursue Christ and allow his character to shine through us by the power of His Spirit.
The very first fruit that Paul mentions in love. He begins here, not simply because this is the most important, but because all of the other characteristics are experienced inside the sphere of love. Love is the glue that holds all the rest together. Love is the fruit, the others are the slices inside the fruit. Consider this illustration:
Much of Galatians 5 is about how walking in the Spirit means allowing the love of God to be made manifest in us.
Galatians 5:4-6, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Paul is speaking to a group of Jewish people who are trying to grapple with Gentiles (non-Jews) being allowed into the faith. Specifically, should Gentiles only be welcomed if they participate in Jewish practices like circumcision. Paul states emphatically that all their concern over Jewish practice is of no value! What matters is faith that comes to expression through love!
This points to the reality that faith is not an abstract mental exercise (as it has often been sold in modern evangelical circles)! Faith in Christ is a way of life that is made visible by love. Christians often say, “I want my life to be so different that people notice.” What we mean is that we want our faith to visible to other people. Paul says, your faith is made visible by the way you love people.
What is even more challenging is that Paul is teaching this truth in a context where Jews & Gentiles were deeply divided over a theological issue like circumcision and the practices of faith. They were trying to figure out what faith in Christ looked like. Paul encouragement is that, in the midst of all your figuring out, figure out that that faith expresses itself through love. It’s easy to love those who are like us. It is much harder to love those who are different than us because of skin color, lifestyle, economic status or political persuasion.
Paul knows as well as you and I do that we can’t love like God calls us to love without the power of the Spirit working through us! Which is why, after calling us to a radical love, he says that the fruit of the Spirit is love. The way to love one another is to allow the Spirit of the God of Love to be made manifest through you.
As you and I are called to blossom more and more in love for one another, we do so because we are the recipients of the greatest love the world has ever known. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God has lavished love on us and as we accept his love, we are transformed by it. That transformation allows us to love others with Christlike love as the fruit of the Spirit blossoms in us.
To learn more about the character of God made manifest in us, click on the resources below and check out the sermon series, “The Fruit of the Spirit” from Emmaus Road, a church in Fort Collins.
Prayer: O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing; Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Source: Book of Common Prayer, Epiphany 7)