It should be noted that I do not profess to have any credibility to be teaching authoritatively from the Bible. Below is my thought-out article on a Fruit of the Spirit which should be read in light of the fact that it was written by a teenaged Christian--not a Biblical scholar. As such, please read objectively! And as always I welcome any corrections, encouragement, or comments! This article's one purpose is to (hopefully) help you launch your own study on each Fruit of the Spirit. All verses were taken from the NASB.
Love
Love can
mean many things today. For instance, it can mean merely that you like
something (I love that new book by Douglas Bond!). It is also often used to
describe the attraction between two dreamy-eyed young people, or even the
feelings you have for some other animate thing, like a cat (unfortunately). But
what is love in its purest sense? What is this love that is listed as the first
fruit of the Spirit?
Well, first
off, it is very important. It is the greatest commandment in the Bible to have
this love, and without it, we are nothing (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3)! Here is
what Jesus had to say about Biblical love:
And He said to them, “’You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the
whole Law and the Prophets.” (Mathew 22:37-40)
No wonder
love is listed as the first fruit of the Spirit! According to Jesus, the whole
Old Testament hinges on this love, and of course a good case can be made that
this love is a huge part of the New Testament as well. We must understand this
love for what it is (and consequently, what it is not) if we are to live out a
life in service to our almighty God.
Let us first
quickly get rid of the notion that the love of the Bible is anything like that which
the world understands today, cuz’ it is not even close. However much you “love”
your cat, for instance, that is nothing compared to Biblical love. For some odd
reason, you use the word “love” to explain your feelings for your cat. Maybe it
is the fluffy fur, the way it chases that laser beam around the room, or even
because in your perhaps slightly addled brain you think cats are cute, but
really, that “love” is pretty superficial. Shave away its fluffy fur and try to
give it a bath, and your “cute” kitty will become a bald, furious terror that
will claw your hands to shreds before it lets you dunk it in the water. Maybe
then you will finally realize cats for the (in lack of a better adjective) nasty creatures they are and will,
quite frankly, do the opposite of loving them.
But I digress.
As with my (perhaps
overdone) analogy of the cat, the love our world understands is a
self-serving, very-shallow emotion. When things change for the worse, the world
tells you to withdraw your love and move on. The second you have a dispute with
your spouse or feel he/she is not giving you what you need, the world completely
understands your need for a divorce. The fact that about fifty percent of
marriages today end in divorce is a sad sign of just how superficial the love
of the world is.
But Biblical
love is so much different! It is patient and kind and is not jealous or
boastful. In short, Biblical love is selfless! As this well-known passage puts
it:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but
rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)
Wow. Simply,
wow.
Practical
Application
How are we
to cultivate this amazing love in our lives? What are some practical steps we
can take to show this love both to God and our neighbors?
Love God
First and
foremost, this love can only start in our lives after we put our trust in God.
In and of ourselves, our love will look like that of the world. Selfish.
Superficial. Ugly. It is only through the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives that
this fruit can grow. Cultivating this love starts on our knees before God.
I believe
that the second you trust in Jesus as your Savior, your love for Him starts. It
is pretty hard not to love someone who has saved you from eternal death, after
all. The direct result of your love for God is keeping his commandments. As Jesus
said:
“If you love me, you
will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
Do you want
to love God? Keep His commandments. Your love for Him will only grow, for the more
you read God’s Word and obey His commands—the more you abide in Him—the more
this fruit of the Spirit will grow! I highly recommend reading John 15:1-11 to
see what I am talking about.
Love your neighbors
I got this
one easy. I have great neighbors, including my aunt and even my grandparents in
the summer time, so this commandment is no problem!
Or is it?
Just who
exactly are my neighbors? A lawyer in Luke 10:25 asked Jesus this same
question, and though He answered with a parable, Jesus’s response was no less
stunning. The lawyer was looking for a way to justify loving only a select few,
of wrenching out of Jesus a comfortable “loving your neighbor to-do list” that
could be easily checked off. Instead, Jesus gave him the parable of the Good
Samaritan.
In this
parable, a Samaritan stopped to help a badly beaten and robbed Jew on the side
of the road, something that a Jewish priest and a Levite didn’t even care
enough to even think of doing. You must understand that the Samaritans and Jews
of Jesus’s day did not get along. At all. They shared a mutual disgust for each
other. The Samaritan would have been more in character if he had stopped to
give the half-dead Jew a kick to the gut, but instead he had amazing compassion
on him.
And Jesus
tells us to do the same.
Yep, Jesus answered
the “who is my neighbor” question in a way that is less than convenient to any
to-do list. Essentially, He defined our neighbor as anyone who needs our help,
even those we despise. This definitely keeps in line with Jesus’s teaching, as
he tells us elsewhere to love even our enemies (Mathew 5:43-44)! At this point, I am sure our lawyer
friend was feeling pretty uncomfortable, as should all of us.
Again, there
is no way we can accomplish this kind of love on our own. It is called the
fruit of the Spirit for a reason,
because we can never produce it in and of ourselves! However (and thankfully),
the Bible gives us many practical tips on how to live out this love through the
power of the Holy Spirit.
You
hopefully remember that one of the qualifications for Biblical love in 1
Corinthians 13:4-8a is that it “does not take into account a wrong
suffered.” Jesus expounded on this
principle when He told us not to retaliate when someone wrongs us in Mathew
5:38-42, right before He tells us to love our enemies. We are to turn the other
cheek when we are offended. Though this may seem a little off topic, it
definitely reflects the love we should show.
Furthermore,
Jesus says a couple of verses later that part of this love we are to show is to
pray for those who persecute you. I
am not going to pretend that is easy. When we were taking part in the Forty
Days for Life pro-life campaign in front of our local Planned Parenthood
clinic, my family was verbally assaulted by a decidedly angry man who we later
learned had a daughter in the clinic, probably receiving abortion counsel. It
was so bad that another man hopped out of his car and offered to call the
police for us. As my dad was working that day, I was naturally the one to step
up and take most of the name calling. And I was called all kinds of things. A
half-hour later when the man finally left us alone, I was shaking with anger
and emotion. When my mom suggested that we should pray for him, my first
inclination was “no way!”
All of us
returned home emotionally-sapped that day, but we did pray for that man right
there on the street and forgave him, and I for one felt much better after that
prayer, as I am sure all of us did. God knows what He is doing when He tells us
to pray for our enemies, and though it may be hard, He wants only the best for
us. And it is.
Probably the
most well-known and applicable command on how to love your neighbor is found in
what we call the Golden Rule in Mathew 7:12:
“In everything,
therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is
the law and prophets.”
This is the
perfect description of what loving your neighbor should look like. We all would
like to be treated with the love shown by the Good Samaritan to the needy Jew,
right? Do the same to others.
It is my
prayer that all of us will seek to grow in this amazing love through the power
of the Holy Spirit, for it is this love that should define a Christian. Lord,
help us to pursue this love and make it our own as your disciples! Help us to
love everyone, even our enemies. Help us
to daily walk with you. Amen.
“A new commandment I
give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also
love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you
have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
Wow! Very good Kyle! I can see you put a lot of time into your study and writing. What a great use of your skills :-) I really enjoyed reading this, we can never have too many reminders on how to love the way the Bible teaches us to!
ReplyDeleteLOVE you bro!
Lydia
Thanks for the encouragement, Lydia! I Love you more!
ReplyDelete*Love* this topic and *love* your writing! Thanks for sharing God's word with us and for the exhortation to live it out . . . flowing out of our love for Him; as we abide in Christ and follow His example; choose to obey God's commandments; and all by the power of the Holy Spirit! I am really looking forward to your upcoming posts on all the fruits of the Spirit as well! Thanks a bunch! : -)
ReplyDeleteI love you, my dear son, more than words can say!
Mommy
Ah, thank you, Mommy! Your encouragement means so much! I love you more!
ReplyDelete