The Bible commands us the love. Love involves choice and conduct. The Greeks used several words for love while we use one word for love. (Eros, Phileo, Agape) Agape love is godlike love. God has put the diamond of love on the black velvet of mankind. There are nine qualities in the fruit of the Spirit. Today we leave in a society that places great value in the gifts of the Spirit. No spiritual gift is a mark of Christian maturity. The mark of maturity is what kind of fruit you bear.

1. The description of this love (1 Corinthians 13)

This love is the same love that Christ showed.

• Steadfast – true love enables us to be patient. It forgives seventy times seven.
• Serving (vs. 4) – It is kind. Kindness is serving one another. True love serves those who do not deserve it. It does good even though wrong may have been done against you.
• Sincere (vs. 4) – A jealous person cannot love.
• Self-effacing – It enables you to humble. It does not swagger and is not proud. You cannot love someone and look down upon them. You cannot be big-hearted and big-headed and the same time.
• Self-restraining – True love allows you to courteous. Have you ever been around rude people? We need to love in the little things.
• Self-denying Love (vs. 5) – It does not say me first or I know my rights. God has commanded us to love so we can no longer seek our own rights. We have responsibilities, not rights.
• Serene Love (vs. 5) – It is not easily provoked. Some people have a hair-trigger temper. What spills out whenever you are jostled? It is a sign that you are not full of love.
• Sacrificial Love – It is a book-keeping term. It is love that is able to forgive and forget. We have in our minds a list of IOUs.
• Sympathetic Love (vs. 6) – When somebody falls or sins you do not rejoice. The gossiper rejoices in iniquity. Agape love mourns and is sympathetic.
• Suffering Love (vs. 7) – You cannot love without suffering. It is not a gullible love. There is no limit to the faith of love. There is a burden to love. If God stopped the suffering then there would be no people! Or else we would be robots. God suffers when we go astray. Can the body hurt and the head not feel it? If the bride is unfaithful does the bridegroom not suffer?

2. The development of this love

The fruit of the Spirit is what God does through us. You bear this life. The fruit is divine fruit. You have the nature of the vine in you. You cannot produce or make this fruit. It is God’s love that needs to be shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. It is not the work of the flesh! Only God can graft the vine to bear fruit.

3. The desire of this love

Fruit is to be eaten and it brings pleasure. All fruit bears seed. The Christian who bears fruit is the one who will spread the seed of the gospel to others.

Categories: Galatians