It is no wonder that the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 is love. After all, we know God is Love (I John 4:8). Within the holy trinity exists a perfect relationship of love. One that is self-less. As Jonathan Edwards explained in Treatise on Grace, Jesus Christ is the perfect echoing of the Father-His Word made flesh. The perfect echoing of God’s own thought. The Holy Spirit exists as full essence of that perfect love and joy the Father and Son have in each other. It is no wonder, that when God created mankind in His image, He created us body, soul, and spirit. This being the aspect of our existence allowing us the ability to reason, to love, and to even have a creative nature. Yet, our fruit of love apart from the Spirit is bitter and selfish.
Apart from the spiritual nature of our Creator infusing life into our spirit, our fruit of love becomes focused only on self as the primary love. We become preoccupied with love as “what can this love do to make me feel better about myself.” This is in direct contrast to the Perfect love of God. It is no wonder we find this very thing called “love” within our human race brings such heartbreak. Broken marriages and relationships because each person is concerned only with self-fulfillment. When the other person, with their own brokenness, cannot fulfill our needs or further inflate our ego we must exit in search of another “love”. In other words, without the Holy Spirit infusion of perfect love, our fruit of love becomes shriveled and bitter. There are times when unbelievers do display unselfish love. Even this is God’s Grace intervening, revealing Himself to the world.
The Holy Spirit’s Fruit of Love
Certainly, the fruit of love produced by the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer is one of Perfect love, the essence of God’s love. It is perfected described in I Corinthians 13. Although these are favorite verses to recite at weddings, how often does our fruit of love resemble these verses. A self-less, sacrificial love that always places the other person’s needs above our own. To be willing to die completely to self, that the other might live with joy. Is this not the love Christ displayed for us and for His Father on the cross?
If indeed the Holy Spirit indwells us and one of the fruits of the Spirit is love, why does the Christian’s love often look like or even worse than that of the unbeliever? Racked with our selfishness, pride and self-exaltation, our fruit of love is often bitter. However, God desires to perfect us in love and He will, whatever it takes. He knows our joy, hope and peace depend on this. Phillip Keller in A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit, provides this insight:
He writes of a cluster of grapes, holding 9 grapes. One grape in the cluster may be fully ripened, full of sweet juice, pleasing to the eye, delectable to taste. But in the same cluster, there may also be several grapes which are …less ripe, sour…shrunken and shriveled[1]
The same in true in the Christian’s life. So, what is the Christian to do? First, one must surrender to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. Exam your own heart, while at the same time, asking God to reveal this to you. Die to self, that Christ might live in and through you. Remember that only God can transform a heart.
Concluding Thoughts
[tweetthis]Perfect Love Always Sees the Needs of the Beloved as Greater than Ones Own.[/tweetthis]
[bctt tweet=”To Love Perfectly One Must Surrender completely to the Holy Spirit’s Work in You” username=”effiedarlene”]
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Previous Posts to Consider
How Does God Prepare the Soil for Growth?
What Fruit is the Garden of Your Heart Producing?
How to Discern the Voice of God from Yours?
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©Effie Darlene Barba, 2018
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[1] Phillip Keller, A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit, in The Inspirational Writings of Phillip Keller, (New York, NY: Inspirational Press, 1993), 484-485.