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Title: The Fruit of the Spirit Is Love

Series: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

Text: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love" (Gal. 5:22).

Scripture Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Introduction

Much hate exists in the world. Husbands hate their wives, and wives hate their husbands. Parents hate their children, and children hate their parents. Brothers and sisters hate each other. People living in the same community have hostility in their hearts toward people who should be near and dear to them. Hate seems to have filled the world, for war and cruelty break out on all sides.

Jesus condensed in capsule form the teachings of Moses and the prophets in the two great commandments (Matt. 22:35-40). From this distillation of the total teachings of the Old Testament, we learn three great truths:

1. Our first obligation is to love God supremely and steadfastly.

2. Our second obligation is to love self appropriately that we might have a proper measure by which to love our neighbors.

3. Our third obligation is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

We should love God, ourselves, and others. We must love others in spite of the fact that they are unlovely. We must love those people whom we do not even like.

How can this be possible? The Scriptures declare that God not only requires that we love, but that he also provides us with both the ability and the disposition to love.

I. We need a proper definition of love.

In the English language, the word love is greatly abused and misused. People say, "I love my family, football, work, flowers, poetry, popcorn," and so on.

In the Greek language, four words describe the act of loving.

A. Eros. From this word we get the words erotic and romantic, and it refers to the chemical reaction of a male to a female.

B. Philia. The highest word in the Greek language for human love, this word represents brotherly love.

C. Storge. This word represents family love-the love of a husband for his wife and of a wife for her husband, the love of parents for children and of children for parents.

D. Agape. The New Testament writers coined a new word to describe a new quality of relationships and a new attitude toward others.

II. The Holy Spirit reveals God's love for us and creates our love for God.

A. God's love for us is unmerited on our part (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10).

B. God's love for us is pure and productive of results in our lives (Rom. 5:1-5).

C. God's love for us is great.

1. God loved us when we were dead in sin (Eph. 2:1).

2. God's love quickened us to spiritual life from spiritual death (Eph. 2:5).

3. God's love for us extends into eternity (Eph. 2:7).

D. God's love for us is eternal and unchangeable (Rom. 8:35-39). As the Holy Spirit reveals to us the greatness of God's love for us, he creates within us a loving response toward God.

III. The Holy Spirit encourages us to have an appropriate love for ourselves.

A. Proper love for ourselves will enable us to accept ourselves as unique persons created by a loving God.

B. Proper love for ourselves will help us to forgive ourselves. Some people cannot experience the forgiveness of God because they refuse to forgive themselves.

C. Proper love for ourselves will encourage us to protect ourselves from self-destructive attitudes and habits.

D. Proper love for ourselves will cause us to dedicate ourselves to the highest and best that we know.

E. Proper love for ourselves will challenge us to develop ourselves and to improve the quality of our lives that we might be of greater service to others.

IV. The Holy Spirit enable us to love others.

Because of a lack of love for others, we try to avoid the unlovable. We try to ignore people who are in need. We refuse to become involved with others and try to live lives of isolated self-centeredness.

A. To love our neighbors properly, we must accept them fully as being people for whom Jesus Christ died on the cross. We must see them as the objects of God's supreme concern. They are valuable to God, and because God is concerned about them, we should be concerned about them.

B. To love our neighbors properly, we must be willing to forgive their trespasses against us and against others. Our neighbors make mistakes just like we do.

C. To truly love our neighbors, we must be willing to follow the example of the good Samaritan and assist them in their times of misfortune (Luke 10:25-37).

D. To love our neighbors supremely, we must reveal God's love to them by our lives and our words. We can do this with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who came to dwell within us to produce love within and to demonstrate love without.

Conclusion

If you have not yet received Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior, then listen to the Holy Spirit as he invites you to trust and receive Christ as Lord. He eagerly wants to help you come to know Christ as Savior, and today you should respond to him as he speaks to your heart (Heb. 3:7 -8).