Fruit of the Spirit - Part 2 - Love

I just love going to the beach! I love listening to the waves crash on the shore. I love watching the dolphins swimming and playing in the ocean.

Love is one of the most often used, misapplied and misunderstood words in the English language. Its usage is nearly limitless. People, myself included, say they love everything from peanut butter to pork rinds, fireworks to Ferraris, lilies to literature. The semantic range is so broad and flexible, it almost renders the word meaningless. For when a word is used to mean almost anything, it means almost nothing.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Galations 5:22

The "love" mentioned in this verse is "agape" love, but what exactly is agape love? Let me explain... agape love is different from other types of love. The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. Unlike our English word "love," agape is not used in the Bible to refer to romantic or sexual love. Nor does it refer to close friendship or brotherly love, for which the Greek word philia is used. Agape love is unique and is distinguished by its nature and character. 

Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself. 1John 4:8, "God is love." God does not merely love; He is love itself! Everything God does flows from His love. God's love isn't the sappy, sentimental love we so often hear about. God loves because that is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely (us!), not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is His nature to do so. God's love is displayed most clearly at the Cross, where Christ dies for the unworthy creatures who were "dead in their trespasses and sins" (Ephesian 2:1). Christ died for YOU and for ME. How many people would you die for just because you know he/she is a sinner? 

"but God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us"

Romans 5:8

We are undeserving recipients of the love He lavishes. Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for those He loves.

In the same way, we are to love others sacrificially. Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of sacrifice for the sake of others, even those who may care nothing at all for us, or even hate us, as the Jews did the Samaritans. Sacrificial love is not based on a feelings, but a determined act of the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own. 

This love doesn't come naturally to us humans. Because of our fallen nature, we are incapable of producing such a love. If we are to show agape love, it can only come from its true Source. When we become His children, that love stores itself in our hearts. 

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another."

John 13:34

We are to love sacrificially. Not for gain, not to make ourselves look good, but because He loved us sacrificially, even to the point of death. 

Again, it is clear that only God can generate within us the kind of self-sacrificing love which is the proof that we are His children. 

"By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."

1 John 3:16

Because of God's love toward us, we are now able to love one another. 

"There must be a stronger foundation than mere friendship or sexual attraction. Unconditional love, agape love, will not be swayed by time or circumstances. " 

John 3:16.