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Love That Bears Fruit

Love That Bears Fruit

Last updated on: January 23, 2025 at 6:40 pm by Beverly R. Green

Love That Bears Fruit 2025-01-23T18:40:11-05:00 Beverly R. Green

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Love That Bears Fruit

I believe we all want our love to bear fruit.

A Little Context for Love

1 John 4:7-21 says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

Notice that the scripture tells us that “God IS love.” Love is not just a characteristic of God; it’s what He is. The Greek word here is agape–the active response of God to His people, and the response He expects us to have toward one another, as we are made in His image and likeness.

A Little Definition of Love

Another well-known passage that deals with love is I Corinthians 13. We’ll concentrate on verses 4-11:

“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

Love and the Law and the Prophets

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul (like God, love with all that you are). This is the most important, and the second is equal to it. Love your neighbor as yourself. This sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40). What did Jesus mean by that? The Law and the Prophets referred to the Hebrew scriptures, the core of which is the Ten Commandments. As you have probably heard, the Ten Commandments can be divided into two distinct parts: Commandments 1-3 refer to a mans’ relationship with God; Commandments 4-10 refer to a man’s relationship to man. When Jesus condenses the ten into two, He reveals love at the heart of each one. It’s more about thou shalt than thou shalt not. Thou shalt love!

The Fruit of the Spirit

This is not the only place where we are given the concept of loving our neighbor. There is, of course, the golden rule. Galatians 5:14 says, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Galatians 5 goes on to exhort us to “walk in the Spirit” (vs. 16), because “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (vs. 22-26).

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control–that list sounds like the I Corinthians 13 definition of love. Watch:

Love is translated in both passages as agape–that same active love that God has for His people and that He desires from them, and for them to extend to one another that we read in I John!

***Joy–***Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth (I Cor. 13:6)

***Peace–”***harmony, lack of strife, seeking the health and welfare of others”–it is not easily angered (I Cor. 13:5).”

***Patience–***comes with a process over time, as in “where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me” (I Cor. 13:4, 8-11).

Kindness shows compassion and “does not dishonor others,” even when it can (I Cor. 13:4,5)

***Goodness–”***treats others as the objects of special relationship and affection” and sees only the best in others–keeps no record of wrongs (I Cor. 13:5)

***Faithfulness–***it’s dependable–“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (I Cor. 13:7-8).

Gentleness–”meek and humble”–” it does not boast, it is not proud”

Self-control–”controlling selfish desires, does not put self first”–not self-seeking (I Cor. 13:5).

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other – “It does not envy” (I Cor. 13:4)

The Holy Spirit Brings the Fruit

The fruit that is produced in us by life in the Holy Spirit equips us to fulfill the greatest commandment. I think I’ve always known that, but I never realized how specifically the scriptures explain it. Love and fruit–just what every Christian needs. Can you imagine how things would change if we would just begin to cultivate that crop?

God bless you and make you fruitful!

[All definitions from Strong’s Exhaustive NIV Concordance]

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