The following is an in-depth look at the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. If you’re reading this without any pre-conceived context, I encourage you to read How is Your Root System?, Analogy of the Oak Tree, and Fruits of the Spirit. This is an extension of those three posts.
Remember, when we are rooted and planted firm in the Truth of God, growing in Christ, we begin to bear fruits in our lives. This process takes time, it takes pruning, it takes obedience, it takes waiting in the dry and cold seasons, and it takes adapting to our environment before we’re strong enough to bear these holy fruits.
Sometimes, God will spiritually cut off that which is dead or unfruitful in our lives, so we can grow more in the likeness of Christ.
Other times God will prune or trim up the spiritual branches in our lives that are mediocre in production, perhaps they produce some fruit but not to the fullness in which He desires for our life. Often times, these mediocre branches can reduce the quality and quantity of Holy Fruits produced in our lives by robbing the vine of nutrients it requires to grow.
Even yet, sometimes God severs off those good, fruitful things from our lives so that we can enjoy even better, fruitful things.
My Nana once said to me, “Honey, the Lord doesn’t always take us from bad things to good things. He can take us from good things to better blessings too.”
God can do this while pruning our faith, our fruits of His Spirit. There may be a season He wants us to share a bountiful harvest of one of these Fruits of the Spirit. Will we be obedience?
Many people believe accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior is the pinnacle of their faith. They behave in such a way that it seems they believe they’ve done what they’re supposed to do as a follower of Jesus, and that’s it. However, it is only the beginning! We should not take our assurance of salvation as a license to be complacent or lazy. Once we believe in THE faith, there must be accompanying actions to show our renewed and transforming life. We must allow our growth in Jesus to reflect in the production of Holy Fruits in our lives; lives that are being grown deep and planted firm in the “good soil” of God’s Truth.
What is Love?
Speaking of infiltrating our faith, I can’t not type that phrase, “what is love?” and not sing the annoyingly recognizable refrain from the 90s Haddaway…
(sigh)
The world has much to say about love, I don’t need to endorse its wrong teachings. Rather, I want to focus on God’s definition of love, according to His Word.
According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
If you’re a regular reader of Transparency in Love, you may have discovered, I love reading scripture in multiple versions, particularly AMPC and NIV, and this passage in AMPC is so good. It reads, with more detail, “Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, it is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, it hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].”
Download my free printable “Love is…” poster.
When Jesus commands us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…and to love our neighbors as yourself.” (Luke 10:27-28) He is talking about this kind of love.
In this passage, love, translated agapao in Greek, is a verb that means to “welcome, entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly persons in your life”. As we can see from the definition of love in this particular passage of scripture, love requires action- both outward and inward actions. Seen and unseen.
Which is also were we get the Greek word, agape, which is a noun-form of agapao love. Agape is one of four types of loves we see in scripture.
Types of Love
Agape
Agape, a Greek noun word, is defined as love that involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is selfless love; a perfect, unconditional love. God is love and shows this immeasurable and incomparable love for mankind through agape love.
This is the same love we see used in the Greek text of the following passages of scripture: Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 5:43-46, John 3:16 (which I started this post with), John 13:34-35, John 14:21, John 17:23, 1 John 3:16, 1 John 4:7-8, and 1 Corinthians 16:4.
Storge
Pronounced store-jay, Storge is another type of love, which in Greek describes a familiar love. A love that is shared between a parent and their child(ren); a love shared between siblings; a love shared that can’t help but be expressed because there is a supernatural connection bringing them together in love.
We don’t see this Greek root of the word love used in scripture, though, rather it is its negative form, astorgos. Astorgos means without natural affection, unsociable, inhuman, unloving. This describes a love where the parent and/or children have become hard-hearted towards each other.
Paul speaks of this kind of negative love in 2 Timothy 3:3-5, “But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Tim. 3:3-5)
This means there is an absence of the kind of love for family that is instinctive.
Philia
To show philia love is to extend love to fellow humans, as well as care, respect and compassion. This is an affectionate, friendship love. In the New Testament of scripture, philadelphia, pronounced fil-ad-el-fee’-ah, not like the city Philadelphia, is the love which followers of Jesus cherish for each other as brethren.
We see this Greek root of love in passages like Romans 12:10, Hebrews 13:1, 1 Peter 1:22, 1 Peter 3:8, 2 Peter 1:7, and 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
Eros
Eros love is used to describe sexual love or the feelings of arousal that are shared between people who are physically attracted to one another. Eros isn’t inherently sinful, in fact, eros love is part of God’s design, a gift of his goodness for procreation and enjoyment within the boundaries of marriage. Sex, as God intended it, is a source of delight, worship, and blessing, and is to be shared between man and woman who are married.
Unfortunately, people of this world have distorted this type of love and tend to teach from one of two extremes- asceticism or hedonism. Both of which can be dangerous. Throughout the New Testament (and really the Old), the people had so misused and distorted eros love that it’s not even used in scripture.
In God’s perfect design, he created eros love to be appropriate and enjoyed by husband and wife. He also encourages eros love as tool for married couples to exercise to combat the enemy from trying infiltrate the marriage and family (referencing 1 Corinthians 7:1-15).
God also says it’s okay not to marry! In this same passage above, it reads, “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried… But if they cannot control themselves (with the eros affectionate love), they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”
Now, I feel the need to say, a marriage is so much more than eros love. If a man and woman come together in marriage only “burning with passion,” it’s not going to end well. It just won’t.
Eros love in marriage encompasses ALL four types of love. Remember how God’s Word defines love? The husband and wife must live, through their actions, words, and thoughts, internally and externally, the definition of God’s love. And the beautiful thing about being rooted in God’s Truth in marriage, God helps strengthen that branch of love throughout the years of marriage to be all-encompassing and all-fruitful.
Love is Power
Now that we know what love is and the four types of love, how can we show that kind of God-defining love? What can this kind of Holy Fruit of Love do in a believers life?
Glad you asked (or are at least thinking about it).
Throughout scripture, we see the parallel of God’s love for us from beginning to end (Genesis to Revelation). It’s interwoven throughout the stories and lives of people in the Old Testament and New Testament, and through the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, we see it continue today.
- Love covers a multitude of sins and promotes peace
“Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrong.”
Prov. 10:12
“He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, but he who repeats or harps on a matter separates even close friends.”
Prov. 17:9
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.”
2 John 1:3
“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Col. 3:14
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
1 Peter 4:8
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 - Love is committed
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.”
Song of Songs 8:6-7
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Gal. 2:20
“[nothing, absolutely nothing] in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Rom. 8:39
“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”
2 Thess. 3:5
“Let everything you do be done in love (true love to God and man as inspired by God’s love for us).”
1 Cor. 16:14
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 - Love gives hope and points others to God
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matt. 22:37-38
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Rom. 15:13
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lam. 3:21-23
“but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”
Isa. 40:43
“He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
Psalms 147:10-11
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 - Love develops despite adversity, trials and troubles
“Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.”
Prov. 17:17
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last- and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:16-17
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”
Gal. 6:1-6
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God.”
Phil. 1:9-11
“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
James 1:12 - Love is action
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
1 John 3:18
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Rom. 5:8
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at one forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
James 1:23-25
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent hi 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.”
1 John 4:10-12 - Love is God
“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, because fear as 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.”
1 John 4:7-21
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
1 John 2:3-6
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother or sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”
1 John 2:9-11
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life- comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
1 John 2:15-17 - Love is powerful
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Cor. 13:13
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
1 Cor. 13:1-3
“So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.”
1 John 3:13-14
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
1 Tim. 1:7
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
1 John 5:1-5 - Love is sacrificial
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him…For anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
John 14:6—7, 9, 12
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Gal. 5:13-14
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
1 Cor. 13:4-8
Love is the Foundation
Love is the foundation of everything in the body of believers. God is love. Therefore those who belong to Him can’t help but function from the same place of love as He does/He is.
It isn’t coincidence that God lists “love” as the first Fruit of the Spirit. For from it, everything else will flow.
Download my free printable “Love is the Foundation” poster.
If we don’t have Love, nothing else matters. If we don’t accept who Christ is and become a new creation in the spirit, we can’t fully know God, therefore can never fully know love.
“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.” (1 John4:12-21)
When we receive his Holy Spirit, we submit to His transformative power of making us more like Christ. We allow Him to develop our root system, planting us firm in the Word of God and with other deeply-rooted believers, so that as our faith grows, we can bear the Fruits of His Holy Spirit; especially love.
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” Prov. 3:3-4
Let the Holy Spirit Add to Your Faith
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.” 2 Peter 1:5-9
Be reminded of what LOVE is with one of my beautiful, downloadable Love Posters linked above.
Display it at home, at the office, in your bedroom, or as the background of your phone or computer. May it be a beautiful reminder of God’s Fruit of the Spirit-Love!
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