I Corinthians 13: 8, 13 “Love never fails.” and “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
It came as a shock to me when I discovered that my mother had lied to me. When I was young and visiting on the farm of my maternal grandparents in the summer, I would delight in eating watermelon. My mother would say to me’ “Don’t eat the watermelon seeds or else you will have watermelon growing out your ears.” She lied. Maybe I should not have eaten the seeds but I later discovered that watermelon will not grow out of a person simply because one has eaten the seeds.
In fact there is no amount of association with the watermelon, whether eating seeds or sleeping in the watermelon patch or anything else which will cause a person to turn into or become a watermelon. No amount of association with the watermelon will make us more like a watermelon. No amount of surrender to the watermelon patch will make us like a watermelon.
However, the same is not true for association with Christ. A true and proper association with Him does make us Christ-like. Our journey with Him on a surrendered basis does change us and make us more like Him. The change in our lives is to be evident to ourselves as well as to those who have opportunity to observe us.
The Apostle Paul identifies the fruit of change which others should see in our lives. In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul is inspired to write the following: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” It is necessary to note that the fruit which is to be evident in our lives is a singular fruit. Paul’s insight is not declaring the existence of nine (9) fruits in our lives but rather one (1) fruit with nine (9) distinctive characteristics.
These nine distinctive characteristics combined as one (1) fruit are those which we should recognize growing in our lives and should also be seen by others. This fruit with its nine (9) characteristics are made distinctive by two elements. The first element is its presence in our lives. The second element is the source from which the fruit comes.
Paul speaks to this fruit and its characteristics noting that the very presence of the fruit is noteworthy. Paul’s teaching is that the presence of this fruit (which comes because of our communion and journey with Christ) is astonishing from the human perspective. Its existence in our lives is noteworthy because it should not otherwise be present and would not be present except God produces it in us.
Secondly, the source of the fruit and its components is God. Since it is from God it will honor and be worthy of Him. God never desires to produce incomplete fruit in our lives or change our lives in any way which is less than honorable. He always produces fruit which brings glory to Him. He does not desire to produce half-baked fruit. If there is incompleteness or “half baked fruit” it will be because of what we are doing to inhibit the production of His fruit.
Let’s consider the first characteristic of this fruit listed by Paul in the Galatians passage quoted above-Love. The love component of the fruit of the Spirit which is to be seen in our lives is extra-ordinary love. It is the love which comes only from God. As Christians who are walking with Jesus and evidencing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we are to be seen as more than loving people. There are loving non-believers. We are to be more than them in regards to our loving ability. We are to have excelling love.
The love component of the fruit of the Spirit is love which God describes as follows: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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.” I Corinthians 13:4-8
This is the kind of love which when walking with God, He will produce in our lives. It is love which is heavenly in nature in that it flows from God. It is not the sensual based love which is consuming and killing our culture nor is it the love of friends. It is the strong yet graceful love of God. It is the merciful yet just love of God. It is the disciplined but forgiving love of God. It is the possessive and persevering love of God.
It is evidenced when we love those who do not love us. It is seen when we love the unlovable. It is experienced when we love those who are harming us. It is excelling love. Do we individually love the unlovable? Do we as a church love the unlovable? When was the last time we were willing to be incredibly uncomfortable on behalf of someone else motivated by love?
Forgive a personal example, but I marvel at how my wife works patiently with her mother who is frequently combative as she suffers the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. My wife grieves over her mother’s inability to control her emotions, language and actions. Yet she continues to stand by and assist her mother even as the tears fall down my wife’s face and even as her mother says very hurtful things to her. That is excelling love. It is staying motivated by heaven’s love when you could leave. It is working for the benefit of someone who will never say “Thank you”. It is blessing someone who hatefully curses you.
God’s excelling love, which rises above, is to be what we experience and share with others. How different the world would be if we as Christians really had excelling love in our lives and had such to the extent that God wants to give to us. It would be a different world, indeed- God’s excelling love poured into our lives which then moves us into action where the world will see the heavenly character of God in us.
eMullins
