The Fruit Of The Spirit: LOVE

“Love” has been horribly abused in today’s world. It has wrongly been used to describe selfish sexual lust. It’s been given as an excuse for passively enabling terrible sins to continue in the lives of loved ones. It’s been seen as an uncontrollable emotion that leads to destructive behavior, or as empty words thrown back and forth with no substance.

The love that is listed as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 is much different. It is translated from the Greek word agape, used here to express the highest form of love that comes through the Holy Spirit. The love we are supposed to be demonstrating must be a godly love, which comes from God, the being who personifies this attribute.

Notice 2 John 1:6, “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it” (emphasis added throughout).

The love Christians are expected to demonstrate as a fruit of the Spirit is based on the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:35-40). Love can be defined as outgoing concern demonstrated by following the commandments God has written in the Bible. The 10 Commandments show both how to have a true relationship with the Creator (appropriate respect and worship practices) and how to interact with and treat other human beings (avoiding what the Bible calls sin, which destroys relationships).

What is love? Love is a great gift from God. The Bible tells us that love suffers long, is kind, does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things and never fails (paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 13, often called the Love Chapter).

Becoming more like God

God is love. The apostle John describes this: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).

God loved the world so much that He gave up His Son to face torture and crucifixion, taking the penalty of sin on Himself, so that we might have our sins forgiven and have access to His Holy Spirit (John 3:16). Those who say they are Christian and who strive to walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:6) realize that God wants us to demonstrate the selflessness of love because He wants us to become more like Him.

Humanity has tried for thousands of years to get by without loving God or loving one another, and it hasn’t worked. The world is full of misery, pain, death, suffering and many other horrible realities. The world’s version of love unfortunately does not come from God, but rather from Satan, an embittered fallen angel who will stop at nothing to twist anything good God has given to man.

Why does God want us to demonstrate love? It is who and what He is, and He wants us to experience that and show those around us that they don’t have to settle for Satan’s mirage of shallow or twisted love.

There are four main categories that love tends to fall into – Eros, Storge, Philos, and Agape. (These are Greek words).

Eros – Eros was the Greek god of love. The word represents what we consider today to be “romantic love.” Eros love is what you feel when you tell someone you’ve fallen in love with them.

Storge – Storge is what we may call fondness or affection. It’s a natural love – something you may feel towards your family or your pets. It also can be considered something that grows out of Philos into a more romantic love.

Philos – Philos is the love of friendship. It is a strong, intimate, and non-romantic love between people. In the Bible, it is often compared favorably with Agape love and, while there is distinction between the two, is considered similar.

Agape – Agape love is described as the highest, purest, and noblest form of love. It is the unconditional love, the love that will do anything for another regardless of cost. This is the form of love that is most commonly used in the Old Testament.