If You Don’t Have This Fruit, You’re Not on the Vine.
You can check all the boxes - pastor, teacher, singer - but without this one fruit of the Spirit, it might not mean anything.
When Appearances Deceive
You might be a pastor of a church or serve as a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, a youth pastor, or a faithful church member. You might give tithes and offerings, support missionaries, and sing in the choir. You might wear the longest dress or the have the straightest tie. You might be strong on your “distinctives” and have every confidence that your life is living proof of God’s goodness and mercy. You might pray passionately in Jesus name and be full of good works that would lend to a convincing narrative that you have a close walk with God. Everyone around you might think you’re the real deal. You might even think that yourself.
The Danger of Self-Deceit
Without love, all the good works and public devotion might just be a product of self-deceit (Galatians 6:3).
If you don’t have this one single fruit of the Spirit, it may be evidence that you don’t know the Spirit at all. It isn’t just a minor oversight and you can’t make up for it with all the times you’ve professed the name of Jesus.
That one fruit….. is LOVE (Galatians 5:22).
The First and Greatest Fruit
Love isn’t just a fruit of the Spirit, it is the first fruit of the Spirit. (1 Cor 13:13)
In the book of Matthew, Jesus said:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
- Matthew 22:37-40
The Testimony that Matters
Our testimony should not magnify us, it should always reflect the grace of a God who loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). It should reflect grace and forgiveness, kindness and virtue - always and in everything.
If we don’t have a love for people, then its because we don’t know God.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”-1 John 4:7-8
This is important: This isn’t the love that shows up when it’s convenient or when it costs you nothing. Everyone would know God if that were the case.
This love comes from the Spirit and it is different than any love you’ve ever known. Even when someone hurts you, you would rather they find God’s grace and blessings than suffer His justice.
(Luke 6:27-28)
What About You?
You can check all the boxes and convince everyone - even yourself. But do you have this kind of love for people? Do you have love for your neighbor that reflects the love God has for you?
“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord Lord,
have we not prophesied in they name?
and in they name cast out devils?
and in they name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Matthew 7:21-23
What is the will of God? Let’s start with the two greatest commandments. To love God supremely. And to love your neighbor.
Jesus made it clear: there will in fact be people who believed they were doing everything right but their prayers were ultimately unheard because they didn’t know God. And if only they had taken careful inventory of their heart to discern where their affection really lied, they might have sooner discovered they carried a deficit when it came to loving people.
Our love for God and our love for the people we come in contact with in life will ultimately determine if we do in fact know God - not merely what we profess, but what they produce is how the world and God will know us.
Align Yourself With the Will of God
Let this be a wake up call.
Check your heart, not just your behavior.
Check your heart, not just your theology or ideology.
Who do you love?
The difficult ones?
The enemies?
The people who don’t deserve it?
Better to get this straight now than spend another minute stacking wood, hay, and stubble.
D.L. Moody once said that a man “may know all about theology, but if he has not love, he is nothing. The world does not understand theology or dogma, but it understands love.”
And this, my friend, is the truth.
Love is the fruit of the spirit and it will that will nourish the world. It’s how we reflect the heart of God in a world that’s starving for it. How we genuinely love people is how we make the love of God visible to a lost and hopeless world. Its and how we draw in to know the Lord.
The years we spend doing things, checking the boxes or comparing. without a deliberate attention to love people for the sake of God’s goodness and glory.
It’s a humbling thought that God has been using to refine me. It’s a truth that I can’t ignore and can only respond to if I want to draw closer to God myself.
Love in a way that convinces people you love them, even when it’s difficult – especially when it’s difficult.
Take Aways
The first and greatest commandment is to love God - with all our heart, should, and mind. And loving God is shown through our obedience to His word. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments: (John 14:15), and those commandments include living righteously and speaking the truth about both God’s judgement and His grace.
The second greatest commandment is to love others. Not just when it’s easy, but with the kind of love that reflects God’s heart: love that forgives, blesses, and sacrifices. This kind of love speaks truth, even when it’s uncomfortable because love that refuses to confront sin isn’t love at all. God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), and if we reflect His love, we shouldn’t be willing either. That means being bold enough to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), warning, correcting, and calling others to repentance - because real love doesn’t stay silent while souls are lost. Love is more than a virtue - it’s the fruit of truly knowing God. And without it, nothing else we lay our hand to do will matter (1 Cor 13:2).
Don’t spend your life stacking people into categories. There is no labels that we give people on earth that we will know them by in heaven or hell so don’t see people as anything other than a soul God wants to save.
Love God. Love each other. Love your Neighbor.