In Galatians 5:22 and 23 we have a beautiful description of the fruit of the Spirit. How refreshing to read of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance after hearing the horrible works of the flesh in the verses before. Can you imagine a world without violence, hatred, lies, etc., where everyone only practiced the fruit of the Spirit? It is hard to imagine, isn’t it? But if we could for a moment imagine such a place, we might well call it “A World of Love.”

The works of the flesh are all perversions of love, so they could not exist in this “World of Love.” Adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness (sexual lust) are perversions of marital love; idolatry and witchcraft are perversions of the love of God; hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions are perversions of the love of the brethren; heresies are perversions of the love of the truth; envyings and murders are perversions of the love we should have for one another; and drunkenness and revellings are perversions of the love we should have for our own souls.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love! How refreshing! And all the fruit of the Spirit that follows – joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance – is a further description of this first and chief fruit we call love.

But perhaps you wonder how this fruit of the Spirit differs from the love shown by many unbelievers. We might think of many heroic and chivalrous instances of love throughout history. You might think of the selfless love of Mother Teresa feeding the orphans in India, the firemen who risked their lives at 9/11, or the natural affection between a mother and her child; in all these cases you might well ask, “Is this not love?”

Well, it is certainly true that these acts, and many others like them, are commendable and praiseworthy. Who could deny that there is love in these acts? Yet there is still something qualitatively different about the love that is spoken about here. This love goes beyond even the most praiseworthy (and they are praiseworthy!) acts of “mere” heroism, chivalry, and natural affection. So what makes this love different? Fundamentally, the great difference lies in the fact that this love in Galatians 5 is the fruit of the Spirit. It is a quality that is implanted, fostered, kept alive, and impelled by the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, it is not something that any man or woman has by nature. That is why Christ can say to the Jews, people who even loved their temple worship and kept the Levitical standards with meticulous precision, “I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you” (John 5:42).

Indeed, this should give us all pause. We can love many things, yet it can be said to us, “I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” So, what does this love look like and how can I know if I have it? Seeing that it is the first and chief fruit of the Holy Spirit of God, the person who has this love in him or her will begin to love the things that God loves and to hate the things that God hates.

The Bible tells us of the things we must not love:

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

Indeed, it tells us of things we must hate – evil, pride, arrogance, lying and vain thoughts (Prov. 8:13, Ps. 119:113, 163). In a word, while the believer still finds the remains of the works of the flesh in him, he no longer finds the love of these things. If he could, he would be rid of them all!

But spiritual love is evidenced supremely in the fact that it loves what God loves. God loves His people, so, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14); God loves the place His people worship Him (Ps. 132:13), so, “LORD I have loved the habitation of thy house” (Ps. 26:8). But supremely, God the Father loves His Son. The Father loves him in His Person, so the believer says, “His mouth is most sweet, yea he is altogether lovely” (Song of Solomon 5:16). The Father loves him in his work, so the believer says,

I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.Psalm 116:1

But this blessed fruit of the Spirit finds its most perfect expression in the work of Christ at Calvary. Here “God commandeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8), and here faith echoes, “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). When the poor saint recognizes something of the astounding nature of this love to me, such an unworthy sinner, then this impacts how the believer begins to love his enemies. “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?” (Matt. 5:46). But Christ says, “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you” (Luke 6:27). What a message to bring to a world perishing and crumbling with hatred:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love.