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In addition to learning to love our neighbors, the Spirit also produces a unique bond between believers. Part of learning to love God is learning to love His people.
Key Points
- The way we respond to believers reflects how we respond to Jesus.
- Disciples of Jesus show their love for Jesus by loving his people, rather than mocking or persecuting them.
- Faith is invisible. It doesn’t leave a mark on the body or change your appearance. But it does change the way treat other believers.
- Love as a fruit of the Spirit results from the Spirit changing believers from self-centered creatures to people who love God and His people.
- Passages: Matthew 10:40-42; John 13:34-35; Matthew 25:31-40; Ephesians 1:15-16; Colossians 1:3-5; 1Peter 1:22-23.
- Greek Word: Strong’s G26
Next: 04 Fruit of the Spirit: Joy
Previous: 02 Fruit of the Spirit: Love Part 1
Series: Fruit of the Spirit
Fruit of the Spirit Discussion Questions
Love as a Fruit of the Spirit 2
We find this list in Galatians 5, where Paul explains why being free from the law is not an excuse to sin. Believers have a different motivation to avoid sin. Instead of the threat of the consequences of the Law, we have the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit, who changes us from the inside out.
Paul argues the Spirit produces a real moral transformation because the Spirit changes us from the inside out. Obedience promoted by law keeping is a fake obedience, because it’s put on the outside. Law-keeping produces the list of the works of the flesh. The Spirit produces the things that we find on this list of the fruit of the Spirit.
In the last podcast, I argued that love as a fruit of the Spirit is not a warm, fuzzy feeling. Love as a fruit of the Spirit is not an emotional state that we find ourselves in. It is not something we are given instantaneously, but rather it is something that grows over time. As I will argue for all the items on the list, the fruits of the Spirits are not feelings. Rather, they are a perspective change that results from the Spirit teaching us truth.
Love as a fruit of the Spirit is an action. Love acts for the benefit of another person. It is rooted in the understanding of our essential equality before God.
The Spirit teaches believers to see the lie of a self-centered view of life. We start to see and understand our place before God standing next to our neighbors, equal in dignity and equal in guilt. Over time, as the Spirit teaches us, we become willing to act for the benefit of others in the way that we would want them to act for our benefit.
What I want to talk about today is another kind of equality that we must recognize. Last week we talked about the equality that all of us share as creatures made in God’s image. What I want to talk about today is the special and unique bond we have with other believers. This is an idea that we see all over the New Testament.
Matthew 10:40-42
Jesus is talking to the Twelve. He’s about to send them out on a missionary journey as his representatives. This journey is an important step in their training to become his apostles after the resurrection. There’s a principle involved here that I want to pull out.
As Jesus sends them out to preach the gospel, he warns them this will not be a victory tour. People are going to hate and reject them just as they hate and reject Jesus. The gospel is divisive because it requires people to choose to follow or to reject Jesus. That choice will split and divide even the closest human relationships.
After all of those warnings, Jesus ends this talk with a positive reaction to his message.
40Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. – Matthew 10:40-42.
You might think this is a strange passage to pick because the word love doesn’t even appear in it. Bear with me. In this context, to receive someone is to accept them or to welcome them. At the core of the gospel is a call to choose to respond to God and his messengers. This word ‘receive’ is one of the words used to capture that response. To receive the apostles is to make the conscious choice to believe what they say and accept it as true
In Matthew 10:41, Jesus speaks of receiving a prophet because he is a prophet. Some translations have ‘receive a prophet in the name of a prophet.’ If I receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, I welcome him, and embrace what he says is true because I recognize he is a prophet. I might not find him impressive or charismatic as an individual, but I acknowledge his role as a representative of God. Thus I welcome him.
If I receive a prophet, then I receive the same reward he does: eternal life in God’s kingdom. Then Jesus goes one step further. If I receive and embrace other believers just because they are believers, I receive the believers’ reward.
… and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. – Matthew 10:41
I understand righteous in this context to mean one who has repented and is humbly seeking God rather than rejecting God. The righteous person is not a prophet sent with a message. The righteous person is another individual who believes what God has promised. Jesus describes people who embrace fellow believers precisely because they also seek God.
Our response to other believers reflects our response to God. Because we love God, we also love God’s people. If we reject God, then we hate God’s people. Other people can tell where I stand with God by how I react to other believers.
He gives these two examples—receiving the prophets and receiving his disciples—because the point he’s driving toward is this third statement in Matthew 10:42.
And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. – Matthew 10:42
If I treat other disciples of Jesus well, precisely because they are disciples of Jesus, it shows I, too, am a follower of Jesus. My response to the disciples of Jesus represents my response to God and His Messiah.
This idea that we reveal what we think about Jesus by how we respond to his people is a major theme in the New Testament.
We reveal our eternal destiny by how we respond to his apostles and his other disciples. When I see other followers of Jesus, they ought to mean something to me because Jesus means something to me. The people you define as ‘your people’ reveal what you value.
Naturally, we have a particular affection toward members of our biological family. That’s normal and natural. But there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about it. But when I choose to associate with other people who are seeking Jesus, that says something about my values, my commitments and my goals. It shows that I value Jesus, too.
Love is a fruit of the Spirit can be seen in how we treat other believers.
John 13:34-35
34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. – John 13:34-35
Jesus is not saying, ‘you will just be so strikingly overflowing with good vibes that people will know you’re my disciple.’
Rather, other people will know you’re his disciple because you love his other disciples. You don’t mock, persecute or ridicule his followers. Instead, you treat them well. You want to be with them. You see them as kindred spirits, and you act for their benefit.
The new part of this commandment is the ‘my disciples should love one another.’
The general commandment that we should love our neighbors as ourselves has been around since Leviticus. But the newness of what Jesus says is the emphasis he places on disciples of Jesus loving each other. The world will recognize that you are a follower of Jesus because you love other followers of Jesus.
Remember, love here is not a warm, fuzzy feeling. It is the way we treat each other. It is acting for the welfare of another. We seek each other’s benefit in spite of many things that may divide us. Followers of Jesus are a very diverse group. We are different races, different genders, different ages. We come from different nationalities, from different social status, from different upbringings. We may have completely different personalities. In spite of all the things that divide us, we recognize that we are alike in a fundamentally important way: we believe in God and count on the cross to save us.
Matthew 25:31-40
31When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ – Matthew 25:31-40
There is a lot we could talk about from that passage, but for our purposes, I want to comment on one idea. Many people understand this passage to mean that believers do well to seek out and help random strangers, prisoners, and sick people. That is a good thing to do, but I don’t think that’s what Jesus is teaching here.
The context of this parable is who is going to enter the kingdom. This parable starts with the son of man coming in glory and separating his people from not his people. This is the same principle we saw in John 13. He who receives you receives me.
When did you feed and clothe and comfort Jesus? When you received his people.
When you performed of those acts of kindness for other disciples of Jesus, it showed that you love Jesus. You acted for their benefit because you saw a fellow heir of the gospel.
It’s true that every human being has dignity and worth because we are all made in the image of God, but there is a further dimension at play among believers. Some of us are going to spend eternity together.
We see Christ and other people in the sense that we see people who believe in him like we do. I don’t see Christ in people who reject God and couldn’t care less about what the Bible says. But I do see Christ in the lives of people who love and believe him. That is, I recognize them as people like me who have repented and seek mercy based on the cross. I treat them well because we have this unique and special bond of seeking God together.
Ephesians 1:15-16
Paul regularly talks about love for other believers as an indicator of genuine faith. He says this in the opening of Ephesians:
15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, – Ephesians 1:15-16
Paul puts their faith and love toward other believers in parallel. How does he know they have genuine faith? Their faith revealed itself in how they treat each other. Faith, by its very nature, is invisible. You can’t see it. It doesn’t leave a mark on the body. It doesn’t change your appearance, but it does change the way we treat each other, especially the way we treat other believers. One of the ways we express our faith is in how we treat the people of God. We act in self-sacrificing love toward other followers of Jesus.
Colossians 1:3-5
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. – Colossians 1:3-5
Though this is similar to what he said in Ephesians, Paul adds this phrase, ‘because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.’ Because you believed the gospel, you now hope in the gospel. Your faith shows itself in how you treat other believers.
What made you act this way? What changed you into this kind of person? The hope laid up for you in heaven. You believe the gospel. One way your faith expresses itself is in how you treat other believers.
1Peter 1:22-23
Peter has been explaining our living hope. He’s talked about how we were dead in our sins, but Jesus has given us a new birth through his sacrifice on the cross. Because of Jesus, we now have hope in the gospel.
Peter is writing to people who are facing trials and persecutions. Part of his goal is to encourage them to persevere in the faith through these trials. He urges them to fix their hope fully on the grace to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus and to focus on the salvation to come. Since that is true, he explains how they live in light of this grace and hope and one of the things he says is this:
22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; – 1Peter 1:22-23
In obedience to that truth, we have purified our souls. We are cleansed of hatred and hostility to God. Prior to conversion, our hearts were metaphorically covered in filth and gunk. We hated God. We rejected God. We loved sin, and we were selfish, self-centered creatures.
When we embrace the truth of the gospel, our hearts are cleansed of that metaphorical dirt and filth. Now we love God. We seek Him. We hate sin, and we strive to treat our neighbors as we would want to be treated.
Where does that lead me? It leads me to a love of other believers. As we increasingly understand the promises of God, one of the results is a fervent love for our fellow believers.
The more we understand, love and value God, the more His people will mean to us.
One result of that sanctifying work is that we will love God and His people. We will start putting aside malice, envy, deceit and hypocrisy, and we will learn to love our fellow believers. Why? The same Spirit is at work in all of us. The Spirit is changing all of us believers from selfish, self-centered creatures to people who love God and love His people.
As I more fully understand and embrace the hope of the gospel, I should be drawn to those others who also embrace the hope of the gospel.
Not everyone who claims to follow Jesus follows Jesus
Let me make one clarification. Not everyone who calls on the name of Jesus embraces the hope of the gospel. Just because someone claims to be a believer doesn’t mean they are. If you find yourself listening to someone who claims to speak for Jesus, but you don’t recognize the Jesus of Scripture in that teacher’s words, stop listening. Find another flock to join. You don’t need to measure yourself by whether you embrace every single solitary person who claims to be a Christian.
Summary
The connection between believers is a profound connection. It all comes back to this fundamental equality we talked about in the last podcast. We recognize God has revealed Himself in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. We recognize God is the center of the universe, not us. We, His creatures, are equal before Him. We all have the same problem with sin. We find the same grace, mercy, and forgiveness on the cross.
Love as a fruit of the Spirit is the result of the Spirit teaching me that truth and then also teaching me how to live in light of it.
When we see others seeking to live in light of that truth, we recognize those are our people. We share this special bond. The outcome of that will be obvious in the way that we treat each other. We act for each other’s benefits.
Copyright © 2024 · Krisan Marotta, WednesdayintheWord
Photo by Bill Williams on Unsplash
Season 24, episode 02