(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore on 10/14/12 and is the second of a ten-part series on "Bearing Fruit.")
“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness faithfulness, generosity and self-control.” (galatians 5:22-23)
Perhaps the most persistent, perennial question among Christians in this present day centers on how we grow in Christ. How do we know that we are growing in Christ? How do we know that our relationship with the Lord is making a difference in our life? What are the signs – what’s the evidence, the proof – that our lives are is being changed though our relationship with God?
The apostle Paul addresses these matters in his letter to the Galatian church, where in the 5th chapter Paul outlines for them and for us today, the fruit the Spirit. “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control.”
Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 that “you will know a true believer by their fruit. Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” We can know the effect that faith is having upon our lives and the lives of others by the fruit we are bearing.
What we must know first and foremost is that God desires and requires that we grow and change in our faith. God desires that we demonstrate signs of maturity in Christ. And God had given us signs and symbols of such growth and change. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control.
Perhaps it is not coincidental that Paul places at the top of his spiritual fruit list - the fruit of love. Paul knew that if we could get love right – if Christians could really learn to love one another – then some other things would fall into place in our walk with God and with each other.
In other words, love is the first-fruit of the Spirit. Love is primary – it has primacy and is basic to the Christian and our walk with the Lord. If we are to walk in the spirit, we will be walking in love. Paul says first that the fruit of the Spirit is love.
We remember that Paul spoke of the importance of love in his comments to the church at Corinth, where he said in First Corinthians 13 (what has come to be known as the Love Chapter) that:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I don’t have love, I have really said nothing… If I give away all that I have, and don’t have love, I have nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude… It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And now as for faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.”
In other words, as the popular soul group of the 70’s and 80’s said in a song, ‘It’s a Love Thing.” Our journey as Christians really is rooted and grounded in love. For you and me, it’s a love thing.
At the Vice Presidential Debate this past Thursday night – both candidates who are professing Roman Catholics, we asked by the moderator at one point in the debate to share with the audience and the nation what difference their faith as a Catholic(as a Christian) would make in how they might help to lead the nation. Neither candidate seemed to have an adequate answer to the question. It left me to wonder, what if one or both had said something like “my faith – my relationship with the Lord – will help me love people more as I serve the nation.
What if all of us practiced love more at home… with our neighbors… on our jobs… at church? What if republicans and democrats could learn to really love each other, and model love for the rest of the nation and the world? What if we really learned to love each other – even when our thoughts and beliefs differ from those around us?
It’s a love thing.
Paul lets us know that the first fruit of the Spirit is love. In the writings of the Prophet Micah, we find that the people were dealing with some of he same issues we’re dealing with today. And the question was, “How were they to live out their faith, what did the Lord require of them?” Micah shared with the people the great requirement of the Lord- ‘you know that the Lord requires of you- to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God.
Love kindness… It’s a love thing… Love is the first fruit of the Spirit.
And why do we really love? What is the impetus for the love that we are to share? We really love, because God first loved and we know that the love of God that God offers us, and that we share with each other does in fact cover a multitude of fault. The Good News is that God demonstrated God’s love for you and me, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.
It’s a love thing. The song-writer put it this way.
"I was sinking deep in sin – far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within – sinking to rise no more
But the master of the sea – heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me – now safe am I
Love lifted me – love lifted me
When nothing else would help – love lifted me!"
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