The Fruit of the Spirit is Love

…let the Holy Spirit, who at Pentecost made them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. … Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to love more.

Absolute Surrender, Andrew Murray

God is not selfish; He will give of Himself, keeping nothing to Himself.  His nature is to be giving.  He delights in pouring His love into us.

One of the old Church fathers said that we cannot better understand the Trinity than as a revelation of divine love…

The Father, the loving One; the Son, the beloved One; the Spirit, the love that united both and overflowed into this world.  The Spirit of God is love, and the fruit of this Spirit is love.  This is how a life filled with the Holy Spirit will show itself. 

Sin robbed the world of love: the first demonstration of this was Adam accusing the woman of leading him astray.  There, love to God was lost and love to man was lost.  This loss of love made man selfish; selfishness cannot love.  One son of Adam then killed the other. 

…they have not prayed for power for full deliverance from self.

We cannot force ourselves to love, certainly not consistently and wholly; it is only by the Holy Spirit that God’s love can be poured into our heart.  Only then will love be our nature, and only then will it be natural for us to love. 

…they forget that deliverance from self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all the day.

It is only love that can conquer hatred.  It is by love that men will know that we are His disciples. 

Let a man be what he will, you are to love him.

Evidence of our love of God is found by our love of our fellow man.  The second commandment (love our neighbor) is like unto the first (love God).  If we do not love those we see, how can we love Him who we do not see? 

If my vow – absolute surrender to God – was true, then it must mean absolute surrender to the divine love to fill me….

Conclusion

“Even as I have loved you, so love ye one another.”

When Jesus went ascended, He sent the Spirit.  When the disciples received the Spirit, their whole being was taken in possession.  They were not of one spirit when they walked with Jesus; when they were of one Spirit, they demonstrated love for one another.

Epilogue

Think of the church at large.  What divisions!  Think of the different bodies.  Take the question of holiness, take the question of the cleansing blood, take the question of the baptism of the Spirit – what differences are caused among dear believers by such questions!

Our doctrines, our creeds, have been more important than love.