Pastor’s Pulpit for September 2019
The Fruits of the Spirit: Love
“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such
things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23;
ESV).
This month we begin a series of newsletter
articles on the Fruits of the Spirit as St. Paul lists them in Galatians
5. The Holy Spirit gives us living faith
in Christ by means of Holy Baptism and the preaching of God’s Word. We might call this the planting of
faith. This is no decision of our own or
act of our will. It is God’s work in us,
by grace: “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph.
2:8-9). Faith in Christ is God’s
gracious gift to us, and we are saved by faith alone. But faith is never alone. For as faith grows and is nurtured and
strengthened by the water of Baptism, the preaching of the Word, the
forgiveness of sins, and the Holy Supper of our Lord’s body and blood, it
begins to bear fruit. And the fruit of
faith is love and good works. It is the
fruit that the Spirit produces, that He works through us. Again, it is all His gift. We call this “sanctification,” as we begin to
do the holy works of our calling: “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk
in them” (Eph. 2:10). The virtues listed
here in this list, and the good works that are their concrete expression, are
not done to earn salvation or favor with God.
That is all done in Christ. These
flow from that. These are the fruit of
faith.
The first is love. Agape in Greek. This is the kind of love Jesus has for us in
giving himself on the cross for our sins.
It is self-sacrificial love. It
is the love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient and kind; love
does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with
the truth. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Needless to say, of ourselves, we are
incapable of this kind of love. Try this
thought experiment: Replace the word “love” with your name in the passage from
1 Cor. 13, and see if it is true. You
will come to the horrifying conclusion that this cannot be a description of
you. But now replace the word “love”
with “Jesus.” Ah, yes. Now it is true. This love is Jesus’ love. And it is that love that flows from the
Spirit through you by faith and begins to produce its fruit toward your
neighbor. You actually begin (haltingly,
imperfectly, sometimes begrudgingly [because it kills your Old Adam!], but
really and truly) to love and serve your neighbor. To be patient with him, and kind to him, in
spite of all his sins and faults. To put
away your own rights and preferences. To
put your neighbor first, above yourself.
Even to sacrifice yourself for the sake of the neighbor, as Christ
sacrificed Himself for you. This is a
love that expects nothing in return. It
loves the unworthy, the ungrateful, and even and especially those who reject this
love. That is what it means that it
bears all things and endures all things.
Often this love must say and do hard
things. Like admonish a neighbor to
repent of sin. Call a fellow Christian
back to Church who has absented himself.
Tell a loved one that what they are doing is harmful to the self, to
others, and separates that loved one from God.
This love disciplines children for their good. It teaches.
It speaks up for the defenseless.
It defends the lives and property and reputations of others. It takes persecution and rejection as rewards
for its efforts. It dies to self. It forgives.
Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). That is to say, it covers over the sins of
those who sin against you. It releases
your neighbor from guilt.
Your loving your neighbor in this way is
Christ loving your neighbor through you.
For this reason, it is at the head of the list. And in spite of the editorial decisions of
our English translators, I would change the punctuation of the list of fruits
in Galatians 5. I would put a colon
after love. The rest of the fruits are
the unpacking of this first and most important fruit, and they flow from
it. “The Fruit of the Spirit is Love:
Joy, Peace, Patience…” etc., etc. (Pastor Krenz Unauthorized Translation of
the Bible, hereafter PKUTB). Though our
love does not save us, St. Paul says that as a virtue, love is even greater
than faith and hope (1 Cor. 13:13). For
faith and hope have their fulfillment in heaven. Love never ends (1 Cor. 13:8).
As you’ve heard me say so often, this love
is not an emotion. It is decision and
action. It is first Christ’s decision to
love us and give Himself up for us, to sanctify us and cleanse us from our sins
so that He might present us to Himself in splendor, spotless, holy, and
blameless (Eph. 5:25-27), and shower upon us His every good gift. And now, as those baptized into Christ, one
with Christ, His Body, His Bride, it is our calling and joy to decide to love
our neighbor and give ourselves up for our neighbor in the Name of our
Bridegroom, Christ. Christ’s love flows
through us and to our neighbor. Or as
St. John puts it, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19; ESV; in
agreement with PKUTB).
Our love will be perfect in heaven. How much less strife and bitterness,
contention and controversy would there be if we loved one another more and
better here and now! Let us pray daily for
an increase of the fruits of the Spirit in the Church and in our own lives of
faith, namely, Love: Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,
Gentleness, and Self-Control. God grant
it for Jesus’ sake.
Pastor Krenz
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