The Fruit of the Holy Spirit - Chapter 3
More Characteristics of Love
Continuing his description of true love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul says that love is not proud - or puffed-up. Love is humble. It is not always boasting about the things it has done. People who have this kind of love want God to have the praise and the glory. They are not always looking for others to praise them and pat them on the back. They are not always talking about how wonderful they are. This was a special failing of the Corinthians. They were very proud of themselves. Read this letter to the Corinthians through and you will see what I mean.
Then Paul says that love is courteous; it does not behave rudely. It does not deliberately say and do things to make others feel awkward. It is straight in its speaking, but always sympathetic and understanding. It does not unnecessarily offend others.
Love is also unselfish. It does not seek its own interests. It gives up its own rights for the sake of others and for the sake of Jesus Christ. Rights are so often connected with material possessions. Love does not seek possessions merely for itself. It wants to give.
Then, love is not easily angered; it is not quick tempered, touchy and irritable. Someone has called quick temper the vice of the virtuous. So many Christians who are good and kind in many ways, utterly spoil their witness by bursts of temper. Love means as well that we do not yield to provocation. We are not embittered by injuries, whether real or supposed. Love makes it easy to get on with others, and hard to take offence.
This love also thinks no evil. It does not keep a record of wrongs done. Some people are always turning over in their minds the wrongs people do, and especially those done to themselves. When we do this, bitter and unkind feelings begin to arise. True love does not work that way. It is able to forget the wrong and evil things, and remember the good things. The word used for ‘‘thinks no evil’’ or ‘‘keeps no record of evil’’ is a word for keeping money accounts. Love does not reckon up the wrongs people have done against it. So often we hear people say, ‘‘I’ll pay him back!’’ They have kept an account of it all so they can pay back later. Love does not do that.
Another thing Paul says is that love does not rejoice in evil, but it DOES rejoice with the truth. This means that love cannot share the pleasure of those who carry out evil; it cannot rejoice when people get away with evil and are not found out. It does rejoice, though, with all who do good, and when God and good triumph.
There is one last collection of positive marks of this love. Paul says it ‘‘bears, believes, hopes, endures and never fails’’. It is not blind to reality but it is thoroughly optimistic. It knows God and knows He is able for every person and every situation. It continually credits people with the best intentions. Love hopes against all hope when people seem hopeless. It courageously waits and expects through every difficult situation. It never fails, never lets you down.
Now let us think about some more important points concerning love. First, it is the atmosphere, the heavenly atmosphere, in which a Christian should be living. In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2 we are told to ‘‘walk in love’’. In Jude verse 21 we are told to ‘‘keep ourselves in the love of God’’. We are to live in love and breathe love as we live in and breathe the air around us. Only as we live in the love of God can our relationship with god and others be kept right. We live in it too, in the sense that we keep it on like a coat. Paul tells us this in Colossians chapter 3 verse 14: ‘‘Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity’’. The garment of love holds our lives together and is there for everyone to see.
The New Testament also tells us that our love can be made perfect. John in his first letter chapter 4 verse 12 that ‘‘If we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is made perfect in us’’. Another version says, ‘‘is made complete in us’’. So, God’s love in us can be made complete. This does not mean there is no growth or that we can never have more of God’s love. It does mean that God can set us free from the opposites of His love. Just before the verses we are considering in Galatians chapter 5, Paul gives a list of the opposites of love, which he calls ‘‘the works of the flesh’’ (the old sinful nature). A very nasty, hateful lot they are! They spring from an evil heart and spoil love:
‘‘The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like’’.
God can cleanse us from these and so our love can be complete.
Now I have been thinking very positively, and you may be imagining that it will all just automatically happen this way. This is partly true. It IS God’s love which is shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and God CAN deal with the evil within us, when we allow Him to. All this, though, has to be worked out in our daily lives and it is not always easy. People treat us badly; often they are cruel and hurtful; often they do not understand our motives, and sometimes neither do we theirs. In times like this, misunderstandings and disagreements arise. All this often brings unpleasant feelings. Now this is where we have to walk in love and keep ourselves in the love of God. The love of God is sunshine as well as atmosphere; so keep in the sunshine!
Paul in his letter to the Philippians gives some advice as to how we can do this. He says in chapter 4 verse 7, ‘‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is to be admired - if there is anything excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things’’. That’s it! Think the lovely, and the best about people even when it seems just the opposite.