Love is something you can ‘have’

The fruit of the Spirit is 

love

joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
_{Galatians 5: 22-23}

Love is the core of our life with Jesus. When we talk about God, love should be a key word. And when we reflect on our dealings with other people and on evangelism, the basic idea should always be love. 

It is the highest and most noble quality that we can pursue as disciples of Jesus. 

1 Corinthians 12 is about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and about our unity as a body of which each one is a part, each with his or her gifts or endowments. The last verse of chapter 12 is verse 31: Earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. This is followed by chapter 13, on love. The next chapter begins as follows: Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Cor 14:1.

The topic “gifts of the Spirit” teaches us how we can comfortably work together as a unit, each according to our respective capacities or gifts. This is a very practical topic, very useful to form a congregation, a community where we really belong. But … our gifts, however wonderful they may be, are worthless, and our striving for unity as well as our attempts to function as a body will really be fruitless, if we do not have love. Thus begins 1 Cor 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3, ESV

Apparently, love is something you can ‘have’! 

Love is accompanied by feelings, but it is not a feeling or an emotion. Love gives rise to certain actions or deeds, but it is not an action or something you do. Although love is also associated with intentions, it is also not something you plan to do, it is not an intention.

Love is anchored in our character. It is a kind of inclination or a disposition that makes us ready to do good to the people (or things) within our sphere of influence. 

Automatically we think: everyone can love, that’s why couples are formed, and parents normally love their children, and children love their parents …. a lot of good is done for people and animals. Yes, this is all called love, but what the Bible means by the term agapè, is love of an exceptional quality. You can distribute your possessions to the needy, but that is not necessarily love, it could also be that you like to be known as a benefactor, or that you feel good when people see how generous you are, while you are actually not concerned about the condition of the needy. You can burn yourself to death as a political statement … not out of love for the society, but possibly out of bitterness and hatred of the system of society. And how partners in a relationship treat each other, or how parents care for their children, is not always purely out of respect for the other, nor to make the other function in the best way. Love often proves to be a misleading concept.   

Here is an illustration … to help you remember what love is and what it is not:

You can say that you love chocolate! But you don’t! You just want to eat the chocolate, and that is not so good for that chocolate bar! Loving chocolate does not mean that you have the best intentions for the existence of that chocolate bar. That is not agapè love! There is a difference between love and wanting something for yourself or longing for something or someone. Yet we always use the word ‘love’. Agapè wants nothing for itself, but always wants the best for others.

Now we know that Jesus commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves. The Greek word agapè is also used here, quality love, i.e. that our own interests really do not take precedence over the interests of others! That is a very far-reaching demand, for we ought to love every human being in this way … No one is excluded from this, just as no one is excluded from God’s love. Thus our light must shine before all men, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven, says Matt. 5:16. And Jesus adds: Love your enemies (verse 44). 

Every one of us can immediately think of someone he doesn’t like to love! For all sorts of reasons. However, we should not try and make an effort to love that person, but we should try to become the kind of person who loves him. Only then can the ideal of love become a real possibility and practice.  Our goal in relation to love is not to be loving towards some person, or in some situation, but to be someone who is possessed by love, as a general characteristic of life, no matter what happens or does not happen. The ‘occasions’ come from this kind of character. I do not come to my enemy and try to love him, I come to him as a loving person. Love is something I need to ‘have’!

This list, which continues in the following verses, is not meant to be a survey of rules that we should follow in order to act in love. No, it is the description of the character of someone who has love! This is the love we can receive. 

If we receive this love, we will discover that love makes us free, for example from envy or jealousy (verse 4). Therefore we will be able to be kind. It is not kindness that makes us a loving person, but someone with love is a kind person, as he is also a joyful, peaceful, patient and good person, strong in faith, gentle and with self-control. 

God is love! 1 Corinthians 13 describes our character when God really dwells in us. If we allow His love to become the source of our inner strength … then misleading desires are exposed and replaced by confidence in God’s presence. This is not trusting in something that is yet to come, but enjoying what is, because we have faith in God’s goodness and in his love. The result is a character like the one described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Prayer

Teach us to have faith in your love. Lord Jesus, teach us to believe that because of your work of redemption, we are also beloved children of your, or rather of our Father in heaven. Teach us to believe that your Spirit is busy weaving love in our hearts, our minds and our deeds. Teach us to develop love, as the fruit of your Spirit and not as our own product. Help us Lord to pursue this love that You want to give, to transform our character, because that is what You want, it is Your commandment.

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