1 Corinthians 13:1-8

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poorand give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

As we think about the Character of Christ one of the driving forces of His life was love, which is the first virtue listed in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s here in the famous “love passage” that is read at most weddings, that Paul helps us to understand what real love is and what it looks like in daily living. The first thing that we discover, contrary to Hollywood propaganda is that love is not just a feeling but an action. Now we need to realize that when Paul wrote this chapter, he was not thinking about weddings or romance. Chapter 13 is slap bang in the middle of a lengthy discussion on the use of spiritual gifts found in chapters 12 and 14, where we discover that all sorts of disputes and divisions plagued the Corinthian church. They were caught up in arguing over which spiritual gift was the greatest; they were selfish and impatient with each other and were even suing and taking each other to court. This was a church caught up in reflecting the carnal instead of reflecting Christ. As the writers of the New Testament looked out on the world of their day they saw plenty of people who preached about love but very few practicing love. The common communication of the day, Greek, did not have adequate words to describe the kind of love that the Holy Spirit was revealing to them. While they had several words for love none of them fully reflected the kind of love that came from the leading of the Holy Spirit. The love that Paul wrote about here in 1  Corinthians 13 was a stranger to this planet because it was supernatural love, an all-encompassing agape love. It’s a selfless and unconditional commitment to imperfect people. Agape is a love for the utterly unworthy, a love lavished upon others without a thought of whether they are worthy to receive it or not. It proceeds from the nature of the lover, rather than from the merits of the beloved. This is the word that Paul uses to describe the fruit laidened with love. D.L. Moody once said “some men occasionally take a journey into 1 Corinthians 13 but very few people actually live there.” The fruit of the Spirit is not some sporadic endeavor that we periodically undertake like a once a year vacation but something we live out all year long. God’s goal if for us to live in love not vacation there. As we look at learning to love Paul reminds us of 4 important truths about love. First he tells us about the:

1. Power of Love – Vs 1-3

In the first 3 verses Paul points to some great gifts, all the languages of the earth, prophecy and possessing all the knowledge, as well as faith that move mountains. But as great as these gifts are the real powerhouse that levels the playing field is love. Touching people for the kingdom of God is not found in ability, talent, skill or giftedness. The power that touches people is love. You don’t need to speak all the languages of the earth we just need to learn to love. The power of love is that it is universal, for it has the power to transcend peoples, nations, culture and religions. Love is truly the universal language of this world, because people from all different walks of life don’t just recognize it they run to it. People that are loved don’t care about the language they listen because love has the ability to bypasses the ears and touches the heart. Who has God placed in your life to love?  You want to be a powerful person then unleash the love of the Lord and lavish it on others. Second we see the:

2. Priority of Love – Vs 1-3

We need to learn to put love first. This is where we make loving people a priority. Look the first few verses remind us to express love first even before the exercise of spiritual gifts or even great sacrifice. Without love, such things are of little value. Without love, any ability you have is of limited. Teaching without love isn’t tough love it’s tough without the love, and preaching without love is just principles. Some of my greatest teachers are the ones who didn’t just lecture me with truth but they touch me with lessons of love. Without love, any knowledge we obtain will hurt instead of help. Without love, any service rendered will never be pleasing to God. Whatever I do and say is useless without love. Leadership without love is just an annoying noise, like a clanging cymbal. In Paul’s day outside pagan temples there would be a big gong or cymbal hanging at the entrance. And when people came to worship, they would hit this gong in the hope that it would awaken the pagan gods so they would listen to their prayers. What Paul was saying is that even if we had all of the greatest gifts if we don’t lead with love it will be as useless as the ridiculous act of pounding on a piece of metal to wake up a non-existent god. Without love, instead of touching the heart we will just hurt the hearing. Parents when we lecture without love our kids will stop paying attention because they will get tired of the pounding gong of criticism. It’s the difference between just pounding on a drum and actually playing a beat on it. Instead of wanting to cover your ears and scream stop you find your foot tapping and then your whole body moving to the beat. You can hear because your heart is open. Instead of dreading the gong you are dancing to the song. So, what about you are you living in the power of love and making love a priority? Is your life reflecting the character of Christ’s love or is your life lacking when it comes to love?

Galatians 5:16-24

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

When Martin Luther King Jr. said he looked forward to the day when all Americans would be judged solely “by the content of their character” and not the color of their skin, he was talking about a person’s essential qualities. Character is the mental and moral qualities of a person, but just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character. It is here in Galatians 5 As we begin this series on character we will be looking at God’s call to every Christian to display not just good character but God’s character, the character of Christ. It is here in Galatians 5 that we discover the fruit of the Spirit and the importance of cultivating Christ like character starting with love. Before we begin our lesson on learning to love I want to start with a few observations concerning the fruit of the Spirit. First:

1. We cannot create fruit on our own.

Verse 17 reminds us that the sinful nature and the Spirit desire not just different things but contrary things. The Fruit of the Spirit can only come from the Spirit of God. Where those things that naturally flow out of us, the flesh are found in verses 19-21: “…sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy…” The mistake many of us make when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit is to think that this is something we generate by working harder, but you can’t just decide to be more loving or more joyful or more peaceful and suddenly you are. Fruit is not something we do, it’s what we display. There’s a difference between works and fruit. Fruit must grow out of the life of the Spirit where works is what we do. Where vices come from our sinful nature, virtues come from the Spirit’s work. Our flesh produces rotten works but the Spirit produces living fruit. So, if we can’t work to produce it how does this fruit grown and ripen in our lives? According to Galatians 5:25 our responsibility is clear: “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow or keep in step with the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” This is a military term meaning that I must march in a straight line, taking my orders only from Him. As we yield to the Spirit His fruit will ripen in our lives.

2. The Fruit of the Spirit is a package deal.

I want you to notice that verse 22 uses the singular “fruit” and not “fruits”? Now this is not a grammatical error, the Greek very clearly reveals that it’s in the singular. There are some commentators who believe that this is because the Fruit of the Spirit is love and that the other eight items are simply ways in which love should be manifested. They get this from Galatians 5:14 where it says, “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” But while I agree that love is the most important I believe that the singular is used for another reason. The character qualities are like a cluster of grapes. The grapes are fruit, not fruits. Similarly, the fruit of the Spirit is like this bunch with nine different grapes. One grape may taste sweet, another may have a brighter color, another may be smaller. But they’re all grapes. The problem with viewing them as nine different fruits is that we tend to start picking and choose, as if we are browsed through a buffet table. God’s plan is not for us to say, “I’ll take a little love, a heaping helping of joy, a big portion of peace, a small spoonful of self-control, but I’ll pass on the patience.” It’s a full-meal deal, one fruit with nine different qualities.

3. The focus is on Christian character.

It’s important to distinguish between the gift of the Spirit, salvation which happens at the moment of conversion; the gifts of the Spirit, which have to do with service; and the graces of the Spirit, which relate to Christian character. Unfortunately, many churches have elevated the gifts of the Spirit over the graces of the Spirit. But building Christlike character must take precedence over displaying special abilities.

4. The fruit must be displayed both individually and collectively.

We’re not given the Fruit of the Spirit just so some individuals can be more kind or more faithful. If the church is to live out the kind of community God called us to be, then these nine virtues should show up in our lives corporately. The church should be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. In the context of Galatians 5, “fruit” is in juxtaposition to those things that lead to strife between believers – hatred, discord, jealousy, dissension, factions, and envy. When we submit and keep in step with the Spirit, His fruit will begin to ripen in our lives, and the community of Christ-followers will begin to reflect Christ’s character. We should avoid thinking of these virtues as our own personal possessions. As believers, we are called to embody the kind of reconciled and transformed life that God desires for everyone. When we submit to the Spirit it doesn’t just change our character it reveals Christ a watching world.

5. Not all fruit ripens at the same time.

If a cluster contains nine individual grapes, they may differ in size, shape, and taste. One may be fully ripened, pleasing to the eye and filled with sweet tasting juice. While in the same cluster there may also be several grapes that are somewhat less ripe, rather green, still sour or perhaps even shrunken and shriveled. As you look at my life you may see that the individual grape of joy is fully sweetened but at the same time that of patience may be small, sour and shrunken. As we surrender and keep in step with the Spirit, He will bring to maturity to all nine virtues. So how are you doing at submitting to the Spirit? Are you following His leading and letting Him cultivate your character or are you letting the world and your wants mold your mental and moral qualities?