Bearing Love That Glorifies God

      In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul listed the fruit of the Spirit that we must bear in order to glorify God, fulfilling our purpose in Christ’s church (Ephesians 3:21; John 15:8).

      The first fruit Paul listed was love.

      This love is not the ushy-mushy, walking on cloud nine, butterflies in the stomach, jittery feeling that most modern movies highlight.  At the same time, it is not a going through the motions, get your ticket punched, rote action either.

      I Corinthians 13:1-7 defines the love that glorifies God.  First, notice from vs. 3, that love is not merely a good deed.  It is possible for a person to give all he has to the poor and still not love people.  It is possible for a person to deliver himself to be burned and still not love God.  Love is not simply an action.

      However, notice secondly, that there is no love apart from action.  Vss. 4-7 clearly define love by what love does and does not do.  Thus, we see that Biblical love is a combination of proper action and proper motivation.

      Love does not envy, parade itself, behave arrogantly, behave rudely, seek its own, get provoked, think evil or rejoice in iniquity.  However, love does suffer long, behave kindly, rejoice in truth, bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things.

      Godly love behaves this way for one reason alone – that is what it is supposed to do.  God is our example.  According to I John 4:8, God loves because God is love.  He does not love us because of any motivating factor coming from us.  His motivation to love is purely from within Himself.  We are to be the same.  We should love, simply because we should love.  We should not wait to love until we see the benefit in it for us.  We should not wait to love until someone loves us first.  We should just love.

      From all of this we learn that God-glorifying love is doing what is best for the one being loved, simply because we want what is best for them – no matter what they have done to or for us.

      Finally, note especially that Paul did not specifically list the object of this love.  That is because we are to grow in love for all the objects of love listed in the Bible.  We are to love God – Father, Son and Spirit (Matthew 22:37).  We are to love the truth (II Thessalonians 2:10).  We are to love our brethren (I Peter 2:17).  We are to love our neighbors – all mankind with whom we come in contact (Luke 10:27).  We are even to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).

      Throughout this week, remember that you are here in order to bear fruit that glorifies God.  Love glorifies God.  How will you bear love this week?

Edwin L. Crozier