The Treasure We Carry

There is an old fable about three merchants crossing the desert at night. They were traveling in the dark to escape the heat of the day when a voice suddenly told them to stop. The voice commanded them to get down from their camels, stoop into the dry creek bed beneath them, pick up pebbles, and put them in their pockets.

Then the voice told them to keep traveling until morning. “When dawn comes,” the voice said, “you will be both happy and sad.”

So they obeyed. They gathered a few pebbles, placed them in their pockets, and continued through the night.

When the sun finally rose, they reached into their pockets and discovered that the pebbles had become precious jewels. They were happy, of course. However, they were also sad because they wished they had gathered more.

That is not a bad picture of how many of us experience the Word of God. There are truths we have heard before, maybe many times before, and at first they can feel familiar, ordinary, even small. But when the light of Christ shines on them, we begin to see their worth.

A few weeks ago, we began a new series on one of our values at Christ Church: Transformative Truth. We started by talking about sanctification, which is the gracious work of God by which He forms us into the likeness of Jesus from the inside out. Now we are turning to one of the great treasures of Scripture, Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit.

Paul writes, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5.22–23).

These are not religious pebbles. They are jewels of Christian character. They are worth holding up to the light slowly, one by one, so we can see what the Spirit of God is growing in the people of God.

We Reduce Love to a Feeling or Performance

Let’s be honest, it can be much easier to love people in theory than in reality. In theory, I love humanity. In person, humanity talks too much when I am tired. Humanity sends emails with a tone that crushes my spirit. Humanity cuts me off in traffic. Humanity has opinions – the wrong ones, I would add! Humanity misunderstands me. Humanity needs something when I am already stretched thin.

Love is a beautiful idea, but as a practice… it is inconvenient. That is why Paul’s words in Galatians 5 are both inspiring and frustrating: “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5.22).

Most of us know we as Christians are supposed to be loving. But how are we supposed to do that when we do not feel like being loving? It is one thing to love a friend or family member, but it is another thing to love the person who irritates you, disappoints you, talks too much, wants more than you want to give, who hurts you,  whose politics, personality, habits, or tone makes something in you tighten up. This is where love stops being a beautiful idea and starts becoming a test of the heart.

Love Exposes the Heart

Paul does not say, “the fruit of trying harder is love.” He does not say, “the fruit of religious effort is love.” He says love is the fruit of the Spirit. If we miss that distinction, love becomes one more thing we try to perform instead of the fruit the Spirit grows in us.

Therefore, let’s name some common misunderstandings of Christian love or ways ‘we produce this fruit.’ Christian love is not:

  • Something we tape onto the outside of our lives.
  • A personality upgrade.
  • Good manners with Bible verses attached.
  • Pretending to be nice while secretly resenting the person behind his back.

The Bible’s deepest definition of love is not a feeling or a performance. It is God Himself. “God is love” (1 John 4.16). And God has shown us what love is most clearly in Jesus. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3.16).

So love is not first defined by our moods, our instincts, or our preferences. Love is defined by the cross. Love moves toward need, gives itself away, forgives, refuses to reduce another person to their worst moment, sees a brother or sister where the flesh only sees an enemy, an annoyance, or an interruption. And most importantly:  Christian love begins to grow in us only when Jesus’ life takes root in us.

This is both good news and an explanation of why the call to love is hard. The good news is that love is not something we manufacture. The bad news is that the call to love exposes what is truly in us. Some people make us feel generous. Others reveal how selfish we can be. Some people bring out patience. Others show us how quickly our patience runs out. Some people are easy to bless. Others make us want to keep score. In other words, we can fake love, but not for very long. Eventually, the true state of our hearts will be revealed.

Love Is the Life of Jesus Formed in Us

So when we say, “I need to be more loving,” we are not wrong. However, that is really missing Paul’s point. The deeper issue is not simply that we need better behavior. The deeper issue is that our hearts need to be changed. God is not simply trying to make us act more loving. He is forming us into people who are becoming more loving from the inside out. Love is not something we produce by managing our behavior. It is something the Spirit grows in us as we live close to Jesus and let His life reshape ours. In the simplest terms, the solution is not to try but to abide.

Let me show you what this can look like in real life…

A pastor once told a story about a Sunday school teacher leading a children’s class. One day, a new little boy came into the class. He was missing one arm. The teacher was nervous because she did not know his story, and she was afraid one of the children might say something careless or embarrass him.

The morning went fine until the closing activity. Without thinking, she started their closing rhythm. She said, “Let’s make our churches.” The children began clasping their hands together for the old rhyme, “Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple, open the doors…” And then she realized what she had done. The very thing she feared the children might do, she had done. She froze.

Then the little girl sitting next to the boy reached over, placed her hand with his, and said, “Davey, let’s make the church together.”

This kind of love does not come naturally to most of us. It is the fruit of the Spirit. On the one hand, it is only possible when God’s grace and Spirit are at work in us. On the other hand, like this little girl, this love is intentional and participatory. It is a love that sees, intentionally moves toward, joins itself to someone else’s weakness and says, “We can do this together.”

We Can Learn to Walk in Love

But this is where we have to be careful. The fruit of the Spirit is not a checklist. Paul is not saying, “Go manufacture love.” He is saying, “Walk by the Spirit.” Keep in step with the Spirit. Stay close to the life of Jesus, and over time, His life will begin to show up in yours.

However, we have to be careful not to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction. This does not mean we are passive. We do not sit back and wait until we feel loving. We bring our real relationships before God. We confess where our love has grown cold. We ask the Spirit to soften what has become hard. We pray for the person we would rather criticize. We listen before defending ourselves. We forgive, sometimes long before we feel ready. We serve when we would rather be served.

But we do not do these things to earn God’s love. We do them because God has already loved us in Christ. Sanctification is not self-salvation. It is cooperation with grace.

Love Becomes Visible

This is why love is such a powerful sign of the Spirit’s work. Gifts can be imitated. Religious activity can be performed. Nice words can be rehearsed. But Spirit-formed love is harder to fake because it reaches beneath performance into the heart.

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13.35). Note that it is not ‘if you can be as winsome as Billy Graham, as selfless as Mother Teresa was, as courageous as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or as theologically on point as Bishop Wright.’ It is simple: “If you have love for one another.” That makes love central.

The world does not simply need Christians who can explain love. It needs Christians whose lives make love visible. It needs people who can look into the face of another person and see a brother or sister. It needs people who know how to make the church together. This only happens as the Spirit forms the life of Jesus in us from the inside out. Before there is fruit, there must be life.

So this week, do not simply ask, “Was I loving?” Ask a better question is: “Where is the Spirit teaching me to become more like Jesus in love?”

Start there. Start with the person in front of you. Start with the person you avoid. Start with the person you have quietly written off. Start with the person whose needs feel inconvenient. Because the Spirit of God is at work in you, and where the life of Jesus takes root, love begins to grow.

Fr. Chase