Love, Joy, Peace
Fruits of the Spirit Part 1
“The fruit of the Spirit’s not a coconut. The fruits of the Spirit’s not a coconut. If you want to be a coconut, you might as well hear it: you can’t be a fruit of the Spirit. ‘Cause the fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
I learned this song as a child and still sing it in my head anytime the fruits of the Spirit are mentioned. While obviously a funny iteration to show children that when ‘fruit of the Spirit’ is referenced, it is not talking about the kinds of fruits that we enjoy snacking on. These ‘fruits’ are the qualities that believers express when they have the Holy Spirit living in their hearts. Elsewhere in Scripture (like in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7) we are told that true believers can be differentiated from false teachers based on their fruits. Let’s dig deeper to determine what this means and how we can show these fruits in our own lives.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Galatians 5:22-23 CSB
Love
We’ve written a lot about love on our blog already. Go check them out if you missed one!
Love is also one of the fruits of the Spirit listed. In fact, it is the very first one. Coincidence? I think not. An attribute of God that we see all throughout Scripture is love. It is because of His love, that He sent Jesus to redeem His people (John 3:16). The letter of 1 John even states that “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8 CSB) If God is the epitome of love, then of course it is something that God wants us to mimic.
Throughout the Scripture we see different types of love mentioned. The intimate love between a husband and wife looks different than that of the adoration showed by the soldiers to their commander (like in the book of Joshua). The love mentioned as a fruit of the Spirit is a special type of love, the one we see perfectly embodied in God. The Greek word is ‘agape’ and means the overwhelming and unconditional love that God shows us when He sends His only Son to live a sinless life and then be tortured and crucified for our sins.
I don’t know about you, but it is far too easy for me to show conditional love as a result of my own human power. It’s easier to love someone who reciprocates the feelings or is kind and helpful towards me. But agape love is different because it says that I must continue to love someone after they have hurt me (check out our Moving Past Conflict post for more on this). This kind of love isn’t possible by our own power, only by the power of God. By my own power, I want to cut someone out of my life at the first sign of disappointment. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can forgive them for disappointing me and seek to love them regardless, not holding wrongs against them.
We have a great description of what this godly agape type of love looks like in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. One part that strikes me as entirely different than the world’s definition of love is verse 6:
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:6 CSB
Let’s replace the word love here with the name of God: God finds no joy in unrighteousness. God rejoices in the truth. Woah! The world says we each have our own truth. And that everyone should respect what makes each individual happy. That’s not what this Scripture says. By our human strength, we have no chance of living up to this one simple characteristic of love, let alone all of the other characteristics listed.
As we grow closer to the Lord, we are able to rely on His power to love others unconditionally, to find no joy in unrighteousness, to rejoice in the truth.
Joy
I have a song for this one, too. (It’s in this post from our Advent series on JOY.)
Joy is different than happiness. Feelings like happiness and sadness are fleeting. They can change as quickly as the hormones in our brains. But the joy of the Lord is like a permanent wellbeing and personality trait. Being joyful describes the situation of our soul. The Greek word for joy used in the Scripture is “chara”. This same word appears in the beginning of Matthew when the wise men were led by the great star to baby Jesus. They had traveled many days and endured so much. When they were finally close to the place of Jesus, how did they feel? Overwhelmed with joy. Can you imagine??
When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Matthew 2:10 CSB
Joy looks like hope in dark times. And continuing to praise God during the storms of life. While my storms may seem different than yours, we have all been through hard times in life. Our first reaction (aka our human response) may not be to praise God, but to curse Him.
1 Peter 1:8-9 tells us the purpose and reason for this Joy.
Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9 CSB
Salvation is the reason we have joy. Because of Jesus, we have been redeemed, set free from the chains of sin, and become new creations. There is no test we have to pass. No amount of money to be paid. We receive the free gift of salvation because of the blood of Jesus. That is the reason we can have joy when our life circumstances are not ideal, when we are watching a loved one suffer, when we experience fractured relationships and confusion.
Peace
Jesus promises that as believers, we will receive this beautiful peace that comes only from the Spirit. We can tell this is different than the temporary worldly peace, as are all of the fruits of the Spirit. The world may attempt to have pure unadulterated peace, but it is unattainable because of the mess of sin. The only way to receive the pure and overwhelming peace is by the Spirit, because of our Lord Jesus Christ!
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.” John 14:27 CSB
We can know what this kind of peace is and how it is different from the absence of conflict or a calm quiet before the storm. According to the Thayers Greek Lexicon, the peace mentioned in Romans 8:6 is “used of those who, assured of salvation, tranquilly await the return of Christ and the transformation of all things which will accompany that event.” So we have peace simply because we are assured that our salvation has been bought and paid for. Sounds a lot like the reason for our joy, right?
This peace that comes from the Spirit, and is because of Christ’s atonement, is so important. It is our decision making tool.
And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15 CSB
Peace in this Colossians verse is the same Greek word used in the listing of the fruits of the Spirit. Again we see that this peace comes straight from Christ. The Greek word for rule here is “brabeuó,” which literally means to act as an umpire or arbiter. I didn’t know what an arbiter actually was, but Oxford Dictionary has it listed as ‘a person who settles a dispute or has ultimate authority in a matter.’ So this peace we receive from Christ is supposed to be the defining thing that our heart uses to make decisions. How neat is that?
I recall when I was having to make the decision of which college to attend after high school. There are two christian colleges locally and I knew I wanted to attend one of them, so I applied to them both as most students do. We went on to schedule tours and preview days for these two colleges. I was quickly accepted into College A and was extremely excited as I had a few friends who attended this school. Before acceptance information came back for College B, we had our tour. Of course I figured it was a waste of time, because I had already been accepted to College A, where my friends were. But walking around College B, I had such an overwhelming peace that this was the place I was supposed to get my higher education. College B is where God wanted me. Trying to logically explain this choice to an unbeliever would make me sound silly. And while I have had this decision making peace overwhelm me numerous times since, it is always so extremely comforting and hard to put into words.
This is the kind of peace we are able to receive and enjoy as a result of the Spirit.
As believers who admittedly have the Holy Spirit living in their hearts and souls, who submit to the leadership of Christ the Son and God the Father, we should be obedient to deny our human nature. Instead we follow the leading of the Spirit, allowing His nature to flow through us with unconditional love, unexplainable joy, and overwhelming peace. I never regret moments when I am on the receiving end of these fruits. But we aren’t to only receive them from the Holy Spirit and enjoy them while staying alone in a small bubble away from society, we have to share them with others. When we share them, others are able to see how different godly love, joy, and peace are from the world and (hopefully) they will crave them for themselves.
