Patience – The Five-Minute Test

 

Love – Fruit Is Never for the Tree

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." — Matthew 22:37–39 (NIV)

When I think of fruit, one simple truth always amazes me.

An apple tree never eats its own apples.

A mango tree never enjoys its own mangoes.

The fruit it bears is always for someone else.

Isn't that interesting?

Then why do we often think the Fruit of the Spirit is primarily for us?

When Paul speaks about love as the very first fruit of the Spirit, I don't believe he's inviting us to become people who feel more loving. He's inviting us to become people through whom others experience the love of God.

That led me to another question.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, why didn't He simply say, "Love one another"?

Instead, He answered,

"Love the Lord your God..."

Then...

"Love your neighbor."

The order matters.

Not because God is asking us to complete a checklist, but because He's showing us where love begins.

We often expect the people around us to become the source of our love. We hope our spouse will always understand us. We hope our children will always appreciate us. We hope our friends will never disappoint us.

But people were never created to fill our hearts.

They were created to receive what God has already filled them with.

The more deeply we receive God's love, the less we demand from others to complete us. We stop loving people because they meet our expectations and begin loving them because God has already met our deepest need.

That's what the Fruit of the Spirit looks like.

It's not striving harder to love difficult people.

It's allowing God's love to overflow through us until someone else gets to taste the goodness of God.

Today, I'd love us to think about this together.

• Am I expecting people to give me what only God can?
• Who in my life is God inviting me to love without expecting something in return?
• If love is fruit, who is meant to taste it through my life this week?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Father, thank You for loving me before I ever loved You. Fill my heart so completely with Your love that it naturally overflows into the lives of those around me. Help me stop looking to people to satisfy the deepest needs of my heart, and instead find my security, identity, and joy in You. May the fruit of love that Your Spirit is growing in me become a blessing to my family, my friends, my colleagues, and everyone You place in my path. Let others experience God through the way I love today. Amen.

Tomorrow we'll explore the second Fruit of the Spirit—Joy.

Joy is cultivated by noticing ordinary graces

I can't wait to discover it together.