Grace in Galatians (Part 143): Love Is the Root of It All

https://youtu.be/AZ10vmpKkQg?si=ozElnleafV_MPAtm

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”

Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”

1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Scripture we will study today:

Galatians 5:22-23 TPT“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.”

Supporting scriptures:

1 John 4:8 NKJV“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

1 John 4:16 TPT“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.”

Romans 5:5 TPT“And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!”

1 John 1:5 NKJV“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”

Setting the Stage:

Yesterday, we closed the door on the works of the flesh. We dealt with envy, murder, drunkenness, and revelries, and we declared that we are NOT carrying the old into the new. Today, we open a brand-new door! We are stepping into the Fruit of the Spirit, and I’m excited about it because we’ve spent enough time looking at the darkness. Now it’s time to walk in the light!

But before we start breaking down each individual fruit, I need to lay a foundation that will change the way you see this entire passage. Most people read Galatians 5:22-23 and think there are nine fruit of the Spirit. I used to teach it that way, too. But The Passion Translation reveals something powerful. It says, “the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions.” Did you catch that? Love is not fruit number one on a list of nine. Love IS the fruit, and the eight characteristics that follow are varied expressions of that love! This changes everything, and I want to show you why.Now, let me say that I’m not trying to change anyone’s theology. If you disagree with this, that’s fine. It’s not really going to change anything. I’m going to deal with love because God is love, and then I’m going to teach how all the other eight fruit flow out of God’s love. 

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. Love Is Not Something God Does; Love Is Who God IS.

The Bible makes a distinction between what God does and who God IS. God heals, but He is not healing. God provides, but He is not provision. However, when it comes to love, 1 John 4:8 says, “God IS love.” There are only two things the Bible says God IS: love and light. That’s it. So when the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, you are carrying LOVE HIMSELF around with you everywhere you go. Love is not a behavior you perform; love is a Person who lives inside of you!

How this applies to you:

— When you accepted Jesus, you didn’t just receive a rulebook; you received a Person, and that Person IS love. Not only is he loved, but He is the highest form of love. 

— The Greeks identified several forms of love: eros (romantic love), storge (family affection), phileo (brotherly friendship), and agape (unconditional, selfless, divine love). Agape stands above them all because it loves without condition, without expectation, and without limitation; and that is the love that lives inside of you.

— You don’t have to manufacture love because the source of all love already lives inside of you. When you were born again, God’s love was poured out in your heart through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

— Every time you struggle to love someone, it’s not about your capacity; it’s about yielding to the One who has unlimited capacity, who lives IN you.

— Love is not an emotion you chase; love is a nature you release as you die to self.

— You carry Love Himself into every boardroom, every difficult conversation, and every workplace challenge. You’re not just a professional; you are a carrier of God’s love, and that changes the atmosphere wherever you go.

— The reason you can love your enemies is that the love required doesn’t come from you; it comes from God IN you.

— Stop trying to love people in your own strength and start letting the love of God flow through you like a river that never runs dry.

— As you walk with God and you start dying to self, you will be amazed at how you are empowered to love in a way that far exceeded anything you thought you could do in the past. 

2. The Eight Fruit Are Varied Expressions of Divine Love.

This is critical. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, virtue, faith, gentleness, and strength of spirit are NOT eight separate things you need to develop independently. They are all expressions of God’s love! Joy is what love looks like when it celebrates. Peace is what love looks like when it rests. Patience is what love looks like when it waits. Once you see this, you stop trying to produce fruit on your own, and you start letting love flow in all its varied expressions.

How this applies to you:

— You don’t need eight different strategies to develop eight different fruit; you need one revelation of God’s love, and the rest flows from it.

— Joy is love celebrating in the midst of any circumstance.

— Peace is love resting in the finished work of Christ, unmoved and unbothered by chaos. When you are secure in love, peace is the natural result.

— Patience is love enduring without losing hope. You can wait on God’s timing because you know the One who holds your future loves you with an everlasting love.

— Kindness is love in action, reaching out to bless others without requiring anything in return.

— Virtue is love on display, living with excellence because love doesn’t cut corners. A person rooted in God’s love naturally operates in integrity and excellence.

— Faith is love trusting and believing what God has already completed in the spiritual realm. You trust because the One making the promises loves you too much to fail you.

— Gentleness is love handling others with care, using strength under the Holy Spirit’s control rather than straight human brute force.

— Strength of spirit is love standing firm, refusing to quit because divine love never gives up and never backs down in the face of adversity.

3. The Flesh Produces Works, but the Spirit Produces Fruit.

Notice the language Paul uses. He calls the manifestations of the flesh “works” but calls the manifestations of the Spirit “fruit.” Works require human effort and striving. Fruit is produced naturally when the right conditions are present. An apple tree doesn’t strain to produce apples; it produces apples because of its nature. In the same way, when the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, and you learn to die to self, His fruit is produced NATURALLY. You don’t strive for it; you yield to it.

How this applies to you:

— If you’re exhausted from trying to be a “good Christian,” you’ve been producing works, not fruit. You must be delivered from performance-based religion. 

— The flesh says, “Try harder.” Grace says, “Yield more.” Success in Christ is not a matter of more trying. It is a matter of more dying. 

— An apple tree doesn’t attend seminars on apple production; it stays connected to its source. Stay connected to the Holy Spirit, and fruit will come.

— The reason many believers burn out is that they’re attempting to manufacture in the flesh what only the Spirit can produce. You can’t make the fruit of the Spirit show up, but you can die to self and let the Holy Spirit do what He does through you.

— In your career, stop striving to be patient or kind through willpower. Yield to the Holy Spirit, and those qualities will flow from the inside out.

— Here’s the key: external fruit is always a reflection of internal nature. If you want to change the fruit, don’t focus on the fruit; focus on the root. Your external life will always be a reflection of your internal reality. 

— The world rewards hustle and grind, but the Kingdom rewards surrender and rest. The fruit of the Spirit is evidence that you’ve learned to rest in God’s grace.

4. The Characteristics of God’s Love Are Revealed in 1 Corinthians 13.

We’ve established that love is not something God does; love is who God IS. And we’ve seen that the eight fruit of the Spirit are varied expressions of that love. But Paul didn’t stop there. In 1 Corinthians 13, he gives us a detailed description of what this divine love actually looks like in action. The Passion Translation says, “Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up. Love never stops loving.” This is not a list of things you need to TRY to do. This is a description of the Person who lives inside of you!

How this applies to you:

— Love is large and incredibly patient. The love inside of you doesn’t have a short fuse; divine love gives people room to grow, room to fail, and room to come back.

— Love is gentle and consistently kind to all, not kind to some and rude to others, not kind on good days and mean on bad days. Love is gentle and consistent in this gentleness.

— Love refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. The love of God inside you can celebrate their blessing because divine love is not threatened by someone else’s success.

— Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect. If you’re using shame to motivate yourself or others, that’s not the love of God operating; that’s religion. Religion uses shame to guilt you into action, but the love of God overwhelms you with God’s goodness and inspires you to action. 

— Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense, and the ERV adds that love “does not remember wrongs done against it.” I’ve told you many times that we should not keep good records of bad things. 

— Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Divine love grieves over sin but rejoices when truth prevails.

— Love is a safe place of shelter that “never stops believing the best for others” and “never takes failure as defeat.”

— Love never gives up and never stops loving, and the ERV says it “never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits.”

— Here are 10 characteristics of divine love in this chapter: love is (1) patient under stress, (2) kind at all times, (3) generous, not envious, (4) humble, not self-promoting, (5) never rude, (6) does not manipulate by using shame, (7) is not irritable or easily offended, (8) celebrates honesty, (9) does not focus on what is flawed, and (10) is loyal to the end. Love never fails!

— When you read 1 Corinthians 13, don’t read it as a checklist of things you need to do better; read it as a revelation of who lives inside of you. IT’S ALREADY DONE!

That’s enough for today.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, I thank You that Your love lives inside of me because YOU live inside of me!

I declare that I am not trying to produce fruit in my own strength; I am yielding to the Holy Spirit who produces His fruit through me!

Love is not something I have to manufacture; love is WHO YOU ARE, and You live in me!

Joy, peace, patience, kindness, virtue, faith, gentleness, and strength of spirit are all expressions of Your love flowing through my life!

I am done striving and stressing. I am learning to yield to the Holy Spirit, and I know that Your fruit comes from resting, not working!

My life produces fruit that reflects Your nature, and people experience YOU when they encounter me!

I am discovering new dimensions of Your love in THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY!

I am living from the inside out, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!