In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him (1 Jo 4:9)
The final fruit, that I would like to discuss is the fruit love. I could have begun with the fruit love, but then I wouldn’t have to discuss the other fruits anymore. Because if you walk in a self-sacrificial love, you will walk after the Spirit and bear automatically the fruit of the Spirit.
When you become born again, you will have the same Spirit as God and Jesus have; the Holy Spirit. His divine nature dwells inside of you. The old carnal man has ruled all your life, therefore it’s time to put off the old man and put on the new man.
When you don’t put off the old man and don’t put on the new man, your flesh (the evil carnal nature) will keep reigning in your life, and Gods divine nature will never become visible. Therefore it’s important, to crucify your flesh (put to death the evil sin nature), to renew your mind with the Word of God (because your carnal mind has to change), and feed your spirit instead of your flesh. When you do these things, then Gods divine nature shall become visible in your life. You won’t rebel against God and His Word anymore. But you shall love Him with all your heart, mind and soul, and therefore keep His commandments, and walk in love.
In this blog post I would like to discuss the fruit love in the life of God. How He showed His love towards His people in the Old Testament.
God is love
When we go to the Old Testament and read about God; about His works and relationship with His people, we see His great righteous love. God only wanted one thing, and that was to take care of His people and to have a relationship with them.
It all started in the Garden of Eden, where God created man and wanted to have a relationship with them. But they became disobedient, and disobeyed His commandment and therefore they sinned against God.
The spirit of man died, because sin entered, and sin became part of the nature of man. Therefore the nature of man became evil and God and man were separated from that time on.
But God, in His mercy and love, had a (temporary) solution for the iniquities and sins of man. He sacrificed the blood of animals to make an atonement for their sins and iniquities.
God dedicated Himself to His people
God dedicated Himself to His people and took care of them. While the love of God was clearly shown to His people, His people often went their own way. How many times, did His people became disobedient to Him and to His will? How many times did they lust after other things and worshipped other gods and idols, instead of obeying their one true God and worshipped their God?
By their actions, you could tell, that God was not enough for them. The love of God was not the love that they wanted.
Murmur and complain
Many times His people murmured and complained about little things, because they didn’t get what they wanted. But by their stubbornness, they hurt God.
The people of God wanted to submit to every image, idol, god, human being etc., except to the Almighty God, Who created the heavens and the earth, and created them.
God’s people didn’t rely on Him
Why did they behave that way and why did they continuously rebel against God? Because they were carnal. They wanted a visible God. A God, that they could touch and worship. They just couldn’t rely on, and trust their ‘invisible’ God.
So what did God do? Because of His great love, He gave them His law, written on a tablet, so that His will, and the unseen world became visible for them. God made His will and His nature known to them. Because the carnal man could not understand the spiritual world and His Kingdom. They could not understand the Spirit, because their spirit was death.
By making His will known to the people, He made Himself known to His people. So that, nobody can say, when they stand before the throne of God: “but God, we didn’t know that, you have never told us.” No, God made His whole will known in the written law, He didn’t hide anything.
But the written law, given by Moses, was also not enough for His people. While they had confessed and promised to keep His commandments, they became rebellious. They kept making idols and kept worshipping them. They didn’t renew their mind, with the words of their God. But they held on to their old culture, traditions and lifestyle, while they lived in Egypt, which was a country with many idols.
God appointed judges and kings
Later on, God appointed judges, but His people remained dissatisfied. They wanted a king, just like the gentiles. In His great love, God warned His people about the consequences; what they had to do for their king. But His people were not moved by the consequences, and still wanted a king. They wanted, what the gentiles had. So God gave them a king
It didn’t take long, before this first king Saul became disobedient to Gods word. This carnal king thought to please God by becoming disobedient to Him, and to execute his own will. He thought, that he knew it better than the Almighty God.
But God was not pleased at all with Saul, and took his kingship and gave it to David. After David, many kings came; some obeyed and served God, and others didn’t.
God rejected by His people
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn 3:16)
His people were still not satisfied; not with the judges, not with the prophets, and not with the kings.
Then God made His greatest love gesture; He sent His own Son to the earth in order to free man from the devils rulership, to free them from their evil sin nature and to reconcile man back to God. So that God could have a personal relationship with man, just like God had with Adam before He sinned.
But even with this gesture, His people were not satisfied and turned Him down.
Yes, Gods own people rejected Jesus and ensured, that He was sentenced to death.
God loved His people so much, that out of this love, He gave His only Son for them. But once again God was rejected by His people.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him (1 Jo 4:9)
Because He was rejected by His own people, a door was opened for the gentiles. God saw, that no matter what He did, it would never be enough. His people would never become satisfied and always lusted after, and desired those thing, which the gentiles had. But no matter what happened, or how many times God was rejected; the love of God remained and still remains.
Love of God
Because of the fact, that His people rejected Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ came to the gentiles. And now, because of the love of God, everyone in this world has the opportunity to become a son of God, by believing in His Son Jesus Christ, and to become born again by the Spirit of the living God.
The only thing, you have to do is to give up your own life; your will, and follow Jesus. Are you willing to do that?
In my next post, I will continue with the fruit love in the life of Jesus; how He walked in love and what this (divine) love really means. In these days, we often have a wrong perception of the meaning of love. Therefore it’s important to know the real meaning of love, according to the Word of God.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
