The Harvest of Love: How Love Takes Root and Bears Fruit Among Believers

Imagine for a moment that every believer in the local church exemplified the fruit of love. What would be the result? People would be eager to greet, encourage and, when necessary, confront one another. There would be no backbiting, no coveting, no dishonesty. We would sacrifice and serve gladly, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. We would be quick to defend one another, to pray for one another, and even to lay down our lives for each other. Is this all too good to be true? Not if each believer walks in the Spirit. God expects this of the local church—and, as ever, his expectation implies his enablement. As Jesus himself declared, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

What exactly is meant by “love”? Biblical love, the kind Paul has in view, is fundamentally self-giving—a selfless devotion expressed through sacrifice. We see this in the most famous verse in Scripture: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The first occurrence of love in the Bible is equally telling. In Genesis 22, Isaac is described as the son Abraham loved (v. 2), yet Abraham’s love for God compelled him to offer even that beloved son in obedience. Love, from its first appearance in Scripture, is bound to sacrificial worship.

Biblical love is sacrificial—it places God as its supreme priority and willingly surrenders anything for his sake. It is selfless—it gives of itself for the good of others. It is secure. Jesus “loved his own who were in the world” and “loved them to the end” (John 13:1). He loved them completely, despite their failures. He loved even Judas, knowing full well what Judas would do that very night. Those who belong to him rest in the security of that enduring love.

To love God and others as we ought, we must first have experienced the love of God for ourselves. Judas alone among the Twelve had never truly received that love—and he alone betrayed the Lord. We do well to pray daily that we might know more of what it means to be loved by God, for only then can such love flow outward from us.

The practical question follows: Whom should we love? In short, we must love all people. We must love the lost. Paul’s anguish over his fellow Israelites illustrates this powerfully: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers” (Romans 9:2–3). He urges believers to pray for all people, for God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). The only difference between us and the lost is the grace of God. Self-righteousness is always a temptation; but “there, but for the grace of God, go we.”

We must love our enemies—something deeply contrary to human nature. Yet Jesus was unequivocal in the Sermon on the Mount: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44–45). And we are to love our fellow believers, those whom God loves with a particular love: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Since every person on earth is either lost or saved, and we are called to love both, our responsibility is total. There is simply no category of person from whom we are permitted to withhold love.

There is, of course, a counterfeit charity that is popular in the world today. Hollywood would have us believe that love is soft sentimentalism—warm feeling without moral backbone. But biblical love is nothing of the sort. Jesus loved Peter dearly, yet said to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). He confronted his friend’s sin precisely because he loved him. The popular imitation of love is a “no conflict” variety: If you truly love someone, it says, you will never challenge them. But Scripture calls that attitude something far darker. “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24). Imitation love cries, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14).

Popular love is also selective—loving those who love you and despising those who don’t. Jesus dismantles this in Matthew 5, demanding that we give of ourselves even to those who consider themselves our enemies.

How is this love cultivated? Several things are necessary.

First, we must experience God’s love through faith in Jesus Christ. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). As God’s love becomes real to us, it enables us to love him in return—and that love naturally overflows towards others. When people drift from the fellowship of the local church, it is almost always because they have lost sight of what God’s love has done for them.

Second, we must be exposed to that love continually through Scripture and the ministry of the Spirit. The more time we spend meditating on God’s grace, the more we will be moved to love others. Understanding the depth of our undeserved salvation makes it impossible to withhold love from those around us.

Third, we must actively express love toward saints and sinners alike. Love is not something that simply happens to us—we do not “fall” in love, as though into a ditch. Love is a choice. God did not fall in love with the world; the world was vile against his holiness. Nevertheless, he chose to love, and gave his Son as the expression of that choice. In the same way, we must decide to greet others, to reach out to those we find difficult, to serve those who do not reciprocate. The more the muscle of love is exercised, the stronger it grows.

The greatest example of love remains the Lord Jesus Christ. On the night of his betrayal, “he rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist … and began to wash the disciples’ feet” (John 13:4–5). He washed the feet of Judas Iscariot, who would betray him within hours. From the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). These are words of love at its most costly and most pure.

There will be times in the local church when we are wronged, or when we wrong others. But it is precisely in such moments that love is called to flex and grow. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). If we will, by the grace of the Spirit, manifest the disposition of Christ—stooping to serve, choosing to forgive, reaching out despite hurt—we will see a remarkable harvest of love in our churches. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).