PEARLS OF PAUL
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – LOVE
DR. JIM DIXON
GALATIANS 5:13-26
MARCH 19, 2000
James Dobson, in his book “Hide or Seek,” tells the story of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who allegedly killed JFK. According to Dobson, Oswald’s father died of a heart attack before Oswald was born. His mother was a powerfully built, dominating woman who found it very difficult to love anyone. She gave him no love, no affection, no instruction, and no discipline in those early years. He was a latchkey kid, home alone. She worked during the day and would not allow him to call her at work. When she came home, she beat him. He was ugly and he was poor, and he knew nothing but rejection from the day of his birth.
When he was 13 years old, the school psychologist said that Oswald probably didn’t even know the meaning of the word love. He was ignored by the girls and hated by the boys. Despite a high IQ, he failed academically, and he dropped out of high school. He joined the Marines. He heard that the Marines “built men,” and he wanted to be one, but he still had an adolescent squeak in his voice, and his face was riddled with acne. He was skinny and balding, and the men in the Marines made fun of him and they laughed at him. They ridiculed him and they mocked him. His officers made fun of him, and those in authority over him mocked him. He fought back. He resisted authority, he was court martialed, and he was dishonorably discharged.
He made his way to Europe, thinking that maybe he could begin a new life, and maybe he could find acceptance there. He fell in love with a woman and asked her to marry him. He was amazed when she said yes. Together, they had two kids, but he never enjoyed the respect that a father desires because his wife was very much like his mother—a powerfully built, dominating woman who found it very difficult to love. She would literally, physically dominate him. She would take him and throw him in the closet when she was mad at him and lock the door. She would beat him. He was literally a battered husband. There came a point where she just kicked him out of the house and said, “I don’t want to see you ever again.” He tried to make it on his own, but he was lonely and so he came back to the house. When she opened the door, he got down on his knees and he begged her to take him back. He surrendered all pride. He came on her terms. He brought all the money he had, and he gave it to her. She threw it on the ground, and she made fun of his feeble efforts to provide for the needs of the family. She mocked his sexual impotency in front of neighbors who were there.
She told him to go away, and so he went. He went back to his apartment. There he wept. He cried as the darkness of his personal nightmare enveloped him. He woke up the next morning, and he was suddenly changed, a different man. No one loved him. No one had ever loved him, and the world was going to pay. Perhaps that’s the attitude he took to that book storage warehouse on November 22, 1963, when he sent two bullets crashing into the skull of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In that act, Lee Harvey Oswald killed the one man who, perhaps more than any other man, represented all of the acceptance, all of the affection, all of the love, all of the success he had longed for and could not attain.
The assassination of JFK remains controversial to this day. People debate whether Oswald acted alone or whether there were other gunmen. People can debate that, but there is one thing people cannot debate, and that is this: Everybody needs love. Everybody in this world needs love. Each of us here in this worship center this morning needs love. We all need love.
Our subject this morning is love. As we examine the Fruit of the Spirit, we begin with love. The Fruit of the Spirit is love. I have two teachings, and the first teaching is this. Love is meant to be the primary characteristic of the church and the Christian. Jesus Christ said, “By this, all people will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
The Apostle Paul writes, “The whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s all about love. When people see the church of Christ, they should see love. When people see you, they should see love because the primary characteristic of the church and the Christian should be love.
In Egypt today, in the city of Giza, which is a suburb of Cairo near the Nile River, there stands the three giant pyramids and also the Great Sphinx. The Great Sphinx is 240 feet long, and it’s 66 feet tall. Like the pyramids, it was built more than 4,500 years ago. Today, Egyptologists debate why the ancient Egyptians built the Great Sphinx. There are many theories, but the prevailing theory is this: They built the Great Sphinx to ward off evil spirits. They built the Great Sphinx to guard the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. They built it to protect the pyramids and to ward off all the evil spirits. That’s what the sphinxes, which line the avenue that leads to the Temple of Karnak at Luxor, are for too, to ward off evil spirits. In fact, the Greek sphinxes and the Egyptian sphinxes were all built and designed to ward off evil spirits. With the body of a lion and the face of a human, these monsters were created to ward off evil spirits.
Believe it or not, in the Middle Ages Christians actually thought in the same way. On their churches and on their cathedrals, they would put gargoyles. Gargoyles were monsters which were designed to ward off the devil and ward off evil spirits to protect the church. They were little stone or metal monsters. Of course, today we know that the devil, the evil one, cannot be warded off through the use of stone or metal monsters. Of course, Satan does attack the church.
In 1987, John Carpenter made a movie called “The Prince of Darkness.” The movie was about a priest who went down into the church basement and there in the church basement found Old Scratch himself, the devil, living in the church basement. I suppose for any church that would be a major bummer. Now, I did not see the movie, and I don’t know what happened, but I do know this: Satan is active in churches, and not just church basements. You see, the evil one is seeking to lead churches astray theologically, and the evil one is seeking to lead churches astray morally. Most of all, however, the evil one, because he is characterized by hate, hates you. Most of all, he seeks to destroy the love of the church and the love of the Christian. He wants to destroy the church’s love. He wants to destroy your love.
You see, it’s Jesus Christ who protects the church. Jesus Christ said, “I will build My church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” Jesus has given to the church the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who convicted us of sin, and it’s the Holy Spirit who led us to the Savior. It’s the Holy Spirit who indwelt us when first we believed. He turned our bodies into temples of the Living God as the Spirit of Christ came to dwell in us. The Holy Spirit guides us, and he leads us, and He comforts us. He has sealed us for the day of salvation. He gifts us. He empowers us. But, you see, most of all, He transforms us. The Holy Spirit transforms us. With this purpose, He seeks to grow in us the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But the fruit of the Spirit is summed up by love. So, Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit who would teach us to love as a church and as individual Christians.
It was Russell Hitt who, years ago, wrote the biography of Irene Webster-Smith. Some of you may have read it. Irene Webster-Smith was a missionary to Japan. She went there in the year 1915. She went with the Asian Evangelistic Society. She went to work with prostitutes on the streets of Tokyo. In 1915, there were thousands of young women who were street prostitutes in the city of Tokyo. Most of them had been abandoned as little girls. They had been abandoned, and they were taken and adopted by prostitution rings, and they were trained to be prostitutes, reared to be prostitutes. Irene Webster-Smith went there with the love of Christ, hoping to lead them to Christ and to lead them out of prostitution.
She was frustrated after a period of years because these young women were so tragically addicted to prostitution. Having been reared in it, they knew nothing else. They would leave it but then go right back to it. One night, Irene Webster-Smith had a dream. In the dream, there was a statement which was repeated again and again and again. The statement was, “Better to build a fence at the top of the precipice than to bring an ambulance to the bottom.” When she woke up, she knew this was not an ordinary dream because her ordinary dreams didn’t make any sense. But this made sense, and she knew the Holy Spirit was speaking to her. It was a visionary dream. God was saying to her, “Better to build a fence at the top of the precipice than to bring an ambulance to the bottom.”
She realized that she had been involved in an ambulance ministry, seeking to rescue people who had fallen, but God was now calling her to a fence ministry, seeking to keep people from falling over the precipice. So she established an orphanage. She established an orphanage in the city of Tokyo, and she began to adopt those abandoned little girls. She began with her staff to rear them in the love of Christ so that they would grow up to serve Christ all the days of their life. It’s an amazing story, but all Christians and all churches are called to do what Irene Webster-Smith did. We’re called to love, and we express that love in ambulance ministries and fence ministries.
This church has many ambulance ministries that we’re involved in, both here and around the world, where we seek to help people who have fallen over the cliff. We come to them in their desperation, but we also have many fence ministries where we’re seeking to help people when they’re young and we’re seeking to keep them from falling over that precipice. That’s why we invite you to be Sunday school teachers, hundreds of you, that you might help our little children when they’re young, and you might help bring them up in the nurture and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. We not only want to love Christ ourselves and have our own family love Chris, but we want to reach out in love to the world.
We’ve invited hundreds of you to go into the inner city and be tutors. Hundreds of you have responded, and some of you are working with Whiz Kids. With the love of Christ, you’ve volunteered. You’re tutoring an inner-city child, helping that child grow academically so that child might one day compete for the dignity of a job. You are sharing Jesus with that inner city child. Some of you are working with Save Our Youth, and you’re working with older children. You’re doing this for love’s sake. We want this always to be true at Cherry Hills Community Church, that we are mobilized in love, with ambulance and fence ministries.
You know, it’s kind of an ugly thing when Christianity is stripped of love. It’s a tragic thing when you see Christians who will not love and churches that will not love. When I was growing up, I didn’t like a lot of fruits and vegetables that my mom served me. One vegetable I particularly didn’t like was brussels sprouts. I just didn’t like brussel sprouts. About a year ago, Barb started including brussels sprouts in some of our dinners, but they tasted great. They tasted great because she cooked them, I think fried them, in canola oil and then put a strip of bacon in there for flavoring. She then seasoned them and put a little butter on them, and the Brussel sprouts tasted great. A few months ago, Barb decided to make them healthier, so she just steamed them plain. When she steamed them plain, they tasted exactly as I remembered them when I was a kid. They just left a bitter taste in your mouth.
It seemed to me that the church of Jesus Christ, when it’s stripped of love, is exactly like steamed plain brussels sprouts. It just really is. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. It’s love that seasons the gospel. It’s love that accompanies all ministry and is to characterize the Christian and the church.
The second teaching this morning is this: Love is a choice. It’s meant to characterize the church and the Christian, but it’s a choice. I heard a joke just recently about a woman who died and found herself at the gates of heaven. St. Peter was there. She looked through the gates and saw that it was beautiful. She saw just beyond the gates a table with all of her loved ones and relatives. They were eating and laughing. They looked over at her and they welcomed her. They shouted out how good it was to see her. She said to Simon Peter, “What do I have to do to get in?” He said, “Just spell one word.” She said, “What word is that?” He said, “love.” She spelled love, and she went into heaven. The years passed. There came a day when Simon Peter came to her and said, “You know, I’m busy today. Sometimes we ask the citizens of heaven to tend the gate. Would you do that today? You know what to do.” She said, “Sure.”
She’s there at the gates of heaven. People are coming. Suddenly her husband arrives. She said, “I’m surprised to see you. How are you?” He said, “Well, since you died, everything has been great! Since you died, everything has been wonderful. I married that beautiful young gal that was your nurse. Then I won the lottery, and we got millions of dollars. For years we have just traveled the world and had fun. But today I was skiing and went over the cliff, and here I am. How do I get in?” She said, “You just spell one word.” He said, “What word?” She said, “Czechoslovakia!”
Of course, it’s just a joke. We know that we really get into heaven through faith in Jesus Christ when we receive Him as Lord and Savior. But it is true, isn’t it, that love is easier to spell than Czechoslovakia is. It’s true that love is easier to spell than it is to practice. It’s a lot easier to spell the word love than it is to live lovingly. Love is something you must choose something we must choose every single day.
The Apostle Paul writes, “You’ve been called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but rather, through love, be servants of one another.” You see, in our freedom as Christians, we are to choose love, and we are to choose love rather than what Paul calls “the flesh.” Every single day, we are to choose love. Sometimes it’s a tough choice.
In the 16th century, there lived a young prince. The year was 1547. The young prince was 17 years old. He was about to ascend the throne of Russia and become the Czar of Russia. He wasn’t married. He wanted to find a wife, and so they did something unusual. They brought beautiful women from throughout Russia, two thousand women from noble families, and they let this young prince choose his bride. He got to spend time with each of them, and he fell in love with one of them. Her name as Anastasia. He chose her for his bride. They were married, and he ascended the throne. He became king and Anastasia became queen. Together, they created what some people called a kingdom of love. He related in a special way to the people of Russia, not like a king with his subjects, but like a father with his children. He had compassion on the poor, and he was known for his charity. He was pious. He fasted and he prayed, and he was a builder of churches. It was said that in all of Christendom, no one was more beloved than this king and czar.
But in the year 1560, when they had been married for 13 years, Anastasia died. The queen died. The king had prayed for her healing, but it didn’t happen, and he became angry with God. His heart grew cold. His love turned to hate. His drinking progressed to drunkenness. He ruled for 24 more years, until the year 1584, but things were not the same because he was often in a drunken rage. It was in a drunken rage that he murdered his oldest son. He married seven more times. He was obsessed with torturing people in his rage. He founded a military police force, and he instituted a reign of terror in Russia such as Russia had never seen in its history. His kingdom began to be bathed in blood.
This king was Ivan IV, and he is known to historians as Ivan the Terrible. The strange thing is that he was once wonderful. Ivan the Wonderful became Ivan the Terrible—thirteen years of love and 24 years of hate. He could have blamed it all on the death of his spouse, but that’s a copout because he made a choice. We all make choices. In the midst of our situations in life, in the midst of the joy and the sorrow, in the midst of the victories and the defeats, we’re always making choices. But, you see, if you’re a Christian, you’re always to choose love. No matter what happens to you, no matter what happens to the people you love, you choose love.
The Apostle Paul, in this passage of scripture, tells us that within the Christian, there is the flesh and the Spirit. Paul says, “I say to you, live by the Spirit. Do not gratify the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. These two are opposed to each other. When Paul speaks of the flesh, he uses the Greek word, “sarks.” He doesn’t use this word in reference to your physical body but in reference to your fallen nature, your sin nature. You see, within you there is a war between your sin nature, your old nature, and the new nature that has been given you in Christ when the Holy Spirit came into you. You must choose to walk in the Spirit, and you must choose the fruit of the Spirit, and you must choose to love every day. Christ is there, your friend, to help you. The Spirit is in you to prompt you and motivate you and convict you and transform you, but you still must choose this every day, and it’s not always easy.
As we conclude, I want to tell you about a man named Jeff. The year was 1832 when Jeff was stationed at Ft. Howard in the Wisconsin Frontier, which was then part of the Michigan Territory. Jeff, there at Ft. Howard, fell in love with a young woman whose name was Sarah. Sarah was beautiful, and she was slender, but most of all she had bright beautiful hazel eyes. When Jeff looked into those bright beautiful hazel eyes, he knew that he loved her. The problem was Sarah had a father. His name was Zach, and Zach did not want Sarah to date Jeff. He said he didn’t want his daughter to have a military life. He didn’t want her to be married to a military man.
The truth was, Zach just didn’t like Jeff, and so Zach brought Jeff and Sarah and said to them, “I don’t want you to date each other anymore,” but secretly, they continued to date. In 1835, they eloped. They went down to Mississippi, and they were married. Zach, when he found out about it, when Sarah’s dad found out about it, he was enraged. He said, “This is a tragedy,” but the real tragedy was yet to come. Just three months later, September 1, 1835, Jeff and Sarah became gravely ill. They became gravely ill with malaria. The doctors tended them. They were kept in separate beds in the house as they were so gravely ill. On September 15, 1835, Jeff got out of bed, weak and frail. He made his way over to Sarah’s bed. He got down on his knees by the bed. He grabbed her hand, and he said, “I love you.” She whispered “I love you” in return. Then he saw her close those bright beautiful hazel eyes for the last time. Sarah died.
For Jeff, it was devastation. He went into isolation. He began to just get away from people and live as a recluse. He poured himself into books and reading and studying for years. For eight years, Jeff lived as a virtual recluse. But then in 1843, Jeff was on a river boat going down the Mississippi, and he ran into Zach, Sarah’s dad. He hadn’t seen Zach in eight years, and Zach was now a general. When they saw each other, tears just began to flow down their faces. In the midst of their common pain and their common loss, Zach and Jeff became very best friends.
Now, Zach went on to lofty heights. In 1948, Zach became president of the United States, Zachary Taylor. Jeff didn’t do too bad. Jeff became a United States Congressman. He became a U.S. Senator. He became United States Secretary of War, and then finally Jeff, too, ascended to the presidency, but it wasn’t the presidency of the United States of America. It was the presidency of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy.
Jefferson Davis died in 1889 at the age of 81. Before he died, Jefferson Davis said he wished he’d never met Sarah. He wished he had never met Sarah because the three months of joy were not worth the years of pain. You know, it’s often said, “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” but Jeff didn’t feel like that. Maybe Ivan IV didn’t feel like that either. You see, love makes us vulnerable. I think it’s a difficult choice sometimes to love. Even to love so much just to go and teach a Sunday School class because you become vulnerable. You might ask yourself, “Well, what if the kids don’t like me? What if I don’t connect?” Love is always a risk. It’s a risk to go into the inner city and become a tutor and tutor a young girl or a young boy. You might say, Well, what if they don’t connect with me? What if they don’t like me? What if I experience rejection and failure?”
Love is a tough choice. It’s always a tough choice. It’s tough to share your faith in Christ with anybody, because what if they laugh at you? What if they reject you? That’s tough. It’s always tough to love, but it’s a choice Christians are always called to make. Our great example in the Lord is Jesus Christ. He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” He laid down His life for you and for me. He chose love. “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.” God chose love, and He wants us to choose to love every single day. That’s the only way that, as Christians, we’re going to be characterized by love. The only way as a church we’re going to be characterized by love is if we choose to love every single day.
So, the fruit of the Spirit is love. This is to be the primary characteristic of the church and the Christian, and it’s a choice we must make every day. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.