God's Love for Us and Our Love for Others

Faith: The Link Between God's Love for Us and Our Love for Others

John Piper

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What is it practically that converts the love of Christ for us into our love for others?

There are two answers in the book of Galatians. One answer is the Holy Spirit. The other answer is FAITH. And then there is a text that links these two answers in a way that is full of practical implications for living a life of love this week.

The Holy Spirit

Let's begin with the first answer: the Holy Spirit. Look first at Galatians 5:13-16,

You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

So walking by the Spirit is the way not to bite and devour each other but to serve one another through love. The Spirit is the key.

Then look at verse 22:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The first fruit of the Spirit listed here is love. So it is plain that one crucial link between our being loved by Christ and our loving others is the Holy Spirit. Love for others is a fruit that grows in our lives by his doing. Somehow he makes it happen. It won't happen without him. And when it does happen we don't get the glory for it, God does.

The Christian life of love is a supernatural life. It is not produced by merely human forces. It takes resources that we do not have. This is very crucial for us to admit. It is humbling. Left to ourselves we cannot love. But this is very encouraging. Because what it means is that, if you are sitting there and feeling: I am not by nature a loving person, you are not at a disadvantage, because in fact nobody is by nature a loving person. If we were, love would not be a fruit of the Holy Spirit; it would be a fruit of our personality or our upbringing or our chromosomes. In fact you may be farther along than a person who feels that love is a natural thing. They will have a harder time learning how to love because they may not look for the resources in the right place.

So the first answer is that the Holy Spirit is the link between Christ's love for us and ours for each other. He works in us in some supernatural way to bear the fruit of love. We will see how—at least partly—as we look at the second answer.

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