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14: Love Is the Way of Life · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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In our current series, Fruitful Work, we've been
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asking the question, what kind of fruit am
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I bearing at work?
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And I have here in my apple a
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piece of fruit.
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Did I just say I have here in
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my apple?
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I have here in my hand an apple,
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a piece of fruit.
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It is a honey crisp apple.
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And I'm going to take a bite.
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Mm-hmm.
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And pretty good.
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Aldi has good produce.
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Would recommend.
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And as I hold this apple, it makes
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me think about all the things we've talked
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about related to fruit in this series.
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And it also raises a question.
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Why did Paul choose to describe the fruit
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of the spirit as fruit?
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Because these things, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
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goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, these things
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could have been described a lot of different
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ways, right?
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He could have called them the work of
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the spirit.
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He could have used the metaphor of light
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like he does in other passages, a waco
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sleeper rise from the dead and Christ will
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shine on you.
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But he chose to use the metaphor of
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fruit.
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And we've been talking about love specifically in
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these past final three episodes and how love
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sums up all of the fruit.
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It's actually a singular fruit, not fruits of
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the spirit, fruit of the spirit, love, and
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then all the rest.
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And I think it's actually significant when we
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think about the nature of love that Paul
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chose to use the metaphor of fruit because
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only living things can bear fruit.
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So today we'll be talking about love as
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the way of life.
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Think about the difference between a rock and
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a tree.
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A rock can move around, but it can't
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move itself around.
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It can be carried along by a river
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or thrown by someone.
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It can be shattered into pieces, but it
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can't interact with its environment.
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It can't move of its own accord.
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It can't grow.
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It can't reproduce.
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It can't bear fruit.
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Only a living thing can bear fruit.
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And a tree is like that.
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A tree can interact with the soil, with
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the sunlight, with the water, gather it into
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itself, and transform it into a piece of
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fruit with seed inside, with the potential for
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new life continuing even after that tree.
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And this is actually on a spectrum, moving
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closer and closer to the kind of life
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that Jesus gives us, that the Bible is
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the story of how God gives us a
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certain kind of life.
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So if a tree has a certain kind
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of life that a rock doesn't have, a
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dog has a certain kind of life that
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a tree doesn't have, because the dog can
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not only interact with its environment like the
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tree can, but the dog can also experience
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desire.
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So we might poetically say that the tree
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is thirsty for water, but it's just a
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metaphor.
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It's not literal.
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Whereas a dog is literally thirsty for water,
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and the dog can let you know if
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it's thirsty for water.
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You can understand the dog's needs, because the
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dog is also interacting with you.
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And the dog also has desires that may
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not be exact needs, so maybe you're eating
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dinner, and the dog comes up and gives
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you its puppy face, and you know that
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the dog desires to have some of your
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dinner, but it doesn't really need your dinner.
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It has its own dinner in its dish,
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but you understand the desire of your dog.
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You can feel that.
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And dogs, of course, have the capacity with
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training, with coaching, with healthy guidance from human
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beings, to learn to choose one desire over
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another.
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So for example, the dog might desire to
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interrupt dinner, but the dog also has a
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desire to please its master.
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And so the dog, with good training, learns,
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okay, I'm not going to always beg during
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dinner because I've been trained not to.
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So there's the spectrum of life, right?
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A tree can interact with its environment, a
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dog can interact with its environment, and it
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can experience desires and can even choose one
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desire over another desire.
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It can choose the deeper desire over the
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more superficial desire.
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Then we get to us.
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What kind of life do we have?
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Well, we certainly have all those characteristics of
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the dog.
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We can interact with our environment.
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We experience desires.
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We can learn to choose one desire over
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another desire.
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But the other thing that's true of our
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experience because of the redemption we've received in
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Jesus Christ is we can interact with God
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himself.
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We can have that kind of interactive capacity
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with our master, with our Lord, with our
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Savior, Jesus Christ.
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We can learn from him how to prefer
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deeper and truer desires over the more superficial
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desires that can lead us astray.
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And that's what leads us to the connection
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between life and love.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love.
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Because remember that definition of love from C
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.S. Lewis?
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It's a steady wish for the loved person's
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ultimate good as far as it can be
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obtained.
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Well, when we're interacting with other people, we
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come up against our desires.
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We come up against the fact that we
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can choose A or we can choose B.
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And sometimes choosing A is good for someone
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else and choosing B is bad for someone
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else.
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And that capacity to choose between our desires
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is part of the characteristics of life, part
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of what makes us living beings with a
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fullness of life, a capacity to choose our
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will, as we talked about in the self
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-control episode.
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So we could also define love or a
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certain maturity of love as choosing the loved
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person and their good over and above any
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contrary desires that you might have.
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Choosing the loved person and their good over
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and above any contrary desires that you might
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have.
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And we know this in very specific examples
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of how love works.
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So, for example, marriage.
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What's one of the marriage vows?
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It's to be exclusively partnered with the person
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that you are committing to love.
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In the traditional marriage vows, it says, forsaking
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all others.
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Part of committing to that one person and
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saying, I'm going to love you in this
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particular way is I'm going to forsake every
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other opportunity.
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I am always going to choose A.
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I am always going to choose you, even
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though I might still experience desire for B
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or C or D, I'm going to choose
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you.
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And that's what makes love and intimacy real
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is that capacity to choose.
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Sometimes I'll be scrolling through like Instagram or
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some other social media page and I like
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cat videos because I have cats now.
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So I've somehow become an Internet cat video
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person, much to my own embarrassment, perhaps.
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But people will share a video where they're
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like, look, the cat blessed me.
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The cat chose me because the cat like
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hops up on their lap and snuggles up
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with them.
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Right.
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Now, people don't tend to share this as
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much about plants.
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Like people still have social media videos about
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their plants.
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But if somebody like put a potted plant
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in their lap and was like, look, the
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plant blessed me, people would be like, well,
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yeah, I mean, you're experiencing blessing through the
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plant, but it's not exactly the same as
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the cat because the cat had the option
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to choose something else and the cat chose
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you.
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That's what makes it special.
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That's what makes it intimate.
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This is part of the architecture of love
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that God's put into the universe is we
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can choose A instead of B or C
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or D, and that's what makes love real.
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And this brings us back to one of
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those early Bible metaphors, one of those early
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Bible images of fruit, the fruit of the
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tree, of the knowledge of good and evil
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in the Garden of Eden.
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So this is Genesis chapter two and chapter
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three.
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And just listen to these pieces that God's
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putting together, the architecture of love, the capacity
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for life.
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So actually, even back in chapter one, verse
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29, then God said, I give you every
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seed-bearing plant on the face of the
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whole earth and every tree that has fruit
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with seed in it.
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They will be yours for food.
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Then in chapter two, now the Lord God
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had planted a garden in the east in
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Eden and there he put the man he
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had formed.
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The Lord God made all kinds of trees
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grow out of the ground, trees that were
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pleasing to the eye and good for food.
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In the middle of the garden were the
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tree of life and the tree of the
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knowledge of good and evil.
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A river watering the garden flowed from Eden.
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And then in chapter three, as we talked
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about just in our last episode, now the
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serpent was more crafty than any of the
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wild animals.
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He said to the woman, did God really
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say you must not eat from any tree
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in the garden?
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Did God really say?
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The conversation continues.
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But then what does the woman notice?
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She notices that the fruit is desirable.
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Verse six, when the woman saw that the
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fruit of the tree was good for food
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and pleasing to the eye and also desirable
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for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate
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it.
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She also gave some to her husband who
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was with her and he ate it.
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Then the eyes of both of them were
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opened and they realized they were naked.
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So they sewed fig leaves together and made
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coverings for themselves.
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See, even in the architecture of the garden,
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God plants an option B.
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He plants something that they could choose instead
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of choosing God.
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Because that's necessary for love to be real,
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for intimacy to be real.
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If somebody chooses you but you're the only
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option, is that really special?
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No.
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But if somebody says, I am denying every
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other option, forsaking all others, to choose you.
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That's true love.
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That's true intimacy.
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And God gives Adam and Eve that option
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to choose A.
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But instead they listen to the serpent who
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says, is A really good enough?
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Did God really say?
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And that leads of course to sin, destruction,
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death, the opposite of life.
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James, the brother of Jesus, gives us an
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image of how this works using the metaphor
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of birth.
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This is in James chapter one.
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He says, when tempted, no one should say
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God is tempting me.
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For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor
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does he tempt anyone.
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But each person is tempted when they are
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dragged away by their own evil desire and
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enticed.
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Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth
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to sin.
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And sin, when it is full grown, gives
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birth to death.
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So just like there's a maturity of love,
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which is choosing the loved person and their
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good over and above any contrary desires you
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might have, there's also a maturity, so to
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speak, of sin, desire, temptation, which is when
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you let that temptation, that desire, grow, which
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is contrary and then yield to it.
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It gives birth to sin, which gives birth
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to death, the opposite of life.
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Because it's that capacity to choose the more
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superficial desire to doubt the goodness of God,
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to go our own way that leads to
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division, destruction, disunity, brokenness, hollowness, emptiness, sin leads
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to death in ourselves, in our relationships, in
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our world.
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But we worship a good news God.
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We worship a God who comes into the
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middle of that story and redeems it.
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And the metaphor of fruit kind of travels
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with us from the Garden of Eden through
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the rest of the holy scriptures and culminating
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even in the book of Revelation at the
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end.
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So I want to take a look at
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some of those moments and then tie them
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back to what's happening in Paul's letter to
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the Galatians.
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So there's this idea that God redeems his
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people by making a covenant with them, a
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covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, who
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becomes known as Israel.
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The people of Israel, the people of Abraham,
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are meant to be these emissaries of God's
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life, his creative goodness in the world.
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And there's hundreds of different passages that refer
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to this and give different textures and images
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for it.
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But one of those passages is in Isaiah
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chapter 27.
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And this gives us the fruit metaphor once
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again as part of God's plan for the
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whole world.
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So let me read this.
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In days to come Jacob will take root,
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Israel will bud and blossom and fill all
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the world with fruit.
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That is God's plan for the well-being
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of all creation is through Israel, through the
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people of Abraham, to fill all the world
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with fruit, to bring his kind of life,
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his kind of love, everywhere through his people.
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The bad news is that it turns out
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God's people are really bad at this and
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we know that from our own experience, how
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limited and flawed and how much we yield
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to temptation, to that voice of the serpent
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saying, did God really say?
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So what we need is someone who can
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be deeply inside that covenant, who can be
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Israel, who can be the people of God
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for the people of God.
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And that's exactly what we receive in Jesus
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Christ.
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And that's what Paul's getting at throughout the
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letter to the Galatians is how Jesus has
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fulfilled that call of the people of God
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to be a blessing for the whole world.
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So let me get to this in Galatians
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chapter 3 verses 13 and 14.
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
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law by becoming a curse for us, for
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it is written, cursed is everyone who is
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hung on a tree.
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He redeemed us in order that the blessing
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given to Abraham might come to the gentiles
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through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we
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might receive the promise of the Spirit.
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So there's a curse, that curse that came
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when sin entered the world through that first
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tree, the tree of the knowledge of good
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and evil.
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But then on the cross of Christ Jesus
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is hung on a tree and he redeems
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that curse by becoming a curse for us.
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He redeemed us in order that the blessing
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given to Abraham might come to the gentiles
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through Christ Jesus.
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That purpose of God to bring his life
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and love through the people of Israel now
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comes to all peoples, all the gentiles, all
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the nations of the earth through Christ Jesus,
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so that by faith whoever puts their faith
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in Jesus as Messiah can enter into this,
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so that by faith we might receive the
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promise of the Spirit, that promise that God
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has been making throughout the holy scriptures, that
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promise that fruit will fill the whole earth
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that is now given to everyone who puts
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their faith in Jesus Christ, so that by
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faith we might receive the promise of the
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Spirit.
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And Jesus accomplishes this redemption as love, as
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God's love for us, as life, as God's
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life for us.
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Way Paul puts it in one chapter earlier,
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Galatians 2, verse 20.
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I have been crucified with Christ and I
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no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
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The life I now live in the body,
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I live by faith in the Son of
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God, who loved me and gave himself for
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me.
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What is love?
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What is the deepest maturity of love?
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It's choosing the loved person and their good
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over and above any contrary desires you might
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have.
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That's what Jesus did for us.
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On the cross he chose us.
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He died for us over and above all
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of his desires not to go through that
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experience.
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And that's what leads to life, the life
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I now live in the body, I live
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by faith in the Son of God, who
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loved me and gave himself for me.
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See, at that level of maturity, that level
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of openness to the other, that level of
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obedience to God, there's no distinction between love
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and life.
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That kind of love is the fullest kind
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of life.
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That's the kind of life that we are
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called to, that we can enter into because
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of Jesus, because the Holy Spirit comes to
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us.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love.
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And that's a love that's meant to fill
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the whole world.
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So just as Jesus is God's love for
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us, we can become God's love for the
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world in the Holy Spirit.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love.
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We become people who are willing to prefer
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the good of others, even above and over
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our own contrary desires.
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We become the kind of people who can
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always choose A for the sake of someone
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else.
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We become the kind of people who are
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free to live a life of love for
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God and others, rather than yielding to the
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superficial temptations of the flesh.
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We know and experience that the only thing
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that counts is faith working through love.
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And that becomes our real experience over time
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as we continue to interact with God.
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We make his love known in the world.
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In days to come, Jacob will take root.
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Israel will bud and blossom and fill all
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the world with fruit.
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This will happen.
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This is happening.
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This is something you can personally experience and
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participate in.
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And that might raise the question of how,
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how is this even possible for broken, humble,
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limited creatures like us?
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Well, think about how it works for a
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tree.
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Think about how it works for the simplest
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plant, doing photosynthesis with its leaves.
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Where does that power for life come from?
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It doesn't come from within the plant.
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It comes from a star 93 million miles
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away.
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But that star has such immense power it
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can produce so much light that even traveling
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at the speed of light takes eight minutes
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and 20 seconds to get from the sun
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to earth.
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But that is so reliable, so powerful, so
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consistent, so steady.
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But that sunlight gets all the way through
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those miles of space, all the way through
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our atmosphere, all the way down to that
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outstretched leaf of the plant and touches it
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and it receives life.
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So now let's turn to one of the
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last places in scripture where we see that
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life coming into bloom for the whole world.
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Then the angel showed me the river of
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the water of life as clear as crystal,
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flowing from the throne of God and the
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lamb down the middle of the great street
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of the city.
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On each side of the river stood the
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tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit,
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yielding its fruit every month.
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And the leaves of the tree are for
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the healing of the nations.
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No longer will there be any curse.
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The throne of God and of the lamb
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will be in the city and his servants
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will serve him.
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They will see his face and his name
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will be on their foreheads.
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There will be no more night.
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They will not need the light of a
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lamp or the light of the sun, for
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the Lord God will give them light and
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they will reign forever and ever.
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For the Lord God will give them light.
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He's the sun.
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He's that high-powered eternal, consistent, steady, steadfast
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star.
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His light is strong enough to get through
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to you.
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You just have to put out your leaf
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and soak it in.
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Lord Jesus knew your work in us as
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we do our work with you.
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Amen.
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Thanks for listening.
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20:46
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