The fruit of the Spirit in the life of Christ  

  Christ’s love

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5.22-23)

In his humanity Jesus exhibited all of the fruit of the Spirit and did so to perfection. If we wish, then, to see it in all its beauty and glory there is no better place to go than to the records of Jesus’ life on earth.

There is spiritual pleasure in looking at Jesus. When God planted a garden in Eden he made trees to spring up that were “pleasant to the sight” (Gen.2:8-9). As human beings we were created with a capacity to appreciate beauty and God gave us lovely things to look at. That capacity is enlarged when we are born again. A measure of it that was lost in the fall is restored to us. We are able once again to appreciate the beauty of holiness. It gives us spiritual pleasure to see it in our Christian brothers and sisters. It gives us pleasure to see it in Jesus.

There is also spiritual profit in looking at Jesus. It is how we become like him. The theme is explored in a fine sermon by Alexander Maclaren entitled Transformation by Beholding[1]. The text is 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another”. It is the Spirit’s way of shaping us into Jesus’ likeness. As we look at him with faith, with love, with understanding; – with self-examination, humility, shame, and penitence; – with eager longing to be like him and earnest prayer for that longing to be fulfilled, the Spirit makes it happen.

In a previous post (February 2026) we began to gaze at Christ’s love. The fruit of the Spirit in his earthly life was love. We reflected first on how he loved his parents and then on how he loved his friends.

Jesus loved his enemies    

 If Jesus had friends he also had enemies. What a dark shadow they cast over his life! And to what terrible lengths their enmity drove them! But if they hated Jesus Jesus for his part loved them.

One of the ways in which he showed it was by praying for them. It was what he first of all taught his disciples to do: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). Jesus’ disciples are to love their enemies and to show it by praying for them. And what our Teacher taught us he himself practised. He prayed for his enemies. How movingly he did so! At the very time they were doing their worst to him by crucifying him Jesus prayed that his Father would forgive them, “for”, he said, “they know not what they do” (Luke 23.34). The many who were responsible for his crucifixion were guilty of a terrible sin. One day they would have to answer for it. But in his great love, knowing that they were acting in ignorance, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness. And in the multiple conversions of the Day of Pentecost and beyond, how magnificently that prayer was answered!

The fruit of the Spirit is love, Christ-like love. What does it do? Like his love it not only embraces friends but enemies as well and shows itself in our prayers for them. What an example of it in Stephen, the first Christian martyr! Falling to his knees as his enemies were stoning him, “he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:60). In and of ourselves we are not equal to such love. Our instinct is rather to hate. But with the Spirit of Christ in our hearts we are able to do what left to ourselves is impossible. For the very worst and cruellest of enemies the Spirit enables us to sincerely, earnestly, and lovingly pray. And not just for those who have wronged us personally but for those both inside and outside the church who are the enemies of Christ’s cause.

Jesus loved sinners      

From enemies we move to sinners in general. Paul tells us that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). That mission, from beginning to end, was carried out in the power of love.

Jesus showed his love by welcoming sinners. Luke tells us at the beginning of Ch.15 of his Gospel that “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’”. They regarded such behaviour as shameful. But it was not – as the three parables that follow make clear. The joy over the finding of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son is a picture of God’s joy when sinners come to him in repentance. Jesus’ welcoming of sinners is a window into the loving heart of God – and not just of God the Father but of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit too.

Supremely, Jesus showed his love for sinners by laying down his life for them. It is what coming into the world to save sinners inescapably involved for him. It was not enough that the Word should become flesh and make his dwelling among us (John 1:14). Nor was it enough that he should live for us the perfect life we ourselves have so miserably failed to live. If Jesus was to be the Saviour we needed it was necessary that he should suffer and die for us. And in that – more than in anything else – we see the greatness of his love for us. How much did Jesus love us? Enough to go to the cross for us. Calvary is the stunning proof of the greatness of the Father’s love. But so too of the love of the Son. It brought him from heaven. It took him at last to suffering and to death. For sinners!

The fruit of the Spirit is love, Christ-like love. What does it move his disciples to do? After the pattern of Jesus to self-sacrificially seek the salvation of sinners themselves. Here is the grand secret of the missionary service that has involved such labour, has taken so many Christians far from home, and has cost so many of them their lives. The love for sinners that filled the heart of Jesus has filled their hearts too. 

Jesus loved his God and Father   

 We come in the last place to Jesus love for his God and Father. The Gospels leave us in no doubt as to the Father’s love for Jesus. At his baptism, for example, “a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased’” (Luke 3:22). The love was mutual. If the Father loved the Son the Son, for his part, loved the Father. How did he show it? By living the very way so warmly commended at his baptism. “I always do what pleases him”, he could say (John 8.29). It takes us back to our previous post and to what was said about the beautiful relationship between love and God’s law. People today are eager to divorce the two. They think that the law of God shackles love or drives it in repressive, even abusive, directions. In Jesus we see how beautifully they belong together. Under the impulse of love Jesus did all the things his Father wanted him to do. For him, as for his people, the law of God was love’s guide. His obedience to it was the shining proof of his love; his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, the measure of its greatness.

What blessing, too, has come from his obedience! Paul exclaims, “For as by the one man’s disobedience” – Adam’s disobedience – “the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience” – Jesus’ obedience – “the many will be made righteous” (Rom.5:19). Jesus loved his God and Father and out of that love obeyed him. And from that obedience there flows to all who put their trust in him the most priceless of blessings. Righteousness, justification, and eternal life are each freely given to us.

So also the gift of the Holy Spirit to produce in us the same love for God that shone so brightly in Jesus’ life.

[1] Sermons Preached in Manchester, Second Series