As girls, we’re brought up to LOVE love. The first stories we’re told as little girls are stories of beautiful princesses falling in love with handsome princes. We play with dolls who have ready-made love interests. We play house, pretending to be married to handsome men. Most of us dream of growing up and getting married. I can’t even count the number of imaginary weddings I’ve planned – each one more elaborate and detailed than the one before.
As we get older, we sit with good friends and large bowls of ice cream as we watch movies that feature sappy love stories. We rejoice with friends when they meet an interesting guy. We cry together when our true-life love stories go south. But no matter what, we love love. We love the idea of love. We love the goose bumps and lumps in the throat that go along with love. We love the fairy tale.
However, the love that comes as fruit of the Spirit really has very little to do with this fairy tale version of love. The fruit of the Spirit version of love actually doesn’t have much to do with weddings, pretty dresses, or even princes. It has a lot more to do with the kind of love found in Philippians 2:3 (NIV) which says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
The fruit of the Spirit kind of love means realizing that the people you love have needs, that you’re not the center of the universe, and remembering to put their needs before your own. This kind of love is not glamorous.
The fruit of the Spirit kind of love means helping out around the house without being asked. It means not only doing what you’re asked to do, but doing it before you’re asked and with a great attitude. It means offering your little brother the last bowl of your favorite cereal. It means surrendering your pride and sitting by the new girl who looks lonely. It means stopping to help a friend who dropped her books in the hallway.
It might sound like this kind of love means being a pushover. And in some ways, it does. When you think of others first, you’ll often forget about your own needs. It might mean that you don’t get what you want right away or that it might not look the way you thought it would look. But, it does look a lot like the kind of love that Jesus talked about in John 15:13 (NIV) “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
True love is considering others before yourself.