Love as the Supreme Fruit: Living the Life God Intends | Andrew Murray

"The source material provides a comprehensive look at the sermon ""The Fruit of the Spirit is Love"" by Andrew Murray, focusing on the practical implications of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence and its manifestation in the believer's life.
Summary of the Holy Spirit and Love
The Purpose of the Indwelling Spirit The excerpts highlight that God's great object in giving the Holy Spirit is the formation of holy character, not just providing power for external work (the ""Old Testament gift""). The true New Testament gift is the indwelling spirit, which animates and renews the whole life, requiring that the believer's daily walk and conduct demonstrate this new life. The primary expectation when seeking the Holy Spirit should be the sanctification of the whole inner life, leading to God's glory.
Love as the Supreme Fruit and Divine Nature The central text guiding the sermon is Galatians 5:22: ""The fruit of the spirit is love"". Love is identified as the fulfilling of the whole law. This is because God is love, and the Holy Spirit comes as the spirit of love, representing the very life of deity and the bond of fellowship between the Father and the Son.
The Impact of Sin and Christ's New Commandment Sin severely damaged humanity by making men selfish, which inherently prevents the manifestation of true, unselfish love that loves the unworthy. Jesus came as the manifestation of divine love. His ""new commandment"" was that disciples love one another, a love that only He could provide by giving His Spirit to the heart. This love serves as the great Mark of the believer, allowing the world to know the love of God through Christ. The love commanded by Christ is resilient; it cannot be conquered by anything on earth, and the more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it.
Love in Practice and as a Spiritual Test The Holy Spirit's power brought down the love of Jesus into the hearts of the disciples, resulting in the early believers being ""of one heart and one soul""—something Christ's personal teaching alone could not achieve during His lifetime with them. The fruit of love is manifested in the gentler virtues such as joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and meekness.
The truth that the fruit of the Spirit is love must act as a searchlight in believers' hearts, serving as a test for all their experiences of the holy life. Tragically, this supremacy of love has often been forgotten in the Church, where doctrines and creeds sometimes become barriers of separation rather than bonds of union.
The Brother Test for Fellowship A key practical measure of one's love for God is the love shown to one's neighbor. The sources stress that loving one's brother is the way to real fellowship with God. If a person claims to love God but hates his brother (even an unlovable or difficult one), he is called a liar according to John, as one cannot love God (whom he has not seen) if he fails to love his brother (whom he has seen).
Conclusion on Receiving the Spirit The two concepts—being filled with the Spirit and bearing the fruit of love—are inseparably connected. If a believer wants the ""fruit"" (love), they must be filled with the ""tree"" (the Spirit). The pursuit of being filled with the Spirit must therefore center on yielding self, humility, and the desire to be filled with love."