The Visible Fruit of Love

The Fruit of Hope: Love
By John Piper
July 13, 1986

Colossians 1:3-8

In summary, direct the attention of your mind day and night to the Word of God's promises, seek in all humility the help of the Holy Spirit to see the wonder of what is really there, and, as Peter says, "Set your hope fully on the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13).

And by the grace of God the result will be the visible fruit of love.

We will be more patient, more kind.
We will be less jealous, and boastful, and arrogant, and rude.
We will not just seek our own advancement but will strive to do to others what we would have them do to us.
We will not be so irritable.
We won't be so prone to keep an account of wrongs or return evil for evil.
We will be inclined to bear all things and endure all things for the sake of our neighbor.
We will not speak about our neighbor's faults without first going to the neighbor ourselves.
We will return good for evil, and use our discretionary time not by maximizing our fleeting comforts but by devising ways to be a blessing to the lost and suffering.
More and more our whole lives will take on an overflowing and other-directed spirit.

And this love will transform you and your family and the church, and, as Jesus says, the world will see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). There is no better evangelism in all the world than a church whose hope in God is so strong that they gladly deny themselves in order to meet the needs of others.