4 Ways To Cultivate Love

How does love come? How is it produced? I’ve said that all fruit has to be cultivated. How do we cultivate love?

I want to suggest to you four simple principles about the cultivation of love, agape love, the kind of love the New Testament deals with.

First of all, love of this kind is born from the seed of God’s Word received into a believer’s heart. This is brought out by the words of Peter in First Peter chapter 1, verses 22 and 23:

“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.”

Notice the central part of what Peter says, “fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again of the seed of the word of God.” In other words, it’s being born again of the seed of God’s Word that makes it possible for us to love with this kind of love. Initially, it’s the product of the seed of the Word of God.

Again, in First John 4, verses 7 and 8, John says this:

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

You see, there’s a kind of love which can only come through being born of God. Everyone who is born of God should be manifesting that kind of love. And a person who does not manifest that kind of love has really no scriptural basis for claiming to be born of God.

The second principle is that love is poured out by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 says this:

“The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

The heart of the born-again believer becomes a vessel for God’s love. A person who has not been born again has no vessel suitable to contain God’s love. But when we are born again, our hearts become vessels for God’s love, and then the Holy Spirit can pour out the love of God into our hearts. So that’s the contribution of the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, cultivating this kind of love requires the cooperation of our will. We’re so used today to love which is emotional or physical that some people hardly recognize there’s a different kind of love which is not centered in the emotions, it’s not centered in the physical body, but it’s centered in the will. Agape love centers in the will. It comes primarily from the decision and the set of our will. It does not depend upon our emotions or our physical sensations.

Fourthly, this kind of love is expressed in action by laying down our lives. John 15:12 and 13, Jesus says,

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

Jesus said, “This is a commandment.” I pointed out it’s not an option. “That you love one another.” How? “Just as I have loved you.” How was Jesus’ love for us expressed? By laying down His life for us. If we love one another, then we are obligated to lay down our lives for one another.

This is brought out again in First John 3:16:

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

See, that’s the essence of agape love. It’s laying down our life. Not necessarily as a martyr through physical death, but by making ourselves and what we possess, and our abilities and talents, available to our brothers in Christ. That’s laying down our lives for our brothers, the expression of agape love.

All right, let me just recapitulate those four principles about how love is to be cultivated. First of all, it’s the product of being born again of God’s Word. A person who is not born again cannot produce that kind of love.

Secondly, the born-again heart becomes a vessel for the Holy Spirit to fill up with God’s love.

Thirdly, love of this kind centers in the will, not in the emotions or in the physical body.

And fourthly, this kind of love is expressed in the way that Jesus Himself expressed it for us. It’s expressed by laying down our lives. If we are not willing to lay down our lives for our fellow believers, we have no right to claim that we have this kind of love.