But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23
The fruit is the evidence—the outward display—of the Holy Spirit’s work within a Christian. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The fruits of the Spirit demonstrate the character of a life submitted to God.
For the next 5 weeks we will look at the Fruit of the Spirit, Week 1 is that decisive fruit – LOVE. The famous expression, ‘love conquers all,’ which is credited to the Roman poet Virgil, speaks volumes. It suggests that there is no force in the world that cannot be overcome by love
For the sake of time the remaining fruit will be grouped together in twos. It is my prayer that you will be encouraged and inspired and begin to see God working in and through your diligence to live for Him. After all,” we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
As I get started, I first must ask the question, what is Love?
Love is defined as a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person.
There are different kinds of love, the bible speaks of the different kinds of love, the most familiar ones in the Greek are Eros, Phileo and Agape.
- Eros is the sexual or romantic love, it is not used in the New Testament but may have been used in the Septuagint translations of the Old Testament.
- Phileo is the friendly or brotherly love or a love shown to a friend closer than a brother, we see this in John 5:20 and John 16:27
- Agapeis the self-sacrificial love, that’s important in the New Testament. This word speaks of a mindful action rather than an emotional feeling. It describes the love God has (1 John 4:8) and shows his Son, (John 17:26) and Christians (John 14:21). It is also used in describing God’s love for the entire human race (John 3:16) or (Romans 8:5).
When we seek love, especially earthly love, it may fail us. When we love imperfect broken people, the love can also be imperfect and broken. But when we seek and find love with the creator God, we find a perfect selfless love that is eternal. The kind of love, that loves us through our mess and restores us into a person who is lovely and love who can love others.
One of my favorite scripture give us a glimpse of what love is – 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
I could go on and on about this topic but as I bring it to a close, I pray that we understand what love truly is or is not and that we will choose love over anything else, because as scripture says, “Love Never Fails”.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father thank you that you loved us so much that you sent your only begotten Son Jesus, to die for us. Even when we were sinners, He was willing to give His life to reconcile us back to you. We could never repay you for the sacrifice, but what we can do is love at all time, the way you do. It’s in the matchless name of Jesus, we pray! Amen
