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Fruit of the Spirit: Love

Today I’m kicking off a nine-week blog series on the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.  When we say the phrase “fruit of the Spirit” two things are assumed: 1) “fruit” is the product of growth and life and 2) “of the Spirit” explains where that fruit comes from or its source.

The first fruit of the Spirit listed is love and that is no coincidence.  It’s the engine that powers and drives the remaining eight fruits.  Matthew 22 speaks of love being the greatest commandment of all.  Without love there can be no joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

How many times a day do you think you say the word love or hear someone else say it?  It’s an overused word if you ask me.  There are a wide variety of things I say I “love” – from pizza and puppies, to soccer and sappy movies, to my friends and family.  Of course, the degree in which I love each differs greatly.

There are four types of love that help us make this degree distinction:  Storge which is affectionate love towards family for example, philia which is brotherly love or friendship, eros which is romantic love, and agape which is “God-love” or unconditional love.

So, how do we define the fruit of love?  1 John 4:8 answers that question for us, “God is love.”  He is perfected love and is our true Source of love. Since God is love, all of the attributes in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 are true of Him.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.”

I don’t know about you, but when I read over this list in 1 Corinthians and think about my own lousy attempts to love others in my life, I come up very short!  I am very impatient with people and unkind towards them.  I am envious of other people’s gifts and lives, and I’m boastful about my own strengths and accomplishments.  My default is always “my way or the highway” since I’m clearly right and everyone else is wrong. I am so easily irritable and grouchy and my temper is short.   I choose to do things I know are wrong and I am quick to do the comfortable and easy thing instead of the right thing.

The more life that I live, the more clearly I see my own heart’s wickedness and my severe need for an unconditional love that I can’t produce or muster up on my own.   Thankfully, the fruit that’s produced in my life isn’t fruit of Stacey.  It’s also not fruit of Grace Community Church.  Any fruit that we see produced is evidence of the harvesting work of the Holy Spirit within us making us more like Christ.  Where I am unable to love because of my sinful, sick nature, I have God within me who helps me to love others with His agape love.  The Spirit also allows other believers to love me when I’m extremely unlovable.  It’s a two-way street.  2 Corinthians 3:18 sums up this process well, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

So, here are a few questions to think about:

Are you currently relying on your own ability and “strength” to love others in your life or are you asking the Holy Spirit to help you in this difficult task?

When you do see fruit produced in your life and in others’ lives, do you take time to thank God for His sanctifying work and give Him the glory?

And when you think about stepping towards those around you who are difficult to love, how can you remind yourself of why you love in the first place?

We love because God is love and because He first loved us.

In Him,

Stacey

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