The Fruit of The Spirit - Love.
During our family prayer and bible sessions, I was asked to do a study on the fruit of the Spirit. I thought it would be a great idea to share some of my thoughts on my blog. Today, we are looking at love!
The Holy Spirit produces various fruit in our lives. The bible tells us in Matthew 7:16-20:
“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
We are taught to know people by their fruits. If someone is a good person it will be evident in their character and their behaviour. On the contrary if someone brings forth bad fruit it will also be evident. As children of God if we say we love God and we follow Him, then our fruit should introduce us before we even speak. When people see us they should see a reflection of Christ within us. We should be producing fruit and if we are not then there is work to do!
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” - Galatians 5:22-26.
- We learn more about the fruit of the Spirit in this scripture. We learn that there is not just one characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit, but we learn there are quite a few. It may seem overbearing, but once you are able to master one fruit of the Spirit, the other characteristics will fall into place naturally as The Holy Spirit leads us and works through us. I believe this is why the word ‘fruit’ was used and not ‘fruits’ because once you have one of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit, you will be able to access and exhibit the other characteristics also because they work together.
- It becomes up to you to continuously nurture the fruit of the Spirit and to try not to do anything opposing God’s word that may cause you to not exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. Dying to self daily, seeking God’s face and genuinely striving to have a closer walk with God will help you along the way. With that said we are all human beings and we all have the tendency to slip up at times, but because of God’s grace and mercy we can come to Him with a repentant heart. However, we must be sincere and know that we have the assurance that our Father in heaven will forgive us our trespasses, so long as we forgive those who trespass against us.
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” - Ephesians 5:8-10.
We no longer walk in darkness, we walk in the light because we know that we are children of the most High. There is a high calling on our lives where we can walk with our head held high knowing that we are loved and have been redeemed by our Saviour. Walking in the light means that we no longer cling to who we once were, words we once said or things we once did. We walk differently because we strive to make our Father proud. We care little of what the world says and more about what God says. The love He has for us is one we can search the world for, but we will not be able to find such because God loves us differently!
We learn about love from various examples in the bible, but one verse that sticks out to me in particular is John 15:8-13.
“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” - John 15:8-13.
We are taught here that just as God loves us, Jesus loves us too and so we should continue to walk in love. It is a difficult task to love those who do not love you back and it does take some time to practice, but once you get there you understand how freeing it is to not allow others to cause you to hate. Hatred is such a heavy burden to carry. I certainly do not have time to hate anyone because it takes up too much energy. Learning to love and pray for others will fill you with more joy and will take away so much stress from you because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We should not want bad for our brothers and sisters no matter what they do to us. We must learn to forgive and let go. Leave it all in God‘s hands and allow Him to be the judge.
We learn more about the significance of love here because we are told to love others in several other passages including this one.
1. “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.” - Proverbs 10:12.
2. “Let all your things be done with charity.” - 1 Corinthians 16:14 - For those who may not be aware, charity is another word used for love throughout the bible.
3. 1 Corinthians 13 actually speaks on the importance of love also, I have picked only one verse because most of us know that it is quite a long scripture - “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” - 1 Corinthians 13:13. Here we learn from scripture that faith and hope are deemed as not as significant as charity, so without love there is nothing.
4. “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;” -
Ephesians 4:2.
What are your thoughts on the following? Comment down below and let’s talk!
1. Which verses stuck out to you?
2. Why do you think love is so important?
3. Do you think we can live in a world without love?
4. Can we truly say that we love God if we dislike His child(ren)?
With Love,
Roxanne-Sasha x
