Saturday 2 November 2019

The fruit of the Spirit is...love

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. – Galatians 5.22-25

I don’t know if word order means much in Greek. Either way it is interesting that in the fruit of the Spirit love comes first. I think possibly it could be first when we read things like ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and might and love your neighbour as yourself’ and let your love be without hypocrisy’ and ‘the greatest of these is love’ and ‘do everything in love.’

The clearest  manifestation of or faith should be love. Love is what sets us apart. Love is the opposite of all the works of the flesh which are based only on self-love.

A lock of love is all around us. We live in a hard, cruel, vicious world where love is at premium. If we love we are going to make a difference in a love-less world. People are always going to notice love and love is the one thing they can never argue against.

True love is God’s love. It is the love that is going to make a difference in us and to those around us. Love is fruit that Spirit led people bear. It is the fruit that makes the difference.

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