Recently I’ve been battling internally with an area of my walk in the Lord. I’ve found myself being easily angered, losing my patience in certain situations and having a lack of grace towards those around me. It made me stop and re-assess to discern exactly what’s going on? Why am I feeling so heavy-hearted and why on earth is everything just getting on my nerves lately. Then, as I was doing my daily devotions, it struck me…Galatians 5:22-24 says this:
“…and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things, there is no law. And those that belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. “
Galatians 5:22-24 (ESV Version)
These two verses really triggered me and made me think could this be the reason for my recent behavior and the answer to that is a big fat YES!
The fruit of the Spirit is Godly attitudes that characterize the Christian believer; the Holy Spirit attributes these 9 fruits which are consistent in every believer. Over the next few weeks, I will be doing a series on each of these.
The first fruit which we will focus on today is Love. Did you know the ancient Greeks had 5 words for love? They recognized that there are different types of love and one word was not enough to describe its various forms.
- Eros, or sexual passion.
- Philia, or deep friendship
- Ludus, or playful love
- Agape, or love for everyone and the love of choice
- Pragma, or longstanding love
- Philautia, or love of the self
The bible focuses on AGAPE which is the love of choice. This love is all about making the choice to love regardless of what another person has done to you, choosing to love them no matter what. This type of love has nothing to do with emotion, affection, or physical attraction but the self-sacrificing will love another human unconditionally. This is the way God loves us and is the love the Holy Spirit births in each and every one of us.
Love is so important to God that we are commanded to love throughout the bible. The first two commandments, which are known as the greatest commandments, are commands to love. Matthew and Mark have great illustrations of this:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:36 (ESV VERSION)
The second is this:
“‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:31 (ESV VERSION)
The entire bible is a love story wrapped up in pages given to God’s people. Love is so vital in the Christian walk and the Lord lays out exactly what it is and isn’t in 1 Corinthians 13 and, if it couldn’t get any more serious, He states at the very end “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corn 13:13)
Love is one of the greatest gifts given to mankind by the Father. His love was so strong He gave us a love offering in the form of His beloved Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, and was raised up on the third day, that we would have eternal life if we believe in our hearts that Jesus died on the cross and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. God’s love was not dependant on if we loved Him back but that bible says we love because He first loved us 1 John 4:19.
This love is true AGAPE love. It may seem completely unachievable but that is why, when we accept Jesus into our hearts, we are immediately given the third member of the Trinity – the precious Holy Spirit. This love flows through Him into you and overflows onto people in our world. It could be as simple as opening a door for someone, a smile, speaking to that lonely colleague at work, that has been shunned or giving back to those less fortunate.
The bible commands us to walk by the Spirit, in Galatians 5:16 it says ‘But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.’ If we are going to be successful in our Love walk we must be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit says to us and where He is leading us. One way to do this is to stay in the word of God, open up that bible covered in dust by your beside and start reading. The more you read the more The Holy Spirit will illuminate the scriptures to you. As we learn more about God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit the more our love for God grows and as we love God more we start to think, act and love the things He loves most…which is us, His children!
I’ve come to a place in my life where I just want to be in a state of constant love. No more anger, impatience, annoyance, and selfishness just authentic, raw love and though this sounds easier said than done God has already equipped us to succeed. Every day we must make the decision to turn the other cheek, to give up the right to retaliate and choose love. We may fall down 100 times over but as we continue to walk in the Spirit of Truth He will lead us in love, to love all of those in our world.
