Love is the first Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians
5:22. God is love. Love is of God. He is the source. Love originates in God the Father. Love was manifested in Jesus, His Son. Love is a gift from the Holy Spirit to us,
God’s children, to be perfected in our being and character. Spiritual growth is a process. When The Holy Spirit enters into the
believer’s spirit He gives the believer His gifts, His nine spiritual fruits;
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. We are not all of a
sudden perfected in these virtuous gifts.
He teaches us, guides us, convicts our hearts, and grows these gifts
within our spirits and understanding. As
our faith grows and we mature in our Christian walk, these gifts manifest
themselves in us to a greater extent or degree as we grow. Others will see that we are walking in compassion
and love. It is hard to walk in love
when God isn’t walking with us. God
within us enables us to love, forgive, be joyful even in difficult times, and
exercise all nine fruits of God’s Spirit.
1 John 4: 7-12 tells us much about God’s love and His character. Love is the supreme virtue of our God. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not
love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested
toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any
time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected
in us”.
God’s spiritual gift to us of Himself; the gift of the Holy
Spirit, empowers us to love. Romans 5:5
says, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
which was given to us”. Faith works by
love. Jesus said that the greatest
commandment is that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul,
strength, and mind; and our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27). Loving God and others is the first and
greatest gift of the Spirit to the believer.
Love makes it possible for us to walk in the other eight gifts; joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. Let us walk in love and in
the Fruit of the Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment