“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!“
Galatians 5:22-23
As I have been busy wrangling my almost one year old, an idea for a series of posts came to me while I was reading an article on the fruits of the spirit. There are some of these fruits that come easily and others, well, let’s just say they are a work in progress. As I started bouncing this idea around for a new series and wanting desperately to get back into writing for this blog, the fruits of the spirit theme kept popping up in books I was reading and articles that came into my email. I believe God planted this series on my heart as one I can share with others, but also grow myself through the studying process for each topic. My goal is to go through each one weekly, expounding on each one, and providing suggestions for how to grow in each area.
And so, we begin with the first fruit, love. Love is very easy to give to those who are easy to love. Your family, your closest friends. Then there are those people who are not as easy to love. The boss who undermines your work, the driver who cut you off in traffic, the so called friend who spread gossip about you behind your back. But Jesus doesn’t call us to only love our friends and family, He calls us to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31 NLT). I don’t know about you, but to express and give the same kind of love we give ourselves each day to the random person you interact with, that’s a tall order. This verse links back to the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18, which states “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
There are a number of actions you can take that on the surface look like love. Grand gestures, burnt offerings and sacrifices for those in bible times. But if all of that is done without love in your heart it is empty. You can do what God asks of you, but your heart not be all in it. You’re doing it for show or just going through the motions. Going back to Mark 12, verse 30 states “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” If we do not have love for the God of the universe first and foremost, we cannot love anyone else as we’re commanded to. When our hearts are aligned with God’s then everything else should fall into place.
The friend who spread gossip about you, show love to her. She is hurting in a way you can’t see, but God knows and loves her anyway. Thinking that we are any better than that friend is thinking too highly of ourselves. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). And the one who wrote these wise words? The apostle Paul. Don’t you think he knew how hard it was to live out the command to love our neighbor? He was shipwrecked, imprisoned, beaten, and yet, his love for God shown through and kept him going to carry out the good news.
So how can we live out this command ourselves? We begin by seeing everyone we come in contact with as a child of God, because that is what they are. We practice compassion, empathy, and grace towards one another. None of us are perfect people and it’s time we start seeing ourselves as imperfect beings wholly loved by a perfect God. Once we understand and grasp that truth we are more inclined to share the same with others. By doing so, we are showing them the love of Christ.
