Fruit Of The Spirit- Love (Part One)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22-23

This blog post will be about the first fruit of the Spirit...love.
The type of love this verse is talking about is the love that Jesus has for us, and the love that we should have for those around us. I’ll be basing this post on 1 Corinthians 13.

Verse 1- “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal.”

Many Christians disagree on what speaking in tongues means. From my personal study, I believe speaking in tongues means speaking in a language that you have not learned.

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” –Acts 2:1-4

The word “tongues” is a Greek word that can be translated in two different ways.
1. glossa—means languages
2. dialektos—means dialects

So in 1 Corinthians 13:1 “tongues” could be replaced with the word languages, or dialects.

We can talk all we want, but if we aren’t speaking in love we’re just making a bunch of noise. And in the end we’re most likely going to annoy someone.

Have you ever heard a gong or cymbal being hit over and over again? If you haven’t I’ll tell you this...it gets annoying after about a minute. This is how we will be if we don’t have love, or speak in love.

Proverbs 15:1a- “A gentle answer turns away wrath...”

Verse 2- “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

We can be as wise as Solomon in all his splendor, and have faith like Abraham. But if we don’t have love; we are nothing, and the things we do amount to absolutely nothing.

Verse 3- “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

I know a lot of Roman Catholics (basically my dad’s entire family) who would give to the poor, but usually they don’t do it out of love. So what do they do it for?

Well, they might do it for two reasons...

1. They might get something out of it
2. They believe it’s the right thing to do

Now, both of these reasons are pretty self-explanatory, but let’s focus on the second reason for a few moments.

A lot of people (not just Roman Catholics) believe they should give to the poor because it’s the right thing to do. They feel obligated to do something good.

Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t give to the poor, and help them out when we can. As a follower of Jesus Christ, we are actually commanded throughout the Bible to help those in need. But that’s a whole different subject that I’ll have to talk about some other day.

Many “religious” people help the poor because they think it might get them into Heaven.
This type of thinking is wrong. Only saving faith will get you into Heaven.
(Check out James 2: 14-16 for the last two paragraphs.)

If we don’t act in love when we do something (whether it be giving to the poor, or helping your mom around the house; we gain nothing...

TO BE CONTINUED...