Spiritual Fruit of Love
The spiritual fruit of love is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit.
It is the key to all the other
manifestations, such as peace, joy, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and selfcontrol. It holds them all in place.
Paul says that love is the most important and greatest gift, surpassing gifts of tongues, prophecy, knowledge and faith. Without love, all the other spiritual gifts means nothing to him.
Paul describes love in First Corinthians 13 as :
kind
does not envy
does not parade itself
not puffed up
does not behave rudely
does not seek its own
not provoked
does not rejoice in inquity
rejoices in the truth
bears all things
endures all things
never fails
Love must be really important if God has included an entire chapter just to describe it. God sent Jesus to redeem us because
God loves us. Jesus is willing to suffer and die on the cross because He loves us. Love is the primary motivating factor of
God!
Supernatural love, the kind of love that Jesus has, is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 says that "the love of God
has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
It is important to note that this spiritual fruit of love is not just an emotion or feeling. It is a decision. The Holy Spirit
causes us to make that decision to love others even when they are not lovely, or even if they hate and persecute us.
It is Paul's desire for Christians that "your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment (Phi 1:9)." To
"abound more" means to "grow more abundantly".
The Holy Spirit wants our love grow so abundantly that it will not only chase people, but to overtake and overwhelm them.
When we manifest the spiritual fruit of love in our lives, sinners will be drawn to us like how they were drawn to Jesus.
That is
when we can confidently and effectively point them to Jesus.
Return from Spiritual Fruit of Love, to Holy Spirit Led Christian.
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