It Boils Down to Love
Now that I’m home from our back-to-back meetings, I can finally share with you something the Lord showed me last week. It was one of those “aha moments” when a certain reality clicked into place, and I realized I was, once again, over-complicating things in my life. It began when I was reading through the fruit of the spirit in Galatians.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ”
I recalled hearing a preacher—on more than one occasion—point out the singular nature of the words “fruit” and “is,” which is odd when we consider the verse goes on to list nine different attributes. Grammatically speaking, shouldn’t it read, “The fruits of the spirit are . . .”? I’ve even heard at least one preacher goes so far as to say the fruit of the Spirit is love, and all these other attributes are merely part of love, but I wasn’t sure I agreed with his conclusion. . .until now.
If we compare these attributes in Galatians along with the qualifications of love listed in I Corinthians 13, we’ll see they correspond beautifully. Take a look. Listed below are the attributes of the fruit of the spirit followed by the corresponding traits found in the love chapter of the Bible. It’s amazing!
Joy - Seeketh not her own (vs. 5); Rejoices in the truth (vs. 6)
Peace - Envieth not (vs. 4); Hopeth all things (vs. 7)
Longsuffering - Suffereth long (vs. 4); Endureth all things (vs. 7)
Gentleness - Is kind (vs. 4); Rejoices not in iniquity (vs. 6)
Goodness - Doth not behave itself unseemly (vs. 5); Thinketh no evil (vs. 5)
Faith - Believeth all things (vs. 7)
Meekness - Vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up (vs. 4)
Temperance - Is not easily provoked (vs. 5); Beareth all things (vs. 7)
If you don’t mind taking another break from our series on the negatives in the Bible, I’d like to expound on each of these points to help us better understand how they fit together. For today, I want to share with you the realization that hit me when the Lord opened my eyes to this connection.
There is no doubt in my mind now that the fruit of the Spirit is love, and that all the other things listed in Galatians are a part of that love. The good news is now I don’t look at that long list and say, “Oh my, I have so many things to work on!” The list just shrank from nine things to one—love. If I can get my love right, everything else will fall into place. It begins and ends with love.
If you think about it, Jesus made that clear when He told His disciples the two most important commandments. First, love God. Second, love others. What about peace, longsuffering, goodness, and the lot? Doesn’t God want us to portray those characteristics as well? Of course, but we can’t have any of those other things without love. They are an outflow of love.
No longer do I have to be intimidated by the fruit of the Spirit. No longer do I have to strive to become more meek or temperate or gentle. All I need to do is work on my love, and the rest will come. And who better to teach me about love than Love Himself. What a relief!!!!