Love
By Sidharth Mohandas
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. [Galatians 5:22-23]
A long time back I was meditating on this passage and comparing it with 1 Corinthians 13, and I realized that the fruit of the Spirit was simply love and that all the others mentioned after it were just characteristics of love.
Love is patient [ 1 Cor 13: 4], Love is kind [1 Cor 13:4] Love is not proud [1 Cor 13:4], Love is not easily angered [1 Cor 13:5], Love rejoices with truth [1 Cor 13:6], Love always trusts [1 Cor 13:6], Love keeps no record of evil [1 Cor 13: 5]…
Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” [John 13: 35].
I see us Christians lashing each other over doctrinal issues and calling each other being of the devil and wonder how easily we have been fooled and deceived. I believe most of us would disqualify the above characteristic of our Lord’s disciples. Are we patient with those who are weak in the faith? Are we kind? Do we keep record of evil and think we are rightfully punishing someone who have harmed us or spoken ill of us? Are we easily moved into anger?
If you have failed, I encourage you to turn to the Person of the fruit, the Holy Spirit. God plainly tells us, your fruitfulness comes from
I remember a time when I was spending time with a friend of mine who had used a very pleasant perfume. Later when we parted, I realized that my clothing had caught the scent of his garments! That’s how it is with God, as you spend more time with Him, the Spirit sheds abroad more of God’s love in your heart. But the problem with many of us… we are trying to create a replica of this genuine fruit in our flesh, and it’s all sour and rotten.
Let’s stop pointing fingers and look at ourselves today and see if we qualify to be called His disciples. If we don’t, let us repent and turn to the Author of the fruit.
Great stuff… We will never stop shouting how love is. As God wants us to love Him and love people as we love ourself.
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God bless you!
Amen!
another great post :]
Awesome post. Great word study.
I think you’re right on with the message, too.
Peace!
Fruit is also plural. (i.e. “we gathered all the fruit we could find”)
Matthew 7:16 says, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?”
I believe there are 9 different fruit - but they all come from love, and through Christ from one God in His love for us.
The most important part is Colossians 3:14: “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
The Greek translation for “fruit” in Gal 5:22 and the verse you mentioned in Mat 7:15 are both “karpos”. “Karpos” is a singular noun and mostly used as a singular. However, as you said, it can also be used as a “collective noun” when used to refer one kind. Either way, we realize that love is that kind, because God Himself is love. =)
Sid
Amen, bro!
For those who are still wondering about the singularity, here’s something Robert found out =) :
http://www.thechristadelphians.org/htm/books/Fruit/Fruit_06.htm
This is an indepth look at the word karpos. I wasn’t sure about the singularity of the word and so I looked it up myself. And yep, it is quite singular.
Love,
Rob
Thanks for your recent comments! I am finding often the Lord is speaking to more than one of us on a topic at once and it is no coincidence!
I’ve updated my links…I like your new name!
Peace!
Sidhart Noted! thanks for the correction
Godbless you
The word is a singular one just like the orange that has strand after the pile (pericap) and ready for consumption. the others are wrapped up in love, which simply means when a man is walking in love he/she will be gentle,patient,meek,will have endurance,joy,peace etc.
Wow, thats a very good way to put it, Kenneth =)