40 Days Pondering the Fruit of the Spirit
Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
40 Days PONDERING the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Day 2 | LOVE
40 Days PONDERING the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Day 2 | LOVE
LOVE
Galatians 5:22
“But the fruit of the Spirit is… LOVE.”
How appropriate that the first Fruit of the Spirit listed here in Galatians is LOVE.
I can almost hear the Apostle John say in John 3:16 – “For God so LOVED the world…”
And later, he wrote: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)
“GOD IS LOVE.”
So when one is “born again” and God, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside of our spirit, it would make sense that LOVE is one of the fantastic FRUIT of the Spirit.
We live in a world that is confused about “love.” We have songs about loving your cat, your truck, your girl, the flag, and more. In English, we have ONE word for “love,” and it is used in all of those cases.
In Greek, though – the language in which the New Testament was initially written – we have FOUR words for love: storge (love of family), eros (physical love), phileo (friendship love), and agape (sacrificial or “God-type of love.”)
In John 3:16 and 1 John 4:7-8, the word for LOVE in the Greek is agape. Thus, when we say “God is love (agape),” we are saying He displays a sacrificial, giving love. The words of John 3:16 show that… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That truly is amazing love! If you were in God’s place, would you sacrifice YOUR only child for someone else? Personally, I can’t imagine it, but then, He’s God, and I’m not.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for loving me and everyone else on the planet that much. Help me to learn to love as You desire. Amen.
Galatians 5:22
“But the fruit of the Spirit is… LOVE.”
How appropriate that the first Fruit of the Spirit listed here in Galatians is LOVE.
I can almost hear the Apostle John say in John 3:16 – “For God so LOVED the world…”
And later, he wrote: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)
“GOD IS LOVE.”
So when one is “born again” and God, the Holy Spirit, comes to live inside of our spirit, it would make sense that LOVE is one of the fantastic FRUIT of the Spirit.
We live in a world that is confused about “love.” We have songs about loving your cat, your truck, your girl, the flag, and more. In English, we have ONE word for “love,” and it is used in all of those cases.
In Greek, though – the language in which the New Testament was initially written – we have FOUR words for love: storge (love of family), eros (physical love), phileo (friendship love), and agape (sacrificial or “God-type of love.”)
In John 3:16 and 1 John 4:7-8, the word for LOVE in the Greek is agape. Thus, when we say “God is love (agape),” we are saying He displays a sacrificial, giving love. The words of John 3:16 show that… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That truly is amazing love! If you were in God’s place, would you sacrifice YOUR only child for someone else? Personally, I can’t imagine it, but then, He’s God, and I’m not.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for loving me and everyone else on the planet that much. Help me to learn to love as You desire. Amen.