Fruit of the Spirit ~ 2011 ~ Love

~ GALATIONS 5:22-25 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ~

This year, instead of working on a fruit of the spirit alone, I decided to invite my friends to do it along with me. Several were interested and so I began a new facebook group just for us! :) I have been doing one fruit per year, from 2002 to 2010 and finished Self-Control last year. I didn't do well at all in that area. It was a whirlwind year in which so much happened. I didn't always have the best responses and immediate attitudes. Eventually though, God would correct me and I would change my attitude but it wasn't immediate like I wanted. I am back to Love, now (which I did so long ago in 2002). I am looking forward to this year's study. Love brings together all things, encompasses all things and lifts all things up. I am praying for such strong revelation in my spiritual life this year, as I study love, that all the other fruits will be easy for me in the coming years.

Love is so huge. The Bible tells us that without love we have nothing. I feel daunted as I even consider trying to do a word study on it. My Bible concordance is so full of verses on love that it is overwhelming. The Blue Letter Bible website I enjoy using has over 300 verses with the word love in it in the KJV, and over 500 in the NIV. There is no way that I can even begin to tell you the magnitude of God's love for his people but I may be able to help us to understand how we are to love, with some select verses that we all probably know, and some that we may not know.

Each January as I do my new studies, I always begin with asking myself some questions. Some that I hope to cover this year are:

WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO LOVE?
WHAT INHIBITS LOVE IN MY LIFE?
WHAT KEEPS LOVE FROM GROWING IN MY LIFE?
HOW WOULD GOD HAVE ME LOVE MY HUSBAND?
MY CHILDREN? MY FRIENDS? MY NEIGHBORS? MY ENEMIES OR THOSE WHO PERSECUTE ME?
HOW DID JESUS LOVE?
HOW WOULD GOD HAVE ME LOVE HIM?
HOW CAN LOVE HELP ME TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL AND SHARE MY FAITH?

You may have more great questions we could add to this list. Feel free to do so! :)

In my basic word study using just a Webster's dictionary, you find the richness of love, the importance of it, and the fun of it. This is not even going into the different forms of love in the Hebrew and Greek, and which forms are used in select verses! So, I will begin with a basic word study and study of sub-word definitions taken from the actual definitions for love.

LOVE AS A NOUN: what love is:

1) Strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (a good definition describing love in the family setting-parents, children, extended family).
2) Attraction based on desire, affection and tenderness felt by lovers (great definition of the love between spouses).
3) Affection based on admiration, benevolence or common interests (friendship).
4) The fatherly concern of God for man (how God loves us).
5) Brotherly concern for others (neighbors, enemies).
6) A person's adoration of God (how we love God).
7) Unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another (basic love which encompasses all things-putting ourselves last).

LOVE AS A VERB: how love is shown:

1) to hold dear
2) to cherish
3) to like or desire actively
4) to take pleasure in


SOME SUB-WORDS SELECTED FROM ABOVE, GIVING DEEPER MEANING TO LOVE:

AFFECTION: tender attachment, fondness

ATTRACTION: the action or power of drawing forth a response. A force acting mutually between particles of matter tending to draw them together and resisting their separation. The relationship existing between persons that are not naturally (or involuntarily) drawn together. I love these definitions as they remind me of the devotion we must have, in love, as well as the spontaneity, that often occurs between people! It is what makes love, fun! And not just between a husband and wife, but also among friends. It shows God's love, for love! :) It shows why Christ died for us! He died for us to draw forth a response from us all. Without the attraction there is nothing! :) Isn't this a wonderful and perfect thought? It shows that we can choose to ignore attraction but that it is hard, as the above definition states when it says, "resisting their separation". The author of love and of our Salvation, obviously understands pure and perfect love! Oh, that we might! :)

ADMIRATION: A feeling of delight and of astonishment

ADMIRE: To marvel at and to think highly of.

BENEVOLENCE: Disposition to do good, an act of kindness, a generous gift.

DEVOTION: An act of prayer or private worship. Dedication and loyalty.

DEVOTE: To commit by a solemn act of dedication. Attachment to an object, person, or to God.

DELIGHT: To take great pleasure, to give joy or satisfaction to.

ADORATION: To worship or honor as a deity or as divine. To be extremely fond of.

CHERISH: To hold dear, to feel or show affection for, to keep or to cultivate with care (repeat: WITH CARE ....as a gardener), to nurture, to harbor in the mind deeply.

To me, personally, I feel that the definitions for Cherish and Attraction best describes love to me! :) The beauty of love is amazing, for sure! :) Books are written about it, songs are sung, lives are given for it. It holds together marriages and families, friendships and communities. It teaches, it measures, it is worked for and strived for, it is highly regarded and highly praised. It is considered a blessing, considered in traditions and in mission work. It is everything to basically everyone, everywhere and the ROOT of it, is from God! God IS love! And He shows it in the over 500 times it is mentioned in the NIV translation. Here are some mentions of it....from God's Holy and Fully-inspired, precious and life-giving, WORD:


1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
1 Jo 4:10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1Jo 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1Jo 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1Jo 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
1Jo 4:17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1Jo 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
1Jo 4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
1Jo 4:21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1Jo 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
1Jo 5:3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

As we see in First John, God is obviously love! :)

Christ speaks in Matthew on the importance of love:

Mat 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
Mat 5:44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Mat 5:45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Mat 5:46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?


Here are just a few of my favorite love passages (some are long, some are short):

Deu 7:7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
Deu 7:8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deu 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.




Jhn 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
Jhn 15:2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Jhn 15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Jhn 15:4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Jhn 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Jhn 15:6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
Jhn 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
Jhn 15:8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Jhn 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
Jhn 15:10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
Jhn 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Jhn 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Jhn 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Jhn 15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
Jhn 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Jhn 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
Jhn 15:17 This is my command: Love each other.


1Cr 2:9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"-

Eph 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.


Col 3:12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Col 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Col 3:14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.


1Pe 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

Tts 2:3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
Tts 2:4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
Tts 2:5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.


JENNIFER DAVIS SAYS:


1 Corinthians 13:2
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I AM NOTHING.

1 John 3:15
Whoever does not love ABIDES IN DEATH.

I wanted to focus on what happens if you don't have love. There is a reason I wanted to do this study! I have felt like I didn't have love. I have felt like I couldn't show love. While that may not be true and may be a lie I have believed, I need to see what it really means to not have love. It means wasted time, wasted efforts, and ultimately death. I want more for my life!

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TRACEY DUNN SAYS:

Here is something from this evening.....Galatians 5:22-23

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:25 tells us if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
We all know that developing the fruit of the Spirit takes diligence and determination. So many times it seems that a tiny incident can take us from the love walk. When this happens it seems that we can literally see the fruit of peace, gentleness, long suffering just falling off of us.
God, our Father, is LOVE! From love all the other fruit comes forth. We first must have this agape love, this unconditional love that the Father has.
"walkinginfruitofspirithtm.com"

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This doesn't even come close to examining all the verses on love! There is no way to properly explain to you exactly how to answer the questions I stated above! That's why I need you ladies from my facebook group! This study will take a long time (and we have a year, plus the rest of our lives), to give practical ideas on how to live out these verses! :) Let's pray for and help each other this year!!! :) God bless you!