Galatians 5:22-23 KJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Notice fruit isn’t plural. It talks about 9 things but as a singular group. All 9 are necessary to make 1 fruit. If you don’t have all nine, you don’t have the fruit of the spirit. A Born Again Christian (John 3:3) has these 9 essentials of the fruit of the Spirit. Although none of us are perfect, but we are always to checking ourselves against this list and make corrections as we go. If a person says he’s a Christian but the desire for the fruit of the Spirit isn’t in his life, watch out! Matthew 7 is talking about false teachers, but it applies because obviously false prophets don’t have the Holy Spirit. Just because someone has a church of 20,000 members doesn’t necessarily mean they’re saved. Any one can fake it for an hour a week.
Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits
Love is the first fruit of the Spirit. There are no seminars on how to Love, because only God can teach you how to truly love. We are going to cover all 9 aspects of the fruit of the Spirit over the next 8 weeks. Like most of us, I grew up with a lot a religious people around me. If they had any fruit, I sure couldn’t see it. Forget about love. There were some beautiful Christians in that wolf pack, but noticed it many. I would have never described those guys (except for the exceptions) as loving. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me. The fact that they bragged about going to church all the time made me hate the thought of religion. As a matter of fact, they didn’t even tell me the wonderful story of Jesus. Not once.
Then, one day, I got saved and am experiencing an ongoing real, lifetime relationship with Jesus, the God of Love. (1 John 4:8). This relationship has revolutionized my life. God poured out His love on me, and keeps on doing it daily. And I in turn pour it out on Winnie, the staff, the PureHeartChildren’sFund kids and anyone else in my 3 foot world (stumbling occasionally but less and less). To this day, I am compelled to share this love with everyone and anyone, face to face, through email, in the marketplace and even on social media.
As born again believers, we are being conformed into His image. The first step of love is to love God and to hate sin. Not the sin of others, be gracious and merciful to them. But be ruthless and merciless to our own sin.
Loving means to give your entire being to another. Loving Jesus will help you to love others. If you love Jesus you will keep His commandments, study His Word and pray. Do not blindly follow other ‘Christian’s’. If you do, you may end up in a ditch. I have some great brothers that I follow as they follow Christ, but the keyword is Christ. Those who are guided by His Spirit, not by other Christians, are Sons of God. (Romans 8:14) Jesus will always guide you by love. Not bragging, but We love Jesus because He first loved us! Because of that, only He should be our politics, our prize, our centerpiece, our first loves, our fashion statements, and our only real goals. We should want to be submerged in Him completely and transformed into His image.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all,with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Sure we doubt sometimes, like anyone else. We get hurt, betrayed, disappointed, frustrated, angry, unloving, tempted etc like anyone else but we should be striving diligently to take our thoughts (and mouths) captive within 1/5second. We should strive to do this because we love Jesus and want others to see Him in us through the fruit of His Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us;
Define love though? The Bible itself never should confuse us. We should use the Bible itself as a commentary of what the Lord is trying to tell us. If we don’t understand something that’s ok. Work on what you do understand. Only the Word of God is inerrant and infallible. The Bible will explain itself if you let it. Here’s what the Bible says love is.
Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
Christian’s don’t have the right to be moody or grumpy. It’s an offense to the image of Christ. Getting up on the wrong side of bed is not an option. We should be shocked when a supposed Christian refuses to be introduced to some one new. Bummed out when they don’t offer a roof, a bed, a meal to someone in need (Unless the Christian is mentally Ill or taking care of someone who is mentally Ill) . We should be bewildered when they are fearful. Disappointed but kind of used to them (unfortunately) talking bad about and dishonoring (which is judging) others. We are all works in progress. If we don’t worry about having God’s love in our lives that shows the fruit of Spirit of God living in us though, are we really reborn born creatures in Christ?
PureHeartChildren’sFund is a work of love for the least of these. We founded it as a way to pour out God’s love to others. We are just a conduit. Our goal? To get as many people into heaven as possible, fast! Who knows how much more time we have?
God is love
1 John 4:8
What a privilege it is for us to protect them, provide for them and serve them in our church without walls