Last week we finished up our favorite passages.  While we were doing this, there were a couple of passages that I thought, man I’d like to spend more time there.  They were the Fruit of the Spirit and the Armor of God.  So, for the next little bit we are going to look deep are these. Today we’ll start the Fruit of the Spirit, as found in Galatians 5: 22-26:

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Today we see the first of the Fruit of the Spirit – love.  Of all the fruit that the spirit will bear in our lives, love will be primary among them. Think about what Jesus said the greatest of the commands was to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  

Why did God offer His son?  Because He so loved. 

What is love?  Not that we love God but that He loves us. 

God is love.  Where love is, there is God. Where God is, there is love.  

As Victor Hugo says in Les Mis, “’To love another person is to see the face of God.”  

When the Spirit is bearing fruit in our lives, primary among them is going to be love.  Love for God and love for neighbor.  Paul here is talking about agape, that love that is selfless, that seeks to lay down their life for another.  Where the spirit of God is, there will be that type of love.  Where the spirit of God is, there will be a desire to lay down your life for another.  

As we pray, as we seek God, as we learn from God, as we grow closer to God, we will see that love produced in our lives. We won’t be able to help ourselves; it will just happen.  We will just love.  

So, for us today, a question to ask is this.  Do we see that love in our lives?  Is it being produced?  Is there?  

If not, let us look and make sure we are truly walking with the Lord, allowing His Spirit within our lives.  For where the Spirit of God is, there is love.  May the Spirit produce that love in our lives.   

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