Galatians 5:22-26 (NET) 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.
Today we are embarking on a two-week series of mini devotionals regarding what we familiarly refer to as The Fruit of the Spirit passage. However I would like to encourage you to do something; namely, I would like you to resist the urge to skim over or altogether skip reading the text each day thinking it to be “too familiar”. I encourage you to read every word carefully, thoughtfully, and prayerfully each day for the next two weeks. I am convinced the net value of repetition will be well worth your time.
Perhaps the first place to begin is separating the word love from the word like. We say we love that movie, we love that color, we love that décor, we love that pie; when of course we do not love those items, we merely like them because we are pleased with them or prefer them, or enjoy them. Love is very different. Love carries with it a strong affection or attachment. Love is deeper than like. God does not merely like us; God loves us. Which, of course, is a very good thing since we are so often unlikeable creatures.
John 13:34-35 (NET) 34I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.
Sometimes we gloss over Scriptures with which we are familiar. For the next two weeks I want to explore what it means to love one another in the manner in which Jesus Christ demonstrated love to others. There is a little note in my NET Bible (New English Translation) regarding the Galatians text. The NET explains another accurate way to punctuate verses 22-23 would be to use a colon after the word love... 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. By using this form of punctuation, the word love is defined by the following eight characteristics. It may seem like an insignificant detail, but perhaps this is a new approach to explore what it means for Christians to demonstrate the kind of love Jesus Christ showed for others. Loving others as Christ loved us is not a suggestion, it’s a commandment.
Gracious Heavenly Father,
So often we use love and like interchangeably, yet we clearly see the difference when we realize your deep love for us. We are commanded to love each other, and in our human weakness we tend to gloss over or minimize what that means. Please forgive our weakness. Open our eyes that we might read your Word with clarity. Lead us and guide us to a better understanding of how we are to show the love of Christ to others.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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Email: Dotty Willmon, writefrommyheartblog@gmail.com
Scriptures quotations marked NET are taken from the New English Translation Bible® http://netbible.com copyright © 1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
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