The Olive Branch

Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine qualities we should take up to become more like Christ; the fruit of the spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)

In writing this verse, the Apostle Paul refers to these traits as “fruit” because like a tree would produce fruit, these are things our spirit should produce. However, it’s easier said than done. Things like anger, jealousy, and fear can challenge your spirit and cause you to react poorly. So, how do we apply these fruits to our lives and avoid things that are contrary to the fruit of the spirit? That’s what I’d like to talk about in a new series on my blog, “Fruitful”. Every week I’ll cover a new fruit of the spirit and how we can apply it to our every day life.

Today we’re going to talk about love, which works out perfectly because yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Love is the first fruit of the spirit listed and the word “love” is said 310 times throughout the KJV Bible. 1 Corinthians 13:7 tells us “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things” (ESV), and later in that chapter verse 13 says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (ESV) In Matthew Chapter 22 one of the Pharisees asks Jesus “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” and Jesus responds to him saying, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou salt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (KJV) These scriptures are telling us that love is the greatest of the fruits and the greatest of the commandments. The first and most important step to becoming like Christ is to abide in love. Jesus’s whole life on earth was about loving people and his sacrifice on the cross was the greatest act of love ever done. Everything God does is out of love, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (KJV) So, everything we do should be out of love as well. This love shouldn’t be reserved only for those who we want to love or who love us. We are called to love everyone, our friends, our enemies, and our very loving God. If you have a relationship with Jesus and he is living inside you, love should come easy. But, what might prevent love? You may be thinking of hate, but really the opposite of love is fear. Hate and anger are simply byproducts of fear. 1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (KJV). The good news is, the Bible also tells us that God is love. So if there is no fear in love, you can’t have fear if you have God. This week, look for opportunities to show love, even to those you find are hard to love. Next week we’ll talk about Joy! Thanks for reading.

Your Friend, Olivia

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”