Love
My community group is studying the fruit of the Spirit, and I want to share a little bit of that journey with y’all! So for the next bit, let’s slow down. Let’s look to Christ and see how He is (and isn’t) reflected in our hearts and actions.
Each post I want to give a simple reminder, a little fruit design, and a couple of relevant songs, so I hope that this series is as sweet to you as it is to me. (Get it, because fruit is sweet.)
First up, love.
I lined the lettering with two passages of scripture that perhaps best describe love: 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 4. The apple seemed a natural choice because its shape reminds me of a heart. The script font eludes to love letters exchanged in times when “wyd” was an absurd concept.
Why is love the first fruit of the Spirit?
Well, what is the greatest commandment? Love. Why did God send His Son into the world? Love. How do people know we are Christ’s disciples? Love.
Just as the branch only bears fruit as it is connected to the vine, so we can only love if we abide in God. He has awoken our hearts to this love, the great mystery. And thus I pray my favorite prayer over everyone reading this today:
“For this reason [the Gentiles coming into the faith through God’s mercy in Christ] I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled with the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:14-19, emphasis mine)
What is this power but the love of God? What is our foundation but the love of God? What is our knowledge but the love of God? Friends, let us seek his love, know his love, be full of his love. Let it saturate your soul and strengthen your spirit, for it is wide, wider than all our sins. It is long, longer than time itself. It is high, higher than the best experiences earth can give us. It is deep, deeper than all we can search. When we think we know all the ways He loves us, we find yet more. Dwell in his presence and know that His love for you isn’t fragile. It is manifest, perfect, enduring, confident, and fearless (1 John 4).
And in the knowledge of the unknowable, the fullness of that which we can never contain, we are called to walk in love. The fruit of this abiding is to love others “as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph 5:2)
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Now it’s likely that we won’t need to die to show someone love today. But we do have to die to ourselves. We do have to die to our plans, our views on what is right/fair, and our desires. We are called to love sacrificially, but we do so out of the great love the Father has lavished on us, his children (1 John 3:1).
So take this simple post as a reminder to love. We don’t need big gestures or perfect methods to start loving well today. Let’s set our minds on Christ and His love for us and bear some fruit!
Here’s the playlist (it’s a good one, y’all):
Stay tuned next time for Joy!
Hannah