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Topic: The Fruit of the Spirit Is Love
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clark
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Member # 10632
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To love is one the best ways to show Christ to the world. The world truly does not know love because they have not received His love.
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God's word is truth
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Carol Swenson
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An enlightening comparison between Philemon and 1 Corinthians. Paul shows us love in action. Bloodbought, thanks for pointing that out.
Tomorrow we celebrate the greatest Love of all.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
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Bloodbought
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Another excellent commentary by Wiersbe.
Here is something on love direct from the scripture.
Phm 1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker
2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,
5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,
6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,
9 yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—
10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.
11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)
12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.
13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel,
14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.
15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,
16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.
18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.
19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.
20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,
24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
The 10 attributes of love in Philemon.
Philemon compared with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
(1) Love is patient and kind;
Philemon v4-6 love pleads on behalf of others.
(2) love does not envy or boast;
Philemon v7 love commends the good in others.
(3) it is not arrogant or rude.
Philemon v8-9 love treats others with respect.
(4) it does not insist on its own way;
Philemon v10 love seeks the welfare of others.
(5) it is not irritable or resentful;
Philemon v12-14 love deals honestly with others.
(6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Philemon v15-16 love rejoices not in separation through wrongdoing, but rejoices in a brotherly and Godly relationship that lasts forever.
(7) love bears all things,
Philemon v18 love bears the burdens of others.
(8) believes all things,
Philemon v21 love believes the best of others.
(9) hopes all things,
Philemon v22 love hopes for answers to the prayers of others.
(10) endures all things.
Philemon v23 love sends greetings while in prison.
Ephesians 5:9 (for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
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Carol Swenson
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That is great commentary - I really liked it.
quote:
The Indian philosopher, Bara Dala, brother of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, once said: “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians—you are not like Him.” He did not say it bitterly but sadly.
That is so sad. I know we are all still growing and being sanctified, we all stumble, we all get shot by fiery darts and temptations knock us down sometimes, there are strongholds to overcome and the enemy is always roaring around like a lion, and there are so many different doctrines all claiming to be the only true one. Christianity is a lifelong journey, this lifetime and beyond forever, but the world seems to only see our mistakes. They don't understand. I wish we could all be better witnesses for our Lord.
I like WildB's fire metaphor too. It makes it easy to visualize how the three graces must work together. I picture a cozy hearth fire bringing warmth and light to a family room.
Here is something from Warren W. Wiersbe that I also like a lot...
Maturity: The Graces of the Spirit (1 Cor. 13:1-13)
Bible Exposition Commentary - Bible Exposition Commentary – Be Basic (Genesis 1-11).
It was Jonathan Swift, the satirical author of Gulliver's Travels, who said, "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." Spiritual gifts, no matter how exciting and wonderful, are useless and even destructive if they are not ministered in love. In all three of the "body" passages in Paul's letters, there is an emphasis on love. The main evidence of maturity in the Christian life is a growing love for God and for God's people, as well as a love for lost souls. It has well been said that love is the "circulatory system" of the body of Christ Few chapters in the Bible have suffered more misinterpretation and misapplication than 1 Corinthians 13. Divorced from its context, it becomes "a hymn to love" or a sentimental sermon on Christian brotherhood. Many people fail to see that Paul was still dealing with the Corinthians' problems when he wrote these words: the abuse of the gift of tongues, division in the church, envy of others' gifts, selfishness (remember the lawsuits?), impatience with one another in the public meetings, and behavior that was disgracing the Lord.
The only way spiritual gifts can be used creatively is when Christians are motivated by love. Paul explained three characteristics of Christian love that show why it is so important in ministry.
Love is enriching (vv. 1-3). Paul named five spiritual gifts: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, faith, and giving (sacrifice). He pointed out that, without love, the exercise of these gifts is nothing. Tongues apart from love is just a lot of noise! It is love that enriches the gift and that gives it value. Ministry without love cheapens both the minister and those who are touched by it; but ministry with love enriches the whole church. "Speaking the truth in love" (Eph. 4:15).
Christians are "taught of God to love one another" (1 Thes. 4:9). God the Father taught us to love by sending His Son (1 John 4:19), and God the Son taught us to love by giving His life and by commanding us to love each other (John 13:34-35). The Holy Spirit teaches us to love one another by pouring out God's love in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). The most important lesson in the school of faith is to love one another. Love enriches all that it touches.
Love is edifying (vv. 4-7). "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth [builds up]" (1 Cor. 8:1). The purpose of spiritual gifts is the edification of the church (1 Cor. 12:7; 14:3, 5, 12, 17, 26). This means we must not think of ourselves, but of others; and this demands love.
The Corinthians were impatient in the public meetings (1 Cor. 14:29-32), but love would make them long-suffering. They were envying each other's gifts, but love would remove that envy. They were "puffed up" with pride (1 Cor. 4:6, 18-19; 5:2), but love would remove pride and self-vaunting and replace it with a desire to promote others. "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another" (Rom. 12:10).
At the "love feast" and the Lord's Table, the Corinthians were behaving in a very unseemly manner. If they had known the meaning of real love, they would have behaved themselves in a manner pleasing to the Lord. They were even suing one another! But love "seeketh not [its] own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil" (1 Cor. 13:5). The phrase thinketh no evil means "does not keep any record of wrongs." One of the most miserable men I ever met was a professed Christian who actually kept in a notebook a list of the wrongs he felt others had committed against him. Forgiveness means that we wipe the record clean and never hold things against people (Eph. 4:26, 32).
Love does not rejoice in iniquity, yet the Corinthians were boasting about sin in their church (1 Cor. 5). Love "shall cover the multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). Like Noah's sons, we should seek to hide the sins of others, and then help them make things right (Gen. 9:20-23).
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 carefully and compare this with the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. You will see that all of the characteristics of love show up in that fruit. This is why love edifies: it releases the power of the Spirit in our lives and churches.
Love is enduring (vv. 8-13). Prophecy, knowledge, and tongues were not permanent gifts. (Knowledge does not mean "education," but the immediate imparting of spiritual truth to the mind.) These three gifts went together. God would impart knowledge to the prophet, and he would give the message in a tongue. Then an interpreter (sometimes the prophet himself) would explain the message. These were gifts that some of the Corinthians prized, especially the gift of tongues.
These gifts will fail (be abolished) and cease, but love will endure forever; for "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16). The Corinthians were like children playing with toys that would one day disappear. You expect a child to think, understand, and speak like a child; but you also expect the child to mature and start thinking and speaking like an adult. The day comes when he must "put away childish things" (1 Cor. 13:11).
In the New Testament (which at that time was not completed) we have a complete revelation, but our understanding of it is partial. (Review 1 Cor. 8:1-3 if you think otherwise.) There is a maturing process for the church as a whole (Eph. 4:11-16) and also for the individual believer (1 Cor. 14:20; 2 Peter 3:18). We will not be fully completed until Jesus returns, but we ought to be growing and maturing now. Children live for the temporary; adults live for the permanent. Love is enduring, and what it produces will endure.
Note that all three of the Christian graces will endure, even though "faith will become sight and hope will be fulfilled." But the greatest of these graces is love; because when you love someone, you will trust him and will always be anticipating new joys. Faith, hope, and love go together, but it is love that energizes faith and hope.
Unfortunately, some of the emphasis today on the Holy Spirit has not been holy (because it has ignored Scripture) and has not been spiritual (because it has appealed to the carnal nature). We must not tell other believers what gifts they should have or how they can obtain them. This matter is in the sovereign will of God. We must not minimize gifts, but neither should we neglect the graces of the Spirit, In my itinerant ministry, I have run across too many local church problems created by people who were zealous for the gifts, but careless of the graces.
Unity—diversity—maturity; and maturity comes through love.
Wiersbe
Bible Exposition Commentary - Be Wise (1 Corinthians).
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Bloodbought
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Yes WildB, it takes all three elements to keep the fire going. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I think in this particular passage in 1 Corinthians 13 the KJV is the better translation, by using the word “charity” as opposed to “love” since it is to and for the brethren.
“(1) Paul gives thanks for “your faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 4). Paul is the champion of justification by grace through faith. This was the heartbeat of his preaching. We will never plumb the depths of this great truth; we can only celebrate it and rejoice. Matthew Henry said, “Faith opens the door of the soul to receive Christ; faith admits him, and submits to him.” Pungent! Faith is the door; faith is the hinge on which the door swings; faith is the key that unlocks the door; faith is the impulse to open the door when the knock comes; faith is the willingness to invite the guest in; faith impels surrender which allows the guest to become master of the house.
(2) Paul is thankful for the Colossians because he has heard of their “love for all the saints” (v. 4). This is something to celebrate.
The Indian philosopher, Bara Dala, brother of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, once said: “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians—you are not like Him.” He did not say it bitterly but sadly. How different it should be—when the Christian knows who he is and whose he is. Love is the style. Kagawa of Japan is one of the clearest signs of this style in the twentieth century, demonstrating always a passionate devotion to Christ which expresses itself in selfless love for all the saints—and for those who are not saints. In Kagawa’s home town there once toiled a missionary named Logan. Someone asked Kagawa if he knew Dr. Logan. A radiant smile spread over Kagawa’s face as he responded, “He was the first one who showed me the blueprint of love.” Would that Tagore’s brother Bara Dala had known Logan rather than the Christians he knew! Love. The Colossians had love and Paul was thankful.
(3) Hope was the final characteristic Paul named: “because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven “ (v. 5). Here is the great triad of Christian virtues, describing the Christian style: faith, hope, and love. These abide though all else may perish (1 Cor. 13).
This passage is a unique expression of the three elements and defines what Paul means by them. Faith is directed to Christ and is in Christ; love is to and for the brethren; hope is for the coming of full salvation. There is also a unique expression of the connection of faith and love with hope. Interestingly, the “hope which is laid up for you in heaven “ is not a reward for our faith and love. Rather, the hope that is ours is the source of faith and love.”
The Preacher’s Commentary.
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WildB
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1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Love/charity = heat
Hope = fuel
Faith = air
heat + fuel + air = FIRE!
Without fervent heat, fuel only smolders with air.
With out fuel, the fire goes out.
With out air there is no fire.
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That is all.....
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Carol Swenson
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Amen Bloodbought!
Psalm 119:137-144 (NASB)
137Righteous are You, O LORD, And upright are Your judgments. 138 You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness And exceeding faithfulness. 139 My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words. 140 Your word is very pure, Therefore Your servant loves it. 141 I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts. 142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth. 143 Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight. 144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding that I may live.
The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to implant faith in our hearts (Rom. 10:17), and the more we live in God's Word, the stronger our faith will become. Some people have no faith (Mark 4:40), others have little faith (Matt. 8:26; 14:31), and a few have great faith (Matt. 8:10; 15:28). Like a mustard seed, faith has life in it, and if the seed is planted and cultivated, it will grow and bear fruit (Matt. 17:20).
Bible Exposition Commentary - Be Exultant (Psalms 90-150).
The love we feel for people, and for nature, is not love we generate in our own hearts, but is the love of the Spirit poured out through us.
Faith and Love go together. Faith without Love is meaningless. But there is no real and lasting Love without Faith.
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Bloodbought
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Good commentary from Matthew Henry. Deuteronomy 6:4 – 9 is an interesting passage.
(1) The command before the commandment.
Exhorting Israel to listen and obey.
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
(2) The commandment,
Let your love for the Lord your God permeate your entire being.
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
(3) The command after the commandment.
Publish your love for the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 6:6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Jesus said, love the Lord thy God is the first and great commandment and love thy neighbor as thyself is second to it.
All the other commandments flow from these two commandments.
Matthew 22:35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
You can see the trinity in there.
(1) God = Father
(2) Lord = Son
(3) Holy Spirit = inspiration
Without love, faith is nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
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Carol Swenson
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I love Charles Spurgeon! Here's more on love from Matthew Henry...
Deuteronomy 6:4,5
4“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Here is a brief summary of religion, containing the first principles of faith and obedience. Jehovah our God is the only living and true God; he only is God, and he is but One God. Let us not desire to have any other. The three-fold mention of the Divine names, and the plural number of the word translated God, seem plainly to intimate a Trinity of persons, even in this express declaration of the unity of the Godhead. Happy those who have this one Lord for their God. It is better to have one fountain than a thousand cisterns; one all-sufficient God than a thousand insufficient friends. This is the first and great commandment of God's law, that we love him; and that we do all parts of our duty to him from a principle of love; My son, give me thine heart. We are to love God with all our heart, and soul, and might. That is, 1. With a sincere love; not in word and tongue only, but inwardly in truth. 2. With a strong love. He that is our All, must have our all, and none but he. 3. With a superlative love; we must love God above any creature whatever, and love nothing but what we love for him. 4. With an intelligent love. To love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, we must see good cause to love him. 5. With an entire love; he is ONE, our hearts must be united in his love. Oh that this love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts!
Matthew Henry
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Bloodbought
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Next time you begin to boil over with wrath, think you feel a hand touching you and causing you to hear a gentle voice whispering, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Next time you say, “I will never speak to that man again, I cannot endure him,” think you feel a fresh wind fanning your fevered brow and hear the angel of mercy say, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Next time you are inclined to find fault with everybody and create a general scuffle, I pray you let the chimes ring out, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.” If you wish to find fault, it is easy to do so. You will not have to look long before you can spy out something that needs improvement. But to what end? Whenever you are bent on the growling business, pause a while and hear the Scripture admonish you, “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” When you become indignant because you have been badly treated, and you think of returning evil for evil, remember this text: “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” “But,” you say, “it was shameful!” Of course it was. Therefore, do not imitate it. Do not render complaint for complaint, but on the contrary bless, for “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
Do you have this love in your heart? Judge by your relation to God. Do you live without prayer? Do you very seldom read God’s Word? Are you getting indifferent as to whether you go and worship with His people? Then be afraid that the love of God is not in you. Do you feel that everything that has to do with God you love—His work, His service, His people, His day, His book—and that you do all that lies in you to spread His kingdom by prayer, by word of mouth, by your generosity, and by your example? If you do love, you can easily see it, and there are many ways by which you can test yourself.
Charles Spurgeon
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