Fruits
of the Spirit
Series – Part 1
Agape Love
Gtcotr/ws092017
Jesus
is the Master of parallel truths. He often used some common well-known truth in
nature to teach us greater spiritual truths. Humans have a limited view of life
and universal law. We might imagine Jesus borrowed from nature to teach however
in reality, nature borrowed from and leans solely upon spiritual laws and
spiritual truths to operate. Nature only exists as long as it stays within the
guidelines of unchanging, overriding pre-existent spiritual laws which govern
the universe.
God
pre-existed nature. Natural truth does not govern spiritual truth – Natural
truth follows spiritual truth. So, when Jesus used common things of nature,
whether the barley harvest, olive oil, new wine in old wine skins or catching
fish, Jesus was revealing the dominant spiritual parent of the younger and
lesser truth we humans observe in nature. God did not observe nature and then
decide to follow suit by making a wise spiritual principle of it. Rather, God’s
truth existed and nature followed. Nonetheless Jesus often used common humanly
observable principles of nature to reveal the greater dominant transcendent
truths of the Universe – God’s truth! Such is the case in John 15 concerning
the production of fruit and the process it must follow.
John 15
5 “I am the vine, you are
the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing.
7 “If you abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 “By this My Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
11 “These things I have
spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be
full.
12 “This is My commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
16 “You did not choose Me, but
I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that
your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may
give you.
17 “These things I command
you, that you love one another.
Note Jesus continually connects fruit to both
love and joy. Only when we abide in the Vine can we produce the lasting fruits
of the Spirit.
Galatians 5
22 But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against
such there is no law.
1 Corinthians 13 NLT
1 ¶ If I could speak all the
languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I had the gift of
prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all
knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love
others, I would be nothing.
3 If I gave everything I have
to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I
didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 ¶ Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand
its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about
injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never
loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in
unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last
forever!
1 Peter 4:8 And above all
things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of
sins.” (Proverbs 10:12)
Commentary
on Agape Love as a fruit of the Spirit.
Next
week we will continue with our study of the Fruits of the Spirit, specifically
“Joy”!
