Love Is Characteristics Several years ago I was having conversation with English speaking students in one of our coffee shops in China and realized something that has become important to me in understanding love. Students who got to know me described me as being kind, gentle, patient, having joy and peace. As I thought about their comments I began to realize that this was not what I used to be like. I wish I could say that the change is complete, but it isn’t. I fail so often and will continue to fail, but hopefully less as time goes on. These characteristics, of which I speak, are found in the list that most people call the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22 – 23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (ESV). As I studied those two verses I began to realize if I put a colon after the word love then the remaining eight words could describe love as it should be expressed by the person who has this love. As I thought about this more I remembered 1 John 4:8, 16 in which God is described as love. As God in the Spirit dwells within me, love exists within me and therefore I have the ability to display these characteristics of love and if I do then people have the opportunity to experience a bit of what God is like when they are with me. I tend to see the fruit of the Spirit as love and the characteristics of that love by the words that follow. I am supported by this view when I look at 1 Cor. 13:4 – 7: “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;[a] 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” (ESV). In these verses love is described by terms similar to those found in the Galatians passage. I will make further comment on the above passage next time, but for now I ask you as I ask myself, how well do we display the above characteristics, especially when the going gets tough?
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 01:39:34 +0000
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