The summer reminds me of some of my favorite childhood memories. I always enjoyed visiting and spending a week with my grandparents. My grandfather had a beautiful garden, and I enjoyed walking through the rows of corn with him, watching in wonder as he would harvest the corn, unfailingly knowing the ears to take and the ears to leave.
I would walk behind him as he picked; he would pass them back to me to hold. Some of the corn he would share with his neighbors to show how much he cared. He was a gentle and kind man that is an example to me in how to treat others.
This memory is one of the reasons why I appreciate the image Paul gives us in Galatians 5. He describes the kind of fruit that the Holy Spirit produces through one who embodies and lives by the Holy Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit is one of my favorite scripture passages to explore because Paul, in only nine words, helps us understand how God is in relationship with us and how we are called to be in relationship with others.
The first fruit mentioned is love. I believe that our culture has a hard time defining what love is. We love so many different elements of life, from people to objects, with a varying degree of emotional to physical connections. Love, then, can be one of the most complex concepts for us to understand and exhibit; however, it is essential for our relationships and interactions that we be able to do so.
The issue is, we only have a single word in the English language to describe its vastness. We can then look at love through the Greek understanding to help us because there are multiple words and interpretations.
The understanding that Paul uses, defined using the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, is the quality of warm regard for and interest in another. This means that when we engage in a conversation with someone that does not share the same ideology, we enter into the discussion with an attitude of openness, caring and understanding. When we learn to listen to one another and not speak over the other, we allow the Spirit’s love to bloom. The intention is to show compassion to one another because we are all in this life together.
When reading and meditating on the Fruit of the Spirit, love is just the tip of the iceberg. What would our community look like if we treated each other with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? May we answer this question by giving God the authority to produce this fruit in our lives.
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October 08, 2021 at 10:00PM
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Understanding the 'Fruit of the Spirit' | Faith | thesheridanpress.com - The Sheridan Press
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