Love
Noun: an affection without limits
1 John 4:13-21 This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us. He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
There's a lot of lovin' going on in those verses.
In verse 4:13 John declares that God has given us of His Spirit, which can go back to Galatians 5:22-26 that lists the fruits given through His Spirit.
Not necessarily like this:
Fruit of the Spirit refers to the qualities of God. When we truly accept Jesus as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit of the Lord comes to live within us.
Holy Spirit
noun: the third person of the Trinity; also known as the Counselor who is active in the lives of believers
Ephesians 1:13-14 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.
My NLT Study Bible outlines for Ephesians 1:13-14 that God gives us His Holy Spirit for three specific reasons:
1. The Holy Spirit is a promise. Scripture reminds us that God has promised to send the Holy Spirit to all those who have heard the good news of the gospel and trusted Christ as Savior.
2. The Holy Spirit is a seal. The Holy Spirit serves as a mark of ownership, showing that we belong to God.
Not this seal
But seals are good.
3. The Holy Spirit is a guarantee. The Holy Spirit also represents God's pledge to bring us to our final spiritual inheritance. This word could also be translated as a "first installment" or "deposit", signifying that His sealing in our lives is a foretaste of whats to come.
God gives us the Holy Spirit not only to enable us to live out the Christian life but to prove that we are precious in His sight. So God gives His Holy Spirit to those who trust and allow Him to transform us through Jesus because He has paid for our sins. This is known throughout the Bible as the fruits of the flesh.
Wah!
Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (extreme indulgence), idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord (tension or strife between people), jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions (quarrels), factions (conflicting groups) and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Prior to these verses, Paul, the writer of Galatians, compares the fruits of the flesh and of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:13-18 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh (the Greek word for flesh is sarx, and refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit); rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Lev. 19:18) If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The law referred to in Galatians is the Law of Moses given by God as recorded in Exodus 20. They represent "the basics" of morality that God requires. For the Israelites, it was a basis given by God for trust and security as a nation. In Matthew 5, Jesus clarifies His relationship to the Law of Moses.
Matthew 5:17-18 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."
The laws that the Old Testament are centered around were not scribbled out when Jesus came to earth. Instead, a check mark was added to them. Because of our nature, we are like this:
Because of Jesus, we are like this:
And with Jesus comes the entire law fulfilled in obeying this command:
Love the Lord your God above all else.
And in that, love your neighbor as yourself.
All things fall into place when we love one another as God loves us.
Joy
Peace
Forbearance
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control
Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Will Your grace run out
If I let You down
All I know
Is how to run
I am a sinner
If it's not one thing it's another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior and
You take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
(Brokenness Aside by All Sons & Daughters)
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