Fruit of the Spirit
Love
This is probably the easiest fruit of the spirit to understand in one sense. We know that love has to come from the heart. You can’t make your heart feel what it won’t.
Love is not described as a gift but as a “way” in 1 Cor. 12-13.
What we see in too many “Christian” crusades is a way of faith – without love first.
What is described as “feel good” liberalism is a way of hope – without love first.
To lay down one’s life is not about dying a martyr’s death, as much as it is about living for. To spend one’s life, not let it be taken from you.
For most of the fruit of the spirit, there is a problem of removing what prevents the already existing fruit from coming to maturity in a good, if not totally pure way.
It is not about understanding intellectually. It is about understanding with the heart just what love is – its costs and its rewards…
Heart = core, where courage is. Love involves your core; ergo, it takes courage.
Do we have the courage to live out of our heart, or do we keep the heart hidden safely away and let a surface act of charity suffice? To love someone into our hearts we open our hearts to them. We become vulnerable. We can also be hurt deeply. But if love is truly the DNA of our spirits’ fruit we will continue to love even after bitter experience teaches us not to expect love in return.