1998-08-23 - Simply Love

The Fruit of the Spirit Series, Part 1

Hi everyone. : ) For the next nine weeks, we will look each Sunday at some of what the Bible has to say about each part of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23.

(Gal 5:22-23 NRSV) By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

(Deu 10:12-13 NRSV) So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.

(Deu 10:19 NRSV) You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

(Prov 10:12 NRSV) Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

(Mat 5:46 NRSV) For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

(Luke 6:35 NRSV) But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

(John 13:35 NRSV) By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

(Rom 12:9-10 NRSV) Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

(Rom 14:15-16 NRSV) If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ So do not let your good be spoken of as evil.

(1 Cor 13:1-7 NRSV) If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Jan