Fruit of the Spirit - Love

<p>Good morning, Five Minute Families. Today we are closing out our series of the Fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23… “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.” Love is the first in the attributes list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And we know from 1 Corinthians 13:13 that the greatest of God’s gifts and attributes is love. </p><p>The world will tell us that “Love is love.” In Tina Turner’s song “What’s love got to do with it?” there is a line, “What's love, but a second-hand emotion?” The world will tell us that we can easily fall into and out of love - that love is just a feeling. And, as ‘just a feeling’ it can be fleeting or it can last a lifetime, but either way, we don’t really have any control over it. </p><p>First, we must realize that love has numerous definitions, and as a communications person, defining my terms has long been a habit of mine. If we are defining the same word different ways and thus applying it in different ways, then miscommunication, confusion, and even falsehoods arise. The “love is love” statement is problematic for many reasons, but despite its common usage and application in society today, its circular reasoning doesn’t even begin to address the myriad meanings at play in the three simple words. </p><p>In Galatians 5 and in all of the verses we site today, love is defined as the Greek word “agape” or a part of speech derived from agape. Since love is used differently in Scripture, we made sure to restrict our conversation to this single definition in order to be clear about what God is, what He gives us through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and how we can reflect love to others. </p><p>Let’s define agape. Britannica.com states that agape in the New Testament is “the fatherly love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God. In Scripture, the transcendent agape love is the highest form of love and is contrasted with eros… and ph