The Fruit of the Spirit

Today's devotion teach me personally that we cannot say we love someone if we were not be born again of the Spirit of God. Simply because GOD is LOVE. Well, Paul clearly explained what love is in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. There is nothing evil in love. Love covers all. Love conquers all. Love always wins. 

Love is a capacity that we receive from the Holy Spirit, who pours the love of God into our hearts. It is, therefore, the expression, or fruit, of a person who has been born of the Spirit. Paul listed it as the first fruit of the Spirit, writing, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law’. Paul commended the Christians in Colossae for this expression of the love of God, having been informed by Epaphras of their ‘love in the Spirit’.

John said that we know that we are ‘of God’ because we love one another. To be ‘of God’ is to have received the divine nature. This is evident in our culture, or the way that we live in fellowship with one another as sons of God. This fellowship is not a state of association based on a common ideal, but is demonstrated as we give to one another according to our unique name and grace. We note from the teachings of Paul, that our sanctification is an essential element of the expression of the love of God.

In this regard, we recall that the Holy Spirit who pours the love of God into our hearts, is also the Spirit of sanctification. The love of God cannot be expressed through a projection of something other than who we were named to be in Christ. This would be a lie. The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, guards against this, and is unyielding in His preservation of fellowship in truth. We note, for example, that it was the Holy Spirit who killed Ananias and his wife Sapphira, when they lied about the offering that they were making. This incident reminds us of the jealousy of God which is an inherent dimension of the fire of His love.

Rom 5:5

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Gal 5:22-23But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.


Col 1:7-8Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, (8) and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.


1Jn 4:7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.


Act 5:5, 10(5) And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it.(10) And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.


1Pe 1:2According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.