LOVE THAT FRUIT!

I was reading 1 Cor. 13:4-7 defining love and dissecting it carefully for last week's blog on the Yardstick of Love when it occurred to me that these were also the characteristics listed as fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5:22.  I wanted to lay them out side by side and I have attempted to compare them below.  While some have the same wording, some are interpreted a little bit. 

Gal 5:22-23 TPT But the fruit produced by the Spirit within you is:

•       Divine Love in all its varied expressions:      1 Cor. 13:4-7 Definition of love

•       Joy that overflows,

•       Peace that subdues,                                       

•       Patience that endures,                                              Love is patient

•       Kindness in action,                                                    Love is kind

•       Goodness – a life full of virtue                                Love is not rude or selfish

•       Faith that prevails,                                                     Love always trusts, hopes, and perseveres

•       Gentleness of heart, and                                          Love is not proud or envious

•       Strength of spirit (self-control)                              Love is not easily angered, but forgiving

Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.

The way it reads here is that the fruit (singular) is LOVE and the other 8 "fruits" are all parts of love.  If we compare this to 1 Cor. 13:4-7 definition of love from my blog on Yardstick of Love, they share many of the same qualities!

 1 Cor 13:4-7 NIV

vs 4:  Love is patient, love is kind.  I does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

vs 5:  It does not dishonor others (is not rude), it is not self-seeking (selfish), it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs (forgiving).

vs 6:  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

vs 7:  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This is just an observation and exploration of the Word.  Then I began to think about how to illustrate this post and realized that it is the topic of Junk of Joy.  While Offense, Get Off My Fence helps children learn to love themselves so they can love others; Junk or Joy is about the choices we make daily to choose the fruit of the Spirit!  When writing this book, I just compared the true characteristic with the enemy's counterfeit for the juxtaposition; never realizing how these choices develop both the fruit of the Spirit and love.  

The alliteration was crafted with my two young granddaughters and I only used foods or objects that they liked for the "garden" choices.  These words changed the vocabulary around the home.  When someone was worrying we only had to offer them "Peace Peaches" or if they were grumpy, they might want some "Patience Potatoes".  Eventually even this vocabulary was reduced to simply peaches and potatoes and the implied meaning was conveyed.  If the choice was offered soon enough, it often triggered a positive response--although not without a sigh or a huff.  They enjoyed the "game" and soon began making the preferred choice.  To explore both garbage dump AND garden choices, see Junk or Joy.

#raisestablechildren            #makingJesusreal