My third and final introduction to a new series for 2024 is my first, "Fruit Of The Spirit" poem! There are nine fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-25 and so I'll be taking a look at "Love" first and some of the different forms it comes in.
To start us off, I thought a focus on "Agape Love" would be a great way to begin the year and introduce us to this series! I pray we can draw closer to the Lord as we go through this list over the year and find amazing ways to cultivate and share these beautiful fruits within our own lives!
Galatians 5:22-25
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Fruit Of Focus- Love (Agape)To start us off, I thought a focus on "Agape Love" would be a great way to begin the year and introduce us to this series! I pray we can draw closer to the Lord as we go through this list over the year and find amazing ways to cultivate and share these beautiful fruits within our own lives!
Galatians 5:22-25
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
"Gracious Father, Gentle Saviour, Lord You have been good to me.
Jesus, You have saved my soul and called me to a life that’s free!
Help me Lord, to serve Your people. Keep my heart in check, I pray.
Since I now live by the Spirit, may I walk in step each day.
Make my life a sweet aroma, let it please my God above.
May I bear the Spirit’s fruit! Help me show the world Your love.
Love that comes without condition, love that doesn’t look for gain.
Help me show Agape love which glorifies Your Holy name!
May it reach the undeserving, may it touch the hopeless lost.
Help me to extend the love that drove Messiah to the Cross!
The kind of love that calls me deeper, calls me closer to Your Throne.
Give me strength to show the world, with You, they needn’t walk alone."
John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Food For Thought
There are several different kinds of love that we can experience in life and in the English language there is only one word we use to cover all of these loves. That word is “love!”
We say things like, “I love fish and chips” or “I love this song” or “I love my jumper” but then we also say to our family and those closest to us, “I love you.” It’s the same word but the love we’re expressing in each scenario is very different.
Even within the realms of deeper, meaningful love there’s still a lot of variation. For example, I would say, “I love my dear friends, I love my family, I love my husband and I love my Saviour Jesus Christ.” All very real loves for different sources but the same word is used in each statement. “I love.” In the Greek language however, there are different words used to describe the different kinds of love.
One of the Greek words used for love is, “Agape” and this is the kind of love that Paul is talking about in Galatians 5. If we study the text in the original language, then “Agape” is what we find in verse 22. I’d like to take a look at a few different kinds of love for this series and I thought “Agape” would be good place to start!
Agape love is a selfless, sacrificial and unconditional love and as I mentioned in the poem, it’s the kind of love that drove Jesus to the Cross to die for undeserving sinners.
Not surprisingly, this is the word that we find used in John 3:16 which I put at the end of my poem. It’s possibly the best known Scripture in the whole Bible and a verse that is often described as a summary of the Gospel message. “Agape” is the word used for the love that moved God to send His only Son to build a bridge for mankind and make redemption possible. Looking at the verse again it reads,
“For God so loved (Agape) the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
This is the love God has for us. We’re not talking about some surface level fondness here, Jesus died on the Cross in our place. That was no small act. Here we have the world’s greatest example of selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love. It really is a love beyond measure and a love beyond comprehension. It’s the kind of love that covers someone who doesn’t love you in return and it’s the kind of love that covers someone who is completely undeserving of your love.
This shows, without a doubt that Agape love is Divine in nature and a true miracle of God. It is a powerful force and thank the Lord that it is because it was only the Agape love of Jesus that was powerful enough to break the chains of sin.
I personally will be forever grateful that our incredible Saviour loved me before I loved Him and was strong enough to extend that Agape love to me even though I am completely underserving of it. It wasn’t nails and ropes that held Jesus to the Cross on Crucifixion day, it was His Agape love for sinners like you and me. What a Saviour!
Questions For Personal Reflection
Do I find it difficult to love the underserving? Is there someone I feel I should be more loving towards? Maybe God’s been putting someone on my heart as I’ve been listening to this. When I consider how God extends His love unconditionally towards us, does that change the way I think about extending my love to others?
