St. Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The fruit of the Spirit is the harvest that grows from the seeds that are planted within us at birth.I first wrote on this subject in my meditations on my website, www.judithlawrence.ca and I plan to use them in my TWG blog posts over the next few months. In February 2008, I meditated on the first of the fruit of the Spirit listed by St. Paul—the fruit of love. In that month, when we celebrate the feast of St. Valentine on February 14th, it seemed appropriate to start with the fruit of love.
The love that I am talking about, however, is not the box of chocolates type of love—the overly sweet, heart-shaped gift of love that can be the cause of disappointment, anger or jealousy, when it seems that your partner appears to have forgotten the day, or forgotten you as being the meaningful recipient of that box of chocolates, or Valentine’s card, or engagement ring. No, the love that I am speaking of is the love that St. Paul speaks of in his first letter to the Corinthians: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Cor 13:4–8.
Love that is the fruit of the Spirit is not conditional; it does not depend on whether my partner remembers to give me a gift on St. Valentine’s Day or not; it does not depend on my partner remembering our anniversary, or my friend remembering my birthday. Love that is the fruit of the Spirit is all the spiritual fruit combined; it is joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, self-controlled. Love never ends, it doesn’t keep score of another’s faults, it only wants the other’s good.
This love of the Spirit is all we ever need and all we could ever hope for; it is God’s gift to us and our gift to God and to one another. This Spiritual love is indeed the basis of Christ’s gift to us and to the world, and the source of healing for all the world’s ills.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Rom 13: 8
Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13
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3 comments:
A lovely meditation, Judith, on a most sublime theme. Thanks.
I like your treatment of Gal. 5:22-23 / Fruit of the Spirit with 1 Cor 13.
I'll venture to suggest: It accords with the scriptural term "Fruit [ie. singular] of the Spirit." Not so much nine individual fruits, but a compound fruit -- multiple manifestations expressing dimensions of divine love.
Peter, I love this idea of a "compound fruit" as being "multiple manifestations expressing dimensions of divine love". Just as I had thought but, thus far, had been able to put into words. Thanks.
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Charles Pedley
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