Love

By: Patrick Philbrick
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:23:58
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22 (ASV). This month we will be begin a series on this important verse.

Love

So much has been written on love that we might seem presumptuous to add our small bit to the world’s literature and sacred writing on the subject. Of the many different varieties of love C. S. Lewis identified four from the Bible and classic literature), Christian love, or agape, is the most difficult to grasp and almost impossible to practice.

Christians do not have a monopoly on love. In fact, we often act in ways that are definitely non-loving. Many Bible scholars believe that this is our greatest sin in need of the most forgiveness. If we are known by our fruits, and love is the first-fruit, then we compromise our faith when we act in ways that exclude love.

We all know how easy it is to love certain people: new babies, friends who treat us well, people who can make our lives better, people we are “in love” with, people who agree with us, people we admire. When we add up all these people, they are a small subset of humanity.

This “tribal” love was important thousands of years ago when survival was an everyday occurrence. It was a love that had boundaries to help protect us and our loved ones. It worked. Love and hatred operated in tandem to help us surmise who to avoid and who to let in.

Jesus turned this arrangement on its head. Living in a society where tribal love was the norm, he associated with the unloved, those who lived on the margins of society. Not that he hated those in power, Jesus rebuked them because they were unable to love the outcast. Because there was no love for these people, the powerful could easily manipulate and use them for their own purposes. Jesus set the standard for how we are to love the unlovable. The Enemy wants to turn back the clock to have us live a life of tribal ethics. When we let our resentment and bitterness run rampant, we reject Jesus’ teachings. Our upcoming book is designed to help you defeat the Enemy and see that regardless of what people do, they still have infinite worth: “For God so loved the world . . .” By fighting the Enemy, we can learn to discriminate between anger (about someone’s behavior) and resentment (about their worth). Only then can we begin to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit.

http://www.renewingyourmind.us

Terrence J. Sandbek Ph.D. and Patrick W. Philbrick

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Love category

  • What Should You Do When You're Asking "Will I Get Back With My Ex Boyfriend?" - By: Toni Tinkin
    Break-ups are hard to bear. It gives you pain and misery, and the only possible way out is to win your ex back. Getting back together with your ex boyfriend is simple if you know the things that you should and should not do. Here are sure fire tips that you can do to make things right.
  • Should I Get Back Together With My Ex Boyfriend? - Sane Or Insane? - By: Toni Tinkin
    The question of getting back together with your ex boyfriend is truly worth asking and pondering before finally deciding to plunge into it the second time around. Yes, it is not unusual for former lovers or partners to be once deeply in love, only to be separated in time, and then brought back together by chance into what could possibly be a second time around romance.
  • Sure Fire Tips On How to Get Back My Ex Boyfriend - By: Toni Tinkin
    For most people, break ups are indeed one of the most difficult things to go through. They leave your emotions at an unsteady state and you have to constantly deal with painful memories and perhaps regrets. To get back with your ex boyfriend could prove to be the most difficult thing to do. But if you do it the right way, anything is possible.
  • Where to Get True Love - By: Adamina Johnson
    Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment
  • Why Can't You Let Go?: Analyzing the Underlying Reasons Why You Are Desperately Hooked on Your Man - By: Marco Gonzaga
    Contending with the pain of separation, you now find yourself wracked with anxiety and sadness. Even though love has cemented your relationship with him, there are other underlying reasons behind it that explain why letting go is so hard for you.
  • How to Attract the man of your Dreams and fulfill your Wildest Desires - By: David Roppo
    Ok, so let me get this straight; you want to attract a man that is loving, caring, understanding, thoughtful, passionate, romantic, and who fulfills your wildest desires? And, you want to do it spontaneously?
  • The Meaning of Pink Roses: Love and Gratitude - By: Timothy Spencer
    With its existence since the ancient times, pink roses acquired various species and shades that convey from love to gratitude to sympathy. From this, pink has been ranked the most popular rose, next from red. This article discusses how the pink rose evolved from the old times, gaining a number of meanings with it.
  • How to Write a Love Letter - By: Sandra Prior
    This article deals with writing a love letter on paper. Yes, many of us have forgotten what it's like to write an old fashioned, love letter in our own hand. Letters written on romantic paper and sealed with a kiss and audaciously mailed to someone you love will be remembered for ever.
  • Valentine's Day: Celebrating Love in the Law of Attraction - By: Beth McCain
    Whether you have a significant other or not, you can celebrate love in many ways.
  • Valentine Day Gifts - Precious For The Lovers - By: Shreya Chaudhary
    Lovers leave no stone unturned to make the occasion a very memorable one by presenting his beloved one with beautiful valentine day gifts.