Imagine a country where everyone is loving and everything works perfect, doesn’t that seem like the ideal place?
Hoarding resources and a lot of other negative attitudes and behaviours are because of a lack of the fruit love in our environment.
Paul presented us with a catalogue of the qualities that we should have as Christians. And we all know it as the fruits of the spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
The first of these fruits that Paul tells us about is the spirit of LOVE. It is believed that if we have and exhibit the spirit of love, all other things will fall into place.
Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God, and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God and that they are getting to know him better. But if a person isn’t loving and kind, it shows that he doesn’t know God—for God is love.
~ 1 John 4:7-8
God’s divine power has given us everything we need for a Godly life, so we have everything it takes to love. (2 Peter 1:3-4)
As partakers of God’s divine nature, we must be deliberate and very intentional in manifesting love.
Love is active, it’s not just in what we say and in talking about it, it is in what we do. We must demonstrate it through giving and forgiving. (1 John 3:18)
Love is the product of the recreated human spirit, when we are born again we take on the nature and Spirit of God, and because God is love, we must also love like He does.
If you are not born again, and you aren’t yielding to the Holy Spirit, you cannot have the fruit of love, talk less of yielding much-fruits.
So, in this year 2023, our year of much-fruits, we need to be very deliberate in being Chirst-Like and carrying the Spirit of love. Our love for each other is a command that must be pursued ardently.
And so I am giving a new commandment to you now—love each other just as much as I love you. Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
~ John 13:34-35
Sermon excerpt from Midweek sermon by Pastor Grace Ofili – Wednesday, 1 February, 2023
Watch this sermon here
