True Love
May 13, 2011 by Jay Adams
Have you ever noticed how closely love and the Holy Spirit are connected in the Bible?
“Can’t say that I have.”
Well, love is the first piece of fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22. Some even think it’s the basic quality from which the other items listed flow.
“Of course, now that you mention it, I remember it as the first fruit of the Spirit.
And, sometime, check out Colossians 1:8 where, in passing, Paul mentions “your love by the Spirit.”
“What do you think that means?”
Much the same as the longer reference in Romans 5:5 where Paul wrote,
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.
Before regeneration (of which the pouring is a picture) no one is capable of expressing God-like or God-pleasing love. Others may love with a sort of ersatz love, but the vertical dimension is totally missing from it.
“What does that mean?”
It means that God is left out of the picture; that such love has a heavy self-focus rather than an other-focus (and, in particular, leaving out God as the significant Other).
“Tell me more.”
Read the rest here
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