A Fruit Inventory ~ The Greatest of These

Greetings Dear Reader, 

We must begin with love.  I know I have written extensively about this but there is good cause.  When asked, Jesus cited love as the foundation of all obedience to God.  Both vertical love toward the Father and horizontal love to all humans are required.   It is the essence of every other effort regarding justice, good, and righteousness. 

 I am not going to walk through a logical process here but rather, I wish to consider a preponderance of statements, we must consider mandatory.  It is the volume of times love is the prerequisite we ponder.  

The obvious place to begin is with Jesus' own statement, “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  The motivation for our reclamation is the Father’s love for us all.  John, Jesus’ best friend also noted, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  We can, therefore, see the fruit of the Spirit is love and it is listed first because it is the foundation of all other good. 

Peter tells us, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.”  If we proceed from love, we can more readily forgive others.  Jesus establishes this as a directive:  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  If we do not love each other, we cannot find a place to stand regarding forgiveness.  Further, our love is to be to the degree we are loved by Jesus.  Ponder what Jesus did to show his love; not what people say is required to be a Christian. 

Love is the foundation for success in life.  “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”  Success in the sight of the Father is grounded in and powered by love. 

The “so what” of this is simple, Dear Reader.  I have in front of me a list of 118 more passages requiring me to love as my prime mover.  The undeniable truth is for me to love first.  It is required for anything else I do to be of value.  All other aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit are founded in whether or not I love others.  All that I do is to be anchored in my desire to show love to the Father.  

No matter what I do, if it is not founded in vertical and horizontal love, it is worthless.  I must lead with love and finish with it as well.  It must be all my motivation and portion.  It is, after all, is done and dusted, what remains.  

Wishing you joy in the journey, 

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good. 

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Jesus asks the Father to give us love equal to his.