Posted by: District Elder Don Emery

An understanding of the Holy Spirit is provided in Galatians 5.  This is known as the “Fruit of the Spirit”.  Fruit is an appropriate description.  It depicts that it is born out of the Spirit, as a fruit is a product of tree, and that fruit is a living substance, this fruit is to be alive in us and continually enlivened by the Holy Spirit through word and sacrament.

The wording is singular (fruit) and not plural (fruits) revealing that the entirety of the “fruit” is placed within us upon our Holy Sealing.  Correspondingly, the entirety of the fruit, versus a limited selection of fruits, is to develop within us.  Over the next year we will explore the “fruit” in a series of letters.  Today we explore the elements of Love and Joy.

Christian love is not an impulse out of our feelings or emotions but is born out of the love of God.  A beautiful read is 1 Corinthian 13 verses 1-8 where the Apostle describes love.  Enjoy reading it in a quiet moment.

We see God’s love in the sending of His Son, His suffering, death, victory, resurrection, our election, in the activity of the Holy Spirit and in the promises.  All of this is done for mankind’s salvation. This love lives in us such that we desire to offer and help all souls to salvation.  Godly love seeks to do good to all men and there is no greater good than to help another to salvation.

Joy is the delight and rejoicing of the soul.  One rejoices over the preciousness of God’s love.  This is an enduring gift.  Natural joy can never be enduring as we are too swayed by our daily circumstances and situations.  Rejoicing and delighting in God’s wonderful love gives us the capacity to journey through circumstances as opposed to them becoming stumbling blocks.  It helps us to remain closely connected to our God as we appreciate Him.

May the love of God fill our soul.  Let the love of sharing and caring be alive in us as we help all to salvation.  Let the delight and rejoicing in God’s love carry us through all circumstances on our pathway to salvation.