Saturday, November 4, 2017

Nine Seed, Nine Roots and Nine Fruit

UV 2821/10000 Nine Seed, Nine Roots and Nine Fruit
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
I Corinthians 13 v 4

The characteristics of love described in this uni-verse and in the rest of the famous chapter of St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians contains in it all the fruit of the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. Love is patient, kind, good, faithful, peaceful, patient, joyful and marked by self restraint. Love endures and is not capricious, flippant or whimsical. It is not moody or emotion-driven. It is not envious but glad about the well being and advancement of others. Since all the fruit of the spirit is subsumed or contained in love, all believers need to do is to grow in the love of Christ. Love is the hallmark of maturity that distinguishes a spiritually immature person and a mature believer.
If faith is the first step in the ten thousand mile journey that is life, then love is the sum of the remaining steps in our journey back home, back to the Lord. Love covers a multitude of sins with the forgiveness that we first received from Jesus. Love is the wisdom from above that is peaceful, gentle, full of mercy, without insincerity, partiality or hypocrisy. Love is synonymous with spiritual excellence. Love is the essence of God and of Christ and of the Holy Spirit.

The uni-verse is not only directly related and parallel to the nine fruit of the spirit but also to the nine beatitudes of Jesus. Jesus not only preached these atttitudes but lived it, manifested it, practiced it. These attitudes are one of dependency on the grace of the Lord, one of godly sorrow or healthy repentance that leads to radical change, meekness or humility despite being a co –heir with Christ, a hunger, thirst and zeal for spiritual food, purity of thought and emotions, peace loving nature, endurance of troubles that one has to undergo in this world for the sake of our faith, permanent, unflagging joy at the hope of receiving our eternal reward. We need to continually and daily renew these Christ-blessed attitudes in order to bear the nine fruit and the nine characteristics of love.

Prateep V Philip

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