ByWhen God made the world, He made it out of faith. The things which He spoke to appear were already in His mind. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV) that,
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:3 NKJV
From the verse above, it’s clear that everything natural first existed in the spirit realm. So the things physically seen aren’t made from things which appear.
God is the one who created the earth. When He was doing it, He thought of extending the way He does His things on earth. Therefore, He set up the system whereby every creature bears offspring of its kind.
So man gives birth to man, animals give birth to animals, etc. An orange tree cannot produce a mango seed or fruit; neither can a man reproduce an animal.
The fruit of the Spirit
Even though the Holy Spirit isn’t a creature, He’s part of the Godhead. He’s One. Therefore, He bears only one fruit, and that is love.
Let’s look at what’s written in Galatians 5:22-23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)
From the verse above, it’s clear that a capital “S” has been used to start the word “Spirit,” and the singular auxiliary verb “is” is used just before the word “love.”
The Apostle Paul tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is one, and that is love. However, after mentioning love, he continued to list another eight virtues. That is joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And because of these eight virtues, it has raised a question that has persisted in the church for some time now. That question is, “Is the fruit of the Spirit one or nine?”
Proving all eight other virtues are related to love
If you study other Bible verses on love, you’ll recognise that all the other eight virtues mentioned in Galatians 5:23 after “love” have already been connected to the love of God.
- Joy is connected to love in 1 Corinthians 13:6.
- Peace is connected to love in 1 Corinthians 13:5.
- Longsuffering is connected to love in 1 Corinthians 13:4.
- Kindness is connected to love in 1 Corinthians 13:4.
- Goodness is connected to love in 1 John 3:18.
- Faithfulness (Faith, according to KJV) is connected to love in Galatians 5:6.
- Gentleness (Meekness / Patience) is connected to love in 1 Corinthians 13:4.
- Self-control is connected to love in 2 Timothy 1:7.
What conclusion can we draw from all these? It’s simple. Love is the greatest. Be convinced that the fruit of the Spirit is love.
This article was scripted from a sermon preached by our president on social media. Download the sermon notes document below
