Fruit of the Spirit Conclusion of Part I from April issue
this term six times in this book. It is only used one other place in the entire New Testament. It comes from the Creek concept of inflat ing oneself, artificially trying to appear a little better and more important than one really is. Love does not elevate a person's esti mation of himself. It simply at tempts to build up the other indi vidual. I can remember some years ago when I wanted to put on a lot of weight. I read in a magazine about a particular kind of food supple ment which was supposed to guar antee one adding a certain number of pounds over a relatively short period of time. I ordered quite a bit of it. Mixed with milk, I drank
Love is a quality of life that should be characterized and cen tered in our concern for others rather than self. We should exhibit kindness while not vaunting our own position in pride. True Chris tian love, as one of the prime fruit which the Holy Spirit gives, simply wants the best for other individ uals and is happy to hear about how they are progressing in their existence. In our last talk on love, we closed by presenting three of the six statements that ask us to discount self for the benefit of others. Let us now pick up the oth er three. In the last part of I Corinthians 13:4 we find the further definition, "Love is not puffed up." Paul uses
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