Living the Christian Life – Part I

A friend of mine is doing a study on the Fruit of the Spirit, so today, I am focusing on how we are to live as Christians. The best examples given are the scriptures that I have copied into this article. Now, because this is going to be an in depth study, I will post it in parts (this being Part I). The first scripture we will take a look at today is Galatians 5 verses 22-26 and it reads as follows:

 

Galatians 5:22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

 

Now, lets break that down a bit… The first one listed is Love. What else does the Bible say about Love? It says:

 

Leviticus 19:18 and Leviticus 19:34 tell us that love is to love our neighbors and to consider strangers among us as ourselves.

 

Deuteronomy 6:5 and Deuteronomy 10:12-13 describes love as fearing the Lord, walking in all His ways and serving Him with all of our hearts and souls while keeping His commandments and statutes. For those of you who do not believe that we are to strive to follow the commandments of the Lord our God, that Jesus did away with the law in His first coming, please read Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17.

 

Deuteronomy 11:22 describes love as cleaving to the Lord. According to Dictionary.com to cleave means:

 

1. to adhere closely; stick; cling (usually followed by to).

2. to remain faithful (usually followed by to): to cleave to one’s principles in spite of persecution.

 

So, we can look at it this way… that we are to stay close to the Lord through His Word and remain faithful in spite of persecution. This is what Deuteronomy is trying to relay.

 

Deuteronomy 30:20 goes a little more in depth by stating that we must obey His voice and that cleaving to Him is because He is our life. So, understanding this and placing the context into the previous sentence, lets see what it might say to us.

 

We are to desperately stay close to the Lord our God for dear life through obedience to His Word and remain faithful in spite of persecution.

 

That says so much of our Christian life, doesn’t it?

 

The Lord showed us what love truly is in two verses:

 

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

 

1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love [of God], because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

We are to give of ourselves completely and whole-heartedly to the Lord through studying His Word 2 Timothy 2:15 and conforming to His will Romans 12:1-2 through His Word faithfully, even unto death.

 

We will continue our study in Part II