The fruit of the Spirit is...Love

Last week we discussed the various words for love in the Greek language, and I made mention of C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves. It turns out you can find the book online here: The Four Loves PDF. As always, Lewis is humorous, straightforward, and thoughtful. I've put off reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be overly academic. I was pleasantly surprised.

For a "Reader's Digest" overview of the book, I recommend this article: Reflections on Great Literature: C.S. Lewis The Four Loves. From the article:

Our natural loves ... can be likened to a garden that needs tending. They cannot be their beautiful selves without allegiance to God.  Contrary to Augustine, who exhorted apathy to everything except God (in a fit of grief), Lewis sticks to the recommendation of Jesus and Paul that we love others, even if it means suffering for it.  We should accept all loves, and offer them to God.  Our loves can be inordinate, or out of proportion; they need ordering.  The way to order them is to relate them to the Love that is God.

God transforms all of our natural loves towards perfection or the ideal.  This results in their unification.

We have discussed love, especially as it relates to grace and action, in previous Morning Blend studies, and I thought it would add to the discussion to link back to some previous posts:

Jesus: The Revolution of Love
Grace: Love is the Bottom Line

For similar posts, find the labels in the right sidebar and click, "Love."