The fruit of the Spirit is love and peace.

... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Romans 13:8-14

Owe no one anything, except to love one another.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does not wrong to a  neighbor.
Let us live honorably as in the day.
All of the above are lines from Romans 13:8-14.

And of course, from love comes the peace which passes all understanding. When Paul is writing to the Galatians in Chapter 5 about the fruit of the Spirit, he is contrasting it with what the fruit is not.  Being dishonest and self-absorbed and the like, he says, are not fruit from the Spirit.  And we all KNOW this already. I mean in some ways, its a DUH statement, this list of the fruits of the Spirit.

And yet, we do not actually do very well at living into this list.  We see it printed on bumper stickers or on nice calligraphy prints framed and hanging on walls. We read it. We know what we are supposed to do.. we know what the fruit is, but we fail to be God's people.

How do we love and show signs of peace to one another? How do we begin to live into all the fruit of the Spirit?  September will be a month to consider that. All month long we will look at different 'fruits' mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 and expanded in other scriptural texts.  What does it mean to work daily on being a living example of the Fruit of the Spirit.   Take some time to really think about that in the days ahead.

 How have you shown love or peace to someone today?  Could you share it here?  How has love or peace been shown to you?  Let me know by emailing me or commenting below.

Peace be with you.

Some other words to ponder (9/3/14):
2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

"What would not every lover of God and his neighbour do, what would he not suffer, to remedy this sore evil, to remover contention from the children of God, to restore or preserve peace among them? What but a good concience would he think too dear to part with, in order to promote this valuable end? And suppose we cannot "make wars to cease in all the world," suppose we cannot reconcile all the children of God to each other, however let us do what we can, let us contribute, if it be but two mites."  --John Wesley