The component parts of loveThe practice and understanding of love that emerges in Jesus and develops in his people over centuries essentially involves a cloud of other human traits or conditions without which it cannot be love fully formed. We see this in lists that show up here and there in the New Testament and in the spiritual literature that develops in the church through the ages. For example, in Colossians 3 we find listed: constant focus upon Christ and God (vv. 1–4); truthfulness (v. 9); viewing all kinds of people as God sees them ("inclusively," vv. 10–11); compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience (v. 12); and forbearance and forgiveness (v. 13). And capping off this list, as in other passages, is agape love (v. 14; see also Rom. 5:5; 2 Pet. 1:7). In Galatians 5 the list given is of components in the fruit (one fruit) of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (vv. 22–23). In 1 Corinthians 13, most famously perhaps, we get a list of things that you can have without love—humanly admirable things, no doubt, but of no moral value when unaccompanied by love (vv. 1–3)—and then a list of acts and character traits that genuine love brings with it into our life: "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends" (vv. 4–8). From Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. Copyright © 2009 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
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