22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
NOTE: It has been my practice to have each day's entry be a stand-alone. Subsequent entries are not related to the previous day's musings. However, I thought it would be interesting over the next few days to use the "fruit of the Spirit" as the base scripture and highlight examples from scripture where our Savior, Jesus Christ, exhibited these traits.
Love. Seems almost too easy. God is love. (1 John 4:8) Jesus was God. Ergo, Jesus is love. (Doesn't "ergo" make me sound learned? Or maybe just that I use an on-line thesaurus.) But while that may be the essence of Jesus, how did He show that love for us?
I can think of no better example of Jesus' love for us than Christmas and the manger birth.
Jesus Christ. The second person of the Trinity. Co-ruler in heaven. Object of adoration. Perfection. Why would He voluntarily of His own free will choose to leave that all behind for a birth in a manger? The heavenly for humanity. Adoration for ridicule. Streets of gold for alleys of dirt. Perfection for pain. The long and short of it is LOVE. Pure and simple.
"While we were yet sinners" Jesus gave up His heavenly kingdom. "While were were yet sinners" Jesus lived a hard-knock life. "While we were yet sinners" Jesus was mocked and ridiculed for us. "While we were yet sinners" Jesus died on the cross. "While we were yet sinners" Jesus rose in victory! His motivation- LOVE.
He received no promotion in heaven for He was already God. (John 1:1) He received no bonus for He has no need for "things". (Psalm 50) His love for us was His only motivation. His death and resurrection enable all who believe to spend an eternity with God, but the nexus of that salvation process was Jesus' birth in the manger.
So this Christmas season, let's celebrate not just Jesus' birth, but the love behind that birth.
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