But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
This passage has been one of my favorites for a number of years. I'm not necessarily sure why I like this passage so much, but I think it probably has to do with:
A. My enjoyment of lists,
B. My love for Paul and his writings and
C. The fact that I used to lead a kids' worship service where we regularly sang a song based on this scripture
But, no matter why I enjoy this scripture, it is a list of traits and characteristics that we, as Christians, should exhibit if we have Christ's spirit in us. The part that I want to focus on for the next few posts is "Joy"; not so much joy as we know it in English, but the Greek word chara that is used for "joy" in this passage and many others. There are probably about six words used in the New Testament that are translated "joy", but I want to focus on chara because it is the type of joy that we are told should be evident in all believers.
So, over the next four posts, we will discuss specific instances of chara and what we can learn about joy from each instance.
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