Love, the Fruit of the Spirit

Love (agape) is the first and most fundamental of the nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." (Galatians 5:22). It is the unconditional, sacrificial, and active love that God pours into our hearts by the Holy Spirit: "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5). Jesus makes it the distinguishing mark of the disciple: "that ye love one another; as I have loved you... By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples" (John 13:34-35). This love is neither a mere romantic feeling nor a natural friendship; it is the very quality of God's character, deposited in the believer by the Spirit. The apostle Paul describes it in the great chapter on love: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up" (1 Corinthians 13:4). Without this love, all the rest of the Christian life remains empty. We grow in this love by contemplating God's love for us: "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). By meditating on the grace received in Christ, by confessing our failures to love, and by taking concrete steps toward those whom we find hard to love, the fruit of love ripens day after day. It remains the greatest of the Christian virtues.