The Fruit of the Spirit: First Comes Love
- David and Marilynn Chadwick
- Jun 24
- 2 min read
by David Chadwick
When you have an intimate connection with Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit is evident. The overflow of a Spirit-filled life is a Spirit-led life where the fruit of the spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 are found in ample supply.
The first fruit of the Spirit is love.
Love is the first fruit of Godly attributes and character found in the life of a believer.
I find it so significant that love appears first. The Greek word here is agape. It means unconditional acceptance of another person just the way he or she is. No strings attached.
The word agape is used to describe Jesus’s love for his people.
The Greek people thought that only the gods could love this way. You can imagine their surprise when Christians came in and adopted this word to describe their faith’s preeminent virtue.
Agape is the highest quality of Christian character (1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1 Peter 1:5-7).
Agape most clearly reflects the character of God, for God himself IS love (1 John 4:8).
In addition to his holiness, love describes God. And while we were still sinners, he came and chased us down with his agape love. God sent his son Jesus to die for us. This kind of self-sacrificial love is how Jesus tells us to agape one another and how the world will see that we belong to him (John 13:34-35).
The world doesn’t have this kind of agape, but followers of Jesus do! How do we have this kind of love? Only by being connected to the Spirit who is perfect agape. Allowing him to flow in and through us and then out to those around us.
I pray the Spirit will flow more love in our hearts both today and forever.