Love — Fruit of the Spirit
What Will People Remember About You More: Your Intelligence or Your Love for Others?
Gardener Tending Ripe Tomato Plants
A tomato plant tied upright, supported in care.
Beside it, a basket of red fruit, ready to share.
Love steadies and nourishes, helping all growth to flourish
A few years ago, I attended the funeral of a quiet woman named Linda. She wasn’t wealthy or famous. She never wrote books or made speeches. But when people stood up to share memories, almost every story began with the same word: “She loved…”
“She loved my children like they were her own.”
“She loved me when I had nothing to offer back.”
“She loved her husband even through sickness.”
No one mentioned her career achievements, her house, or her possessions. They remembered love. It made me wonder: what will people say about me?
The truth is, loving people isn’t easy.
Love is hard when you’ve been hurt before.
Love is hard when people drain your energy, criticize you, or let you down.
Love is hard when you feel overlooked, unappreciated, or taken for granted.
It’s far easier to keep people at arm’s length, to surround ourselves only with those who are “easy to love.” Yet Jesus tells us that even unbelievers can love those who love them back (Luke 6:32). Spirit-filled love goes beyond that.
Tomato Soup with a Grilled Cheese Sandwich
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)
Love is listed first for a reason: it’s the foundation of all the other fruits. Joy without love becomes shallow happiness. Peace without love becomes indifference. Even patience and kindness lose their meaning if they are not rooted in genuine love. Love is not simply a feeling or polite manners.
Love is choosing the good of another above yourself, even when it costs you. Love is not natural to us; it is the Spirit’s supernatural work in us.
Love in Today’s World
Imagine a young father coming home after a long day. He wants nothing more than to sit in his chair and rest. But his daughter runs to him with a book in her hand. He sighs, tempted to say “not now.” Yet he sees her eager eyes, and he chooses love. He sits, reads, and invests time. Years later, that daughter doesn’t remember what brand of chair he sat in, but she remembers his love.
This is what Spirit-filled love looks like — small, daily choices that put another person first.
Showing Love for Neighbors by Sharing a Fresh Tomato Harvest
In marriages: Love means listening, even when you’d rather defend yourself.
In families: Love means being patient with your teen, even when they’re moody.
In church: love means welcoming the new person, even when it feels awkward.
In workplaces: Love means honesty and integrity, even when cutting corners would benefit you.
Online: Love means resisting the urge to argue or demean, remembering that every profile belongs to a soul for whom Christ died.
The Spirit helps us to choose to love.
Jesus defined love in the most radical way:
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13).
His love wasn’t just an emotion. It was action. It was costly. And when we abide in Him, His Spirit produces that same love in us. The world doesn’t need more clever Christians. It requires more loving Christians.
Small Group Study Outline: Love — Fruit of the Spirit
Opening Question
When you think of the word “love,” who is the most loving person you know, and why?
Scripture Reading
Galatians 5:22–23
John 15:9–13
1 Corinthians 13:1–7
Discussion Questions
Why do you think Paul listed love as the first fruit of the Spirit?
What’s the difference between human love (based on feelings) and Spirit-produced love?
Can you share a time when someone’s act of love deeply impacted you?
Where do you personally find it hardest to show love — in your home, church, workplace, or online?
How might choosing love in those moments point others toward Jesus?
Practical Challenge for the Week
Ask God to show you one person who needs love this week.
Do one deliberate act of Spirit-filled love (a call, a note, an encouragement, a listening ear).
Closing Prayer
Invite God to “create in us clean hearts and renew right spirits,” producing love that reflects Jesus.
