The Fruit of the Spirit: Love

By Robb Brunansky

Published April 3, 2025

In our introductory post for this series on the Fruit of the Spirit, we took a general look at the list to begin to uncover the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s words to the Galatians. Now we will examine each of these slices of the Spirit’s fruit, starting with love. What is this love produced by the Spirit?

Defining love is not an easy task, but here’s one that attempts to sum up the biblical nature of love: Love is a holy, divine affection toward others produced by the Spirit of God in all believers. This is spiritual love – produced, wrought, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, what does this love truly mean?

First, spiritual love is not natural.

Spiritual love is not the natural affection of the world. The world might be capable of love in the human sense of the term. We know there are unbelievers who have good marriages. There are also unbelievers willing to sacrifice for the good of humanity. It is possible to do these things without having true love as God defines it.

As Paul says, a person could be a great philanthropist but not have love (1 Corinthians 13:3). The world might do many things that appear sacrificial, loving, and giving; yet it does not have divine love, so these actions profit them nothing. We must not judge love solely by someone’s works.

The world cannot have biblical love because this attribute is a fruit of the Spirit. The ungodly do not have the Spirit of God within them (1 John 4:7). Unbelievers are devoid of the Spirit (Jude 19). The world labels its great works as love, but God does not define it as such. Love is from the Lord and produced by the Spirit, which is why unbelievers cannot love as God requires.

In fact, so far from love, the unbeliever’s life is one of malice, envy, and hatred (Titus 3:3). A person devoid of the Spirit might appear to have love, but what really lies underneath is a life enslaved to various lusts and pleasures. In addition, the place where these vices are most evil is found in religious hypocrisy, as Jesus taught with the parable of the tax collector and Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). Worldly, natural love springs from the desire to boost or to worship oneself.

Love is also the virtue the evil one would most like to counterfeit, making people believe they are possessed of the Spirit when their love is nothing more than hypocrisy and corruption. The evil one spends much effort to imitate God’s love to draw souls from the true love of the Spirit and satisfy them with fool’s gold. How we must exercise our minds with wisdom in the Spirit as we seek to discern the love from God and the pseudo-love of Satan!

Second, spiritual love is toward God.

The love produced by the Spirit of God is not a product of sinful lusts or pleasures. This love does not praise sinful behavior, nor does it rejoice in unrighteousness. It rejoices with the truth (1 Cor 13:6). Thus, true love does not delight with those who are living in sin, or condone false doctrines, or rejoice when false gospels are being proclaimed.

True love weeps, warns, and admonishes. Worldly love is often touted as the virtue of acceptance of any and all behaviors. Yet the love produced by the Spirit does not pretend that all is well when all is not well. It is truly a holy and divine affection.

Biblical love is also an affection that springs from God and first returns to Him. Paul’s primary emphasis is on love for one another, but Spirit-produced love can never be seen in isolation from its first object, namely, God. This is a mark that separates divine love from the world.

This truth is plain from the very nature of God Himself. Jesus told us that the greatest love the Father has is for the Son (John 17:24). The Lord’s very nature is love, and that love has eternally existed between the Father and the Son. Before anything came into being, God’s love was directed toward Himself in His triune nature as Father, Son, and Spirit. And this is the love in us (John 17:26)! It is no surprise the world cannot conceive of this love.

This is the fruit of the Spirit – that God’s love might be in us! There are many counterfeits of this divine love, but the substance is only from the Spirit and exclusively in those who have the Spirit in Jesus Christ.

Finally, spiritual love is toward our fellow believers.

The love the Spirit produces is no dead, cold, lifeless object; rather, it is a powerful, moving affection. This love should influence us. It will affect our inward condition and outward actions. It should enflame a passion in us.

A Spirit-produced love works its way from within us and cannot be contained. This love causes us to serve because we love those in need, or to pray because our souls are heavy with the burdens of others, or to come into God’s presence in worship because we must express our devotion to Him.

Because this affection is toward others, that is a real test of our love toward God (1 John 4:20-21). If we say, “Well, I love God well enough, but I don’t want to talk to this brother of mine over here!” then you cannot love the Lord. Without love for others, whatever we claim to have in our hearts is not the love of the Spirit.

So, who should we love and how are we commanded to love them? The first group is other believers! This is such a normal part of true Christianity! If someone says, “Well, I don’t see in the Bible that I have to love other Christians,” that person is not regenerate of the Spirit. It should be obvious to all believers that we are to love one another.

How, then, are we to love our fellow believers? The Law of Moses stated, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In some sense, this law takes on an elevated character and an incredibly high standard for those under the New Covenant (John 13:34). It is to be done, not as we love ourselves, but as Jesus has loved us. We are to love the brethren as Jesus has loved us (John 15:12). As such, we love other Christians sacrificially, willingly, selflessly, humbly, meekly, gently, faithfully, and continually (1 John 3:16).

Christians must also love unbelievers.

Jesus made it clear that believers are to love our enemies (Luke 6:27). This is an indiscriminate love. Can loving those who hate and mistreat us come anywhere but from the Spirit of God?!

The love Paul has in mind, then, is a holy and divine affection toward believers and unbelievers, which is produced by the Spirit of God. We cannot work ourselves up into loving one another as Christ loved us. This love must be the work of the Holy Spirit.

How do we know if this love as the fruit of the Spirit is manifest in our lives? We love God. Love for God will be manifest in engaging in worship, hearing and studying the Word, spending time in prayer, and exhibiting the rest of the spiritual disciplines relating to our love for the Lord. We also serve other believers. Finally, our love for the lost will lead to tangible action – praying, sharing the Gospel, building relationships, and showing loving service – to lead them to Christ.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. Those who have this fruit growing in them will be marked by loving God, serving others, and reaching the world. May we be people filled with the love of God.