As I consider Valentine’s day and contemplate love, I began asking the question, what is love? The obvious place to go is to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter. Verses 4-8a tell us what love is….

Love is patient, love is kind.
Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs.
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

As I read the description of love, I couldn’t help but think about how closely it relates to the Fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23a lists the Fruit of the Spirit for us.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.

While love is listed as just one of the fruits of the Spirit, I can’t help but think that everything else flows from that love. If God’s Love is in us, then His fruit will grow in us, springing from that Love. John even tells us in 1 John chapter four that God is Love.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7-8

So if God is Love, and love is a fruit of the Spirit, then we must get that fruit from God. So how do we do that?

Jesus said…

I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.
John 15:5

We have the fruit of Love grow in us by following Jesus.

So share the Love of God that is in you with others. Not just on Valentine’s Day, but every day of the year.