The fruit of the Spirit pertains to our character and spiritual gifts pertain to our ministry. The Apostle Paul wants us to have a proper understanding of our spiritual gifts:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware. (1 Corinthians 12:1)

A spiritual gift is a special ability given by the Holy Spirit to serve others and strengthen the Body of Christ.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

There are several areas in the New Testament that list specific spiritual gifts, but they are all to be exercised with an attitude of love:

But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And yet, I am going to show you a far better way. (1 Corinthians 12:31)

There are a number of beautiful treatises on the topic of love and one of the most eloquent is found in the middle of Paul’s description of spiritual gifts. Without love, our spiritual gifts lose their value. One of the greatest descriptions of love is presented in this chapter:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

The temporary nature of spiritual gifts is juxtaposed with the permanence of faith, hope, and love. These three comprise a trinity of unity that will last throughout eternity,

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Faith, hope, and love are not only available to us in the present age, but they will be ours in the age to come. Paul proclaimed the supremacy of love because it is foundational to faith and hope. Without love, there can be no faith because faith requires an object. Without love, there can be no hope because we cannot truly hope for something that we do not love. We also see that love is an essential aspect of God’s nature since God is love (1 John 4:8, 16).

The love that Jesus proclaimed and that Paul described in this chapter is agape love. There are several characteristics of this type of love:

Agape love is volitional – This is an act of the will. The Greek language has several words for love. The word eros describes an intense, passionate love that captures the meaning of our concept of physical love. Eros seeks to get whereas agape love chooses to give. The word philos describes an emotional love involving positive feelings toward others. Agape love chooses to love.

Agape love is unconditional – It is not dependent upon the actions of the other person.

Agape love is sacrificial – This is the love that God demonstrated by sending His Son as Jesus went to the cross. John 3:16 teaches us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

Love is the basis of the greatest commandment when Jesus summarized the teachings of the law and the prophets in declaring that we are to love God and love others (Mark 12:29-31). Since love is part of God’s nature it has always existed and has no beginning and no end. We have God’s gracious invitation to be a partaker of God’s unending love because of His love for us. The degree to which we receive God’s love, enables us to be a channel of God’s love to others:

We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)