The Fruit of the Spirit is Love: Pastors, Love Like Jesus

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love …” (Gal. 5:22). Love comes first in Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit. That’s almost certainly no coincidence. Earlier in the chapter, Paul affirmed the utmost importance of love in the Christian life: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal. 5:13–14). As Paul affirmed elsewhere, love is the preeminent Christian virtue and the “most excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31).

Writing a decade later, Paul elaborates on how we can live lives of love. In his letter to the Ephesians, he urges, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1–2 ESV).

Eugene Peterson helpfully paraphrases the gist of Paul’s comments in that passage as follows: “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love” (Eph. 5:1 MSG). Love doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s a skill to be learned. And as God’s children, we should look to the one who loved us so lavishly that he sent his one and only Son to die for us. Moreover, we should look to Christ’s deep, deep love.

The Extravagant Love of Christ

As Peterson continues in his paraphrase of Paul’s words to the Ephesian believers, “Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that” (Eph. 5:2 MSG). Christ’s love was extravagant. And Christ loved us with a holy and pure love. 

As Jonathan Edwards puts it in his sermon, “Heaven Is a World of Love”:

“In its nature, this love is altogether holy and divine. Most of the love that there is in this world is of an unhallowed nature. But the love that has place in heaven . . . does not proceed from corrupt principles or selfish motives . . . it is a pure flame, directed by holy motives.”

In loving us, Jesus has no ulterior motives. He does not love us to enlist us in his program. He does not love us to use us, meet his needs, or to get anything from us at all. He loves because love is who He is. In this, He is the perfect example of living a life of love.

When Jesus clears the temple in holy passion and righteous anger, his underlying motivation is love, love for the Father and His Father’s house (John 2:16–17). When he denounces the Pharisees, he does so out of love for God and the truth, for those wronged by the Pharisees and even the Pharisees themselves (Matthew 23). When Jesus goes to the cross, he does so out of love: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Jesus’s love is utterly self-giving: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Start with Jesus

So, if you want to know what love looks like, look at Jesus. Start there. Then make Jesus’s “new commandment” the underlying maxim of your entire life: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).

Don’t be like Peter, who completely ignored Jesus’s explication of his core mission, his “new commandment” of Christlike love, because he was preoccupied with processing another subject (why he can’t follow Jesus right away; John 13:36; cf. 13:33). Almost thirty years later, however, as a mature man, Peter wrote, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again” (1 Pet. 1:22–23).

Be like the early Christians who were known first and foremost by their love. As the Church Father Tertullian (AD 160–225) wrote of pagans’ perception of believers, “‘Look,’ they say, ‘how they [Christians] love one another’ (for they themselves hate one another); ‘and how they are ready to die for each other’ (for they themselves are readier to kill each other)” (1 Apol. 39:7).

Pastoral Implications

Pastors, the place to start is living a life of love in front of your congregation. Do your people know you genuinely love them and care for them? Is love part of your philosophy of ministry? Do you even ever think about love in relation to your role as a pastor?

As a younger man, I had a great passion for truth and defended the veracity of God’s word whenever I had the opportunity. I am still passionate about biblical truth, but at some point along the way, I asked myself: How do I want to be remembered when I die? What do I want written on my tombstone? The answer: I want to be known as a man of love—a man who loved his wife, his family, and others well. Does my wife know I love her? Do my children know? Do people in my congregation know I love them? Do others?

Sometimes, we see ourselves differently than others do. I’d suggest you step outside yourself and ask yourself how others perceive you. Better still, ask your spouse, your children, or a few close friends. Do they perceive you as a man of love? The answer may surprise you. But it is better to face the truth now and to change course if necessary while there is still time.

As pastors, we lead by example. Let your example be extravagant, selfless, Christlike love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . . . And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:4–8, 13 NIV).

©2024 Andreas Köstenberger. Used with permission.