Why is love the primary Fruit of the Spirit? Simply because all of the other 8 Fruits of the Spirit are characteristics of Love. Love in full bloom brings Joy. Love brings peace. Not the peace of no conflict, but the peace that the relationship that love is being expressed in has a commitment, a stability that a person might not have if the relationship was nonexistent. Love is patient. Love is kind. (See 1 Cor 13:4-7). Love seeks the good of others. Love remains faithful. Love causes one to be gentle and self-controlled.

Second, reason that I think we could add other Fruits to Paul’s list is because of a phrase that Paul himself writes, “against such things there is no law.” The key two words, “such things.” Is Paul referring here to only the nine or anything that would compare to the nine? I believe it is the latter. Paul does the same thing in previous verses when he talks about the works of the flesh. (Gal 5:18-21)

Why? Because if Love is the Primary Fruit, it has a boarder definition than what is found here. (Again see 1 Cor 13:4-7). You could make the argument that if God is Love (1 John 4:16) and if God is infinite than Love by definition has to be infinite as well. Therefore, a 8 or 9 item list could not hold all the possible Fruits of the Spirit.

To be clear, I am not saying that anything that we might add to Paul’s list comes to the level of Scripture. Paul’s list was and is Canonized so that is the “Official” list, but I also think it helps us to evaluate our lives if we know more than the “Official Nine” characteristics of God’s nature.