Love

It had been enough to have said "Love" and no more: for love extends itself to all the fruits of the Spirit. And in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul attributes to love all the fruits which are done in the Spirit, when he says: Love is patient, courteous, etc. Notwithstanding, he would set it here by itself among the rest of the fruits of the Spirit, and in the first place, thereby to admonish the Christians, that before all things they should love one another, giving honor one to another (Romans 12:10), every man esteeming better of another than of himself, and serving one another, because they have Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and because of the word, baptism, and other gifts of God which Christians have.

It would have been sufficient to say simply 'love' and nothing more — for love encompasses all the fruits of the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul attributes to love every good fruit produced in the Spirit, saying: 'Love is patient, love is kind,' and so on. Yet here he places love by itself in the first position among the other fruits of the Spirit — to remind Christians that above all they must love one another, giving honor to each other (Romans 12:10), each regarding others as better than himself and serving one another — because they have Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and because of the word, baptism, and all the other gifts God gives to Christians.