September 2025 – Bruno Loyiso
Have you ever stayed up in the night to comfort a crying child, delaying your rest to show love? That kind of self-giving echoes agape, the self-sacrificing love of God. In 1 John 4:16 we read, “God is love (agape); whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (NLT). Because God equals love, agape is not simply a character trait or action, it is His very identity.
Therefore, if we replace Love with God in 1 Corinthians 13:4–8, the shift is remarkable:
“God is patient, God is kind, God does not envy or boast, God is not proud, God does not dishonour others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs, God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.” (Adapted from NLT).
Take a moment: how does this version of the text feel to you? God is… instead of Love is…?
In Galatians 5:22 Paul names agape first: “the fruit of the Spirit is love (agape), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (NLT).
Andrew Murray’s theology gives us a firm interpretation of this verse: agape is not merely one among many Christian virtues. It is the fruit of the Spirit, the life of God in us, and all the other traits (joy, peace, patience, etc.) are descriptions or manifestations of that one living love. The Enduring Word commentary similarly states, “It may even be said that the following eight terms are just describing what love in action looks like” (Guzik, Galatians 5).
Because ancient Greek manuscripts originally had no punctuation (scriptio continua) (Metzger 1968, 13), there is indeed interpretive room to consider that Galatians 5:22–23 might have been read by early Christians more like: the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience … rather than a long list of separate virtues. The singular “fruit” and the literary unity of the list support the idea that the traits are facets of one fruit.
Murray further argues that the Spirit produces love first, and that as the Spirit fills us more, we become more loving (Murray 1895, ch. 2).
While Murray helps us see what agape is, the question remains: how does that pattern change in our lives? In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we find an eye-0pening answer: “As we behold the Lord’s glory, we are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (NLT). The more we purposefully spend time with God, the more His love reshapes our character.
In the year 2000 I personally witnessed how three men, who had been made enemies by the division of the apartheid era, started loving each other with that transforming love called agape. A white former Afrikaner police-officer, a black former MK activist, and a coloured former member of the security crew around President Mandela, after six months of discipleship training at YWAM, began loving each other. One morning they all cried while hugging and forgiving each other. This was the beginning of real friendship, only possible through God’s sacrificial love, agape.
A Personal Challenge
How then do we become more loving? How do we learn patience, kindness, forgiveness and self-control? By intentionally entering God’s presence, seeking Him in Scripture, silence, worship and prayer. As we do so, over time, the Spirit works in our hearts. Gradually He grows agape in us.
So, here are two questions to walk with you this week:
Which area of my life needs more of God’s agape, where I need to grow in love, even if it’s hard? How can I build a habit of contemplating God’s glory or spending more time in His presence into my daily rhythm?
May His love take root in you and show itself in how you live each day.
References
Guzik, David. Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Galatians 5. https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/galatians-5/. Accessed 30 September 2025
Metzger, Bruce Manning. 1968. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 2nd edition. The Clarendon Press: Oxford, United Kingdom.
Murray, Andrew. 1895. Absolute Surrender. Moody Press, Chicago.
The Holy Bible. New Living Translation, 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-Living-Translation-NLT-Bible/. Accessed 30 September 2025.