What do love, joy, and peace represent in the fruit of the Spirit?
Love, joy, and peace are the first three of nine fruits of the Spirit, representing the inner results of salvation in the believer's life. They are what a person can experience simply by having believed the Gospel, part of the abundant life Jesus spoke of, and not merely escape from hell.
Les explains that the nine fruits listed are divided into three segments of three each. The first segment—love, joy, and peace—is the inner results of salvation in the life of the believer. These are things we can experience simply as a result of having believed the Gospel. He stresses that we are not saved just as a fire escape or merely to escape hell fire, but we are saved to have life abundantly. These fruits reflect that abundant life, and against such things there is no law that can oppose them. They are all attributes of a life that enhances, unlike the previous behavior that produces pandemonium and fills the police blotters.