Sharp Podcast

The Best Fruit Ever

• Jay & Frank • Episode 50

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 37:21

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Before going to the cross, Jesus gave a command that would become the defining mark of His followers.

Yet many believers confuse love with niceness, agreement, or mere feelings. In this episode, Jay and I discuss what biblical love actually looks like, why it requires maturity and self-sacrifice, and how the Church can better reflect the love of Christ in a divided world.

If Jesus said this would be the evidence of true discipleship, it's worth asking: are we living it?

#Jesus #ChristianPodcast #Discipleship #BiblicalLove #Faith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharp.podcast/ 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1UuqUXhLyYA2n8TQpxbekP
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3376b6ad-88c7-4d76-9db7-ed8160a21061/sharp-podcast

Find us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@SharpPodcast 

Jesus’ Standard For Real Love

SPEAKER_00

If you look out into the world, you will see that there are plenty of people that do not have the same definition of love as Jesus has.

SPEAKER_04

Our capacity to love has to be rooted in what he's done. Real love that Christ is talking about is selfless.

SPEAKER_00

I recently had back surgery. Google will tell you it's like the top five most painful recoveries you'll ever have. Through that pain, I learned I don't think I'm as spiritually mature as I think I am. It's only through pain which you can test what you believe that I am always aware of how much grace I have needed to come this far. That to me is the answer.

SPEAKER_04

Are you looking internally first? Are you looking here first? Or are you always looking over there? If you always got something to say about something else or someone else, and you rarely take inventory of what's going on here, you got it all wrong.

Why We’re Talking Spiritual Maturity

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Sharp Podcast. I'm your co-host Jay. And I'm Frank. And we got a brand new episode for y'all. I think me and Frank are on the same page, yeah, with meaning that God has been leading us to speak on spiritual maturity. Not only has been leading us to speak on spiritual maturity, but he's been kind of speaking to us what is spiritual maturity for us personally. And so I've been learning a lot. Frank has been learning a lot. We hope that you guys can enjoy this conversation and possibly learn something. Yeah. Perfect. Yep.

SPEAKER_04

So today we're going to talk about spiritual maturity and we're going to look at, and if this is something that you're a Christian or you're new in the faith, and you're wondering how do I walk this out? How do I become spiritually mature? I think this is going to bless you. We're in John 13, and we're going to be reading 31 through 38. We're going to read it just to give you some context, and then we're going to share what's in our heart. As

Reading John 13:31-38

SPEAKER_04

soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, The time has come for me, the Son of Man, to enter into my glory, and God will receive glory because of all that happens to me. And God will bring me into my glory very soon. He says, Dear children, how brief are these moments before I must go away and leave you? Then, though you search for me, you cannot come to me, just as I told the Jewish leaders. So now I'm giving you a new commandment. Love each other, just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Simon Peter said, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus replied, You can't go with me now, but you will follow me later. But why can't I come now, Lord? He asked. I am ready to die for you. And Jesus answered, Die for me, no, before the rooster grows tomorrow morning. You'll deny three times that you even knew me. So, um, what I man, just from these verses, there's so much, but we want to focus on this new commandment. Look what Jesus says. This there's nothing new about this commandment, right? I mean, all throughout scriptures, he talks about the love of God, right? But he says right here, love each other just as I have loved you, and you should love each other, and your love will prove to the world that you are my disciples. That is um a powerful statement. And why? Well, what what I like here is Jesus in the beginning, he's talking about what's to come and he talks about the glory, right?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_04

But they don't know this yet, but what he's talking about is the cross, right? Where he's going to the cross to die for all the sins of the world and be the ultimate sacrifice. But he doesn't stay dead, he resurrects, right? And then he comes back, and everyone, there's a lot of people who see him before he goes into heaven. But this command, love each other as I have as I have loved you. What I'm thinking about even now, George, is that he says this, but his ultimate right showing of his love was him coming to die. And so he says, he says, like he talks about this love, and they still haven't seen it to its fullest until he was on that cross. Right. Um that that I didn't even think about that. But the the command for us as believers is to love one another, and that's kind of what we want to dissect today. What does that mean? What does that look like? You know, back then, what I've learned is that to be a follower of Christ, you were known as a follower because you literally followed him. Right. So if he went into the town of Samaria, guess what? You were following with him. If he went to took a new path and went to a new town, you followed him.

Love As The Public Proof

SPEAKER_04

If you went to Jerusalem, right, you followed him. If he went to the feast, you followed him. If he was speaking over here, you followed him. That was a sign that you were his follower. But now he's saying that I'm going and you can't come with me yet, right? He says, he tells Peter, you will follow me, but not right now. There's something I gotta do, and then you're gonna follow me, right? But he says that when I go, he says, This is the commandment, love each other. Because when you do this, they're gonna know you're my disciples, and the world's gonna know you're my disciples. Man.

SPEAKER_00

That seems too good to be true. Seems too simple. Here it is. You guys want to know what's the proof that you are saved and loved by God and have been made new and received salvation and are born again? It's not miracles, it's not leadership, it's not pastor, preacher, prophet, seer, gifted is love one another.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's it. Okay. It's a good deal.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And you know, we were talking though, but and we're gonna get into spiritual maturity, but this love, loving one another, the only reason we're able to do it is because he's done it first. He's done it. He loved us before we've ever loved him. He went to the cross and died on behalf of every sin when he was perfect because of love. Like we we don't know what love is until he did that for us.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

How The World Redefines Love

SPEAKER_00

I just chat GPT'd how do people define love? That's interesting.

SPEAKER_04

What did it say?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page because if you look out into the world, you will see that there are plenty of people that do not have the same definition of love as Jesus has. So when Jesus says love one another, it's not the love that other people, ideologies, or philosophies have come up with. It's a biblical love. Yeah. There's a specific word in the Hebrew for it, it's an agape love, which we would consider. Let's talk about that definition later. Let's let's let's see what Chat GPT defines love as. It says some people consider love to be an emotional connection, feeling deeply attached, understood, safe. Some people consider love to be a biological bonding. Y'all know what that is, right? From a scientific perspective, love can involve brain chemicals, attachment, reward systems. Okay, some people consider love to be mutual growth, seeing love as helping each other become fully themselves. Some people see love as companionship. You're loyal to one another, you've shared life, you have a partnership. Some people, now this is a good one. This is a good one. Some people consider love to be more of an action than an emotion. Showing up consistency, honesty, support, protection, respect. Hmm. These are what some people consider love. Some people can some people feel love when you give them a few dollars for their birthday. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Here are some things people distinguish love. Romantic love, family love, sexual attraction. Some people consider love. Some people consider love the same traumatic bonds, meaning they go through bad decisions together. Some people consider that love. But is that love? Million dollar question. Is that is that the love Jesus is talking about? Is Jesus talking about the love people feel when some people get a wedding band or an engagement ring? They feel love. I feel love. I got this $10,000 ring. Alright? You see people take the pictures. Is that love? Yeah. What kind of love is Jesus talking about? I think it's uh a sacrificial love.

SPEAKER_04

What do you think?

SPEAKER_00

Sacrificial love. There's so many examples of the love Jesus talks about in the Bible. Sacrificial love is a great place to start. You gotta tell me though, Frank, because there's a whole lot of definitions for love out there. Yeah. Some people feel love when somebody gives them a new habit that makes them feel good. Yeah. Introduces them to God knows what. I don't know. Yeah. Oh, I love that person. They really showed me the right way to deal with stuff. That's not the love Jesus talking about. It's not.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, so the way I look at it is that we as believers, we cannot love except if it's through Christ. You know, as a believer, we're never gonna move past the cross. And right there, I think that was the ultimate scene of seeing his love for humanity. Seeing his love for the world. John 3 16, right? Right. That's what he's talking about. What he did right there. Okay. So our capacity to love has to be rooted in what he's done, right? And the only way we love is because of what he's what he's done. And we can love because the spirit that he poured out throughing that. It's the glorified spirit, right? The Holy Spirit. This very spirit that was with Christ and now lives in us. And because of that, we're able to love to the capacity that Christ did. I want to go to Roman, I want to go to 1 Corinthians 13. Okay. Um, because that's a great place to look at love. And uh I kind of want to read that because I think

1 Corinthians 13 And Selfless Love

SPEAKER_04

this will help us get into what we're talking about. You know, he he starts off, I'm gonna summarize, but he says, you know, if I can speak in any language on, you know, in heaven or on earth, but I don't love, I'd be meaningless, I'd be a loud noise, annoying, right? If I knew everything about everything, but I didn't love, what good would I be, right? He's saying all these things that may seem good, right? But if there's no love attached to it, it's essentially worthless. It's it's frustrating, it's annoying. But then he goes, Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wrong. It's never glad about injustice, but it rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, love never loses faith, is always helpful and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever. And then he goes into like these giftings, right? And he says it's all worthless unless love is attached to it. Completely worthless. To me, and we we I want to get into this, but to me, love is the real love that Christ is talking about is selfless. And I think that is why humanity has such a hard time showing this love, expressing this new commandment that Jesus says, You will be known as my follower because of the way you love others. That's selfless.

SPEAKER_00

I agree. If love is selfless, and greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.

Peter’s Loyalty And Hidden Self Interest

SPEAKER_00

Random question. Why is Peter's statement in the scripture we read not seen as love by Jesus? I think it's seen.

SPEAKER_04

Peter goes, Does that rhetoric for you?

SPEAKER_00

Hey? I'll lay down my life for you. Jesus, like, bruh.

SPEAKER_04

The next day you could just told me. It's incomplete.

SPEAKER_00

What kind of love was that?

SPEAKER_04

It's I think it was it was incomplete. I I think what if we're talking about selfless, I don't think it was selfless. I think what he said made come off that way, but at the core it wasn't. And it was incomplete because what what where Jesus was headed, before he talked to them about this new commandment, he said it's time God will receive glory because of all the things that will happen. He's talking about big picture, the cross, and then what's to follow, the resurrection. He doesn't get into those details, right? They're still unsure, they still don't know. And he says, You can't, you can't follow me. He says, You there's gonna be a time you will follow me later, but you gotta wait. And what Peter's saying here was so incomplete because he can't he can't follow Christ until that moment the Holy Spirit would be received by all of them. Right. There's no and that's why, like as believers, we cannot love to that capacity. Right until Christ, we accept Christ. Because Ephesians says the moment we accept and believe Christ and what he's done for us, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit resides in us, lives in us. Yeah, we're temples of the Holy Spirit. So what Peter's saying here, it's like you don't even understand it. It's almost like just wait. Just wait, wait a little bit until this becomes true.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_04

Right?

SPEAKER_00

You raise a point and I'll raise you another. Uh-huh. Peter's love is not only incomplete, as you stated, but Peter's love is not a is have some has some self-interest in his love. In other words, this is the way the world loves. Every definition of the world's love, you can summarize it into this. I love Frank, Frank loves me. As long as we're doing our part to serve each other in this relationship. In other words, I love Frank because Frank brings me Chick-fil-A every Thursday. God, I love that about you, Frank. Yeah. The moment a Thursday gets skipped where you don't bring me Chick-fil-A, my love hasn't gone away, but it's lessened. I don't love you 100% now, I love you 80%. Guess what? I'm gonna stop putting gas in Frank's car. Just a little bit. Because you skipped out on your Chick-fil-A. You see how that love works? That love is conditional. According to what you're gonna do, I'm gonna do next. That means there's an ability I have to still not still disagree with you and to hate you in a way because of the lack of love you're giving me. First John chapter 2, and I'll read verse 10. It says, Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him. Watch this. So if you love your brother, you're following Jesus' command, you're walking in the light. But if you hate your brother, you don't know how to love. You're walking in darkness. Why am I saying that? Because Peter's love was approved and only functioned through the hate of that people had for Jesus. He was like, I'll give your life for you. Why would he say that? Because he knew other people would want to kill Jesus or get in the way of Jesus' ministry. He's like, so basically, I'll give my life with you, meaning I will fight against the people who hate you because I hate them. Hold on. That's not love, Peter. That's why he cut the ear of that soldier. That's not love. You can't hate him and love me at the same time. That's not love.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's not love. That's what it's trying to say right here. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sword out, Peter. You can't hate him and love Jesus at the same time. You can't do it. You can't. You gotta love both. If you love Jesus, you love this brother right here. Yeah. That's trying to kill Jesus.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And if you love this brother right here, you know you love Jesus. That's the approval rating.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's the requirement, the prerequisite for how you know you love Jesus is you love the least of these. Yeah. The people you should not love. The people there's no reason for you to love.

Loving People Who Hate You

SPEAKER_00

Boy, that's hard for me. No, it is. Boy, that is hard for me. If there's any commandment in here, that is hard. It's not about the love, it's to love the people who hate you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's the kind of love we're talking about. Because that's the only love that's sacrificial. Isn't that hard to love Frank?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's that, it's that love, right? But for me to love some people in my life that are haters, that want to get me fired, that want to snitch on me for things I didn't do, want to falsely accuse me, want to disdain my character, who that's a whole nother kind of love we're talking about.

SPEAKER_04

But look at this. But you can.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, you can.

SPEAKER_04

Right? Yeah. Like, and then I and I I'm just saying that for the person listening.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That I think people can hear that because that's so truthful, right? Like it's so true, it's it's so true from a human standpoint. We're like, oh, these people are so hard to love, and someone would be like, Yeah, I agree with that. Right. But the reality is because of the Holy Spirit in our lives, it makes it possible. Absolutely. It's not easy, right? But it makes it possible, right? And I think that's why we're talking when we're talking about this, we're talking about spiritual maturity because it's it's selflessness. Yeah. You no longer are looking at what I gain from this, right? You're no longer at the center, but now you have a different vision, different mindset. You see the big picture, and what's going on right now is so minimal, right? Right. To what what good and what blessings are gonna come. You know, I think about a little kid, right? They're kid, like little kids, they're you know they're not mature, and one of the easiest ways you can see their maturity is because everything revolves around them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Or everything is about them, right? Right, right. And that's that's not selfless. The moment you see someone as mature, I don't know about you, but to me, I'm like, man, that person's mature. It's when you see that it's not about them. Right. Like to me, when I see that in someone, I'm like, man, that that's a mature person. Right. Like it doesn't, it doesn't revolve around them, it doesn't matter. They're they're not the center of attention. Right. But man, it's so sad when when you see adults, the elderly, that are still everything is about them. They're at the center of it all. Right. And you see that and you're like, man, they are so that's such an immaturity.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_04

But it's it's a selflessness, like, how I guess here's my question to

Pain Reveals What We Believe

SPEAKER_04

you. As you've been walking with Christ, how have you been able to walk selflessly?

SPEAKER_00

Selflessly?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, like selfless.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I can't say this just for everybody to know. It has not been easy. Number one. We haven't filmed a podcast video in a few weeks because I recently had back surgery. If I name the back surgery, you guys could research it, and Google will tell you it's like the top five most painful recoveries you'll ever have. And I could tell you. That this was this surgery was God ordained. It was appointed for me to go through it. And the pain was so excruciating. I mean, if if it was on a scale of one to ten, it was at a twelve. I couldn't walk, I didn't, I didn't want to eat. You know, you you in a different kind of pain if you don't want to eat. No, get that food away from me. I'm done. You know. And through that pain, I learned I don't think I'm as spiritually mature as I think I am. Because it's this is what I learned through that experience. It's only through pain which you can test what you believe. You know, when things are good, that's not really when you can test what you believe. You know, when you got a big bill that comes in the mail, we're gonna see what you believe about God's prosperity. You know, when your body starts to fail you, we'll see what you believe about whether God can heal you or not. And so at that moment when I was going through that pain, my faith was being tested. I felt like every voice out of hell was just in my head. Let's see if you still believe that Bible right there you've been talking about. And boy, was I stumbling left and right. Yeah, especially the first few days. I was like, ooh, give me that hydrocoding. It was like, bring that tribal medication, right? Bring that hydro, hydro, abagabapentin, that medication. You know, and nothing's wrong with medication. Yeah, nothing's wrong with medication, but after a few days, I really started to hear the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and say, I just wanted to show you where you're at.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That you're not as high as you thought you were. And I think that's such a it's not answering your question, but I get to it. I just think it's such a crucial point because that's exactly what Peter, what Jesus is telling Peter. Peter thinks he's all the way up here. Oh, I give my life for you. I'm going out there. Yeah. Slow down. The spiritual maturity in Peter is that later on in Peter's life, Jesus has the same conversation with Peter, or Jesus tells him, Peter says, I love you, Lord. And he's like, Jesus asks him, Are you sure you love me? Peter's response is completely different now. Yeah, he doesn't say, Oh, I'm I'm gonna die for you. He says, Lord, you know all things. So, to answer your question, how do I keep how do I remain selfless? The only way, in my opinion, that I remain selfless is number one, it's not my love, because my love, to be honest, in my fleshly nature is polluted and distorted. It's the Holy Spirit through

Grace Lowers Judgment And Builds Love

SPEAKER_00

me. Number two, is that I am always, it's so funny because we just talked about this in Romans 11 previous podcast, that I am always aware of how much grace I have needed to come this far.

SPEAKER_04

But see, that I'm gonna click right away. Yeah, always I want you to continue going. No, no, no, I want you to continue, but that to me is the answer, like what you're saying. Yeah, to live selfless, right, and become spiritually mature. It's not that we arrive to a place of I'm mature because I put everyone before me.

SPEAKER_00

It's that we've arrived in a place I am, I am I know nothing. I'm powerless, useless, unproductive. I've sinned a million times more than everybody around me.

SPEAKER_04

And if everybody in the room know how badly I've sinned, they would flee from me. Yeah, and you realize it though. Yes, it's a constant like renewing of the mind, right? You're like, whoa, I thought I had that, but I really don't. No. That's maturity because you're aware.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah. The moment judgment begins to decrease in us for other people is the moment the level increase. You, you know, I think that's why Jesus says, you know, be take the plank out of your own eye and then start talking about people. The plank is not, nobody's got a plank in their eye. The plank is the prioritization of attention. Yeah, in other words, don't prioritize the spec in somebody else's eye, prioritize that huge attention you need on yourself. Yeah, that's where the love comes from. That's when I start to thrive. When I realize, man, hey, I know that brother, I know he just got somebody pregnant, but I've done worse than that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, God is hey, his mercy's new every morning. Come on over. Yeah. Come on, brother. Hey, let's let's come over here. Come back to church. Ain't no judgment here. I need God's grace just as much as anybody else, and probably ten times more. That's the attitude I have to keep.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it's not hard to keep it once once I've realized how much I've let God down. And you know, that's that's how I keep it.

SPEAKER_04

Well, because if you it's kind of funny, ironic, I guess, because when we're talking about spiritual maturity, like someone would be like, Oh, I'm spiritually spiritually mature because I'm selfless, right? But then when you like view yourself as so high and mighty, you're still focused on self. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_04

So it's like a content, like you said, that that verse about the speck and the plank. It's like what he's saying is are you looking internally first? Are you looking here first? Or are you always looking over there? You know what I'm saying? If you always got something to say about something else or someone else, and you rarely take inventory of what's going on here, yeah, you got it all wrong.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And that that's the new commandment to love each other as I have loved you, right? And you'll be known that you're gonna be known as my disciples when you love like this. Yeah, man, it's so refreshing to see someone love that way. I th I think we live in a world where people accuse, people condemn, people judge, people just say anything that comes to the mind. But when you see someone who doesn't do those things, it's usually because they're looking at that that they're aware of where they are, where they've been from. I mean, that verse, I don't know if I said it in this podcast, but you know, we love him because of how much he's loved us. Right. Even that verse where who's been forgiven much loves much. Right. Like that's that's maturity.

SPEAKER_00

That's good. That is maturity. I mean, and if we think about it, if we get into the the doctrine of love, the theology of love, when Jesus they asked him, what is the greatest of these commandments? Jesus could have talked about anything. He could have talked about the gifted, he could have talked about the prophets and the miracles and the calling down of fire from the heaven. He did not, he refused, he dismissed, he did not even acknowledge those things. What he said is out of 600 and something laws, these two are the most important. Number one, love God with all your heart, mind, and strength. Number two, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Love is involved in both laws, but watch this. You cannot do the second without the first. You love God. In turn, God loves you first, then you love Him. Out of that relationship comes the ability to self-reflect.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Which makes you then capable of loving the second commandment, your neighbor. You can't self-reflect if you don't love God. It's God's the only standard for self-reflection. People say they meditate. Ooh, listen, that's not meditation. Yeah. That's not meditation, reflection on actually how far how far we have fallen from his glory, and all have fallen short from God's glory, the scripture says.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We can't even measure the standard of how far we have fallen from God's glory until we got a relationship of love with God. That relationship of love with God makes us realize how far we've fallen, which then gives us the perspective to love our neighbor in the second commandment. See how those two connect.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

See the order Jesus was giving. See the formula, the steps. No wonder he called us little children. He's explaining everything to us like we are children. So you can understand it, so I can get it. And we have to stick to that. If we don't get anything right, we gotta get this right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Before we leave. We gotta practice this. This has to be a way of life.

Everyday Examples Of Mature Love

SPEAKER_00

You know what today, sometimes me and my brother get into it, but man, is that a focal point for me to always be better at loving him?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I just keep it in the front of my mind.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I'm even when there's money being asked for, my mind is like, don't give him another, he's lazy. I just give it to him. He calls me for a ride. I'm like, why did you go all there in an Uber with your friends? I just pick him up. Yeah. When he's telling me his problems, I feel like, man, you should tell him what the heck's wrong with you. I don't tell him what's wrong with you. I just say, you know what? It's okay. You know, we'll we'll get to that when we get home. Let's get something to eat. Yeah. This is what love looks like.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know. But I wouldn't be able to do that if I didn't see my own fault. No.

SPEAKER_04

Man. But it's so like. I just wonder, you know, as the church, as the body of Christ, as being ambassadors of Christ to this world, we want to show the world, you know, what is it's not we need we don't need an answer, it's rhetorical, but like, you know, even l speaking to the listener, like, what is one way that you can show this love to someone to show that you are a follower of Christ. You know, like when when we I I just want us to start thinking about that. Like when when the Amazon truck pulls up to my house and the person's not wearing the uniform, but you know, they're in the truck, they have the package, they have the little scanner, they come to my door. You know, I know I know they're dropping off a package. They don't have to be wearing a specific uniform or have a name tag, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, right. That's good.

SPEAKER_04

But like in the church, like how do we know someone is a follower of Christ? Is it just because I see you coming out of a building that looks like a church? You know what I'm saying? Or is it because you're like wearing uh, you know, a iHeart Jesus sweater, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03

Or is it because of this love to make it obvious? Or is it because of this love that we have towards others?

SPEAKER_04

Right. And just you know, when we read in First Corinthians, like love keeps no record of wrong. I always think of that.

SPEAKER_00

I always think of man, is that the first one it mentions?

SPEAKER_04

I don't know, but I'm just like No, love is patient. That's what it is. Yeah, love is patient, kind of. But yeah, but I'm always like, I need you to not keep record, you know? Right. Like it's it's hard, but that's why we we can't do it in our own strength. No, it's impossible.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's impossible. But but with God, all things are

The Real Fight Of The Faith

SPEAKER_00

possible. Yeah, and if this is the greatest of the commandments, and the Bible calls our journey a of the fight of faith. We need armor that we're supposed to wear. The fight is to accomplish this, yeah. Is to accomplish the love he's talking about. It's not to start a ministry or get the followers going or get the merch to get out. It's so that you are able to accomplish loving the people God has purposed in your life, as he's called you to do while you're on this earth. Yeah. You know, and if we don't do that, we'll be held accountable for it.

SPEAKER_04

That's so good. No, it's so good because it 1 Corinthians 13, it mentions that. It doesn't matter if you're uh have great prophecy, if you speak in tongues, if you have all these things, if you you feel like you're gonna be the next pastor, if you feel like you're gonna be the best evangelist. You know what I'm saying? Like none of that matters if you don't know how to love.

SPEAKER_00

Right. None of it matters. Agreed. No, that love component, that's the fight. You know, we uh it has to be worth battling that. No, how can I love that?

SPEAKER_04

I mean, that shouldn't that be, you know, I I feel like that should be like when I have you know mentees or I'm discipling people, I think that's really gonna be something I'm I I mentioned now. It's not it's not like what can I do for God or what do you feel like you're called to? Right. I think the question is how can you love others to show that you are his disciple? Yeah, if you can focus on that and and do everything from that, I think that so many doors and opportunities open up for you. 100%.

SPEAKER_00

100%, yeah. That love will be rewarded in us, and I mean there's there's no other form to prove like the scriptures we read in John 13, it says prove. Yeah, what's the proof? You know, how else will you prove you're a Christian? That is the proof, yeah. There is no other proof that you're a Christian. Speaking in tongues, listen, that doesn't prove anything. Okay, there's a whole bunch of people being caught speaking in random fluff on YouTube. But you can't fake love, you can't, you know, even if people are doing with bad intentions, you can't fake it, it'll come out. If the love is pure, yeah, it'll be very, very, very authentic, yeah, very genuine, very a part of who that person is. That's so good. Yeah. So that's good,

Read 1 John And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_00

man. If you guys want to know more about love, I recommend you talk and talk to the Lord. But I recommend you read about the Apostle of Love, which I call John. His biggest book is First John. I think he's got five chapters. Um the rest of them got like two or three. Yeah, they talk about love the most. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

John and First John, whom John, whom the G the disciple whom Jesus loved. Yeah. That's pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_04

But yeah, well, that's all for today. Like, comment, subscribe. Um, what's your final closing?

SPEAKER_00

Fear what you don't know, stay in that Bible. Yeah, these are very dangerous times, and by dangerous I mean spiritually dangerous. There's a whole lot of temptation. There's a lot of accusations the devil is making everyday unbelievers. There's a lot of tensions in the world from which anything could happen or transpire. Life is expensive, bills pile up, people in our families get sick. We have experiences that can be traumatic, but God's love and God's word sustain us through this life. And um, that will always be true. Yeah. So love you guys. Peace.