The Secret to Loving Like Jesus

In this episode of Everyday Radical, David Platt and Austin Huang explore what it means to love like Jesus in a world that often doubts us.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Everyday Radical, a podcast where we help the everyday Christian follow Jesus and make him known everywhere. We pray that today's episode encourages you to do just that. So let's dive right in. So, David, you know, we all know the fruit of the spirit, but how did you find out how to memorize the fruit individually?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Austin, do you really want to know the answer to that question? Uh so um well, let me caveat what I'm about to do by saying this is one of my my three-year-old's favorite songs for us to sing when we uh when I'm talking around at night. So it goes something like this. The fruit of the spirit's not a coconut. You gotta you gotta hit your head when you do that. All right. The fruit of the spirit's not a coconut. If you want to be a coconut, you might as well hear it. You can't be a fruit of the spirit, because the fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then the beauty is you can do so many other fruits. The fruit of the spirit is not a watermelons, fruit of the spirit is not a banana, you kind of make a banana shade. Fruit of the spirit is not a kiwi. Uh anyway, so uh she just picks different fruits. This has like been one of our staples in family worship for years. But my three-year-old knows love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So I would submit it's worth it. It's a win. Yeah. It's a win.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Well, I love that. Well, that's good because we're kicking off kind of the next few episodes. We're going to be talking about the fruit of the spirit. Uh, I guess the first question that I have like, why is the language that Paul uses, what's a fruit of the spirit? Like, why does he use the word fruit?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Well, I mean, what's interesting is the contrast there in Galatians 5. And I think really critical to like understanding the importance of the fruit of the spirit, because it's a contrast between the desires of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And he lists all these uh, yeah, desires of the flesh, works of the flesh, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, things like these. Um, and then he says, but like that's the key word at the beginning of uh verse 22. So, in contrast to all those things that are really so you just think, I mean, this is gospel, right? This is the we have a sinful nature, the flesh. Uh, the word in the Greek just for fun is sarks. And it's like this battle between the sarks and the pneuma, the spirit, the flesh and the spirit. And the flesh produces all these things that I just listed off. And the fruit or in the spirit, pneuma, produces. So that's where fruit comes in, produces all these things. But left to ourselves, we get the first list. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we get this list over here. And I, you know, one thing to keep in mind there, like this is not just uh natural love or natural joy. It's not fleshly love or fleshly joy or peace or whatever. It's literally supernatural. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives, is a supernatural love. So a kind of love that's only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit, only possible for those who have the Holy Spirit inside of them.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

And what's the difference then? Like, what's the difference between the the fleshly love that because from my perspective, I think of, you know, the culture says love, like love everybody. What does that does that mean accept everybody? Am I supposed to just accept the things that I don't agree with? Is that what love really looks like?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, well, that's where, and that's I think that's the key question, really, with all these fruits as we talk about them, like to just keep coming back to okay, what's supernatural about this love? What's supernatural about this joy? What's supernatural about this peace? So when I when it comes to love, yeah, okay, what's supernatural about this love? And then we just that just leads us all over scripture to see, okay. I mean, the word there is agape, it's a selfless love, which is obviously what Jesus says is like the core of what it means to be in a relationship with God, to love him with all your heart, soul, you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. So to love your neighbor selflessly, like as yourself. Um, and so there's a and then you start thinking about, yeah, 1 Corinthians 13, like all these things uh that love is described at, which maybe we could talk about, but it's those are not like love is patient. It doesn't naturally come to us to be patient. We need supernatural help to be patient in the way that God is patient. Uh so yeah, it's not saying that people who are not followers of Jesus uh can't be patient or can't be loving in some ways, but there's there's a whole nother depth and width and height and dimension to love when it's driven by the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah. Because it's not it's not really typical of us to want to sacrifice for the sake of others. Like I think of two verses like greater love has none than this, then to lay down their life for their friends. Uh, and then now I'm blanking on the other one. What is the other one? Um there's a lot of verses. Um husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Uh and so I was like, I'm just thinking of like sacrifice, sacrificial love. Um what do you do you feel like the world would appreciate that? Like I I think we all like this idea of like serving other people, but what's the what's the difference between how the world looks at Christians in the way that we love? Because I feel like a lot of worldly people say there's no that's the that's the biggest thing I see in TikTok comments on on social media. Uh, when when something that the world disagrees with Christianity about, they say uh they say there's no hate like Christian love. And that just breaks my heart. Um and so I don't know what what the disconnect is between us.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I think uh yeah, there's a variety of uh levels of that disconnect, some that are biblical and some that are definitely not biblical. Like uh yeah, John 13, by this they'll know the world will know that you're my disciples by your love for one another. And sadly, yeah, there is a disconnect. Oftentimes the world looks at the church and doesn't see like this love even between Christians, like sees a lot of picture of Christians not loving each other, not speaking kindly about each other, not edifying each other, not being selfless toward each other. I mean, Christians slandering each other, Christians uh yeah, just buying into the whole cancel culture picture that we live in. Like, so yeah, the world rightly should be like, yeah, I thought this just there's a disconnect here. This doesn't add up. Um and yet I've seen, I mean, and this goes all the way back. I mean, this is part of what I loved. Even when I was studying uh in uh seminary, like my PhD, I got really interested in the apologists in the early centuries of the church, and so who are defending the faith as Christianity is like is just beginning. And there's intellectual defenses of uh Christianity, which are very important, but there were also just oftentimes apologists. We're literally pointing to the church. Like, look at how these people love each other, yeah. Look at how they're caring for the children that are being discarded by others, and they're bringing them into their homes. They're caring after caring for orphans and widows and working for the oppressed and doing justice for the weak and the needy. Like that was that was actually a defense for the Christian faith, which it should be. And so that's where, okay, I I hope I I want the yeah. I mean, I just think about some of the stuff we're doing in foster care and adoption in our church family, uh, and have seen in different ways in different churches. I I hope the world sees that and it's like, okay, well, that's that's different. Yeah. Um, and so that that would undercut that kind of statement. Like, okay, that doesn't look like hate, that looks like Christian love. Real quick, the other thing that does come to my mind though is yes, uh, I've told people the gospel and they've responded, well, that's not very loving. Like, I think it's the epitome of love. And and yeah, I believe wholeheartedly it's the epitome of love, but to but to say to someone that you have sin in your heart that separates you from God, that leads to a destiny of eternal judgment if you don't repent and believe and trust in Jesus. People sometimes will walk away from that and say, um, yeah, well, that doesn't sound loving to tell me that I'm going to hell. Um, but that's where I always come back to. It's not, it's definitely not loving unless unless it's true. And if it's true, it's the most loving thing. I I I have a text right now that I just got today from uh yeah, a friend who's who's newer and growing in faith, and and he has struggled with like he's never really thought, okay, Christians should share their faith with others. But he just saw somebody that he knows come to faith in Jesus because somebody shared the gospel with that person, and their response was, and his, he was like, Well, I'm glad somebody loved me enough to tell me this. This guy who's a new believer. And my friend who just texted me was like, I just haven't thought about it that way. Like, okay, it's really not loving for me to keep this news to myself if it's true. So anyway, I can't remember how I got off of that. Oh, just because so I don't think I think we would be naive to think, okay, if we just share the gospel and love people selflessly, the world will love us. Uh Jesus actually tells us the opposite. Jesus was the most loving human in history and they crucified him. So we don't need to operate under like a false assumption there. But at the same time, yes, we should be loving one another and the world around us in ways that show uh God's love is real.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Yeah, that's so good. How do we grow in our love for God? Like I know we can talk about loving other people, loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, but how do we actually grow in practically like grow in love for God?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Man, I'll tell you the text that just immediately comes to my mind is uh text and illustration, uh, John 15, like abide in me. He says, Abide in my love. What a great command. Like, abide in my love. Uh and and that leads to you just you read in John 15, obedience to his commands. Like, and so really the more we walk with God, the more we grow in love relationship with God. So that's the other illustration that comes to my mind. Like, uh why do I love my wife so much after uh 26 years of marriage now? Like, why do I love her so much? I I've spent a lot of time with my wife, and yeah, I I love talking with my wife, I love spending time with my wife, I love dating nights with my wife, I love concentrated time with my wife, I love, yeah. So, how do we grow in love for God? We spend time with God, like we walk with God, we talk with God, we listen to God, we uh just meditate on God. And God is infinitely more lovely than my wife is, and I think my wife is very, very lovely, to be clear, but he's infinitely more lovely, and so there's so much more to meditate on in him. Uh, to yeah, and I can talk with him anytime and not with my wife anytime. I can hear from him anytime and not with my wife anytime. Like it just is a whole other level. So just think, what experience of love have you had in a relationship? What is it that makes that relationship like deeply, genuinely loving? And then think, whoa, the possibilities for that are infinitely greater with the God of the universe. And so that's how we grow in love for him. Yeah, yeah. What about you? You're I bro, I see in you, yeah, love for Jesus, like passion for Jesus and passion for others. What how would you how would you answer that question? Like, how do where does that passion, love come from?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

I I honestly think this is what I was gonna say is that I I'm starting to like learn more about like what does it mean to worship? What does it mean to adore God? And I'm realizing like, well, we worship and we adore the things that we find most beautiful. There is, I think the verse of the day is uh it's not in my brain, but I know that it's saying it's like we're we're coming into God's courts with with praise and thanksgiving and we're adoring him because we find beauty in him. And so that's like the thing that I have to continue to wrestle with as I've been a Christian kind of like since I was a kid, but more recently in college is when I really made that decision to follow him more deeply and actually open up the Bible and actually be belong to community and and go to church and serve. And um, yeah, since then I've just like started to understand what it what it means to actually worship God, not just in corporate gatherings of praising him, but day to day finding beauty in him. Um, because everything else is vying for our attention, everything else is claiming to be beautiful, artificially beautiful, putting itself to to make itself more beautiful in your eyes. I mean, that's the whole point of marketing things, and so I'm I'm I think I'm finally like cracking through that glass door of just seeing that, oh wow, like without God, none of this is beautiful. And so, wouldn't that make him the ultimate source of beauty? Uh and so I'm I'm yeah, in my own personal life, I'm just learning with the Lord what it looks like to worship him as the most beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Um, I as you're sharing that, that's so good because I it what's come to my mind is well, if we are lacking in desire for God, love for God, affection for God, it's that's that's probably a picture that we've not seen. Yeah, how beautiful he is. Because he that's right, he is, yes, the most glorious being, he's the most satisfying being. It's uh it's like the conversation we had on this podcast when uh uh Piper uh quoted from uh C.S. Lewis, like we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, like we desire these things in this world like ignorant children who go on making mud pies in a slum because we cannot meant imagine what's meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We're far too easily pleased. So it's like it takes so little to satisfy us instead of like really seeking the truest, deepest, most wonderful satisfaction. So, how do you get that? Well, you can't know God apart from his word. That's why we talk about that all the time. Like just the Christian life revolves around meditating on God's word. That's abide in me and in my word. That's John 15. That's how we abide in his love. We we hear from him. Uh, and then yeah, just I love the way you you put it. And I remember we had this conversation uh with uh I think it was TA, who said, Don't be contents with a good don't be content with a glimpse of God. Yeah, be eager to gaze on God. So but that that yeah, that takes time. Uh but again, like I I think uh yeah, we probably shouldn't be surprised if our desire for God is not strong because we filled our stomach with all kinds of stuff in this world. Like if we spend hours on a phone or Netflix or or social media or whatever, like if we're filling our minds with that, we just our our spiritual stomachs are full with junk food. Yeah. And but once we start to wean off of that some and fill it with, then of course, but but yeah, the kind of passion for Jesus that I see in you, and when I just think about others who I just walk away, man, that person's in love with Jesus. That doesn't come from ours doing whatever, yeah, just filling the mind and heart with the stuff of this world. That that comes from uh walking with God and seeing his beauty and all the ways you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, amen. Yeah, I just think kind of to wrap us up, like Paul talking about that we become slaves to whatever we obey, essentially. It's like I can I can choose, like all things are permissible to me, but not all things are beneficial. And so I even if I say like okay, well, I'm just gonna waste my day and scroll on social media, like that's permissible, so to speak. But the fact that that doesn't bring me closer to God, why do I want that? And I I think that that quote from C.S. Lewis has been hitting me like fresh then the past couple days as we've been talking about it. It's because I'm realizing that, yeah, okay, my desires for God aren't strong enough. Like my desires for the things of this world aren't actually strong, they're just weak. They're weak because I'm I'm not desiring the one who can satisfy me so ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

So Yeah, but as we as we do bring to a close, the one verse that keeps coming to my mind as we're talking is Ephesians chapter five. I say one verse, it's two verses, one and two. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, which I love that picture, just like like father, like son, or like daughter, like so uh, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So it really is in experiencing God as our Father and His infinite, indescribable, overwhelming, never failing, everyday, always faithful, love for us, as we experience this as his children, then we're empowered by his spirit, Galatians 5, to walk in love just as Christ loved us. Like we can love the same way Jesus loves because his spirit's inside of us. So yeah, uh, may that may that be the commentary on our lives and may it be so on uh everybody to listen to this that we would walk with God as his children and that he would empower us by his spirit in us to imitate him and actually love the same way Jesus loves other brothers and sisters in Christ and our world around us that desperately needs this kind of love.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Everyday Radical. We pray that it encouraged you in many ways. We do this every single week. So be sure to subscribe or follow to not miss the next episode. We'll see you then.