When I travel around the internet and I listen to what people have to say as they make arguments for how the things ought to be, there's a lot of words that people use, and all the words I suppose are positive or could be construed positively. I hear people saying, you know, we got to oppose hate, or we need to be patriotic, or we got to focus on heritage or tradition, or we got to be moving forward. We need to be progressively always pushing forward. The optimism, hope, goodwill, love. I mean, these are all I think they're all good. But I will hear people use every one of those words in a way that would, practically speaking, advocate for a completely different outcome, a completely different direction. So as a result, any sensible traveler of the internet or encounterer of impassioned arguments for how the thing ought to be, anybody with any common sense at all is going to have to ask, well, what do you mean by that word? I'm interested to know more about how you imagine that word. What you imagine it to mean. Nuance it. Walk me through all the details. That is what you and I are doing right now with a word that could mean many different things to many different people, and that is love. Because we're in Galatians 5. I mean, we've been here in these two lists in the middle of Galatians 5 for a very long time. We're in Galatians 5. We just finished the list of the very bad things, the acts of the flesh, the sinful nature. Now we're on to the fruits of the spirit, and we've been hung up on the first one, which is love. It's the most important one. Paul says so himself in another letter in 1 Corinthians 13. It's all over the New Testament, and we're trying to get a feel, a sense for what we mean when we say the word love in the context of the Spirit, in the context of the Bible. So we looked at a bunch of things that Paul said about that. Now we are several days into looking at a bunch of things that Jesus says about that, as recorded by the Gospel authors. And we're on to the final gospel, the Gospel of John, this time around. Of the four gospels, the four accounts of the life and teaching and death and resurrection of Jesus of the four Gospels. I think John talks about love the most. Maybe you could make a case that even when the love, the word love isn't used in other gospels, like I don't know. I haven't gone through and put a pen to it for math. But it seems like John overtly records Jesus talking about love the most. Now, we've already referenced one of these. It's the most famous verse in the whole Bible, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. I've already disclosed to you that that is the verse of the Bible that I have memorized in the nine different versions all mushed together. So some of you are probably laughing at me and being like, what was that? Like, is that the English Standard Version or the King James, a little bit of NIV mushed in there? Yeah, I know. I'm self-conscious about it. I should just pick one and memorize it so I look cool at Bible parties and stuff. I am what I am. I'm not turning to John 3 just as a matter of principle now. But I am going to turn to, I don't know, which one of these? Let's just pick a couple of them that I think are pretty famous. Here's one that comes to mind. John 17. This is the prayer of Jesus to his father right before he gets arrested and is fast tracked to the cross. And at the end of this, Jesus is praying for Christians to love each other because Jesus is, I mean, he's in agreement with God that when Christians love each other and are one, it shows the world that Jesus and the Father are one. John 17, 20. My prayer is not for them alone, talking about his immediate disciples who were there and on the scene right then. But he goes on to say that he's praying for us, like people who are Christians now. Kind of cool that we're in view in this part of the Bible. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. Ha! That's me. That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Well, that's kind of a new element to what we're talking about here with love, isn't it? We've focused a lot, understandably, because the Bible focuses a lot on simply the rightness of love, that it makes sense, that it's a right way to view other people, that it's a God-emulating way to view others. But here the stakes of it are higher. It it goes to the next level that i there's a a ripple effect to love in the values of the kingdom and in the calculus of the kingdom. This says if Christians aren't loving, I'm going with the converse of what Jesus just prayed in John 17. If they aren't loving to each other, outsiders are gonna look at that and be like, I don't I don't think it's real. I don't think Jesus is real, I don't think the claims of Jesus are real. Doesn't make sense. If that were real, there would be power enough to change human nature, and I don't really see that. But then what Jesus is praying affirmatively is if Christians love each other, if Christians do the love thing and are defined by their love, people will notice that and it will be compelling, and it points to the most profound truth in all of existence, which is the reality of the nature and character of the triune God. Dang. So we're introducing a new element to this here in this volume search of what does the bulk of the New Testament say about love so that we can understand it better for ourselves when we see just the one word in Galatians chapter five. It is a thing with stakes, it is a thing that is somehow philosophically derivative of and demonstrative of the reality of who God is and what he's doing. Okay, I thought of another one in John. John fifteen fifteen. No, it's right there though. I could have written it down. Here it is. It's starting in verse nine. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, is Jesus talking. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. I've told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You're my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. Instead, I've called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I've made known to you. How about that language there right there as it relates to what we've been looking at in Galatians? I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Paul is totally hitting on all of that. Why did I forget to go here? Paul is totally tapping into that language and imagery when he talks, you remember about the the law as being a tutor and us formerly being in this state of servitude and that even though it it boggles the mind that in Christ we're made sons and daughters and heirs and agents of the king. I mean wow, there it is in red letters from Jesus. Sorry, I should have thought to go there sooner. Let me keep going with what Jesus says in John 15 here, talking to his disciples. You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Do you see what we're doing here? I mean, you don't need me to spell that out right with the Galatians 5 thing. Cool, we're just gonna keep going. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command. Love each other. So Paul isn't just making this up. I I said a while back that sometimes, unfortunately, lazily, maybe sometimes out of the best of intentions, maybe sometimes not out of the truest of intentions, people will pit one part of the Bible against another part of the Bible. Well, you know, Paul said this, but he was hijacking Christianity and making a new thing. Jesus never said that. Look, Paul and Jesus are in lockstep right here. John 15 and the whole book of Galatians is in lockstep. This is my command. Love each other. Go and bear this fruit. I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. He's calling them friends. My goodness. This is just a beautiful lock and key fit with what Paul is doing. And I think it speaks directly to our little Bible quest right now, which is figuring out what does the whole New Testament say love is. Well, thank you for clarifying, Jesus. That's potent. I have such lofty ambitions every time we do this. I really do intend to cover all the things that we're gonna cover. But I mean, it's a Bible, it's good. Sometimes it takes a minute. You can tell by my tone. You know the drill, you know what we're doing. We're gonna break this episode in half, and then we're gonna pick it up tomorrow, right where we left off with more stuff about the fruits of the spirit and love. And it's gonna be great. Thanks for your patience. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.