Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Yes, we are working on the book of Galatians. Yes, we are going to talk about the first fruit of the Spirit on the list of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22, which goes like this but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such things. There is no law. But first, we're having another storm. Do you remember last time we talked? There was a cool storm, and I got all excited because this is a big deal to me. I like storms. It's a neat thing that happens this time of year. And it is raging again right now. So I got the door open. I'm recording backup on my phone here because I think there's a really good chance we're going to lose power. And I want to, you know, I want to finish out the conversation. Here, let's just hang on. I want to go outside. I want you to hear the storm. Taking the other phone, taking the other recorder, that is. We're going outside. Some people like to share pictures of their grandkids and talk about how precious they are. That's cool. That's a good thing to do. Some people like to show you cool travel photos of places they went. That's also cool. Some people like to share awesome storms with you. And I am one of those staring at a storm with people I care about and marveling at the raw power of what is happening directly over our heads. That never gets old to me. I think it is so cool. And it's happening right now. And I'm getting very wet, and this is probably not going to work for the entire episode. But we hang out a lot, and this is important to me. And now I have shared it with you. And now I need a towel, because that really was a lot. Okay, back to this microphone where we're actually going to talk about love, which is kind of the big one here, right? Even if you haven't been around the Bible that much, Bible stuff about love just osmoses into the culture because everybody knows that love is awesome. Everybody knows, everybody, I think, even suspects that love is more than a human invention, right? Even if you don't believe in God, it seems like this is the thing that just doesn't make sense. That everybody, to some degree, hopefully a great degree, I hope, experiences over the course of their lives. It's this intangible thing that you can't quantify. Yeah, sure, there are dating sites and stuff that think that they can predict what'll work or not, but that's not even really love. That's compatibility. Love feels like an alien ore, like gold. How did gold get here? It's all space metal. How did love get here? I think everybody suspects it came from somewhere bigger than us. And the Bible speaks to that all over the place. It's a theme that runs through the whole New Testament. It's idealized. God is love, God exemplifies love. You know, forgiveness that is modeled by God. That is love. Paul loves to talk about love. It's all over his letters. Let's just start with that. You know, but the fruit of the spirit is love, this signature mark of the spirit that demonstrates the work of God. It's love. So I don't know. What's the most obvious Bible thing that comes to mind for those of you who've been around it for a long time? If you don't have anything that comes to mind yet, don't worry about it. The longer you're around this stuff, the more it'll stick. This is the one I'm thinking of. It's 1 Corinthians 13. Is that what you were saying? All right. Well, if it was, there's your high five. Nice job. For those of you who don't know or who are newer to this, if you got married in the 80s, 90s, maybe 2000s, up until Myspace.com happened, which is what I view as the cultural divide between the pre-internet era and the internet era. If you had a Christian wedding, you probably got a cross stitch, or I think in the South they call this a sampler from someone who cared about you very much, probably like an aunt or something along those lines. And it had 1 Corinthians 13 on it. Or maybe it was like some sentimental art from a Christian bookstore. It was had calligraphy and stuff, or probably some flowers. Usually the 1 Corinthians 13 art to hang on your wall. It's not exactly masculine coded, but it's a, I mean, it's a beautiful passage. And I don't know. I'm gonna read the whole thing. I had to memorize this in seventh grade, my Bible teacher. I was like, this is one of the passages. Every passage he made me memorize, I still have. I didn't like it at the time, but man, am I grateful now. Here we go. 1 Corinthians 13. This is Paul writing to a church that was, as we discussed yesterday, a dumpster fire that was not particularly good at being loving. And he's talked a lot about what that looks like, what they've been getting wrong, what they need to get right. And then he scribes this beautiful passage about love. And there's some context here. There were miraculous demonstrations from the Holy Spirit that happened in this church, and even that, these people were kind of selfish about and they were doing wrong and they were receiving those gifts of the Spirit in weird ways, wrong ways. So if you don't understand all of this passage, just know there's a little bit of context there. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I don't have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy, I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but I haven't love, I don't have nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, and I surrender my body to the flames, but I don't have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not proud, it's not rude, it's not self-seeking, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn't delight in evil, but it rejoices with the truth. It always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes, always perseveres, but love never fails. And I got a little bit more than I gotta read here. But are you picturing someone right now? I hope you are. I know some of you aren't. I'm sorry. I think I think that can change. Life is long, stuff changes. But people can come into your life who play roles that other people, by biology, should have played. But for most of you, I hope right now you are picturing someone who could have been impatient with you, but instead they were patient. Somebody could have just worried about their own stuff and sought after their own gain, but instead they worried about you and how you were doing and helped you and made you a priority and showed you kindness and tenderness and compassion when most people would just walk on by or worry about their own stuff. Somebody who didn't get mad at the drop of the hat, but restrained themselves when maybe it would have made sense for a normal person to be mad. Maybe somebody in your life who, instead of just keeping score all the time and then pulling out the stupidest stuff that you ever did when you they really need it. Like they keep this little collection of your idiot moments so then they can break that out and be like, but you did this this time. Maybe you're picturing somebody who's never done that, doesn't do that kind of stuff to you, who would never do that kind of stuff to you. Somebody who isn't delighting when evil or bad things befall other people. They don't get that Schott in Freud catharsis feeling when their enemies get it or when something bad happens because they delight in the chaos, but instead somebody who likes things that are true, even if it wasn't their idea in the first place. Somebody who likes things that are beautiful, even if they didn't paint it. Maybe you're picturing somebody who, whether you knew it or not, was always looking out for you. And whether it was physical or not was always shielding you from something very dark, something that wanted to hurt you, something that wanted to take things from you. Maybe you're picturing somebody right now who 100% you could trust and who knew how to trust themselves. Maybe you're picturing somebody right now who throughout your life has had this weird sense of optimism that is hard to explain. But even when things are gross or frustrating, they persevere, they hang in, they keep going. Well, according to what we're reading in this book, 1 Corinthians, what we're reading in Galatians, that stuff's all from God. But isn't it interesting that as we go here, it's like what we get in the middle of 1 Corinthians 13. It's like a double click, it's like an expand or a hyperlink on Galatians 5.22, and particularly on the word love. Just imagine the word love in the text, except it's blue and it's underlined and it's clickable, and you're like, okay, but the fruit of the spirit is love. Click. Well, what does the Bible have to expand on that? Well, right there, 1 Corinthians 13. Okay, like to find, like, help me understand what love exactly look like for me as a first-time reader through Galatians chapter 5. Oh, okay, well, I get a list here. Oh, it's patient, it's kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not proud, it's not rude, it's not self-seeking, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it doesn't delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails, I read on. But where there are prophecies, yeah, they'll cease. Where there are tongues, yeah, they'll be stilled. Where there's knowledge, it'll pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Obviously, there's a ton more we could unpack here if we were doing first Corinthians, but we're not, we're doing Galatians, and we're lingering particularly on the first of the fruits of the Spirit, that being love. Because as I said at the beginning, it's all over the Bible. And let's just say that you or I were to get to that passage, and maybe we were feeling a little bit freshman year philosophy class, enlightened 18-year-oldie, and somebody's reading this passage aloud, and they're like, But the fruits of the spirit are love. Uh, before you read the rest, excuse me, actually, I have some questions. Like one in particular is stroke my chin, what is love? And everybody else groans because I think I'm smart, and everybody knows I'm just being no it all idiot, difficult philosophy class boy. But it is, I mean, I picture it obnoxiously asked, but I guess maybe it's kind of a reasonable question. Yeah, but what exactly is love? A lot of people use that word to mean a lot of things right now. So I think it makes sense that this thing that Paul is saying, like there's these are the big three, and this is the big one is love. It's the centerpiece of all of this. It's why God is doing what he's doing. It's why there's a redemptive plan at all, it's why there's a Jesus at all, it's why we're writing any of these letters. I mean, it's all because of the love of God, and God gives away love. We get it too. We get to participate in that and imitate that. It's a huge deal. The hugest of deals. So rather than just glossing over this one, I'm gonna linger on this one a little bit so that we can outwit the 18-year-old philosophy guy version of ourselves and be like, okay, well, lots of people have a lot of opinions and lots of people spout a lot of things and lots of slogans these days about what love is. What does the Bible say it is? What are we talking about here in this context, in this text? And I think we are off to a fantastic start with the gift that is 1 Corinthians 13. And hopefully every time you are sitting there in your bathroom staring at that cross stitch that you don't remember who gave you from back in the day, you just buzz through that list of what love is and reflect on the profundity of this amazing gift that is first in the list of the fruits of the spirit, and that we are gonna spend a bunch more time talking about. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm Matt is the 10-minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.