Cultivating the Garden | Episode 2: Love— The Foundation

Love is the first fruit of the Spirit—but have you ever stopped to ask why?

Before we spend the next several weeks exploring joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we first have to understand the foundation they all grow from: love.

In this episode, we walk through 1 Corinthians 13 and John 13:34–35 to discover what biblical love really looks like. Together, we’ll explore why love gives meaning to everything else we do, how Jesus modeled the standard of love, and why our love for others becomes evidence of our relationship with Him.

We’ll also talk about how love isn’t something we manufacture through our own effort. Instead, it’s something that flows from first receiving Christ’s love and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us from the inside out.

Whether you’re just beginning your walk with Christ or you’ve been following Him for years, this conversation is an invitation to examine your heart, reflect on the way you love others, and allow God to continue cultivating the fruit only He can produce.

Scriptures Discussed

• 1 Corinthians 13

• John 13:34–35

Connect with Gospel Girlies:

Follow on Instagram @gospelgirlies— Intagram.com/gospelgirlies

Follow on TikTok @gospelgirlies_

New episodes drop every Wednesday at 8 PM EST.

Don't forget to follow, rate, and review!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Hey girlies, welcome back to Gospel Girlies, the Gospel Center podcast for women. I'm your host, Angel, and around here we're about honest faith, real life, and choosing obedience, even when the world doesn't make sense. So get ready to have your hearts filled, your souls lifted, and your faith ignited. If you're new here, welcome home, girly. If you've been here, you already know the vibes. Hey girl, hey! Okay, before we jump into the episode for today, I wanted to follow up on something we talked about at the beginning of our last episode. I left you all with a question to reflect on throughout the week, and I told you that this week I would answer it for myself. The question was: if you traced where your eyes have gone this past week, what have they been admiring and what has that admiration been doing inside of you? And of course, I told y'all that we were gonna answer it. So I spent some time thinking about it. Honestly, my eyes have been on a lot this week, okay? They've been on school preparing for my midterm, writing this episode, creating content for gospel girlies, serving at church, and just trying to faithfully steward everything God has placed in front of me. But as I reflected on the question, I realized it wasn't just about what I was looking at, it was about what those things were producing in me. And instead of producing comparison or envy, I think this week has been producing intentionality, it reminded me to slow down, to be thoughtful, and to ask myself, does this point people back to Jesus? Whether I was writing this podcast, studying scripture, or even creating a social media post, I find myself, I found myself wanting everything to be done with purpose. That means that I'm actually that doesn't mean I never get distracted or have moments where I need to refocus, but this question reminded me that whatever I consistently fix my eyes on will eventually shape what happens in my heart, and so I'm grateful that this week God kept bringing my attention back to him. Okay, oh y'all, let me tell y'all what happened Sunday after service. Um, one of our leaders called me over, and of course, you know, she asked me how I was doing, and then we kind of complimented each other's outfits, and then she said something I was not expecting. She told me that she was getting ready to do a prayer champion class, and she thought that I should sign up, y'all. My first thought was me because as soon as she said that, y'all, I immediately thought about how during service the prayer champions stand at the front and people come up to them for prayer, and praying in front of people is honestly something that makes me nervous and stretches me. So, like a few weeks ago, I was actually asked to close out one of our leadership meetings in prayer. Y'all, the way I looked at that man, but I did it out of obedience, and even though I was nervous, I was grateful for the opportunity. So after the meeting, I actually texted um the pastor and his wife, um, the youth pastor, our campus pastors, and I thanked them because I knew it was an area where God was growing me. So when she asked me on Sunday to sign up for the prayer champion class, I immediately thought, Lord, are you doing something here? But what made me feel a little more at ease was that she told me that taking this class doesn't automatically mean I'll be praying over people on Sundays. It's just simply an opportunity to learn and grow. And honestly, I think that's what encouraged me the most because one of the things I've really been wanting to grow in is my prayer life, not just privately with God, but also becoming more comfortable praying with and for other people. So I signed my name. I don't know exactly what God is preparing me for, but I do know that if he's opening a door for me to grow, I want to be obedient enough to walk through it. I might be trembling in my boots, but we walk in. Because sometimes God stretches us and takes us out of our comfort zones before he uses us in new ways. And maybe this is one of those moments. I'm excited to see where God is taking me next, though. So I'll keep y'all posted, okay? Ooh, all right. So last week we kicked off our brand new series, Cultivating the Garden, How the Spirit Transforms Our Lives. We started by laying the foundation before jumping into the individual fruit of the spirit. Um, we looked at Galatians 5, John 15, Romans 8, and Colossians 3, and we discovered that fruit isn't something we manufacture, it's something that grows as we abide in Jesus and walk in the spirit. Um, we also talked about how every life is producing something, and before we ended the episode, we left ourselves with one simple question: What is growing in me? Today we're going to begin looking at the very first fruit of the spirit. Love. But here's the question I found myself asking as I studied these passages. Why does Paul begin with love? Love being mentioned first wasn't an accident. And so before we spend the next several weeks talking about the rest of the fruit of the spirit, I think we first have to understand the foundation they all grow from. Okay, come back. Paul begins by saying something that completely changes the way we often think about spiritual maturity. We usually think that if someone knows a lot of scripture, has incredible faith, serves faithfully, or even has spiritual gifts, then they must be spiritually mature. But Paul says something different. He says, We can speak with the tongues of men and angels, understand mysteries, have knowledge, and even have faith that moves mountains. But if love isn't there, it means nothing, and everything else is just noise. As I read that, I couldn't help but think about how easy it is to focus on what we do for God while overlooking how we love people. Through this passage, we're reminded that God isn't just concerned with our gifts, our knowledge, or even our acts of service. He's also concerned with our hearts. Because love isn't just something God asks us to show. Love is part of who God is. And from there, we're given a picture of what love actually looks like. Love is patient, love is kind, it isn't jealous, it isn't prideful, it isn't selfish, it isn't easily angered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs, it rejoices in the truth instead of evil. Love is supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. As I read through that list, I realized Paul isn't giving us a checklist to complete, he is giving us a picture of what godly love looks like. Okay, the core message of this passage is simple though. Love isn't just one good quality among many, it's the foundation that gives everything else meaning. Right in the middle of this chapter, Paul says something that often gets quoted by itself. He says, When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Or things, you know, not the country, things. People often separate that verse from the love chapter, but it wasn't written that way. He's still he's still talking about love. Um, and as I thought about that, it made me realize that spiritual maturity isn't simply getting older, it's growing in love, it's becoming less focused on ourselves and more reflective of the heart of Christ. Because when we're children, it's easy to think about what we want, what we deserve, what someone else did to us, what we can't get, what we can get. But as we mature in Christ, our hearts begin to change. We become less concerned with keeping score and more concerned with loving people the way Christ has loved us. That was another thing that stood out to me while studying this passage. It's possible to do all the right things and still struggle to love well. And that's why he ends the chapter by saying that while many things will pass away, three things remain faith, hope, and love. And then he leaves us with this statement the greatest of these is love. And I think that statement becomes the foundation of everything we'll talk about throughout the rest of this series. In John chapter 13, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment. He tells them to love one another. But he doesn't stop there. He raises the standard. He says, As I have loved you, so you must love one another. I think that's important because Jesus doesn't simply tell us to love, he shows us how to love. He becomes the standard. Throughout his ministry, Jesus showed us exactly what love looks like. He loved with patience, kindness, sacrifice, and intention. Even when people rejected him, his love remained consistent. What I like is that Jesus doesn't just ask us to figure love out on our own, he models it first. So now we don't have to guess what love looks like. We've seen it through Christ. Then Jesus makes another statement that really challenged me. He says that people will know we're his disciples by the way we love one another. Not by how much scripture we can quote, not by how often we go to church, not by the titles we carry, but by our love. That tells me love isn't optional, it's part of our identity as followers of Christ. So as I studied these two passages together, I realized something I hadn't thought about before. At first, I wrote in my notes that if we don't love ourselves, we can't truly love others. And while I still think there's importance in understanding our value in Christ, I think scripture pointed me to something even deeper. We learn how to love others by first understanding how Jesus has loved us. Because his love becomes both our model and our source. Because we've experienced that kind of love through Christ, we're able to reflect it to others, not to earn love in return, not to convince people to love us back, but because that's who we're becoming in Christ. I think that's such an important distinction. If I'm kind to someone simply because I'm hoping they'll be kind back, that's a transaction. But if I'm kind because I've experienced God's love, now I'm loving from a full place instead of an empty one, and I think that changes everything because we don't love people to get something from them, we love people because we've already been given everything through Christ. Ooh, you already know. I'm about to say it again. We don't love people to get something from them, we love people because we've already been given everything through Christ. So as I reflected on everything these passages were teaching, I started looking at the rest of the fruit differently. I stopped seeing them as nine separate qualities to work on, and I started looking at the fruit this way. Let me let me say it a different way. And when I started looking at the fruit this way, something changed. Instead, I started seeing them as different expressions of the same love God is producing within us. Patience is what love looks like when it has to wait. Kindness puts that love into action. Joy delights in Christ. Peace rests in God. Goodness chooses what is right, faithfulness keeps showing up, gentleness chooses its tone carefully, and self-control knows when love should pause instead of react. And when you begin looking at the fruit this way, you realize they aren't competing with one another. Each one reveals another aspect of what love looks like when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. I think sometimes we make love more complicated than it has to be. We think it's always a big moment or a grand gesture, but most of the time love is revealed in the small, everyday decisions we make. Jesus loved people deeply, but he never compromised truth to be accepted. Yeah, y'all need that one again. Jesus loved people deeply, but he never compromised truth to be accepted. His love was full of both grace and truth. And I think that's an invitation for us too to love from the fullness of what we've already received in Christ. Sometimes love looks like kindness, even when you don't want to be. Other times it looks like telling the truth. Sometimes it's extending grace. And sometimes it's walking away with wisdom while still choosing forgiveness. I got y'all. Love doesn't mean saying yes to everything, okay? Love doesn't mean tolerating unhealthy behavior. Love means responding in a way that reflects the heart of Christ. So one thing that really challenged me while studying these passages was realizing just how much bigger biblical love is than the way we often think about it. Sometimes society reduces love to a feeling. Sometimes we reduce it to words. And sometimes we only think about love in the context of relationships. But scripture paints a much bigger picture. Love isn't just something we say, it's something people should experience through us. It's revealed in the way we treat people, the way we respond when we frustrated, the way we extend grace, the way we choose truth, the way we forgive. As I sat with that, another part of Jesus' words kept coming back to me. He didn't say people would recognize us by how much scripture we know. He didn't say people would recognize us by the church we attend. He didn't say people would recognize us by the title we carry. He said they would recognize us by our love. And that made me really stop and think if someone watched my life, oh my, would love be the first thing they noticed? Not my knowledge, not my gifts, not the things I do, but my love. Because if I'm honest, it's easy to become focused on doing things for God. But these passages reminded me that God isn't just looking at what I do, He's looking at how I love while I'm doing it. That was probably one of the biggest things I took away from studying these scriptures. A whole lot better. And we're not perfect, but we have to try. And that's why we have to continuously seek God, build an intimate relationship with Christ. Because the more you do that, the more your heart posture begins to change. You can't do it on your own. If we could, child, the world would be so good. We wouldn't have we wouldn't need a whole bunch. But because we are human and imperfect, we have to lean on the source. We have to, we have to tap into it. That's the only way that we will begin to reflect Christ because Christ is in us, He dwells in us. I want us to walk away understanding why. Love becomes the evidence of a life that's being transformed by Christ. It's both the model and the source. Jesus showed us what love looks like, and now through the Holy Spirit, He's producing that same kind of love within us. And I think that's a beautiful reminder that we're not trying to manufacture something on our own. We're allowing God to grow something within us that the world can't help but notice. Because Jesus said people would know we belong to Him by the way we love. So this week, my prayer is that we wouldn't just learn about love. I pray we would live it. And always, I want to leave you with a question to sit with this week. Excuse me. If someone watched your life, would love be the first thing they noticed? Not because you said the right thing, not because you knew the right scriptures, not because you served in ministry, but because of the way you treated people. Take some time this week to pray about that. Ask God to reveal the places where your love reflects Him well, of course, but also ask Him to continue growing the kind of love that points people back to Christ. Next week we'll continue our journey through the fruit of the Spirit as we look at joy. Not the kind of happiness that depends on our circumstances, but the kind of joy that remains steady because it's rooted in Christ. Until then, I'd encourage you to spend some time reading Philippians chapter four, verse four, and John chapter 15, verse 11. As you read, ask yourself this question. Where have I been looking for joy? So I'll meet you right back here next week as we continue cultivating the garden together. I appreciate you so much for spending this time with me today and allowing me to spend this time in the Word with you. If this episode encouraged you, challenged you, or gave you something to reflect on, I'd truly love to hear from you. Leave a review, share the episode with a friend, or let me know what stood out to you most. And don't forget to stay connected with Gospel Girlies throughout the week. You can follow us on Instagram at GospelGirlies and on TikTok at GospelGirlies with one underscore for encouragement, updates, and conversations beyond the podcast. And y'all know what time it is for the next few moments. No music, no distractions, no phone, no pressure to perform, just you and God. And remember, as you inhale, y'all, as you exhale, weigh. All right, ready? Last time. Remember to walk boldly, live faithfully, and step into God's plan for you. Because it is greater than anything you could ever imagine. I'll see you next time on Gospel Girlies Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Bye.