Culture tells us love is a feeling. Scripture tells us love is the very character of God.

In this episode, Nicole and Stephanie open our new Fruit That Lasts series with the first fruit of the Spirit, love. Over the next nine episodes we are slowing down to study the fruit of the Spirit, not as a checklist of behaviors, but as the evidence of a life abiding in Christ.

Galatians 5:22-23 calls these the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of our effort. These are not traits we manufacture on a good day. They are the Holy Spirit's work in someone who belongs to Jesus. And love is where it begins, because every other fruit grows out of it.

In This Episode

• What biblical love means, and why it is more than being nice
• Why 1 Corinthians 13 is not really about marriage at all
• How cancel culture shows up in the way we love
• Why Peter on the beach and the woman in John 8 change how we see grace
• Stephanie's question for hard conversations: what do you need from me right now?

Love That Looks Like Jesus

Biblical love is choosing another person's good, even when it costs you. In John 15, Jesus says abiding in Him produces fruit, then commands us to love one another as He has loved us. Sally Lloyd-Jones calls God's love His never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love. Jesus did not love people because they had it all together. He loved them right in the middle of their mess.

Why It Is So Hard

Sin curves our hearts inward. We drift toward loving people when it is easy, or when they love us well in return. When someone stops serving us, culture tells us to cancel them, when Scripture calls us to turn toward them in prayer. Even Paul wrestled with this in Romans 7. And when we are running on empty, that is usually the sign we have been loving in our own strength.

Most of us have heard 1 Corinthians 13 at a wedding and assumed it was about marriage. But the passage is about God's love. Jesus is patient. Jesus is kind. Read that way, it stops being a standard we perform and becomes a mirror.

Faith Layer

1 John 4:19. We love because he first loved us.

Jesus loved first, sacrificially, consistently, and while we were still sinners. Psalm 136 repeats it over and over, for his steadfast love endures forever. Steadfastness does not describe us. It describes Christ. Randy Pope says it simply: religion says do, the Gospel says done. We do not love to earn God's approval. We love because we have already received it.

Resources Mentioned

• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
• Closer Than a Sister by Christina Fox
• Peace Over Perfection by Faith Chang
• The Answer by Randy Pope
• ROOTS Morning Journals. groundedgrowth.org/store

Final Encouragement

Loving like Jesus does not start with getting it right. It starts with staying close to Him and showing up again, even after yesterday's mess. Pick one person and one small moment this week, ask the Holy Spirit to love through you, and let that be enough. On the days you fall short, you do not start over by trying harder. You come back to Jesus, whose love never stops, never gives up, and never runs out.

Stay grounded and keep growing.

www.groundedgrowth.org
Instagram: @GroundedGrowthMO