TODAY IN THE WORD
To see just how much popular culture talks about love, take this quick test: see how many popular songs you can name in the next ten seconds that have “love” in the title. Even if popular music has never been your favorite genre, you can still probably name at least half a dozen songs with this theme.

Over the next few days we are going to focus on the qualities known as the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22–23 is frequently memorized and quoted, and we want to go through each of these attributes to discover what this fruit really looks like. We want to be able to know what this fruit is so that we can recognize it in our own lives and in the lives of others.

We begin today with love. This quality so celebrated in popular culture is also frequently misunderstood. Love is not just warm feelings, or sexual attraction, or even selfless motives. In our passage today, Jesus is speaking to His disciples about love, and we are able to see how He describes this fruit of the Spirit.

First, we see that this love has a divine origin (v. 9). This isn’t something we manufacture ourselves. Second, love has an inseparable connection to obedience (v. 10). Jesus demonstrated divine love by His obedience to the Father; we demonstrate love the same way. Third, love sacrifices for the good of others (v. 13). Again, Jesus is the ultimate example of this, as He gave His own life so that we might be saved. We are to love each other in the same way–without thought to our own gain, pleasure, or advancement.

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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In John 15:7 Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.”

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