← Unashamed with the Robertson Family
Unashamed with the Robertson Family
Ep 1332 | The Modern Idols Christians Refuse to Recognize
00:57:53
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- [00:02]
Jace
I am unashamed. What about you?
- [00:07]
Al Robertson
Welcome back to Unashamed. It is early May when we're recording this. It's usually about a week later.
- [00:16]
Jace
Is it.
- [00:16]
Al Robertson
I was just.
- [00:17]
Jace
It's May.
- [00:18]
Al Robertson
It's May. We are in May. Yeah, it happened. And I was in. Up in Iowa this last week when we were not recording and meeting with some folks up there and ran into a ton of unashamed listeners just telling stories and loving everything. Jace. I always ask them the same thing. I'm like, is Jace gonna run out of stories? And they're like, nope. Or nor. Rabbit holes. So that's the line out there with the. With our audience. They love. They love it. I said, well, do you love the rabbit holes? They said, we love the rabbit holes. And one guy told me, he said, I love the cold opens, too. He said, you know, I know some people are like, I wish they'd, you know, move on to the Bible. He said, but I love the stories because they're funny, you know? So he.
- [01:02]
Jace
Well, I'll tell you this. This is. I got breaking news for you. I got a rabbit hole today that I haven't visited in about 30 years, but at some point, I will go down one today.
- [01:17]
Al Robertson
So. So you'll be excited. Audience. So I wanted to. So I got down here to the southern layer. We flew in from Iow, and my neighbors are getting married this week, and we were talking about Jesus conversations on the last podcast. And the reason you have them is you never know when you can be an assistance to someone in a spiritual way. And so, because when my neighbor bought her house, which is next door to me here, in our early conversations, we had some really good Jesus conversations about her life and what had got her to this point and why she was here. And she was a single mom, and so we got into all that, which just so happens that since we've been here a year, she's met a young man who's a fantastic guy. And so then we had some more Jesus conversations with the two of them, and it led us to be able to have some influence into their sort of getting ready for their marriage. And they're going to do it right here on their dock, which is right behind our house. And so we were super excited about getting to be a part of that because we happened to be down here this week. But Jason noticed the. The. What we always call the love bugs are out now. I don't know, are they out there in Louisiana? The little black ones with the red right behind their head?
- [02:26]
Zach
Your car they ruin your vehicles.
- [02:29]
Al Robertson
Exactly. Are they, Are they in North Carolina right now, Zach? Because they're down here.
- [02:33]
Zach
You know what? I don't think I've ever seen them here really. But I grew up in Florida, so I mean the Florida was a thing
- [02:40]
Jace
in Florida and Louisiana. You have to, you have to go outside to see them.
- [02:46]
Zach
Oh, I'm outside. Let me tell you something, Jace. I'm outside way more in North Carolina than I ever was Louisiana. Because if you go outside Louisiana in the summertime, like it's like you're gonna pay for it. So like it's like. I mean, it's. That's. No, I'm outside all the time.
- [03:01]
Jace
That's funny.
- [03:01]
Al Robertson
So.
- [03:01]
Jace
So the.
- [03:02]
Al Robertson
So the love. The love bugs. I did a little bit of look because my first thought was. And this. I was going to ask you, Jay, but I've actually looked it up in between our recordings. So I already know my answer, at least from AI that I was wondering if these were the same bugs as the Mayflowers which dad used to. And they're not. That's right. Correct. Although they are in the same genre family. I did find that it's the same.
- [03:30]
Jace
It's the same process. All the bugs come out which, all of this, you are focusing on the negative. But when these bugs come out and the timing of it is because April and May is when the Opelous is cats, which are catfish, for those of you who do not know, this is when they. They run. They run this, these. This time of year, April and May.
- [03:58]
Zach
And by run he means swim.
- [04:01]
Jace
They do they. They run in packs. They're a real individual specimen until April and May, which is during the spawning process. But it's also when all the bugs are out. So who cares about all that because the Opelous are running. I've been dreaming of how I'm going to get back involved with that. Because you got to have access to a river, you got to have a boat and you got to have nets. Everything's crazy right now, but it's in my mind because we're running out of time. That's why I said, oh, it's May, it's now or never.
- [04:37]
Al Robertson
So dad would always have this thing he would do. This is kind of Zach back to in the woods with Phil because Dad always. Because he was such a. An observer of nature, which is just a way of saying God's creation, but what he would see and these are the kind of things he would notice and the reason Jay's knows about him and I know about it is because he would teach us these things, and then later he taught all of you because we did 800 episodes of stuff just like what I'm about to share. So dad would always say, you know, if you're wondering if there's a God or not, consider the mayfly. You know, he lives for 24 hours
- [05:14]
Jace
and there's millions of them that come out.
- [05:17]
Al Robertson
Millions. And they mate and they go into the water and feed the fish. And they feed the fish.
- [05:24]
Jace
Yeah.
- [05:25]
Al Robertson
And here's what. Here's something I read today, James. I didn't know that. Dad never said. He probably didn't know this because he's not observing. Under the water, they actually. The ones who don't get eaten by the fish, they become what's called a nymph, a water nymph. And they eat on algae and stuff. So they're still alive, the ones that go in the water.
- [05:42]
Jace
Yeah.
- [05:42]
Al Robertson
Some of those still live and they come out of the water to become the ones that die in a day or go back into the water and provide the food fish. So it is interesting that God keeps the cycle going through the process.
- [05:54]
Jace
Some of them just get baptized.
- [05:56]
Al Robertson
They get baptized and they live their life underwater. Which dad would have loved that. Even better known that aspect of it. He put out a whole nother lesson about that.
- [06:09]
Jace
I remember, you know, the first time we saw the running of the bulls on T. Phil said, I don't know what all these people getting all excited about. Let's go to Italy or Spain or wherever they're running with the bull. I guess it'd be Spain.
- [06:26]
Al Robertson
Spain, yeah.
- [06:27]
Jace
And he said, you know what we're going to do? We're going to run with ops, because these ops are. They get huge. I mean, they get up to 80, 90 pounds. But I mean, I've seen nets that would have 1,000 pounds of Opelousis catfish, which. The reason we're making such a big deal about this is there's so many different species of catfish. Not sure how many, but you can look it up, and it's a ton. But there's one that stands above them all, and it is the opelousis catfish,
- [07:03]
Al Robertson
as far as taste, only eats fresh.
- [07:05]
Jace
Yeah, they eat fresh food. They don't eat dead stuff. And they taste better, they're just better. And if you've never eaten an opelousis cat, I typically prefer the ones that are about five to ten pounds. It is the greatest catfish that you will ever eat.
- [07:22]
Al Robertson
It was funny, Jace, because we would Eat those, the that range anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds. But we got excited about the big ones because we sold them. So that was money. That was big money.
- [07:34]
Jace
And now that's a lost art because now the commercial fishing industry has died because of pond raised. But you can't raise opelousis catfish in captivity because they'll turn cannibalistic because they only like things that are alive. And so now the only way to eat the precious op is to go catch one. So live bait is the key if you want to get into that or a hoop net which is a lot more expensive way to do it and check your local laws. And because there's enough laws over that to put you in prison if you get that wrong.
- [08:10]
Al Robertson
You know, you don't want to wonder like Zach was doing on the crawfish. You want to know, make sure it's legal. I want to make sure you get your licensing. And yeah, what you're doing is correct.
- [08:19]
Zach
As we would say in an advertisement, certain terms and conditions may apply.
- [08:24]
Jace
But we sell this because what a creator. I mean, I mean this is the foundation of my faith. Just looking at the creation itself thinking okay, someone was in charge of this. There's just too many details. And all those opelous cat which what I find fascinating about this is like when you see a blue cat, they all look the same. You can't tell them apart. Every opelous cat where they're the brown pattern, that's where the, you know, we think of an opelous horse, they get that spotted look. But they're all unique to themselves. I mean there's millions of them, but there's not two of them the same. They're all a little different. They're a little different color, they have a little different pattern. Don't you find that fascinating?
- [09:10]
Al Robertson
Very much so. And the idea that the life that they live is such a short one because as a short purpose.
- [09:19]
Zach
So when you think about navigating health care right now, what's been most frustrating for me is that it's just so much money. It's so expensive, Al. I mean I don't know if you've looked at it recently, it's insane how much insurance is costing.
- [09:32]
Al Robertson
Well and it's for those of us self employed like you are and I am, it's even more than everybody else is experiencing. So yes, it's very, very expensive.
- [09:41]
Zach
That's why a lot of folks are turning to Christian healthcare ministries. Let's be honest, the healthcare system in this country is a mess. There's about 110 million Americans without any health insurance at all because it's too expensive. And then there's another 100 million who are stuck carrying massive medical debt. And so traditional health insurance, it's just way too expensive. It's way too complicated. It's full of restrictions. But with Christian healthcare ministries, believers are saving about $464 a month on average, and that's significant. And you're not just getting financial support, you're also getting spiritual support from other Christians as well. CHM has been doing this since 1981. It's the original health cost sharing ministry. Al, you and Lisa, you guys have benefited greatly from health call sharing ministries, correct?
- [10:24]
Al Robertson
Yeah, no doubt about it. And not only just the financial side, which was a huge blessing when we walked through Lisa's breast cancer, but also just the spiritual uplift of having people pray for you, send you notes of encouragement. It really was a great blessing to us.
- [10:38]
Zach
So over the years, they've helped share more than $13 billion in medical bills. So see why believers across the nation are better off with CHM. Get started today by visiting chministries.org unashamed that's chministries.org.org unashamed
- [10:57]
Al Robertson
so I did find in my research that the, the, the one, the love bugs that are flying around, other than just a menace, maybe to your car, they only live three or four days as well. So they're food for something, probably birds, who knows? But they are thick right now here in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I don't know about Louisiana, Jace, but they're, they're out and about. So I've been dealing with those outside trying to clean things up for the big wedding. So I want to get to. To our text today because there's. We're going to land in third John, which I'm sure is where Jason's rabbit hole is. But there were a couple of thoughts that I wanted to bring out a second John because we read it a couple of podcasts ago and we talked just a bit about it, but there were a couple of thoughts we didn't get into. We talked about the idea, Jason. It was more than likely a house church, kind of the first John being sent out to churches, probably several churches. But the idea was to kind of a larger narrative of the church because John obviously by this time has had a lot of interaction with churches. And then this one is something specific and he talks about the dear chosen lady, probably someone's house that hosted the house church, but also has that still meaning of the Lord's people in the church. And we talk quite a bit about that because he uses this term children of God, which I found really interesting when you look at that text as well, because John used that a lot in his original book. And also in the book of John he talked about this idea of truth and he mentions it three times in two verses here. This idea of truth live in the loving, the truth know the truth because of the truth. 25 times. That's 100, 109 times this, this Greek word is used in the New Testament. 25 in the book of John when he's talking about the idea of truth. But what's interesting is, is he uses it in the terms of love. And you think about truth and love going together. And I want to read this quote because in verses four through six he makes the point that it's back to that same thing he mentioned in First John is that you have to love one another, which obviously that's becoming a problem because it's not there. And so he's trying to tell him that this is anchored in truth. And I don't know if you ever heard this quote, but this is from John Stott who was, you know, an old preacher from way back.
- [13:20]
Zach
Yeah.
- [13:21]
Al Robertson
And he had a very interesting thing because you kind of think about there's an art of trying to walk between truth and love. And he said our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love. And when I read that I thought, man, that's the age old struggle always by trying to put love and truth in the same context together. Because what we tend to do sometimes, especially in the modern church, if we're champions of truth, then we forget about love, the idea that that's what it was based on. But if we're only focused on the idea of love, then sometimes we can lose the importance of having truth and what that means. And NT Wright on this book, Jason. Second, John spent a lot of time talking about what he called the cult of toleration, where he kind of focused in on a lot of movements and, and denominations that it basically said that truth is, you know, is very relevant to how you view the scriptures. But love is the one that, you know, we have to do and therefore we love anybody, everybody, everything and embrace anything.
- [14:35]
Zach
Yeah.
- [14:36]
Al Robertson
And he spent a lot of time talking about that. Well, that's the idea of love without truth. But you know, our heritage was kind of more the other side, which was way more tr Truth without love. So I see both sides.
- [14:48]
Jace
Yeah. I mean, this is a difficult thing to wrap your head around. And these, these are echoes of what he wrote in his first letter. So just take Second John, where it says verse four. It said, it has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. Because I think most people when you read that, you're like, what does it mean to walk in truth? It kind of reminds you of this conversation that Jesus had with Pilate right before he died. Remember when he said, when Pilate asked Jesus, what is truth?
- [15:28]
Al Robertson
Yeah, exactly.
- [15:30]
Jace
And I've always explained that saying. A better question would have been, who is the truth? Who's the truth teller? Who do you trust? I mean, it was right there because in his mind, Pilate was like, I have so much power that I can kill anyone just at a command. Truth is whatever I say it is. And you have no power. That was kind of the picture you get. But then it goes on to say,
- [15:58]
Al Robertson
and now, James, before you leave that, he said, some are walking in truth, which leads me to believe that that meant that some were not walking in trut.
- [16:08]
Jace
Obviously they were having problems. And you especially see that when you get to third John. But in verse five, it says, and now, dear lady, I'm not writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning. This is the birthplace of my rabbit hole. I was going to do it in 3 John, but I want to introduce it here because he said that in first John in chapter two. We referenced this in the last podcast in verse three when it says, this is one John two, three, we know that we have come to know him. If obey his commands. The man who says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar. And look at this phrase. And the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, if anybody obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we're in Him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. So back to 2 John. I'll finish reading this. So then it says, I ask that we love one another, verse five and verse six. And this is love that we walk in obedience to his commands. So all this is. He said it in first John. He said it in two John. He's talking about truth, he's talking about the word. He's talking about commands, and he's talking about love. So verse six at the end says, as you have heard from the Beginning his command is that you walk in love. Well, there he kind of uses walking in truth and walking in love interchangeably.
- [17:45]
Al Robertson
Interchangeably, yes.
- [17:46]
Jace
Which is kind of fascinating. So it reminds you Ephesians 4 when it talks about the church and he says we should speak the truth in love. Remember that passage? It's Ephesians 4 somewhere. It's in there. And with that in mind, before we get to my rabbit hole, the last verse of 1 John says, Keep yourselves from idols. After talking about all this truth and love and knowing Christ and this intimate thing, it says, keep yourself from idols. Well, what does that remind you of? Why bring up idols? When's the first time you remember idols coming on the scene? As far as the entire Bible, Tarot, Tower of Babel.
- [18:33]
Al Robertson
That or the Golden Calf is another one.
- [18:35]
Jace
That's Golden Calf is the most famous one. And which became right after they get what we have called the Ten Commandments. Now, look, I heard this in school and I forgot about. That's why I said this is resurfaced from 30, 40 years ago. But. But when I read that passage that said, keep yourself from idols in my search for that. Because it's an interesting way to end the letter. Wouldn't you agree?
- [19:07]
Al Robertson
Yeah, because he hadn't really said the word the whole letter.
- [19:11]
Jace
And now we're going back to. I think it's the second command is keep yourself from idols. And so I was like, why don't you do some research on this? And when you know it. One of the things I listen to from a technical aspect, theological, is the Bible Project. They do these podcasts, and if you're ever having trouble sleeping, because they get deep and technical and they just so happen, currently are doing a podcast series on the Ten Commandments. And so I'm like, well, I need to get to number two and see what they say about idols. Which I did. What I found fascinating is. Is in their first podcast on that. It was something that I had forgotten that the actual translation. And I want to know if y' all knew this is the. The word, the phrase, the Ten Commandments, we made that up. That is not what the Hebrew language says. Did y' all know that it is not called the Ten Commandments? A guy in the 1300s and his followers, Wycliffe, who came up with. And he based it on Deuteronomy 4, verse 13. Let's read that. Deuteronomy 4. 13.
- [20:39]
Al Robertson
He declared to you his covenant. The Ten Commandments.
- [20:43]
Zach
Yeah.
- [20:43]
Al Robertson
Which he commanded you to follow. And then wrote them on two stone Tablets. Most of my life I never really had to worry that much about weight. My metabolism seemed to be, you know, burning just the right amount. And all of a sudden I hit in the 40s. Things started getting a little more stressful, things started slowing down. So I started trying all these different diets and I've tried just about everything that's out there. A lot of quick fixes don't seem to work. The popular GLP1 shots, now they help with appetite, but they really don't address what's going on underneath. At PhD weight loss, they focus on restoring your metabolism so your body works with you, not against you. I am living proof of it. Here's a picture of me at the beginning of the journey. Here I am 80 pounds later and lighter and feeling better than I have in a very long time. I'm a year and three months into this process. I'm in maintenance now and it's really been the difference maker for me. Much more energy off my CPAP machine, which I'd had for 15 years, off my high blood pressure meds, which been a part of my Life for over 10 years. So a lot of changes. All good. Now is the time for you to do it. Right now, when you call and mention Al Robertson, yours truly, you'll get two free weeks and they'll pay for the cost of your food. That's a fifteen hundred dollar value just by calling now, call 864-644-1900 that's 864-644-1900 or go to my PhD weight loss.com because the goal isn't to lose weight once, it's never having to start over again again. That's 864-644-1900 to go to myphdweightloss.com
- [22:25]
Jace
so now I thought y' all knew this, but this is fascinating. You see where it says that he commanded? That is the word command. I think the Hebrew word is mizvah. But that where it says ten commandments. No, nothing to do with commandments. Now they are commandments. So I'm okay with it. You know, when you look at the 10 things, but it actually should be the 10 words. That is the Hebrew word for that statement in every case. But we just put commandments because old Wycliffe and his followers said, you know what's fascinating? When I read the history of that, this is very fascinating. But I'm going to show you why I've gotten excited because my Bible knowledge has increased so much, especially in the past five years. This Makes way more sense on what? First John keeps bringing up commands and truth and the Word, because Jesus has this moment via John where it's the word became flesh. And what I find fascinating is the Greek translation of this phrase about the words. It has that word logos. It's decalogue, which is the root word for logos. And I'm like, oh, but it changes your perspective, because when you read the Ten Commandments. Because when I hear the word commandment, I'm thinking, do this or die, which is okay. Which is true. You know, I mean, Jesus. I mean, God is revealing how to have success in life. And when you kind of go to a rabbit hole on anywhere the Ten Commandments are discussed in the book of Exodus or Deuteronomy, it basically says that you want to have life, which is what First John is about. You need to trust me and listen to my words. And that's why that is the correct thing. And what I found funny about the Bible project is they went around and asked people the question I'm asking you, and everybody's like, it's not called the Ten Commandments. And of course, nobody got it right. Nobody knew that the literal translation. And you can AI. And look, Zach probably already has. It's the 10 words. And that word is, like, bigger than just a word. It's like the things about the words, these words that he passed. Well, it was.
- [25:10]
Al Robertson
It's like when someone says, now they said, I got a word, but then they're fixing to start talking. It's more than one word. Right. I mean, that's kind of what you're describing.
- [25:20]
Jace
Exactly. And so, you know, my rabbit hole, which then once I was. I was reminded of this because I remember hearing that 34 years ago, and I thought, well, that's weird. And I never thought about it again. Somebody said that. That the word Ten Commandments was a creation of some guy who, when you go down and look at what happened, he decided to do his own Bible translation, which the church burned and banned them. However, they did take his take about calling the Ten Commandments Ten Commandments, even though overall they were like, no. And it just. It became a thing. But it only became a thing since the late 1300s. Don't you find that fascinating? It makes you feel a little squeamish because we're like, we have used that Ten Commandments. And I've, like, defended, let's get the Ten Commandments in the school. But it also made me realize that that whole bit we did about them being an honor. Shame. Culture is really applicable to this discussion, because God was basically just giving you advice for how to live life. And it makes more sense that when Jes came on the scene in the Sermon on the Mount, how he would just summarize those 10 words in that look, they're basically summed up with love God. Because the first four commandments are about your relationship with God. Number five is tricky because it's like the segue into loving God and loving people, because it's honorable, your father and mother, but it's a blessing so that you'll be blessed in all of what you do. And so they call that kind of the hinge commandment. And then the last five are all about other people. That's why Jesus said, love God and love your neighbor. And what I found fascinating is, I think that should be discussed because to your point, Zach, when I asked you when the commandment started, you're right. The first commandment given was in the garden. When he said, here, there's two trees here. And he said, this I command. He used the Hebrew word command. This command, you're free to eat any from any of the tree. But now this one here, nope. He also said the command, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and lord over all the. Like we were talking about all the animals. That's another command.
- [28:16]
Al Robertson
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in theory, became the first idol to Adam and Eve because that was the first choice to have against what God told them what to do. Right, Exactly. I mean, I don't blame the tree because God made it, but I'm saying for them, it became their idol. Because I can just imagine, you remember it said she looked at it and it was desirable as a food, and it was for gaining knowledge. And so, you know, you can see this pull that you see all throughout humanity after this moment of something that somehow pulls us toward it.
- [28:54]
Jace
Right.
- [28:55]
Zach
Well, the connection with truth is. Is paramount because if you think about the first commandment, it wasn't like all commandments. It wasn't a test of loyalty. It wasn't arbitrary. These are all phrases we use all the time to say what it's not. It was a description of reality. That's what the command was. It was a description of reality and instructions about how to enter into reality. Because to enter into reality is to live in harmony, is to live in, enjoy it. To live in abundance is to live in fruitfulness. I mean, that's the whole thing. Be fruitful and multiply. Right? So it's to live in that it's to live in your kingship, it's to live in your priestly role. It's all good things. And so the, the sin when you reject the commandment because you're rejecting God's revelation of reality. And so what truth, a classical definition of truth is that truth is defined as when your thoughts match reality and then the relationship between those two things is called truth. When my thought matches up with the way that the world really is. And so if the way that the world really is is that, hey, there's joy when you actually live a sacrificial life. And then my thought is that man, if I start submitting my life to my family, my wife, my church, my God, these areas, I'm going to experience joy. That's truth. And so when I love, the reality is that God is love. First John 4:8 and 1 John 4:10, that's the ultimate reality is the inner life of God, the self sacrificial life of God, the inner life of God where the members of the Trinity never manipulate each other, they never harm each other, they never take advantage of each other, all they do is mutually give to one another. That's the ultimate reality. And so if, if I align my life up with that, my thought life up with that reality, that's called truth. And so truth is in, it's distinguishable from love, but it's not, you can't separate it from love. It's different than what love is, but you cannot separate the two. And I think that's what the point is. When you go to the first, second, third John, as he's trying to describe that, the problem is that if you're a human post fall, then all of a sudden truth becomes only about acquiring some kind of like factual thing. But it's kind of separated from like where you actually live and feel and the way you move. And then the other side of that is that we tend, we tend to also distort what we mean by commandment. We see commandments as something other than God's revelation of the good life. We think it's some other kind of like test or we think it's some kind of like, like rules that God's laid out or some kind of like barrier. We view it as a negative, not as a positive. So those are the things that we're up against.
- [32:04]
Al Robertson
Jason, when you and I were growing up, our responsibility many times was to feed the dogs and, but I don't ever remember really dog food. I just remember it was kind of scraps and whatever we could pull together back in the day.
- [32:17]
Jace
Well, I never grew up. I'm still taking care of my dogs and everybody else's. And that's why Ruff Greens has been a good partnership.
- [32:25]
Al Robertson
It has been. And the main reason why is because we think about our dogs and taking care of them. The dog food that is made today, the problem is it's. They call it dead food because there's no live nutrients that are a part of it. So some of these most popular dog foods that are out there, they have these dangerous additives. They're linked to organ damage, cancer, chronic inflammation. And the truth is, it's all legal. So we gotta look for something to add to, to make it better. And that's where Ruffed greens comes in. It's all natural. It's made right here in the U.S. it's created by our good friend, Dr. Dennis Black. And all you do is you sprinkle this on their food. And so here's what you add to it. You add probiotics, enzymes, omega oils, and over 20 vitamins and minerals that support digestion, energy and overall health. Thousands of dogs have found the difference, including our own dogs. Jase has his two little guard dogs there. We've got four in our compound. Meatball, who is the oldest of the crew, she's 12, has actually now she can jump back up on the couch. And she couldn't do that before she started taking Ruff Greens. So it does work. We want you to try it out on your favorite pet. Get a free Jumpstart trial bag for your dog. You just cover the shipping. Go to ruffgreens.com, use the discount code unashamed. That's r u f f greens.com discount code, unashamed, rough greens. They make any dog food better. He even uses the word in second John 1, 9 and 10. The Greek word is dedake, which is teaching, is the way it was translated into the niv. But it's this idea that it flows out of that. And remember the core that he's dealing with in First John, Second John, and Third John, the core of the deceivers that have come in and are alienating these people that he loves so much is that Jesus didn't come in the flesh. And I think that's why Jace is on to something, this idea about the word, because did the word become flesh or not? Because the implication here is the deceivers are saying, he didn't become flesh, the word didn't become flesh. Which is very interesting, that that's where he pivots back to.
- [34:38]
Jace
That's where I was headed with this, because he's using this language back to creation, especially in 3 John, which I'd like to just read. So you're not just taking my word for it, but when he gets to third John in this individual, just look how much he's getting into what happened in creation. And you're like, what? Way over here, the next to the last letter in the whole Bible. And this is third John. He said the Elder. To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you. Even as your soul is getting along well, it gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you're doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. Now, verse seven. It was for the sake of the name capitalized that they went out receiving no help from the pagans. Now, by the way, the second or third commandment. Let's see, you got the. This is Deuteronomy 6 talking about the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Which is not a command. That's why words. It's almost like a story. The commandments are in there, but it says you shall have no other gods before me. There's number one. You shall not make for yourself an idol. There's number two. But let me just read this from Deuteronomy 6. In the form of anything in heaven above, or on earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, which is not the greatest translation. Misuse. It's the word for bear or carry. Because the name. And Zach and I have been studying this because of 2 John 3 is literally the presence of God. It's the person of God. And that is all through scripture. About the Name. Just think about all the different scripture references that have that. Especially in the Book of Acts, Jesus prayed it when he prayed in John 17. I mean, it's. It's a lot.
- [37:45]
Al Robertson
So for him to bring this, it's. It's such a bigger thing. We kind of boil it down to using the Lord's name in vain. Is the. Is the phrase. It's so much bigger.
- [37:57]
Jace
As the Bible Project podcast I was listening to, it has nothing to do with cussing, although you shouldn't do that. There's other passages that say, don't let filthy language come from your lips, but this, it comes down to. And I'll finish reading 3 John, but I just want to make this point because I know my rabbit hole has been long, but when he said, keep yourselves from idols. Well, an idol is a shaped or carved image that we make from a created thing, or it's something that's created, like the sun, the moon, the stars, because there's. There's another place in Deuteronomy says, don't bow down and worship that. Which people do even today. And you say, why is he putting that in first? John 5, keep yourself from idols because you have this intimate relationship. You have now formed a partnership with the creator of the universe through him being your father, us being children, through Jesus being your Lord and your example, and through the Holy Spirit living inside of you and this little circle of knowing him, obeying him, sticking with him, and then loving other people and all this, you have that little circle going on. And the reason you're keeping yourselves from idols is because you are supposed to image God. You wouldn't create an image to worship. You are the image of God. And it goes back to the beginning, the first command, when he made man in his image to represent him. And I really think that's the point. And I think that's why you see all this in the spirit of all these commands and the Word and using the name. That's why he keeps bringing this up, because it goes back to the creation story, our original purpose for being here, and then what Jesus accomplished in the new creation. And so that's why the Ten Commandments being called the ten words, literally what it means. That's why Jesus had that authority of the word becoming flesh. And just take the Sermon on the Mount. He took all those commands and he enhanced them, because those 10 commands do sum up everything that could happen in life in a certain way. But only when you look at the. The obverse of each command, and this is a point they made on the podcast, it's like you say, well, do not murder. That's easy to understand. That means don't kill anybody. But what's the opposite of that? Well, it's to look the positive of that would be to look at the well being of every single person that's around you. Well, that's thousands of possibilities on the positive of representing God. You see that, that was kind of their point. That's what it means to image the character and the words of God. If you're then supposed to love your fellow man instead of murder him. Well, murder him is just one thing. If you keep it a command, you're like, okay, well I haven't killed anybody. So that's why it was so crazy on the Sermon on the Mount when he said, but I'm telling you, you shouldn't even be angry at your brother. They're like, wait, what, what is this kind of teaching this guy's talking about? That's not the command, that's not what it says. But you start understanding the commandments and the reason that he gave them so that you could do the positive side and image him. Well, if you're bowing down to an idol that is not God, you're never going to see this is the point, because you're supposed to be imaging God. So that's kind of the point that I was trying to make because Jesus then fulfilled those commandments and he produced so many possibilities in how to image God through love. You see where I'm getting at? And it fits so much better because he's the Word in flesh. And so it comes down to who you trust. What is truth? It's the one speaking it. And ultimately that's coming from God. I mean, I just think it's fascinating.
- [42:23]
Al Robertson
I wanted to read this text because immediately my mind went here, Jason, you were just sharing that. This is 2nd Corinthians 4. When Paul makes this great section in here about the idea of what it looks like in Jesus and how he is the Word, he says, therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. There's that idea again. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves in every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing the God of this age. Here it is. James has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God where in the face of Christ. I mean, that point is so well made in just what you described is that's where you see in the image of Christ, you see that reflection of who God is. Ergo, that's exactly what we do when we walk in truth. It,
- [43:50]
Zach
I mean, I think that we're trying. I do think it is the big fight that we're up against is we don't understand what the commands mean.
- [43:59]
Jace
We, we.
- [43:59]
Zach
We think that that's a, A burdensome, which is the whole point, right? I mean, how do we know we love God is. Is that we love his commandments and his commandments are burdensome. And so I think it's like a. It is the whole first, second, third. John. It's a reframing. I like to say it's a connection point. Al, you said the previous podcast, it's not who you. What you know, it's who you know. It's probably both. I mean, honestly, it's like what you know has to lead you to a participation in who you know. And so they just can't separate these things. Like, yeah, I need to know the truth about a certain thing, but that truth is a relational knowledge. It's not, you know, I think we want to separate not the field of knowledge, and we want to, you know, say relationships over here, and then, like, cognition is over here. They're like, separate. Well, in God's economy, that's not true. In God's economy, it's all his. And so what we're really trying to be brought into alignment with, and that's a good word, is alignment, is we're trying to live in our design. We are trying to live the word that we tell us. We're trying to live inside of what that is. And when you're not, that's when you feel the fracture. When you're disconnected from eternity, when you're disconnected from the eternity that God has put in the hearts of men. Ecclesiastes 3, 11. When there's that disconnect, then you feel the rub. And so everything is meant to bring us back into real harmony. But you can't get there without truth, because how would you know? And that is the role of the holy Spirit, you go back and read John, the Gospel of John. That's the. The primary role of the Spirit. When he comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will. He will make known to you what. What was given to the Son. And, and that's a process that we never get to the end of on this side of eternity or this side of the second coming. Because we do live in a world where lies about reality are so pervasive and so intoxicating that we just. I don't know, we.
- [46:01]
Jace
We.
- [46:01]
Zach
We buy into it. And that's one of the reasons why Christ died, is to liberate you from your propensity to believe in a lie.
- [46:09]
Jace
Yeah. That's why I think there's so much confusion when people say, well, we're not under the Ten Commandments anymore, because Jesus fulfilled that. I think you missed the point. Those words from God were all about life. If you want to have life, do this. I mean, they're all fantastic. They're words of wisdom, which Jesus embodied. That's why it makes more sense. Like, curious passages that, like when the rich young ruler, when they had that little conversation and he's like, well, all these I've kept. Because he was looking at the Ten Commandments as commandments. And then Jesus takes it a little further and was like, yeah, you know that money. Because you know how Jesus is thinking now when you don't look at them, it's just, okay, black or white rules. That's your idol. You've taken money, put that on a pedestal. So go sell everything. So even though he technically thought, well, I've never bowed down to an idol, but your life practically is not the spirit of the law, because you have something in front of me that you're bowing down to and giving your allegiance to, and it's called money. So go sell everything you have.
- [47:27]
Zach
What's the last commandment?
- [47:30]
Jace
The last commandment. Let me look.
- [47:32]
Al Robertson
Do not covet six.
- [47:33]
Zach
Thou shalt not covet.
- [47:35]
Al Robertson
Covet or.
- [47:35]
Jace
Yeah, so he could have been speaking of that.
- [47:38]
Zach
You know, one of the funny things that Francis Schaefer pointed. Points out in his book, one of my favorite books of all time, is called True Spirituality by Francis Schaefer. And one of the points he makes in the book, so it's. It's really profound, he takes the Ten Commandments and he. He explains it as a wheel, like a wheel on a bicycle. And each one of those hubs, each one of those spokes on that wheel is a commandment. And the center of that whole thing, he says is the tenth commandment. Thou shalt not covet. And he makes the point. You can't cut, you can't violate any of the first nine commandments without first violating the tenth. You got to covet what is God's. You got to covet. You have to covet, Got to cover what's God's. You got to cover what somebody else has. And so he, he centers coveting as the center of it. But the reason why I bring that up is because this, these aren't things that, like, were true just for Israel or, you know, just for the folks in the Exodus. These ten commandments are true for all of us of all time. The. This is the ideal. This is the way to the good life. That when. And you'd mentioned that, that when the idols came into play, particularly the golden calf moment, think about when that occurred in the story of the Exodus. Just think about this. That they made that idol. They took all the gold that was given to them from when they plundered the Egyptians. So they plunder the Egyptians when they clearly have no way that they're ever going to be able to beat these guys. They are out. The Egyptian hegemon was way more powerful than Israel was at the time. But with the hand of God, they were able to essentially conquer Egypt, plunder their gold, go through the parting of the Red Sea, right? All these things that happened, manna had fell from the sky. God had continuous, continuously provided for them. And it was after they had seen this incredible, like, act of God. He literally parted the Red Sea and swallowed up their enemies. And they took the gold that they plundered from the ones that God rescued them from, made an idol out of that, and worshiped the very thing that was given to them as proof and evidence that God is who he says he is. So you see, in the very nature of idolatry, what you see is what the Bible calls a futility of thinking. Well, what does that mean? Well, I'm not thinking correctly. My thinking is pointless. My thinking is futile. My thinking is not leading me into reality. It's leading me into something completely absurd. And I'm believing it like they, in the moment, they thought we could build this thing for ourselves and worship it, and then we'll be protected, then we'll be provided for. That's stupid thinking. And if you read the whole story, you're like, you idiot, what are you thinking? Well, they weren't thinking correctly. They weren't aligning up their loves with truth. And so they began to love the things that God provided them over the God who provided them to them. They worshiped and served the created things rather than the Creator, which is Romans, chapter one, right? And what does that whole thing about in their mind, they became darkened in their understanding. So you cannot separate these things. And that is why it takes a work of the Holy Spirit post fall to sanctify the mind of the believer that enables us to receive God's revelation so that we can actually understand what the good life is. You do that by constant practice. The Hebrew writer says by constant practice, the mature have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. That's a rhythm that you live in, you know what I'm saying?
- [51:18]
Al Robertson
But don't you see that? Don't you see John and all three of these letters that he's taking the general outside thing and pointing to it when he talks about the world and just like you just did with the Egyptians and the children of Israel. But then he's honing it down to the internal. Because the threat here is that deceivers are coming in among the brothers and there's no love. There's the denial of the. The incarnation of Jesus. The threat now is on the inside. And so that's so much what y' all been talking about, the idea of the conscience, the Holy Spirit, because that's where John gets to, right? It's. We look at the outer things and we're like, man, those are scary. The inner things are even more frightening if we let them become an adult, an idol.
- [52:00]
Jace
I want to give you the last couple verses I want you to read just for the rabbit hole, because we only have a couple minutes. But if you read Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments starts off with this sentence. And God spoke all these words and there's the Ten Commandments. And then something fascinating comes up in chapter 23 where talking about the Name. And this is starts in verse 20. And he says, I'm going to send an angel to you. But this angel seems to be a little different because he seems to have divine deity qualities. And he says, pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him. He will not forgive your rebellion. Well, who has the power to forgive? Only a godlike creature. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. Now listen carefully. This is Exodus 20, 23, 23:23. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land. Where does it say his name? Hold on. Oh, oh, I skipped it. And 21. Do not rebel against him. He will not forgive rebellion, since my name is in him. Interesting. Which is why I think in Jude, which most scholars believe is Jesus, brother, in verse five says the Lord, and there's a little letter there. So some manuscripts say Jesus delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who do not believe. So that's why a lot of people believe that this was the word manifesting itself before he became a human. And I don't disagree. I mean, I don't know how you can make sense of that, whether it's a messenger or all these different places. And so the last thing I wanted to read is Deuteronomy 30, because the whole intent of the commands, and I don't mind if you call it the ten Commandments, but it is the word of God that we should trust. And here's how to weigh to. To have life. But when Moses summed all this up in chapter 30, I love the way this is worded. In verse 19 of Deuteronomy 30, it says, this day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God. Listen to his voice and hold fast to him, for the Lord is your life. And that's been the whole foundational principle for 1 2/2 third John, even going back to the original book in John that the Lord is life. That's why he uttered these things. If you want to live. And it all comes together in those little nuggets that you go back and read the whole story and how God was working all through history to bring Jesus and give us life.
- [55:17]
Al Robertson
All right, we're out of time. Good stuff. Jays. We. I love the rabbit holes. We'll. We'll probably tie this thing off next time. We got a new study we're getting ready to start, so I'll wait, because who knows when we'll get there. But when we do, we're excited about that as well. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.