Ep 1332 | The Modern Idols Christians Refuse to Recognize

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. It is early May when we're recording this. She was about a week later. Is it May? It's May. It's May. We're in May. Yeah, it happened. And I was up in Iowa this last week when we were not recording and meeting with some folks up there. I ran into a ton of unashamed listeners just telling stories and loving everything. Jase always asked them the same thing. I'm like, is Jase going to run out of stories? And they're like, nope, nor rabbit holes. So that's the line out there with our audience. They love it. I said, well, do you love the rabbit holes? They said, we love the rabbit hole. 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, 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. So, so you'll be excited on it. And so I wanted to, so I got down here to the southern layer we flew in from Iowa to here. 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 as spiritual way. And so because this, 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're super excited about getting to be a part of that because we happen to be down here this week. But Jayce, I 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? They're always in your car. They ruin your vehicles. Exactly. Are they, are they in North Carolina right now, Zach? Cause they're down here. 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, that was a thing in Florida and Louisiana. You have to go outside to see them. Oh, I'm outside. Let me tell you something, Jayce. I'm outside way more in North Carolina than I ever was in Louisiana. Cause if you go outside of Louisiana in the summertime, like it's like, you're going to pay for it. So like, it's like, I mean, it's, that's, that's, no, I'm outside all the time. That's funny. So the, so the love, the love bugs, I did it a little bit of look, cause my first thought was, and this is what I was going to ask you, Jayce, 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 Mayflies, which dad used to, and they're not, that's right. Correct. Although they are in the same genre of family. I did find that out. It's the same, it's the same process. All the bugs can come out, which all of this, y'all are focusing on the negative, but when these bugs come out, and the timing of it is cause April and May is when the Apollous is cats, which are catfish for those of you who do not know. This is when they run. They run this, this, this time of year, April and May. And by run, he means a swim. 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 Apollous is cat 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 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. So dad would always have this thing he would do. This is kind of back to in the woods with Phil because dad always, because he was such 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 Jays 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 he, 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 May fly. You know, he lives for 24 hours. And there's millions of them that come out millions and they mate and they go into the water and feed the fish. Actually what happened? They feed the fish. Yeah. And here's what here's something I read today, Jays. 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, 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. So some of them just get baptized. They get baptized and they live their life under water. Which is down with a blood that even better if you didn't know that aspect of it. But that, I don't know the lesson about that. I remember, you know, the first time we saw the running of the bulls on TV, 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. Spain, yeah. And he said, you know what we're going to do? We're going to run with the 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 a thousand pounds of opalusas catfish. Which is the reason we're making such a big deal about this is there's so many different species of catfish. I'm 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 opalusas catfish as far as table fair. 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 opalusas cat, I typically prefer the ones that are about five to 10 pounds. It is the greatest catfish that you will ever eat. It was funny, Jase, because we would eat those, that range anywhere from five to 15 pounds. But we got excited about the big ones because we sold them. So that was money. That was big money. And now that's a lost art because now the commercial fishing industry has died because upon raise, but you can't raise opalusas 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. You know, you don't want to wonder like Zach was doing on the crawfish. You want to know. Make sure it's legal. Make sure you get your licensing and you know what you're doing is correct. I would say to advertise it certain terms and conditions may apply. 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 opalusas cat, which 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 opalusas cat where they're the brown pattern, that's where the, you know, we think of an opalusas 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? 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So I did find in my research that the, the, uh, the one, the love bugs that are flying around, other than just a minute, maybe to your car, um, 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, uh, here in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I don't know about Louisiana, Jays, but they're, they're out and about. So I've been dealing with those, um, outside trying to clean things up for the big wedding. So I want to get to, uh, to our texts today because there's, we're going to land in third John, which I'm sure is where Jays is. Rabiddo is, but there were a couple of thoughts that I wanted to bring out of 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 Jays, that it was more than likely a house church, kind of the first John being, uh, sent out to churches, probably several churches, but the idea was to kind of a larger narrative of the church. Um, and because John, obviously by this time it's 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 and the church. And we talk quite a bit about that because he uses this term children of God, which I find really interesting when you look at that, uh, text as well, because John used that a lot in his original book. Uh, 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, living the love in the truth, know the truth because of the truth 25 times that's you 100, 109 times this, this Greek word is using 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, uh, 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 them that this is anchored in truth. And I don't know if you ever heard this quote before his act, but this is from John Stott, who was, you know, an old preacher from way back. 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. It, 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, 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, and N.T. Wright on this book, Jays and 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, it was 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. Yeah. 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 truth without love. So I see both sides. 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? Yeah, exactly. 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, and now, and 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 truth. Obviously, they were having problems. And you, and you especially see that when you get 3rd 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 what this is the birthplace of my rabbit hole. I was going to do it in 3rd John, but I'm going to introduce it here because he said that in 1st John. In chapter two, we reference this in the last podcast. In verse three, when it says this 1st John 2, 3, we know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar. And look, 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 living him must walk as Jesus did. So back to 2nd John, I'll finish reading this. So then it says, I asked that we love one another in 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 1st John, he said it in 2nd 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. Just kind of fascinating. So it reminds you of Ephesians four when it talks about the church, and he says we should speak the truth in love. Remember that passage? It's Ephesians four somewhere, it's in there. So, and with that in mind before we get to my rabbit hole, the last verse of 1st 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? Which tower of that or the golden calf is another one that's golden calf is the most famous one. And which became right after they get what we have called the 10 commandments. Now, look, I heard this in school and I'd forgot about it. That's why I said this is resurfaced from 30, 40 years ago. 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? Yeah, because he hadn't really said the word, the whole letter. 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 10 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, 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 phrase, the 10 commandments. We made that up. That is not what the Hebrew language says. Did y'all know that? It is not called the 10 commandments. A guy in the 1300s, and his followers, Wycliffe, who came up with any, based on Deuteronomy 4, verse 13, let's read that, Deuteronomy 4, verse 13. He declared to you his covenant, the 10 commandments, 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 GLP one 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. The much more energy off my CPAP machine, which I'd had for 15 years, off my high blood pressure meds, which has 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 $1,500 value just by calling now. Call 864-644-1900. That's 864-644-1900. Or go to myphdweightloss.com because the goal isn't to lose weight once. It's never having to start over again. Again, that's 864-644-1900. Go to myphdweightloss.com. 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 word says 10 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 Wyclef and his followers said, you know, it'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 1 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 10 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, a God is revealing how to have success in life. And when you kind of go to a rabbit hole on anywhere the 10 commandments are discussed in the book of Exodus or Deuteronomy, it basically says that you want to have life, which is what 1 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 10 commandments. And of course, nobody got it right. Nobody knew that the literal translation and you can AI look, Zach probably already has. It's the 10 words. And it's 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 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. 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, that the word 10 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 10 commandments, 10 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, that 10 commandments and I've like defended, let's get the 10 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 Jesus came on the scene and the sermon on the mount, how he would just summarize those 10 words in that, look, they're basically summed up with love God. Cause 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 honor 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 of the, for many 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 animal. That's another command. Those were coming. 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. Right? Well, the connection with truth is paramount because if you think about the first commandment, it wasn't, I would like all commandments. It wasn't a test of loyalty. It wasn't arbitrary. These are all phrases we use all the time. So 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 and 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, the sin comes when you reject the commandment because you're rejecting God's revelation of reality. And so a 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, 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 what the reality is that God is love, 1 John 4a and 1 John 410, that's the ultimate reality is the, 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 ind, 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 into 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 the 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, you move. And then the other side of that is, is that we tend to not, we tend to also distort what we mean by commandment. We seek 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. So we view it as a negative, not as a positive. So those are the two things that we're up against. So Jason, when you and I were growing up, our responsibility me times was to feed the dogs. And I don't ever remember really dog food. I just remember it was kind of scraps and whatever we get pulled together back in the day. Well, I never grew up. I'm still taking care of my dogs and everybody else's. And that's why Rough Greens has been a good partnership. 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. And so some of these most popular dog foods that are out there, they have these dangerous additives that are linked to organ damage, cancer, chronic inflammation. And the truth is, it's all legal. So we got to look for something to add to to make it better. And that's where Rough Greens comes in. It's all natural. It's made right here in the US is created by a 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. Jay says there's 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 Rough 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 roughgreens.com. Use the discount code Unashamed. That's RUFFgreens.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 the daki, which is teaching is the way it was translated into the NIV. But it's this idea that it flows out of that. And you remember the core that he's dealing with in 1 John, 2 John, and 3 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 Jay says, own us something that's out there 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. That's why 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 but when he gets to 3 John and 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 3 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 where they've got. Now, verse 7, 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 10 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, you know, 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 in the, 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 second John three, 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 this 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. So for him to bring this, it's such a bigger thing. We kind of boil it down to using the Lord's name in vain. It's the phrase. It's so much bigger 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 third 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, even today. And you say, why is he putting it that 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 know, 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 Ten Commandments do sum up everything that could happen in life in a certain way. But only when you look at 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 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 murdering, well, murdering 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, shouldn't 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. I want to read this text because immediately my mind went here, Jason, you were just sharing that. This is Saint Corinthians four. 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, 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 in ourselves is 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. And 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. I mean, I think that when we're trying, I do think it is the big fight that we're up against, is we don't understand what the commandment means. We think that that's a burdensome, which is the whole point, right? I mean, how do we know that we love God is that we love his commandments and his commandments are burdensome. And so I think it's like, the whole verse, like other John, it's a reframing. I like to say it's a connection point. How you said in 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 if you 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, you've, that's what, that's when you fill the fracture, that when you're, when you're disconnected from eternity, when you're disconnected from the eternity that God has put in the hearts of men of these ESC 311, when that when there's that disconnect, then you fill 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, John, that's 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 sign. 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, we, we buy into it. And that's one of the reasons why Christ side is to liberate you from your propensity to believe in a lie. Yeah, that's why I think there's so much confusion when people say, well, we're not under the 10 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 10 commandments as commandments. Yeah. 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 as 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. What's the last commandment? The last commandment, let me look. Do not covet. I'll not covet. So he could have been speaking of that, you know. One of the funny things that Francis Schaefer 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 really profound. He takes the 10 commandments and 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 10th 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 10th. You got to covet what is God's. And you got to covet. You have to covet. You got to covet what's God's. You got to covet what somebody else has. And so he centers coveting as the center of it. But the reason I bring that up is because these aren't things that like were true just for Israel or just for the folks in the Exodus. These 10 commandments are true for all of us of all time. This is the ideal. This is the way to the good life. And you'd mentioned 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. They made that idol. They took all the gold that was given to them from when they plundered the Egyptians. So they plundered the Egyptians when they clearly have no way that they're ever going to be able to beat these guys. The Egyptian Hezmon 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. All these things had happened. Man had fell from the sky, God had continuously provided for them. And it was after they had seen this incredible 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 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 is 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? 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 deal with the Egyptians and the children of Israel, but then he's honing it down to the internal. Yeah, because the threat here is that deceivers are coming in among the brothers and there's no love. There's the denial of the incarnation of Jesus. The threat now is on the inside. And so that's so much what you've 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 idol. I want to give you the last couple of 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 God like 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, I skipped it in 21. Do not rebel against him. He will not forgive your rebellion since my name is in him. Interesting. Which is why I think in Jude, which was Jesus most scholars believe is Jesus's brother. In verse five says, the Lord, and there's a little letter there says 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 manifest in 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 10 commandments, but it is the word of God that we should trust. And here's how to wait 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 1st, 2nd, 3rd 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. All right, we're out of time. Good stuff, Jase. We love the rabbit holes. 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.