Welcome to the love and context podcast engaging in unscripted conversations with your host Ben and Spencer
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That is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago without further ado. Let's dive right in
Welcome back once again to the love and context podcast. Just a reminder. I am Ben
And I am Spencer and this conversation is relatively unscripted actually it's completely unscripted, but sometimes we have notes
Yeah, sometimes we have a rough outline today. We have our Bible apps open
Yeah, so it is gonna be one of those days where the ADHD of Spencer is on high alert. Let's go. Yeah, let's go
You're gonna be like we were talking about loving your neighbor and then Spencer's talking about his dog
And then next thing we know he's fishing and then he disappears for 20 minutes. Yeah, he's back
Yep, it's gonna be just terribly on topic
So this is pretty much the episode where we we're actually gonna close out Leviticus because next week is our Q&A episode
Correct. And so I thought it was really important one of the one of the most quoted verses from Leviticus actually comes from Leviticus 19
Mm-hmm, and it's the one that everybody just thinks of right off the top of their head, right?
Leviticus 19. Yeah, I've never thought Leviticus off the top of my head
That's okay. You remember just like a few episodes ago. I was like, I'm really excited
We're gonna get into Leviticus and you're like said no one ever
Pretty much. I actually think at this point
especially because some of you have written us emails or talked to us and and I think people are actually coming around to like
Leviticus is a way cooler book than they thought. Yeah, they are
Yeah
So the place that we're actually gonna be going to is in Leviticus 19 and believe it or not
This is a place that's quoted by Jesus and it's one of his most famous quotes and it's something that's very important to the Christian existence
Now in the book of Matthew Jesus having this conversation with a teacher of the law and he says what is the greatest command?
And he says what have you heard?
The guy says I love Lord God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself
Now Jesus says all of the law and prophets hang on these commands. Yes, right now in rabbinic speak
What he's saying is everything else in the Torah is interpreted through loving God and loving your neighbor
Right. The first portion of that level or God with all your heart soul mind and strength is said in Torah in the book of Deuteronomy
Which we're gonna be talking about it's quite a few weeks away
But the other portion of it is what we're gonna talk about today the love your neighbor as yourself that actually shows up in Leviticus 19
Yep
So Jesus says the way that you're gonna interpret all of Torah is gonna happen through something in Deuteronomy
and also something in Leviticus. Mm-hmm. I
I think that we need to specify that this book is important. Yes. Yes it is
And so with that in mind, I thought this is gonna be kind of fun
I'm actually gonna read all of Leviticus 19 because we're gonna we're gonna narrow in on love your neighbor as yourself
But I really want to talk about what's going on here
Now starting in verse 1 Leviticus 19 says the Lord said to Moses
Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them be holy because I the Lord your God am holy
Okay, what does be holy mean?
Set apart. Set apart. Different than everybody else. So right away the things that he's going to talk about
Are gonna be things that make you different than everybody else
side note in
Matthew
Sermon on the Mount when Jesus is talking about be perfect just as I am perfect. Mm-hmm
Here's where he's getting it from right. It's a reference back to this idea of Levitical priesthood
You're supposed to look different than everybody else. Yep. So with that in mind
Let's keep going in here each of you must respect your mother and father and you must have reserved my Sabbath
I am the Lord your God do not turn to the idols or make metal gods for yourselves. I'm the Lord your God
Okay, both of those things we should see as things that are not common in their cultures around them. Yeah
When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the Lord sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf
It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or the next on the next day anything left over until the third day must
Be burned up if any of it is eaten on the third day
It is I'm pure and will not be accepted whoever eats it will be held responsible because they have desecrated
What is holy to the Lord?
They must be cut off from their people when you reap of a harvest your land
Do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest
Do not go over your vineyard aside from the field
Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick the grapes that have fallen leave them for the poor and the foreigner
I am the Lord your God. Okay two things right here. First is when you bring a fellowship offering meant to bring
fellowship
Make sure that you actually do it the right way. Yes
I remember when we had pastor Clint on we talked about inviting somebody to coffee table and then we don't have a chair for him
Yeah, if you invite someone to coffee and you're like, oh by the way, I'm gonna sit at this whole table
You can sit at the table across the room for me
Yeah, is that person gonna come to coffee with you again or invite somebody who's a vegetarian and I serve bacon and steak
Well, it's their fault. They're vegetarian
My I say that my wife was vegetarian you can actually write to Spencer at love and context at gmail.com
And tell him exactly what you think about that
But yeah, if you invite someone who you know has dietary restrictions and you serve something that they cannot have
Yeah, one lady that I work with she has some pretty strict dietary restrictions
And so whenever we take turns cooking meals for each other when we meet and stuff like that
So whenever we're cooking meals, I mindful right, right?
You're thinking about the other person you're thinking about the purpose of the meal is actually who you're actually sharing it with
Yes, so when you come to have a fellowship offering with God, mm-hmm. Make sure you know why you're there. Yeah, that's
Good reason. Mm-hmm. It's almost like he's saying don't just go through the motions because that's something you should do. Mm-hmm
And then the next one is about not cutting the ends of your fields
Yeah, because there's always going to be poor among you and so you need to have a generous heart
By the way, can we stop there and actually talk about that quote from Jesus? Mm-hmm
So he says you will always have them poor among you. It's when they're they're talking about
Oh, we could have sold that to feed the poor and all these different things and Jesus actually says
But you're always had the poor among me, which you won't always have me
Mm-hmm now people have taken that as you're always going to have the poor among you
So your focus shouldn't be taking care of the poor but rather to service Jesus now. Yeah on a broad level. Yes
But the heart of Jesus does it serve people? I
Don't think you can say you serve or follow Jesus if you're not serving the poor amongst you
The reason I say that is because it is all throughout
Scripture you have here in Leviticus where he's talking about the margins in the field
You can actually take that and this is might not be the direct application for it
But you could actually take that say, okay
Where are the margins in your life to where you can meet the needs of those around you?
Oh, so you saying my discretionary income maybe isn't just for me. Maybe right? Maybe it's not just for you
Maybe you need to I mean if we're gonna talk about a money standpoint
I have some friends like what they do is they're like, all right, they they do their tithe to church
But then they have an additional percent that they just set aside in their budget and they're like this is specifically for
Blessing and helping those in our community because they're being intentional about this desire to reach on the outside
Yeah to not cut the ends of their field now
We are not Jews and so obviously like some of these things don't necessarily apply but in a very philosophical way
They absolutely apply we should orient our lives in a way that we don't cut the outsides
But we leave it to actually take care of those around us that are always among us now
I quoted that thing from Jesus right? Did you know he's actually quoting Deuteronomy when he says that?
Yeah, it's Deuteronomy 15 11. He says for the poor will never cease to be in the land
Therefore now Jesus assuming that they know this right there
Therefore I command you saying you shall freely open your hand to your brother to the needy and the poor in your land
Mm-hmm. So what Jesus is not saying is that in honoring him you suddenly lose your obligation to take care of those around you
Yeah, okay. This is all going to be important because this is all part of the same context
We're coming into love your neighbor as yourself. So let's continue on in verse 11
Do not steal do not lie do not deceive one another
Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God
I am the Lord do not defraud or rob your neighbor do not hold back the wages of a higher worker overnight
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind but fear your God
I am the Lord do not pervert justice do not show partiality to the poor or
Favoritism to the great but judge your neighbor fairly
By the way, I love that sentence there do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great. Mm-hmm
Like you can't cut it either way. No, we need to have justice for our neighbors. Mm-hmm. Do not go about spreading slander among your people
Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart
Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt
Do not seek revenge or bury grudge against anyone among your people
but
Love your neighbor as yourself
I am the Lord
So let's stop there because there's I actually want to continue on because it actually continues on another context
I think is really good. So there's a lot of instructions here about community living. Yeah
I think it's really interesting that this goes under a heading at least in the NIV of various laws
I think it's interesting like a lot of the translations and maybe send us an email or a comment about what your translation says at
the top of 19 mine says various laws and I just think that's very interesting
It's like we don't know how to classify this and the reality is this is like, how do you live in a community?
Yeah, how do you actually flourish among people both God's people and people that are not part of God's people?
Yeah, how do you actually look different than everybody else? Yeah
Some of these ships are very familiar from our ten words
Yeah, they do a lot of these things sound like common sense. Don't steal don't deceive don't cheat
Don't swear falsely so on so forth a lot of these like okay
This is sounds pretty common sense. You also need to understand the day and age that this was written in
it was not written in a day and age where where the community of which they were a part of was vast and you could just kind of
Shift friend groups or social groups, right if you needed to right it wasn't written in that day and age
It was written in day and age where you are a part of a tribe of Israel some larger than others and so you
Had to deal with the issues you had with other people and so it's saying how do you do this lovingly?
And how do you do this in a way that builds each other up?
Also, how do you do this in a way that you don't end up killing each other?
Yeah
And then the other portion of this is when we're talking about not cheating people making sure that you pay their wages all these different
Things don't only sympathize with the poor or show partiality to the rich, right?
Yeah, these are things by the way, you should hear that from James the book of James
What's what's the temptation when you come from Egypt?
Like this is your culture where might makes right and if you're rich and powerful you can basically do whatever you want
Mm-hmm. This says no you can't
But also just because you were a slave and you identify with that. It doesn't mean that the weaker party is always correct
Yeah, it's a little bit of an ego check too
Yeah, because you follow Israel story out of Egypt that they were freed from the most powerful nation in the world
And then they went on with the help of God to defeat other tribes other nations going into the promised land
Yeah, they've had a fight with the Amalekites at this point
Yep, and they've had a few skirmishes, but they haven't had any real fights. Mm-hmm, but they're coming. Yeah, they are coming and
It's gonna be really tempting when you're like, ah, man, we're awesome. We should just go and do this
In fact, I think in numbers there's a conversation
We're gonna have about where they they accept a false report and then God says, okay
You're not going in the land and then they're like, oh no, we'll go now. He's like
No, I already said you can't go now and they're like, oh no, we'll be fine. We'll go and we'll bear your name
Well, you're bearing something you're just not bearing his name and we'll talk about that
But yeah, who's whose banner you actually running with are you trusting in your might or in God's might?
Do you trust in God's justice by the way going back to Genesis?
Yeah, do you trust that God is not holding out on you or do you go out and try to take for yourself?
yeah, these laws revolve around these same concepts and
and so all the way down to the point where it says that you as
Israelites need to make sure that you do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people
But love your neighbor as yourself. Okay, I
Know a lot of Christians who love to quote. I love your neighbor as yourself. Mm-hmm that bear a lot of grudges. Mm-hmm
Well you back up a verse a little bit more it says do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives
who
Yeah, okay
Then it says confront people directly so that you will not be held guilty in their sin, right?
now I want to just pause here on this because I know a lot of believers who do nurse hatred
towards fellow believers and what they'll do is they'll justify it as oh that person's not truly a follower of Jesus because
They don't fully believe as I do or whatnot
There's lots of different I've run into lots of different variations of this
But they'll justify their hatred as oh, well, maybe they're not actually following Jesus
We will have an episode where we talk about how we demonize each other. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah, and then the second part of this confront people directly
It doesn't say be a jerk. It also doesn't say talk to other people about that person
Yes, if you have an issue with somebody go to them confront them about it
You can be direct and loving at the same time one
We want to go back to like even yes ago. We talked about Ephesians speaking truth and love
Yeah, the idea is you have unity not uniformity
Mm-hmm, and you're honorably pursuing God and in that pursuit
When we have the best in mind for the person around us, then we can speak truth and love
When I understand you I'm in community. I'm in fellowship with you. I can speak truth and love
Yeah, you can't speak truth and love outside of that context. No, you can't. Yeah, that's good
So this is about the middle of the chapter
So let's just keep going on and it says love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord continuing on in 19
Keep my decrees do not mate different kinds of animals
Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material
If a man sleeps with a female slave who is promised to another man
But who has not been ransom or given her freedom there must be due punishment yet
They are not to be put to death because she has not been freed
The man however must bring a ram to the entrance to the tent of meeting for a guilt offering to the Lord
With the ram or guilt offering the priest is to make atona for him because of the sin Lord for the sin
He has committed and his sin will be forgiven
When you enter the land and plant any kind of tree regardless regard its fruit as forbidden for three years
You are to consider it forbidden for it
It must not be eaten in the fourth year all of its fruit would be holy and offering a praise to the Lord
But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit in this way your harvest will be increased. I am the Lord your God
Okay, let's take a stop step back really quick and I am NOT avoiding the one about the ransom and the end of slavery
I just think that that was going to require more context and we're gonna put in this episode
So we're gonna pin that bring that up for a Q&A if you want that in the future. Okay, but what's going on here?
He's saying there's don't make two different kinds of animals different kinds of field different kinds of fabrics
Different people groups, right? You're not mixing now. Why because you're supposed to be different
You're supposed to be set apart
You're not intermingling one of the things that gets Israel in trouble over and over again
Is they want to mingle a little bit of Phoenicia with a little bit of Egypt with a little bit of you know, and
Not shockingly it ends up looking nothing like what God actually has for you. Mm-hmm
You know eating a little bacon's not that bad. I'm a gentleman. Right? Yeah
Get good old cup of bacon call out to the Baymaw podcast for that. Uh-huh. There's a very practical one
But once again here is this whole thing with the fruit tree
Like anybody who actually does these types of things knows that you don't need the fruit for the first couple years
Yeah
You actually have to let it grow and produce fruit year after year before you actually try to read from it
Which by the way, if we judge a person as a tree and fruit sometimes in the first couple of years that fruit might not
quite be
Ready. Mm-hmm. Yeah, give it time. Mm-hmm continue to you know, prune that tree work with it all those different things
I think the tendency is we want to immediately diagnose a person rather than actually discipling them through a process. Yeah
All right. So looking ahead here do not eat any meat with the blood still in it
Okay, that should by the way make sense with our episode where we talked about the life being in the blood and you cast your
Identity onto the animal right like why do you not eat blood? So they're just trying to reinstate what's going on here plus. Yeah
health
Food with blood in it would make you real sick if you don't cook it, right? Mm-hmm
Do not practice divinations or seek omens
Do not cut the hair on the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard
Do not cut your bodies for the dead or to put tattoo marks on yourself
I am the Lord do not grade your daughter by making her a prostitute or the land will turn to prostitution be a little
thick wickedness observe my Sabbath and have reverence for my sanctuary
I am the Lord do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists spiritist assists
That's a hard word for you will be defiled by them
I am the Lord your God stand in the presence of the aged show respect for the elderly and revere your God
I am the Lord when the foreigner resides among you in your land
Do not mistreat them the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native born love them as
yourself
For you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God
Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length weight or height or quality. Sorry. I
Can read I promise use honest scales and honest weights an honest ifah and an honest hin
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them
I'm Lord. Mm-hmm. Okay once again here. Why are we going into these things again, right?
Because he wants them to be different than everything else around them, right?
So when you're mentioning specific practices, I've seen this this this quote from Leviticus where people talk about the reason you shouldn't get tattoos
The tattoos that they are getting our ritual worship
For their gods in the Middle Eastern culture
They are meant for for blessing for whatever you want to place on it. They were they were ritualistic things
Yeah, it is not the same as when somebody wants to get a cross tattoo across their forearm to remind them of Christ saving their life
Okay. Now you can be against tattoos and I'm totally fine with that. I actually have no tattoos
Yeah, my wife has plenty. Yeah, I don't have any tattoos either
Mostly because I'm like it just doesn't appeal to me to go have a needle stuck in my arm or leg
For thousands of times to make a picture. Yeah
I don't like getting pinched and so like you think about getting pinched like a couple thousand times like that
Just doesn't sound pleasant right like it just doesn't sound like a fun thing to me. I know other people who love tattoos
Mm-hmm, and they're wonderful people who follow Jesus. I
Want one of my encouragements to you though is regardless of how you feel about it
This is not probably mean what you think it does if you're trying to use it as a reason people shouldn't get tattoos
Mm-hmm
Yeah, also along with they talk about not clipping their hair on the sides of your head or clipping off the edges of your beard
Okay, once again these have to do with ritualistic things. You've got to understand the cultures that they're speaking into
Yeah
So a lot of these are don't do the things that they do for deity worship in the other areas
Like even like placing your daughter as a prostitute. Mm-hmm, right?
Like now, hopefully nobody listening to this is oh dang. I was gonna place my daughter as a prostitute
Hopefully that's not the case. And if it is send us your your address, we're gonna call CPS on you because that is not okay
These things that are going on here are regarding what is happening now outside of their culture
Because they didn't necessarily have respect for the elderly
They didn't care about the treat the foreigners among them really well, but God says you
You're gonna love your neighbor as you love yourself
But now I need you to love the foreigner the people who are not part of your tribe
And people who are not part of your family the people who are not part of your faith dynamic
I need you to love them like they are. Mm-hmm for you
Were once foreigners in Egypt and he is the Lord God who brought us out of the land of Egypt
So we're going to love people even when they don't look the same talk the same come from the same place and definitely don't
Do the same things as us? Yeah
Absolutely, and when we are talking about loving people like putting that in a modern context
Remember back to when you didn't know Jesus
Who were you at that point in your life?
Okay. Now, do you know people in your sphere who don't know Jesus who are acting the same way that you used to?
Aren't you so thankful someone came alongside you and loved you for who you were at that time?
Yeah, yeah doesn't mean that's who you are now, right? Let's be clear on that, but they loved you for who you were
So now it's your turn to be like, okay. I'm gonna love those people for who they are and
Watch Jesus do a transforming work in their lives
So pastor Nick has this game that he plays where he takes a little portions of what we say
Uh-huh, and he quotes it out of context because it's called love in context
So he calls it out of love and out of context. Mm-hmm. And so he'll text us these sound bites periodically
So this is probably one that's gonna get clipped. I should be so great. Do you realize that people's sin isn't actually the issue?
Mm-hmm
Okay, is the problem for somebody in today's world that they are a practicing adulterer
Now that has problems hundred percent and that that kind of behavior leads to certain ramifications in your life
Right hundred percent like they don't actually bring life, but is that the issue?
No, it seems like that is a symptom of the issue
Yeah, which is that we have a broken nature that happened in Eden. Mm-hmm
When we said we don't trust you God, we're gonna define good and evil on our own terms
And then from that point forward we actually had a broken nature that was incapable of receiving the grace of God
Yeah, at least on a permanent basis. Mm-hmm
God is like speaking into this and he's like I want to restore relationship more so relationship on restore relationship
I want to restore relationship on wants to relationship finally
Jesus bridging the gap and coming and taking all sin and all death and
Fundamentally changing our nature by conquering them in the grave and by rising again
And don't mishear us forgiveness of sins is crucial crucial
It's it's crucial but it is the first step into restoration with relationship with relationship to God
Yeah, the sins are forgiven then as we draw closer to God
We become closer in relationship with him more tight knit with him
Correct and the less those sin temptations those sin desires exist in our lives the more we lean into who God is
but
Just because you're forgiven doesn't mean you're not gonna be tempted and doesn't mean you're not gonna slip up, right?
Okay, so even if you look at narcotics anonymous or alcoholics anonymous or anything like that if someone slips up, it's not like oh
Hey, you're done. You're out of the program
That's not what it is. They have a process they go through. Okay, I don't I've never been a part of it
So I don't know too much about it. I know the last episode I talked about a a now you're talking about NA people
I'm like, yeah, right these guys. Yeah, that's true regardless
Sins are forgiven that's the most that's the starting point to us being drawn closer to God and being restored in relationship with God, right?
So what you talked about earlier in Leviticus God has always been capable of forgiving sense
Yes
So that can't be the groundbreaking thing that Jesus actually comes to do Jesus actually comes to fundamentally change our nature to actually bring the kingdom
Among us. Yeah, so that the kingdom of heaven is now something that we live into
Now forgiveness of sins is a part of that our nature gets changed God forgives our sins and then he empowers us by the Holy Spirit
To live differently. Yeah through the forgiveness of sins. We are redeemed empowered by the Holy Spirit
Exactly. Exactly. You were probably like, oh, why are we being very specific with this?
Well, because we sometimes I think we get bogged down in theological
Terminology and we're like, oh no, it's always since and sin. I was like, yeah
But if you don't actually have a change in nature
Nothing changes. Mm-hmm. Then you're just coming back over and over again for forgiveness of sin and you never actually have power over it
But that's not what God actually teaches us. No says that I empower you to be different. Yeah, and
That's the transformative work of Christ in your life. Yeah, that your life is not actually it was one way
Mm-hmm to quote from the chosen it was one way. Mm-hmm. And
Now it's different. Yeah, and the only thing in between is him. Yep. Amen
By the way, I'm gonna throw it out here. I think I've talked about it before I love the chosen
Mm-hmm. I have talked about it. I I think that they do a fantastic job
I know not everybody loves it because they're taking scripture and putting it on film and stuff. I love it
I think that they've done it they're being trying to be as faithful as possible and encourage people in their faith
Mm-hmm. So Dallas Jenkins if you're listening, we'd love to have you on the podcast
So now coming back to this idea about the change in nature now
So why is this important because loving other people doesn't mean condoning what they're doing
Exactly. It also doesn't mean fixing what they're doing. Exactly
It means actually introducing them the core them to the person of Jesus and allowing him to transform their life. Mm-hmm
Now I think it's important that the love of the foreigner comes in the midst of all these things where they tell he tells the Israelites
Don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. These are things that they do
but
When they come into your area, you need to love them like you love your brothers and sisters. Yeah
Right. So you're going to have to sit among them and be different. Yep
Don't retreat back to your
Churches, uh-huh your houses and never engage the culture. You're gonna be out and among people
Live differently. You put a story on display and love them like you love your brothers and sisters. Amen
That's hard. That's very hard
It's a much more difficult thing than saying. Oh, I just I theoretically just love you
but I'm just gonna not interact with you because I don't want to deal with the
Yeah, and the reason that's hard is because this requires you to not hold grudges
To not keep records of wrong Paul goes into this in 1st Corinthians 13
Yeah, right. This patient loves patience kind no records of wrong so on so forth read it from the lens of like how incredibly difficult is this?
It's almost like you would need divine help to do it. Yeah, right. There's things
that people do that honestly just drive me nuts that I just am like
Why would I want to be around that? He's talking about me. I am talking about Ben
100% and and pastor Nick if he's listening, but there are things that people do that was just like man
That is really hard to put up with anybody who is married knows what I'm talking about
And if you are like and if you're married like oh, no, we don't have those issues
You do there you just not admitting to him
But anybody who's married knows what I'm talking about. Okay, there are things that my wife does that drives me nuts
Okay, and there's things that I do that drive my wife nuts. There's things that we do that drive each other nuts
Well, we make sure we would do not do is when something drives us nuts
We're like you remember five years ago when you said this thing
Yeah
Or you did this or you did that or asked for this and you said no
What we don't do is we don't hold grudges on that we still drive each other nuts sometimes
But we work that out move on and do not hold grudges
Yeah, I wanted I want to talk about the other end of that too
Because I think if you have somebody where they're like, well, you said you forgave me and I was like
Well, you also said you were gonna change your behavior and you're doing the exact same thing
Yeah
And so I'm not necessarily bringing up that the past because I was having this conversation
With my spouse once and I said I'm not necessarily bringing up the past because I haven't forgiven you for the event
What I'm saying is what you are doing now is very similar to this
Which is something I thought we got past
So that's good communication. Yeah, and that obviously that always involves a two-way street
I was like but the reason I'm bringing up the past is not to attack but to to have a real conversation about like hey
What am I feeling today?
Yeah, my heart's not to take off my spouse every day
Yeah, my heart's not to take off my spouse every day. Yeah, some days some days it depends on the day
There's days. I'm better at it than other days
But that's not my heart right? Yeah, and there are some habits are so ingrained in my life that I've been changing but they take time
Yeah, in other words guys marriage is hard
Yeah
the way that we love our spouse want not the exact way but the way that we have unending compassion and and
Will bear with people that we are married to or in our family. We need to have that kind of compassion for people who are outside
Yeah, right now. I do think that it's it's important to know that just with your family like you set boundaries
You set guidelines like you make sure that you're protecting your sanity protecting your your your ability to love God and love other people
And so I think people will tend to want to violate those boundaries and it's okay to tell someone hey
You violated some boundaries. So we need to take a step back. Mm-hmm
Like clear communication like just taking a step back in a relationship with somebody is not necessarily
Unloving yeah, it depends on why you do it. Mm-hmm
Are you doing it because you want no relationship moving forward? Are you doing it so that you can reevaluate how to move forward?
Yeah
Um, yeah, that was so good. Yeah, I just think it's really important
So my wife and I have been spending a lot of time like just with different
Um books reading about boundaries and like how do you how do you interact with people?
And one of the things that I realized is that um, I had a tendency to let people just run all run rampant all over my boundaries
And I started
Being very clear on what my boundaries are and when somebody ran up against it and they would say well
I need you to do this. I said no
And they're like, oh why not? I said it's a boundary
And then they wanted further clarification if I have to explain to you why I have a boundary
Then you're looking to argue with me about my boundary. Mm-hmm, right?
It's okay to have boundaries that you just don't argue about
It actually allowed me to have some really good conversations with people who tend to run right over boundaries
Yeah, and I think our relationship is better since then. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely
So tying this back when we're talking about marriage a lot
Part of the reason for that is our marriages are supposed to be a image of the church's relationship with christ
And so we need to understand some stuff there
We need to understand that we as a church are called to love the foreigners and the outsiders in our community
And what I'm referring to is anybody who is not in relationship with jesus
Like we need to be loving those people
To be loving those people we need to be loving those people well, that doesn't mean we're sacrificing on certain beliefs, right?
But we can actually we can hold firm on beliefs and still be loving
Yeah, exactly
And I think I think we often miss this where we're like, oh we're holding strong to the truth and I was like
Yeah, but if you're not loving you're not holding strong to the truth
Yeah, and if you need a refresher on that we just talked about first john. I think it was two episodes ago. Yeah
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so if you're not loving your neighbor as well
You're not actually holding to the truth
The other thing is loving doesn't mean you're tolerant of every behavior. We've talked we just talked about that a little bit
Yeah, I love my children and I don't tolerate every behavior that they have
Yeah, I don't tolerate my daughter throwing a massive fit right before bedtime
I still love my daughter
When we are loving people we are trying to encourage people into a place where they're encountering jesus where jesus is doing
Transformative work in our lives and they are becoming better people because of that
Do you think maybe part of what's going on is culture is conflating acceptance and tolerance is one word. Yeah
Where's not no I can accept you as a person
And as a person made in the image of god
And still not tolerate certain behaviors. Yeah, I wanted to recommend a couple of different resources
So not just our conversation, but just a couple of different people's conversations
So last week we recommended bob goff love does bob has a really good heart of how do you love people that are just completely?
out of your wheelhouse, right
john townsend is a
Believer who is also a psychologist, right?
And so he wrote a book called loving people how to love and be loved
Right, so that's gonna be a little bit more clinical approach and there's it's gonna be a little bit maybe different than you might be
Having encountered that before there's a book called keep your love on by a guy by the name of danny silk
And he also comes from a therapeutic background. Mm-hmm and just talking about how do you love people in the middle of?
Not necessarily always liking them. Mm-hmm. Like how do you keep your love on?
Regardless of what happens in a relationship
All great resources and they're gonna be very diverse backgrounds in their theological beliefs
So read all three and if you don't like one just move on to the next one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah
I guarantee you're not gonna agree with everyone. Yeah, especially everyone on this podcast. Mm-hmm. Yeah, this is
Leviticus 19 it kind of falls in the middle of the vitticus
So why do you end the look at Leviticus with something in the middle?
Chiasm. Yep
Chiasm is once again like in the middle of this book and you can even hear it as it repeats itself
Love your neighbor as yourself and then love the foreigner as you love your neighbor
This whole book is about how do you interact with people?
And put the story of God on display because once again the book of Leviticus is about God instructing his people
His kingdom of priests how to be priests
Yeah, and put it on display for the entire world how to become a more healthy ethical functioning society
That's gonna flourish in the desert. Yeah, so good
That is what you should be taking away from this book. Yeah, it's not where the nitpicky laws that were very hard to follow
It's actually how do we love our neighbors? Well, how do we love the foreigner?
Well, yeah, how do we put God's story on display?
Because if it because if you read this story from any other context but that you're gonna come away with some really weird ideas
Yeah, very weird ideas
So I think that's probably gonna be good
I think that's a good short episode to kind of wrap us up here
Once again, if you want to reach us we have love and context at gmail.com
That's where you can write if you're a vegetarian you can write to spencer there and tell him about how offended you were
I'll send you a package of bacon. Yeah, you can also follow us on facebook at love and context instagram at love and context and
Tick-tock we are I think love and context podcast. Okay. Yeah, because we had issues with the username or something like that
Additionally, we also do have a youtube channel if you guys can subscribe to that that actually helps our
Viewership and they're getting pushed out to more people. Yeah, but you can listen to us on apple spotify amazon
On youtube and just about everywhere that you can imagine. Yep, pretty much everywhere. You can find us at this point
Even though next week's episode is a q a we have found that we need to request q a questions well in advance
So probably at the end of torah, we're gonna do another q a episode
So that's gonna be probably in there 14 15 weeks away from now
But go ahead and just start launching those questions and let us know what you guys think
otherwise
until next time
That's a wrap for today's episode. We want to extend a heartfelt
Thank you for tuning in and spending your valuable time with us
We hope that you found today's conversation insightful and that you take something meaningful from it
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About Jesus. I do want to point out though that you did wait until we started to record before you
Been into that spicy chicken
It's actually not a spicy chicken sandwich. He just has a spicy chicken here running around that he bought into his life
Leviticus 19 let's go. Let's go
Kiss our home and wait, that's the oh Canada never mind
Pidicases our home. Yeah, I guess apparently okay. Okay, it talks about how we should behave at home
Love you neighbor as yourself end of episode. I'm sorry