Welcome to the Love and Context podcast, engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts,
Ben and Spencer.
Whether you're tuning in from your car, your office, your home, or anywhere in between,
we are so happy to have you join us today.
Our mission is simple, to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love.
Together we'll uncover fresh insights and gain deeper understandings of how we can love
God and love the people in our everyday lives.
So buckle up and join us on the spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom that
is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
Without further ado, let's dive right in.
Welcome to the Love and Context podcast with Ben and Spencer.
I am Spencer.
I'm Ben.
And we are going through Deuteronomy.
We're on our second week, right?
We are on our second week of Deuteronomy.
And in case anybody is wondering who's watching the videos, I actually do have shirts that
aren't Batman.
Oh, I do.
I do.
Like two or three of them.
Yeah.
There's a Captain America.
I have a Superman.
Oh, so you're Marvel and DC.
Oh, yeah.
No, I'm an equal opportunity superhero.
I don't know if that's allowed.
It's allowed.
Oh, OK.
You know, as long as I buy that and they get the royalty, they're fine with it.
Yeah, they're completely fine with it as long as I spend the money.
Yeah.
So this week, on this week's episode, we are going to be in Deuteronomy.
Yeah.
We're going to be pulling two concepts out of chapter five and out of chapter six.
Yeah.
So if you have not read those, go on to your Bible app or open your Bible and read Deuteronomy
five and six before we have this conversation, because it's going to hinge on you actually
having heard this before.
Right.
Yeah.
So here in these chapters, we have a recounting of the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words.
And if you actually if you want to go back, we actually have the episode on the Ten Words.
There's some things we talked about.
We'll link that in the show notes as well.
If you are just coming to us as a new listener and haven't heard that before, because we're
going to reference back to some ideas we had back there too.
And we want to just reiterate again, this is a retelling.
Right.
Moses is telling this from his perspective.
And so there are some things if you're reading the account in Deuteronomy versus the account
in Exodus, you might be like, oh, these seem a little different.
Right.
And we'll talk a little bit about that.
We have a few other ideas as well.
Right.
We just want to mention that.
So one of the things we talked about when we did this back in Exodus is this idea of
a ketubah.
Right.
This this statement in a wedding and a Jewish wedding ceremony of this is who I am and this
is who I expect you to be.
This is this is how we will interact in the salmon.
After you, this is how you're going to act with other people.
And we read the Ten Words as a wedding ceremony.
Yeah.
Right.
Which is completely appropriate.
Right.
This is this is God's wedding gift to the Israelites.
They consider the law their wedding gifts and the Ten Commandments is encompassing that
interesting idea that we came across.
And I kind of want to discuss a little bit.
I'm going to give like once again credit to Rabbi David Foreman at Aleph Beta.
But I kind of want to talk about something he was talking about with the Ten Commandments
and and kind of just get into this.
So there's ten but there's two tablets.
Now one of the things that I always find interesting about that is God doesn't have to give them
two tablets.
He could have just written in a smaller font.
Right.
Just put that down into ten and then single space.
You know.
So there's a reason why they're on two tablets and not one.
Yeah.
Right.
Now one of the things we've talked about is that there is this is who I'm going to be.
This is who you're going to be.
But the first tablet is largely dealing with vertical relationships.
In other words like what is going on with God and like how do you interact with God.
And then the other ones are dealing with the horizontal relationships five through ten.
The the only places that doesn't work is there's this command number five honor your father
and mother.
Right.
To honor your father and mother that it may go well with you in life.
Right.
They're not God.
Parents you are not God.
Yeah.
Hopefully I'm not shocking or breaking any paradigms there.
So one of the things that Foreman says the way that you kind of interact with that is
the reason that parents fits on the left tablet instead of the right tablet is because you
actually are coming.
You are created from your parents.
You're never like and maybe you see what you think about this but I'm never going to be
peers with my parents.
I always came from them.
Right.
There are things that we are peers on but I'm always going to be their child.
Right.
You know I'm a piece that they created.
You know.
So like on a very broad level like how do I interact with people vertically from me as
opposed to like an aunt and uncle like I might be peers with my aunt and uncle but I'm not
ever going to be with my parents.
Yeah.
And as you get older you become more and more peer like.
I would argue that.
Yeah exactly.
But I mean example like when my dad came out to visit this last summer I didn't pay for
a single thing.
Right.
Like there's just no way.
Like I mean I'd never asked him to pay for anything.
I'm a grown adult.
I can pay for my own bills.
I can pay for stuff.
But he was like oh yeah no I'll fill your truck up with gas.
Oh no I got groceries.
Oh no I'll do this.
That's such a parent thing.
And I was like OK dad like if that's what you want to do great.
Like you know I'm not going to not going to stop him from doing that because he wants
to bless in that way.
Right.
I know he listens to this.
He's going to have some.
He's he's going to be like well actually I've been itemizing those.
Well but I mean like early on in our marriage Tara and I we were having this conversation
because whenever her dad would come to visit he'd want to take her out to dinner and he
wanted he'd want to pay for this.
You want to pay for that.
And her dad is he's a very money conscious person and he just he doesn't spend a lot
of money on himself.
He spends a ton of money on his kids.
Right.
But she's like well dad you know I have a job I have a career I'm married I have a house
you know all these different things.
And that's the Tara.
Your dad is expressing how he feels about you by doing these things.
You need to let him.
And spoiler alert a lot of guys are not good at expressing how they feel.
That's true.
I'm not.
That's not everyone.
It's not everyone.
That's not a blanket rule.
Not saying every guy.
I'm saying a lot of guys.
Right.
Yeah.
So they might express that by like hey let me bless you by buying this or doing this
or taking you out to dinner or what.
Right.
Yeah.
This is this is neither here nor there because this is not really having to do with what
we're talking about today.
But I did hear a pastor and I thought it was a really good thing.
He's like I have these guys come in and they're like pastor I love my wife but I'm not emotional.
He's like I don't know.
I've seen you at a football game.
You're pretty emotional.
Why you.
He's like now you you know how to express anger and lament.
He's like so now it seems like you just got to get in tune with your other emotions.
And I thought that was really funny.
Yeah.
So like to your point though is like you become more of a peer to your parents but your dad's
your dad.
Your mom's your mom.
Right.
My aunt and uncle like those like I kind of feel like eventually you get to this point
where you're kind of just like uneven filing with them even though it's your uncle your
aunt you appreciate them all those things they could be peers with parents it just doesn't
ever feel like that's going to be the case.
Yeah.
You know so it's a vertical relationship as opposed to horizontal.
So relationship to creators is what I'm going to call them like both your creator of like
you and then also like your parents.
Right.
And those are vertically connected and then those vertically around you who are your peers
like so you would be my peer and like you know my wife is my peer and like all everybody
else that I'm interacting with.
So the first tablet is how do you interact with those people vertically.
Yeah.
And the second is how do you interact with them horizontally.
Now the interesting thing about that is forming them postulates what if there aren't 10 laws
but there's five laws that are expressed two different ways and that these five laws actually
connect to each other in a very profound way both vertical and horizontal.
So why would that matter.
Now there is a story of a very famous rabbi by the name of Hillel.
You've heard of him right.
So in the time of Jesus there's like two really popular schools of rabbinical Judaism.
There is the school of Shemai and there's a school of Hillel.
Hillel is usually the one who a lot of his his ideology is the ones that Jesus is also
affirming from the Torah.
Right.
But there's a story about a guy who comes up and he asks both rabbis but I'm just going
to give you her LL's answer.
He comes up to her and he says teach me all of Torah while I stand on one foot.
You know the idea being that you have to be able to explain it quickly.
Right.
And Hillel makes a statement I'm going to read it directly says that which you hate.
Don't do that to your fellow.
The rest is commentary that which you hate.
Don't do that to your fellow.
The rest is commentary.
Now later in Judaism a rabbi Akiva is going to take this and he's going to say you need
to love your neighbor as yourself.
He's going to take that idea from Leviticus.
Right.
So when you're hearing that you say well why might Hillel say it this way.
And I want you to just put a pin in that for idea as we kind of go along.
So I want to go back and take a look at this idea of 10 and 5.
OK.
So if there are 10 and 5 let's start taking a look at these laws and see what might be
the connecting ideas between them.
OK.
So the first command I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
You shall have no other gods before me.
Right.
The sixth command is do not murder.
Do not murder.
OK.
So what is it about not recognizing God as God that has to do with not murdering.
So little thought experiment for you here.
What is murder exactly like so if I'm if I'm laying in bed one night and I'm just like
you know what.
The world doesn't need Spencer.
It's funny that he says that because that would happen.
The world would be without Ben because my wife would be coming after.
Yes.
Yes he would.
But like so if I'm sitting there I said how do I if I'm sitting there I say OK well the
world doesn't need Spencer.
In fact I just wish Spencer was not here.
The only way to actually remove you is to objectively remove you.
Right.
Because otherwise you're still going to be in the world.
Like so murder is actually objectively actually removing you from this world.
Now you could say of course he's killing.
But now I'm actually doing with intent to actually deprive you of life and actually
remove you from society.
When you think about I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt don't
have any other gods before me.
When you actually in place God and you start to ignore him as the authority figure in your
life you are now effectively because you can't murder God.
Right.
Can't kill God.
But what you can do is you can live your life pretending like he doesn't exist.
Right.
Which is a subjective way to live.
Whereas murdering somebody is an objective thing that you can do.
Right.
And so you have this objective and subjective way that you can either interact with God
or interact with others which you might say that the concept there is don't do away with
others.
Yeah.
Is this connecting concept between these two laws.
Now at this point in the podcast there are people who are listening to me and going Ben
has off his rocker.
Bear with us.
You might be right but we're going to keep going.
Well to add to that real quick.
Yeah.
To say I am the Lord your God put no other gods before me.
Yeah.
OK.
And I say do not murder.
Yeah.
Right.
The other way that I'm looking at it is got the value that God puts on you.
Look at that.
The value of the love he puts on you he puts on your neighbor.
Oh yeah.
So then when you go and murder your neighbor you are devaluing the value of God.
You're actually putting the value of something else in front of what God values which is
other people.
Yep.
Which is putting God before God.
That's actually going to play really well into what I have coming up.
So thank you for that.
Thank you.
So then the second law is this.
You shall have no other gods before me but then you're not supposed to make any idols.
Right.
Makes sense.
You're not supposed to have any gods.
Probably don't keep pictures or you know of other gods which actually coordinates with
the seventh law which is do not commit adultery.
And you say well how do these two ideas work.
You're not betraying the you're not like betraying your relationship by mixing in something that
doesn't belong.
So you're taking two people who are married and they are committed they're together and
you typically mix in a third party that doesn't belong or fourth party that doesn't belong
depending on like spoiler.
It usually doesn't usually does not end well.
It doesn't end well with that.
Oh sure.
Either.
There's like a whole Old Testament talks about it.
And so what you're doing is you're mixing in something that doesn't belong.
Once again if the Lord your God is you're not having any other guys before him.
You're mixing in something that doesn't belong.
Asher pulls right or temples to take on right.
Like these things that don't belong and are actually betraying the relationship.
So then you have don't do it with others.
And then this one is don't betray relationships.
Right.
So hopefully you're starting to see this like you probably there's people listening that
their mind is getting exploding right now.
Right.
I mean so between two and seven.
Yeah.
Like think of it this way.
This is this is at least it's coming to my mind.
So our relationship with Christ is supposed to symbolize marriage.
Right.
And if we bring something and put that before Christ we're essentially cheating.
OK.
Yeah.
And so don't commit adultery.
Same thing like you have a marriage relationship.
You have someone else into that.
You're cheating on that and they tie together.
The two concepts tie together beautifully.
Right.
Because if your marriage is supposed to represent the church marriage with Christ then why would
you bring something into impede that.
100 percent.
So then the third one is do not take the Lord's name in vain.
Right.
So the eighth command is to not steal.
And you hear that and you're like OK but how are those the same idea.
Well it turns out in the Hebrew steal doesn't necessarily mean steal.
It means to pick up and take away.
OK.
In fact they have actually connected to the idea of kidnapping.
Right.
Like you you take in you and you take for yourself.
Right.
What do we talk about with the Lord's name is like it's not taking the name in vain it's
actually do you bear up lift up pick up the name incorrectly and bear it incorrectly.
Right.
Like don't pick up the name and then use it for what it's not meant for.
Hopefully you see how those ideas might be related.
You know you have this idea of kidnapping or lifting up and stealing and talked about
how you're supposed to bear up the name incorrectly violating someone in their abstract.
Right.
Their name as opposed to violating somebody with their body picking up and kidnapping
their stuff or them.
Right.
And how you go how you go about living your life.
Right.
If you're bearing the name of the Lord correctly.
Yeah.
Your life's going to look a certain way.
Yeah.
Right.
Now you tie that to tie that to eight.
Having kids is a good thing.
Yeah.
How you go about getting kids.
I love that.
That's the place you went.
Uh huh.
Well I mean let's be real.
My daughter the other day this is a couple of months ago.
She was like I want a brother and I was like oh OK well I was like I was like well you
have to go talk to your mom about that and then her follow up statement was can we go
to Walmart and get a brother.
Yeah just.
And I was like no no we can't do that.
Oh man.
That's how that works.
Right.
Like having kids is a beautiful thing.
Yeah.
Right.
But there is a process you go through to get kids.
Well and I think with the one thing is that if you were the kind of person who bore up
God's name incorrectly or.
Yeah.
If you were the kind of person who bore up God's name correctly you wouldn't be the
kind of person who takes things from other people.
Yeah.
And if you are the kind of person who would bear the name incorrectly you're absolutely
if you would abscond with God's name you're absolutely abscond with people's things.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Which by the way Christians I'm looking at you.
You know whose name are you bearing.
Yeah.
Because that's that's going to tell us a lot about what you're going to do in reality.
Yeah.
And put yourself in the other person's shoes too for a moment because if you're not bearing
up the name of God is correctly people are going to notice that.
Yeah.
OK.
I'm going to go back to the kidnapping because my brain I mean it's it's it's hilarious.
I mean OK.
Let me specify kidnapping is not hilarious.
The way you brought it up is very funny.
Yeah.
Don't kidnap.
OK.
I don't I would hope that anybody who's listening to us isn't thinking about kidnapping.
Yeah.
So if you're if you're not going to lie OK I'm not going to lie to you that's probably
the best three minutes of podcasts that we've had.
Yeah.
Like that was great.
Yeah.
So if you're bearing up the name of God incorrectly people are going to notice that.
Yeah.
They're going to notice that.
OK.
Just like if you kidnap a child they're going to notice that you are not their parent.
Right.
Well and so like the the connecting concept is don't violate the abstract like somebody's
name and or the concrete like the body of another.
Yeah.
Like don't violate the abstract or the concrete of another person.
Yeah.
Right.
That's the connecting thing here.
So the next one is honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Right.
Starting with don't bear false witness.
Now I want to tell you something that's interesting.
If these concepts are connected I wonder like I've thought about the fact that the church
really struggles with both of these.
A lot of churches who struggle to recognize the need for a Sabbath tend to be the same
kind of people who tend to tell interesting stories about their neighbor.
Yeah.
Right.
Bearing false witness.
Now this idea is that Sabbath observance when when the Sabbath day so God on the seventh
day he makes it holy.
It's a testament when we celebrate it to us understanding whose image we're made in.
Yeah.
Right.
And it's also a testament to what God has done in the other six days.
Right.
So it is our trust and it is our is our trust in God's story in that he says the story is
good and we're trusting in that now that he's the one who's going to bring Exodus not us.
Yeah.
Right.
So when you bear false testimony you actually testify falsehood.
Yeah.
You bring incorrect you start to assassinate somebody's character.
Now Sabbath observance is about acknowledging the story that God's work is good that we
are made in his image trusting in a story safeguarding or being witness to the truth
by way that we live our life.
False testimony is the exact opposite of that.
So these ideas are very clearly linked.
Yeah.
Like one is the way that you interact with God.
Are you putting on display the testimony that yes God I trust you and the way that I interact
with other people the truth that I tell the ability that I have to actually look people
in the eye and tell the truth and to correctly assess their character says whether or not
I trust this story.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
It's not surprising to me that a lot of like now I'm actually having it in my head like
people that I've struggled with who tend to misrepresent people's character they struggle
with trusting that the story is good.
Yeah.
It's not an accident that those ideas are linked.
So often find that people who struggle trusting that the story is good are all too consumed
with their reputation and how they're going to be perceived.
The reality though is if we're trusting that God's story is good we don't need to be concerned
about that.
Right.
And to the point of what we talked about last episode like your mistakes and being able
to lay them out in front of people can enable other people to live into truth.
Right.
Being like helping people avoid the pitfalls.
That's like that's what Moses is trying to do in Deuteronomy.
Right.
Like hey these are some mistakes we made try not to do the exact same thing now they're
all responsible for what they do.
Yeah.
But Moses is doing his best at this point to try to make sure that they don't fall in
the same pitfalls.
Yeah.
All right.
So that that concept would be safeguard the truth or the story.
Right.
This linking concept between the two of them.
And so then the last two would be to honor your father and mother and to not covet do
not covet.
Now the interesting thing that the former points out about this he says do not covet
actually gets really specific is like do not cover it.
Cover your neighbor's wife do not cover it his oxen do not cover his house do not cover
his field do not cover like he lists a bunch of things.
And one of the things that I found particularly interesting about this is he talked about
the idea of coveting.
And so let's say that you have like a 60 inch TV that I love.
Right.
So I come over to your house and I'm like man I wish I had Spencer's 60 inch TV.
It's really funny because I have an old piece of junk TV.
Yeah.
Well let's just imagine that you have a 60 inch TV.
OK.
So I see this TV and I'm like Spencer can I buy this TV from you.
You're like no.
I was like well will you give it to me.
No.
And I'm just like I'm freaking out.
I'm like man I just really want this TV.
I want this TV like this TV would complete my life.
Now if I was meeting with my therapist and I'm talking about how much I want this TV
and and and eventually the therapist is going to be like why don't you just go buy the TV.
Right.
Now my question then and the question I found really particularly interesting when you brought
it out was this.
If I go and buy that TV does that actually deal with my coveting.
No.
Because something something is wrong internally that I actually in some capacity want to be
you.
I believe that what I have isn't enough and that what you have would fulfill me and in
some capacity I want to be Spencer.
Right.
I'm honored by the way.
Well and you know when you're when you're coveting somebody's wife you're like oh if
I had that relationship if I had that house if I had that job if I had and you're not
content with who you are you're not content with the gift of who you are.
Right.
Now once again honor your father and mother.
There are plenty of parents that are not honorable.
Yeah.
But they did give you a gift called your life.
And so when you honor your father and mother you're not necessarily honoring the way they
treated you.
You're honoring the gift that they gave you which is your life.
You're honoring that which you recognize that has been given to you as a result of yes God
speaking life through them.
Right.
But your parents gave you life at the very bare minimum.
The life that you have is good.
Yeah.
And they gave it to you.
I'm laughing that you chose me as the example of coveting over.
Yeah.
Because I mean I mean a lot of listeners probably don't know this fancy cars big TV.
So like Rolls Royce Rolexes you know like for those who don't know it will just provide
a little context.
Ben likes his things nice newer and really good working order.
I like my stuff functional.
It's like I it works.
It'll last a little while until it breaks and then we'll fix it up to is somewhat working
again.
So to give you guys kind of an idea.
Yeah.
Just give you just just a little bit of an idea.
OK.
Ben's got a nicer newer Toyota car.
OK.
My biggest car that I bought I bought out of impound auction.
Yeah.
It was a rusted out piece of crap that I put some work into it like now it's drivable.
So the fact that Ben was like oh I'm coveting over Spencer stuff.
I'm like I don't think there's a single item in my house that you're like I really want
that.
Oh man.
No I mean it's it's funny like but it also like plays into the absurdity of it.
I like like so this idea of both honoring your father and mother and not coveting is
recognizing yourself.
Yeah.
Recognizing your value and what you have.
Right.
Now parents give you life they recognize and honor the gift that they've given you.
Don't covet and try to be someone else.
Be who you're supposed to be.
Yeah.
By the way this is a reoccurring story in the Bible.
Like stop trying to be somebody else.
Be who you're supposed to be.
Right.
So now the interesting now this is about to get just a little bit a little bit more more
interesting.
OK so let's go over these again really quick.
So there's this idea of don't do away with others.
Don't betray relationships.
Don't violate violate the abstract or the concrete of another person.
Remember to safeguard the truth the story and recognize yourself and what you have.
Yeah.
Right.
Now let's take a look at these five things and think about how they might relate to each
other.
So if you take one in five don't do away with others and also maybe don't do away with yourself.
Recognize the value of what you have.
Right.
And then you take a look at concept two and four and you say don't betray your relationships
and safeguard truth which would make the center of it is don't violate the name or body of
another person.
Now I don't know if you're feeling the chiasmus going on here but it's almost like there's
some central points going on in these stories.
So how about this.
The first four it says don't violate.
So if you're thinking about you as a person it says don't violate your body.
Don't violate your relationships.
Don't violate your possessions.
Don't violate your reputation.
And you're hearing this and you're like OK well I need to treat these things with respect
and I need to make sure that I'm not violating these things and I like body relationship
possessions reputation of other people.
Now these are things of other people and of God.
So after that what do I think about next.
What about me.
And these laws tell me don't violate me.
Recognize that I'm created for a purpose.
By the way there are people who are so stuck on Genesis 3 that they can't hear that.
We're created for a purpose in Christ and in God.
And don't don't look at your don't look at how valuable you think you are.
Look at how valuable Christ thinks you are.
Right.
So we have the idea of love your neighbor as yourself and says no love your neighbor
just as I have loved you.
Right.
And we talk in church all the time about the depth of Christ's love.
Right.
How there's nothing that can compare.
Right.
And so now Jesus is saying hey you see how value how much value I put on you.
Put that on your neighbor.
Right.
It ties directly into what we're talking about here with these 10 words.
A hundred percent and actually I want to come back to that because I want to connect from
where we have a few a little bit further to go with in Deuteronomy and I actually think
it's going to connect really clearly to what Jesus is talking about.
So I want to come back to this idea of hello.
This this idea of that which you hate.
Don't do that to your fellow.
Right.
Like because he gets this idea from the Ten Commandments.
Don't do this.
That which you hate the things that you would hate to have done.
Don't do that to your fellow.
The best is commentary on how to do that.
Now the thing is you don't treat people the way that you don't want to be treated.
But non violation is not the same as love.
And I'm going to say that again because I think we need to understand that as a church
non violation is not the same as love.
And I have to pause here because I've been part of like way too many ministry teams where
they're like well we love you and you don't even respect me.
You can't love somebody if you don't respect them in some capacity in the image God and
so in some capacity.
Right.
Respecting somebody actually gives you the ability to love somebody and love is not possible
without respect.
Right.
And so what the Ten Commandments were hello grabs us from as he says he says these are
actually going to teach you to respect God and to respect all those people around you
so that you're now able to walk into this place of love.
Yeah.
Which brings us to Deuteronomy 6 because now Moses comes to them and he says to all of
them here oh Israel the Lord is God the Lord is one.
Yeah.
So you will love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all of your soul with all
of your might.
This is the thing that they would say when they rise and when they would go to bed in
the evening and actually want to go there in the text I'm read this directly hero Israel
the Lord our God the Lord is one love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts impress them on your
children talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road when you
lie down and when you get up tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads
write them on your door frames of your house and on your gates when the Lord your God brings
you into the lamb he swore to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give you a land
with large flourishing cities you did not build houses filled with all kinds of things
that you did not provide wells you did not dig and vineyards and olive groves you did
not plant then when you eat and are satisfied be careful that you do not forget the Lord
who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery.
And that is profound because he's just talked about this idea of like these 10 commandments
going to teach you to respect God and respect others.
Now you need to hear this Israel.
So listen doesn't actually just mean listen it's the word Shema which actually means to
obey hear and implement.
In other words when you hear something you actually put it into practice.
Now Jesus will make a statement those who have ears shall hear let them hear right.
And what he's saying is if you got ears put this into practice like if you heard it put
it into practice you're not and I and that's very at odds with the way that we talk about
hearing and understanding.
We're like oh I have faith in Jesus.
So you have faith in Jesus if you put it on display which we've talked about the book
of James and how people widely misunderstand this idea of faith.
Right.
Like faith is absolutely a identification and a free gift to Jesus.
Right when you have faith in Jesus salvation comes.
But it is demonstrated by how you are transformed.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah and James is a great example of that because James is writing to the 12 tribes
of Israel scatters amongst the nations.
So if you're if you're reading James you're like man this is such an easy book to understand.
It's not you're probably misinterpreting it because 99 percent of what James says directly
correlates right back to Torah.
Yeah.
Which after that we finish this Torah series you may we may do a mini series in James because
it's fun.
Yeah.
So this idea of love love the Lord your God this is Ahava is the Hebrew.
Right.
This is the love that a man and woman have on their wedding day.
Yeah.
Right.
Now we're like oh you mean it's puppy dog love.
No no no it's committed love.
It's the one that says I am putting my name down on this piece of paper to be in our case
a piece of paper to be committed to you to commingle my identity with you.
Right.
So you're going to be have a committed kind of love to God.
This is the love that you're going to have for God with all of your heart.
So the heart is going to be the love of God is a Hebrew for that and heart is the place
where like it's a seeding place of your decisions.
Now in ancient Israel they don't realize that all the decisions that we make are actually
made in our brain.
Right.
And God doesn't really feel the particular need to correct them because he wants them
to understand like from where you make your decisions which they believe was the heart
which makes sense because if your heart stops working you stop working.
Right.
So in your heart if you make decisions in your heart wherever your seated position of
decision making like the thing that where that is your decisions these things are geared
toward love for God.
Yeah.
The Nausicaa is the soul.
Right.
This with all of your soul the Nausicaa.
This is the entire essence of what makes you you love God with every all that.
And then the last word is actually really interesting one is called Meodecha.
It's translated as might.
It's actually your your very is the word is very Meodecha.
And so it's a love Lord God with all your heart with all your soul with all your very
and you're like wait what.
Very what.
Very everything.
Everything.
Everything that you could love God with you love God with.
So it's more encompassing than just being like oh heart soul mind.
Nailed it.
Now in the gospel I believe it's of Luke and they actually put a fourth one in there.
But Luke is also writing to a Greek audience who's going to need that explanation of that
and they separate the very out because it's a Hebrew concept the Meodecha.
And so it might actually be Mark.
But in one of those gospels they actually list four.
It's actually three.
But the last two are split up because the Greek audience wouldn't know how to understand
very.
Yeah.
They want to know how to understand very but they would know how to understand strengths.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
This is exactly why they put it in that way.
Yeah.
So if you're if you're ever wondering that writing to a Greek audience with your heart
soul mind and strength.
Yeah.
The Lord your God was with all of that.
Right.
Yeah.
Greeks would understand strengths very well.
So they would understand that like OK.
They're like oh strength that makes sense.
Like that makes sense.
Love God with like everything I got.
Yeah.
And so this Shema this thing that they say and I love this thing by the way he says you
know you're going to write it on your doorpost.
You put it on your head put it on your arms write it on your doorpost.
Tell your kids when you when you rise and when you lay down now that's why they say
the prayer in the morning and evening.
They say Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad Ve'ahavta Adonai Elohecha B'chol Avavka
Uvvokon Nausha Ka Evadah Me'adeh Echa.
Right.
This is this is the prayer that they say every day.
I was just waiting for you to say can you repeat that back to me.
Yeah.
I mean it's I probably could say with a little less phlegm.
But like this is the prayer that they say every morning and every evening and you know
and and at times when I'm struggling with I don't know what to say before God sometimes
I repeat it.
Right because I'm reminding myself of the central tenet that I'm here to obey God and
to love him with everything I have and then I'm going to listen to what Jesus tells me
in the New Testament which is that the second is like it.
Love my neighbor as myself which we had a whole episode on.
Yeah.
Like so these things I'm reminding myself of on a regular basis.
When is the last time as a church we just reminded ourselves.
Yeah.
Listen church obey.
Love God with everything you got all of your heart all of your soul all of your might and
then with that same fervor love your neighbor the same way that you love yourself.
I just speculate that if we remembered this then we wouldn't live in vineyards that we
didn't plant and forget who gave them to us and we wouldn't have plenty and forget where
it came from and that we wouldn't have blessing and then just look for more blessing without
finding ways to bless others.
Yeah.
It feels like most of the time the church struggles.
It's because we forget where we come from.
Amen.
To quote a book that is a favorite of one of our friends in the book of Revelation and
God comes to one of the churches and he says you have forgotten your first love.
Amen.
If only you burned now like you burned then when you forget where you come from you forget
the mission that you're serving.
This is fundamental for the next generation.
Are you going to get this right?
This is I mean probably this section right here is my favorite section of Deuteronomy.
It's just so powerful.
Yeah.
And when you love with that fervor that we're talking about the people around you are going
to be like what is that idiot doing?
Can we just be real on that?
Yeah.
They're going to be like what is that fool doing?
Like an example the other night the Jehovah's Witness have found our street.
And I'm the last house.
So they always will go knock on all the other doors and they're all like yeah go away and
then they come knock on my door and then like I'll talk to them for five six minutes or
so and then they'll go away.
But it's but I have my neighbors who are like why do you keep talking to them?
I'm like because I'm nice.
Yeah because because like Jesus loves it.
Yeah right.
Do I get annoyed that they come to my house?
Yeah sometimes but like people are rarely convenient.
Yeah.
But they are important.
I was thinking about like I remember there's this once I was walking somewhere in school
and this girl had like just tons of papers and they went flying everywhere just like
we expect in a movie right?
Right.
Yeah.
And I was like I was going to be late but it was still the right thing to stop and help
her pick those up.
Yeah.
Right.
Like loving people is rarely convenient.
If you're looking for something convenient don't follow God.
It's horribly inconvenient.
It's not just it's not just not convenient.
It's like out of your way actively inconvenient.
But it is fulfilling.
It is 100 percent.
And it is a blessing.
Yeah.
And it is like I mean it's I've been trying to explain to people they're like they're
like you know it just seems like being a Christian is incredibly difficult.
I was like it is.
Then why do you do it because it's awesome.
Yeah.
You know I mean that's kind of like I had this guy he's like he's like ah you know I
would get married but you know I really enjoy you know dating blah blah blah.
He's like why did you get married?
I was like because I found a great woman and marriage is way cooler than dating a bunch
of people.
Mm-hmm.
Like I don't care what you say there is nothing in dating a bunch of people that compares
with marriage.
Yeah.
It's way harder than dating a bunch of people.
Way harder.
It is way harder.
Yeah.
Single people out there like it's not going to get easier when you get married.
Yeah.
In marriage you have to work through your issues.
Yeah.
When you're just dating around you start to have issues you're like all right bye.
Hmm.
See you later.
Man imagine if people when they had issues with the church actually worked through dealing
with them instead of just bailing.
Yeah.
Imagine if.
Yeah.
Now I want to caveat that because sometimes like you can try to work through things and
you just got to move in on it anyways.
But most of us don't even try.
Ben and I have both been in spots where we've just had to move on from church.
Yeah.
From a church.
So there is a time and place for that.
But that's never my go to.
I don't know about you but never been my go to to be like all right it's hard I'm just
going to bail.
I'm just going to throw something out here for our listeners and just ask you this question
because we talk a lot about these ideas from Torah.
What is written on your doorpost?
And I'm not mean literally I mean figuratively.
What is bound to your forehead?
What are the things that you say when you rise and when you when you lay down?
What are the things that you teach your children year after year after year?
Yeah.
Generation to generation.
Yeah.
And I would I would just postulate that perhaps that's going to tell you a lot about who you're
actually following.
And listen if it's not who you're following like Jesus is not who you're following that's
an easy correction.
Like Lord knows we've had to make that correct and a lot of times in our life.
Yeah.
We're like oh this part is not lined up with who Jesus wants me to be.
Your point and I want to close with this idea is Jesus at the height of his power in John.
He's at the at the ceremony he's been given all his power and he recognizes that everything
is under his authority.
He takes off his robe puts it around his waist gets down and he washes his disciples feet
and then he makes a statement a little later he says in the same way that I have loved
you so you should love one another.
Yeah.
Now I don't think it's it's going out of my way to say that of the two in this relationship
the disciples and Jesus.
Jesus was the one with the power.
Yeah.
He was the one with the authority.
He was the one with the right answers and he was the one who knew what was going on
and yet he thought it was worth getting down on his knees to wash the feet of his disciples
and he was the one who was forever faithful.
Correct.
I think that is really paramount for us as followers of Christ to go and do the same.
Yeah.
To find ways that even when we're the one in the right even when we're the one with
the power maybe it's time for us to get down on our knees and wash the feet.
I gave a talk a while back on the Lord's Supper and John 13 in particular and I was and I
compared it to an awkward family dinner because I mean like let's just run through this.
He has a rabbi who's not supposed to wash feet who washes feet and then they get and
he's like oh by the way one of you is going to kill me.
He's going to be responsible for killing me and then and this is already working in Judas'
heart and so they're going around the table like is it me?
Is it me?
And the Judas is like is it me?
And Jesus is like yeah bro it's you and then yeah bro it's you and this is the Spencer
translation and then they're like all right now we're gonna go about our meal.
Right.
Like there's a tension in this room.
Right.
There's broken relationships that are starting to happen in this room.
There's the calling out of like hey you're the one who's going to be responsible for
my death and then there's Peter saying no if you can't just wash my feet you have to
wash all of me.
Right.
You have this multi-layer tensioned meal going on and the one who's faithful to it all is
Jesus.
Yeah.
Right.
So as soon as Jesus is arrested most of the disciples scatter.
Peter denies him.
Yeah.
But the idea being that Jesus at the height of who he is says I'm gonna humble myself
and I'm gonna take and I'm gonna take the position of being the faithful servant leader
so that when the time comes you all being the apostles can elevate who he is.
I have one more thought here and it was just it was just getting late on me and so like
we'll just I'll speak this and hopefully connects with somebody out there.
I was thinking about Judas and he betrays Jesus and recognizes that what happens is happening
he's very has tons of remorse.
Peter does the same and betrays Jesus three times.
The difference between Peter and Judas wasn't that they betrayed Jesus.
Yeah.
It's that one of them came back to Jesus.
If Judas had come back I 100% believe that Christ would have absolutely welcomed him
right back in with open arms.
But you gotta come back.
In the story of the prodigal son he can't forgive his son until he comes home.
He's got to come home.
And he will run out to meet you.
But until you come home he's not not willing to leave you out there you know.
Yeah.
All right.
Well that is it for this week.
Next week we're going to be getting into a few more of the laws and things going on in
Deuteronomy continuing our walkthrough.
Once again if you have people you'd like to see on the podcast chatting with us and have
a lot of guests through Deuteronomy and so we would love to hear your suggestions of
who you might like to see with us.
Yeah.
Also we do have the merch store up.
We're going to have different products going on there as soon as I can figure out how to
fix some of the designs.
But yeah there's some I think a couple of hats and t-shirts.
The desert is hot is still on there.
I am actually getting Tara to work on this the brat and mango thing that says I have
no self-control with the comic of you.
So that might be up there at some point.
I'm definitely going to get it for you and have you wear it for the video at some point.
So sounds good.
Until then if you need to connect with us in loving context at gmail dot com Facebook
Instagram tick tock YouTube.
Those are all places that I mean obviously if you're watching this on YouTube you probably
know you can see us on YouTube.
Speaking of brats.
Yeah.
We decided to cook brats over the fire last night.
And so I cooked like eight of them up for my family.
And then you ate all eight.
No.
My wife was like I'm not that hungry and then my daughter took like two bites of her of
one and I was like OK so they weren't that hungry.
And then I went to put the brats away and I was like there's three left.
So you had five.
That's so great.
I was like oh that just happened.
Oh man that's so great.
All right we'll see you guys next time.
That's a wrap for today's episode.
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Welcome.
I was that was just for Ben.
That was just so I have to edit these things out you know.
Sorry actually can we do that one more time.
I got to tell you what I was thinking about in my head.
I was like wouldn't be really cool if like a I we could just upload like two speakers
and then it would just create a cartoon of two people talking.
I would post that on YouTube all day.
That's common.
Yeah I know.
I was pretty sure that was Ben's brain just thinking about things that aren't related
to what we're doing.