WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.720 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:41.360 Mahler. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:45.520 And I'm still woe. 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.720 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to begin the first of a 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:52.720 three-part series on various facets of love. 00:00:52.720 --> 00:00:56.560 Love is a word that's present in the English language and every 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:57.360 other language. 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:02.560 Duh. It also has lots of variables and adjectives and modifiers to 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:06.160 it. And then there are related words that we don't typically think 00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:08.240 of as love, at least in English. 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:11.440 But when we look at some of the other older languages that 00:01:11.440 --> 00:01:14.320 fed into English, we do find that there are different words that 00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:16.880 we consolidated into one. 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:20.880 And so this three-part series is for the purpose of talking about 00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:22.800 some of those different facets. 00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:25.360 And just as a very brief introduction, I want to lay a 00:01:25.360 --> 00:01:27.360 couple ground rules out. 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:31.280 One, I think the term facet is a really vital part of 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:33.920 how we're trying to explain this. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.080 If you've ever been in a nice jewelry store with you know 00:01:36.160 --> 00:01:39.360 the white lights and maybe the salesman hand you a loop and 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:42.800 you look at a nice stone under that loop with that light 00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:46.000 shining down, it just pops, it sparkles. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:51.040 You see incredible variety of light shining through, reflecting through the facets 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:52.960 in the gemstone. 00:01:52.960 --> 00:01:56.800 The way we're handling love in the next few weeks is that 00:01:56.800 --> 00:01:58.400 love is basically that gem. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:02.080 And then the various words and aspects that we're talking about in 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:05.200 these sequential weeks are the facets. 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:10.720 And I highlight that because these things are not in exclusivity to 00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:11.760 each other. 00:02:11.760 --> 00:02:14.800 So as we talk about, you know, words like agape and eros 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:19.360 and others, we're not trying to subdivide them to the point that 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.720 we're making them exclusive because as we talk about them over the 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:25.440 next few weeks what we're going to find is that frequently you'll 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:27.920 have a couple of them in play at the same time. 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:32.480 But when you properly understand the nature of them, it becomes clear 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:36.640 that although they're all facets of love, you won't have them all 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:42.560 simultaneously for the purpose, for the reason that different aspects of love 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:45.840 have different people on both sides. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:47.200 They're relationships. 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:52.640 Love is fundamentally a relationship in a relationship between two different people. 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:55.360 And so the love of a parent is different than the love 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.840 of a spouse is different than the love of a brother, is 00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:59.920 different than the love of a neighbor. 00:02:59.920 --> 00:03:02.320 And at some point, you know, the words that we use in 00:03:02.320 --> 00:03:03.680 English cease to be love. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:07.040 We use words, for example, like friendship, but it fundamentally means the 00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:07.680 same thing. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.720 But it means different facets of the same thing. 00:03:10.720 --> 00:03:14.320 So the love that you have for a friend, you typically just 00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:15.040 call friendship. 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:18.320 Sometimes you might say you love your friend, but friendship really properly 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:19.920 encompasses all of that. 00:03:19.920 --> 00:03:22.240 So as we're talking about all these various things, I just don't 00:03:22.160 --> 00:03:25.920 want people to think that we're reducing all this to a spreadsheet 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:27.840 or a bunch of check boxes. 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:29.680 Different things come into play at different times. 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:33.040 It's important just to understand that they're all there. 00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:36.960 The other important point to lay as groundwork for all these episodes 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:39.680 is that these are human things. 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:42.320 They're things God has put in creation. 00:03:42.320 --> 00:03:44.240 They're not explicitly Christian. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:46.800 They're not explicitly philosophical. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.600 They're not tied to certain vocabulary. 00:03:49.600 --> 00:03:50.560 It's all there. 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:52.400 Whether you have the word for it or not, you have the 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:57.200 inherent behavior and inherent attitude towards others as you're just living your 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:00.720 life. You're gonna have friends, you're gonna have family, you're gonna have 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:02.480 different relationships with them. 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:06.160 And those will have varying degrees and natures of love. 00:04:06.160 --> 00:04:10.640 So the different words are because those different aspects all matter. 00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:13.440 Part of the problem that we're trying to solve by tackling these 00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:17.360 subjects in this episode series is that the misapprehension of the words 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.000 in our minds is causing us to make substantial categories where someone 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:26.320 will come along and say, You must love X because of Y. 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:28.640 And usually Y is something in the Bible. 00:04:28.640 --> 00:04:33.120 And everyone's like, Well, the Bible says I got love, so obviously. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.480 It's a good argument if it's true, but the problem is that 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:41.600 when someone uses the collapsed English word love to encompass things that 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:46.080 perhaps have different duties in nature and in scripture, than what the 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:50.240 person who's trying to convict your conscience says, you have to be 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.920 careful because you can actually end up sinning inadvertently by being sloppy 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:57.120 about this stuff. 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:01.200 You know, we talk a lot about First Timothy 5:8, where God 00:05:01.200 --> 00:05:04.880 says that the duty that we have inside our family is greater 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:06.800 than the duty that we have outside our family. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:10.880 And someone who despises that is worse than an unbeliever. 00:05:10.880 --> 00:05:15.040 That's it's talking about love, not in that explicit term, but it's 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:17.280 also talking about scope of duty. 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:21.200 And so when we're tackling these things that are political, they're religious, 00:05:21.200 --> 00:05:25.360 they're social, it's important to get the scope of duty right as 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.040 we're looking at these subjects. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:29.520 So the reason we're breaking up into three different parts over a 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:34.400 few weeks, we're gonna end with marriage with Eros and a couple 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.600 related things, but we wanted to sequester that by itself as I 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:40.960 said in the last episode, specifically because that one is gonna be 00:05:40.960 --> 00:05:42.480 not at all child friendly. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:47.520 We're going to have Frank talk about those specifics because it's basically 00:05:47.520 --> 00:05:50.560 gonna be the talk because for centuries there have been so many 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.920 euphemisms around s some of those things that people have forgotten what 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:55.200 it actually means. 00:05:55.200 --> 00:05:58.880 So as I said online in I think I said last episode, 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:02.480 we're gonna make a lot of people angry and uncomfortable with that, 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.120 but we're going to say specifically what scripture says and what we 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:06.240 find in nature about it. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:09.680 So that's gonna be sequestered for your safety and your children's safety. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:11.760 So you can just skip over it entirely if that's not your 00:06:11.760 --> 00:06:12.640 cup of tea. 00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:15.440 This week and next week we'll be basically tackling everything else that 00:06:15.440 --> 00:06:18.080 doesn't kind of fall into the marriage bed. 00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:21.440 And so as we go through this, just keep in mind that 00:06:21.440 --> 00:06:25.440 we're not trying to isolate these things from each other. 00:06:25.440 --> 00:06:28.880 We're just trying to help lay out kind of on a board 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:30.880 here's how these things are related. 00:06:30.880 --> 00:06:33.680 You have a person over here with an arrow drawing over here. 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:36.720 And once we finish this series, Corey is going to be publishing 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:40.160 a finished version of the very nice flow chart that he made 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:45.200 to kind of collapse his thinking, you know, the explanations that we're 00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:46.480 working through. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.040 It's gonna look like the guy in front of the crazy board 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:51.280 with all the arrows and stuff. 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:53.040 Sometimes that's how the stuff looks. 00:06:53.200 --> 00:06:55.200 And part of the reason he did that is that we started 00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:57.840 looking a few weeks ago when we decided to do this particular 00:06:57.840 --> 00:07:02.320 series. We looked at some of the other explanations from throughout history, 00:07:02.320 --> 00:07:03.600 and they're kind of rubbish. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:05.760 They don't tackle all these things at once. 00:07:05.760 --> 00:07:09.200 So we wanted to just do it all in one place and 00:07:09.200 --> 00:07:11.600 consolidate it so that you know like not that this is going 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.320 to be authoritative, but this is another way of looking at it. 00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:18.240 And it'll give you some ideas about how you can evaluate your 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:19.280 own life. 00:07:19.280 --> 00:07:24.000 You know, when you have various facets of love in your heart 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.640 for your family and your friends and your neighbors, how do they 00:07:26.640 --> 00:07:27.200 play out? 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:30.000 Because there are duties associated with these heroes and their limits. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.600 They're limitations where the type of love that you have for one 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:36.160 person is in fact forbidden for another. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:37.760 And that's not a failure of love. 00:07:37.760 --> 00:07:40.480 That's just the scope of the nature of the thing that God 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:41.360 has given us. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:45.440 So these are fundamentally about God's blessings and about his obligations And 00:07:45.440 --> 00:07:48.800 about how we relate to them as humans. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:52.880 Again, this isn't just Christian stuff, and it's not philosophical because throughout 00:07:52.880 --> 00:07:56.240 history, you know, before Jesus came when, you know, the Jews were 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.960 just kind of off in their own corner, the Romans and the 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:03.520 Greeks were also tackling these subjects philosophically and they're playing things through 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:07.680 and trying to come up with good answers to how man naturally 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:09.200 acts towards man. 00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:12.880 It's a worthwhile endeavor, and it's something that's worth keeping in mind 00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:16.800 as we're living our lives because if you're sloppy and you don't 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.440 think about it, you don't pay attention, you can very easily drop 00:08:19.440 --> 00:08:21.520 something on the floor that if you just gave it a little 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:23.040 bit of thought, you would have done it well. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:25.760 I often you know give the example of nutrition. 00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:27.200 You're gonna eat something. 00:08:27.200 --> 00:08:29.920 If you think about what you're eating, you think about not eating 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:34.080 too much, you think about the nutrient balance you're getting, you will 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.520 have a better life simply for having been cognizant of what you're 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:38.480 putting in your mouth. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:42.160 Whereas someone who's never cognizant, just shoveling out of the box or 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:45.440 out of the bag, is inherently going to be worse off because 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:46.720 they didn't think. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:49.760 So this is with you know Stone Choir in general, we just 00:08:49.760 --> 00:08:51.360 want people to think about this stuff. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:54.880 So as we lay this out, I hope people won't get confused. 00:08:54.880 --> 00:08:58.480 I hope you'll come along as we present the various facets of 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:01.440 this. And just keep in mind, this is all about love in 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.440 the broad sense, in the love encompassing all the various things that 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:08.560 are part of being a human. 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:13.120 So one way in which you can think about this all being 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:18.720 facets, all of these different terms aspects of love being facets of 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:22.880 the same thing, is you can relate it to the transcendentals which 00:09:22.880 --> 00:09:24.880 we have mentioned many times before. 00:09:24.880 --> 00:09:30.960 Goodness, beauty and truth are not different parts of God's nature, because 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:32.960 God does not have parts. 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:36.160 They are facets, they are aspects. 00:09:36.160 --> 00:09:38.880 To some degree that is, of course, just so that we as 00:09:38.880 --> 00:09:42.400 human beings, as limited creatures, can understand it. 00:09:42.400 --> 00:09:45.040 But the same is true here. 00:09:45.040 --> 00:09:50.320 There are some topics that are sufficiently expansive that you have to 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.560 address them in pieces in order to understand them. 00:09:54.560 --> 00:09:59.520 Not because those pieces are actual parts, not because they are discrete, 00:09:59.520 --> 00:10:03.120 but because you have to look at the different facets one at 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.760 a time, or two at a time, three at a time, however 00:10:05.760 --> 00:10:10.480 many it happens to be, in order to build up that understanding 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:11.680 of the whole. 00:10:11.680 --> 00:10:14.240 And that is why we're doing this as a series, why we're 00:10:14.160 --> 00:10:15.840 doing three episodes. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:20.080 In this episode we are going to be discussing agape and karitas 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:28.080 Now, these terms are obviously first Greek and then Latin, but the 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:32.480 reason we're using these terms is because it helps to distinguish the 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:34.400 different facets one from another. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:39.360 We're also going to use the English equivalents because there's nothing special 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:40.560 about the terms. 00:10:40.560 --> 00:10:44.880 It's not that this language has a concept and that language does 00:10:44.880 --> 00:10:49.360 not, particularly for something like this, I won't go so far as 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:53.840 to say that there are not untranslatable words in certain languages because 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:57.520 there are, but they can always be translated with a paragraph, an 00:10:57.520 --> 00:11:01.600 explanation. In the case of the terms we will be using in 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:05.200 this series, most of them can be translated with one or two 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:08.640 words. Caritas, for instance, is charity. 00:11:08.640 --> 00:11:12.560 We have that word in English because we took it from caritas, 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:13.760 we took it from Latin and just used it. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:17.760 The same is true of piety, pietas, which we will get into 00:11:17.760 --> 00:11:19.440 in a later episode. 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:26.320 Agape, however, has to be translated as two or three words instead, 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:29.520 not just as one word, because we simply don't have a one 00:11:29.520 --> 00:11:32.960 word version of it in English, other than just using the Greek 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:37.440 term agape, which many Christians are going to understand from looking at 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:39.040 the Greek of Scripture. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:46.000 But what agape is fundamentally is self sacrificing or sacrificial love. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:50.240 It is a love that puts the good of the other first, 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.880 that seeks the good of that other. 00:11:52.880 --> 00:11:57.200 And so it is a particular facet of love, because not all 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:00.320 love rises to that particular level. 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:03.760 It's not necessarily to say that agape is the best or the 00:12:03.760 --> 00:12:05.440 ultimate form of love. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:08.240 To some degree it is because it's at the far end of 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:12.560 that spectrum in terms of the intensity of the sacrifice of the 00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:15.280 individual for the other. 00:12:15.280 --> 00:12:18.560 But that's not to say that it's superior, say, to Storge, to 00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:21.360 familial love, to the love you would have for a sibling or 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:22.720 a parent or a child. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:26.000 Of course, a parent for a child is going to be agape, 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.720 and we'll get into some of the nuance of that. 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.760 Some of it in this episode, most of it in the next 00:12:31.760 --> 00:12:37.280 episode. But both of these terms, both of these facets of love, 00:12:37.280 --> 00:12:42.000 are closely related and yet distinct, and that distinction is important. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.680 It's why we are doing these two facets of love in this 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:47.280 one episode. 00:12:47.280 --> 00:12:53.520 Because agape is not charity, and charity is not agape. 00:12:53.520 --> 00:12:56.720 At the edges they may shade one into the other, because for 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:01.600 instance, when you are being charitable, you are seeking the good of 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:03.280 another most certainly. 00:13:03.280 --> 00:13:07.280 You are giving of yourself, whether it is in terms of your 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:11.120 time or your resources to aid another. 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:12.960 But it is not agape. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:14.720 It is distinct from it. 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:20.560 And part of the reason for that is that agape necessarily flows 00:13:20.560 --> 00:13:22.800 from some sort of relationship. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:25.120 Charity does not. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:28.160 You can have charity for someone with whom you have an arm's 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:29.920 length relationship. 00:13:29.920 --> 00:13:32.720 You don't have agape for a person with whom you have an 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:34.640 arm's length relationship. 00:13:34.640 --> 00:13:39.280 And so I mentioned one of the examples of agape would be 00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:41.840 for a child from a parent. 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.720 That is the love a parent has for a child. 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:48.000 That is, of course, it's Storge, which is familial love, we'll get 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.440 into that in the next episode, but it is also agape, and 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.960 every parent knows this, and every child, which is to say every 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:56.960 human being should. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:02.560 Because parents sacrifice of themselves for the good of their children, whether 00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:06.400 it is the father who goes out and sacrifices his time and 00:14:06.400 --> 00:14:09.680 his sweat in order to provide for his family, or the woman 00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:12.800 who does the same in her household in order to raise her 00:14:12.800 --> 00:14:17.680 children, that is agape, it is a self-sacrificing love. 00:14:17.680 --> 00:14:21.760 It is giving of oneself for the betterment, for the good of 00:14:21.760 --> 00:14:27.200 another. Now the inverse of that is not true of young children. 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:30.880 A young child does not have agape for a parent. 00:14:30.880 --> 00:14:34.080 Now, of course, for a very young child it's simply because there's 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:38.080 no way a very young child can have that. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:43.760 However, once children are grown, and particularly once parents are aged, and 00:14:43.760 --> 00:14:46.800 then it becomes a duty of the child to care for the 00:14:46.800 --> 00:14:51.040 aged parent, then things sort of switch because now it is agape 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.320 on the part of the child for the parent, because now it 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:58.080 is the grown child who has to sacrifice in order to care 00:14:58.080 --> 00:14:59.520 for the aged parent. 00:14:59.520 --> 00:15:01.200 Which is how this is supposed to work. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:04.080 We've gone over that in a previous episode. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:08.880 Primarily and usually it falls to the eldest child, but not always. 00:15:08.880 --> 00:15:13.840 The grown child is supposed to care for the aged parent. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:17.200 And so you see sort of an inversion of that relationship as 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:20.160 the ages change over time. 00:15:20.160 --> 00:15:26.160 Because the parent no longer has the capacity to have that sort 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:28.160 of self-sacrificial love. 00:15:28.160 --> 00:15:31.040 A man in his nineties can no longer go out and work 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:34.800 to provide for his family, and so he relies on his children 00:15:34.800 --> 00:15:38.000 to care for him, at least if things are ordered as they 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:39.600 should be. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:46.000 Contrary to agape, distinct from agape, is the concept, the facet of 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:47.360 love that is charity. 00:15:48.160 --> 00:15:50.320 Now we all know what charity is. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:55.600 Charity very simply is to provide for the needs of another, usually 00:15:55.600 --> 00:16:01.200 the poor, because that is typically the correct target for charity, the 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:04.560 correct recipient of charity would be the needy. 00:16:04.560 --> 00:16:08.480 You are not going to provide charity for the wealthy. 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:10.000 That wouldn't be charity. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.760 That would be typically political corruption, but that is not charity. 00:16:13.760 --> 00:16:19.440 And that highlights an important aspect of all of this, a way 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:23.200 to break down and to understand these concepts 00:16:24.560 --> 00:16:26.320 You have really three aspects. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.480 There are essentially two that are vitally important, but there's a third 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.840 that is just inherently an aspect of almost everything in life. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.400 And so we'll go over that one first. 00:16:36.400 --> 00:16:41.760 Which would be who is doing the loving, who is doing whatever 00:16:41.760 --> 00:16:45.840 it happens to be that constitutes the facet of love. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:48.640 And so in many cases that's going to be you are the 00:16:48.640 --> 00:16:51.520 one doing it because you are analyzing your own actions. 00:16:51.520 --> 00:16:56.320 But if we are analysing the actions of another, that person is 00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:00.240 relevant. Because you have to have, for instance, in familial love, there 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:02.800 has to be a relationship, a familial relationship 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:08.640 between the who doing the action and the whom receiving it. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:12.240 And of course that is the second part of this. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:19.520 There are appropriate targets, appropriate recipients for each kind of love. 00:17:19.520 --> 00:17:24.960 And if that love, supposed love, is directed toward a recipient that 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:28.880 is not appropriate, that is a disordered love, and if it is 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:33.040 sufficiently disordered, it rises to the level of sin and may very 00:17:33.040 --> 00:17:35.120 well not be love whatsoever. 00:17:35.120 --> 00:17:38.480 This, of course, is more obvious for some forms of love than 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:42.640 for others, Eros being probably the most obvious example which we will 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.120 get into in the third episode. 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:49.360 But in addition to who and whom, we have the nature or 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:52.960 scope of the type of love in question. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:57.680 And so again, I mentioned that the wealthy are not an appropriate 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.960 target for charity, the poor are. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.720 And so that is who and whom, but there's also a scope 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:09.280 there. What is the extent of the charity that is appropriate to 00:18:09.280 --> 00:18:11.440 give to the poor. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:16.960 Scripture says the one who does not work let him not eat, 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:21.920 and so it is not appropriate simply to provide endless so-called purity 00:18:23.040 --> 00:18:25.280 for those who refuse to work. 00:18:25.280 --> 00:18:29.680 Endless welfare is not charity, it is not love, it is in 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:33.440 fact hate, because not only are you wasting the resources of those 00:18:33.520 --> 00:18:38.320 who have given or have had that money taken from them, you 00:18:38.320 --> 00:18:42.000 are also harming the one who is just doing nothing. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:45.040 It is harmful to sit and do nothing. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.120 Man was made for work. 00:18:47.120 --> 00:18:50.480 Now of course there's the distinction between labor and work and we 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:54.000 live in a fallen world, but that's for another time. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:58.240 Man must do something productive with his time. 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:03.040 If you are providing endless so called charity for one who is 00:19:03.040 --> 00:19:07.600 not doing anything with his time, it is no longer charity, because 00:19:07.600 --> 00:19:11.680 you have exceeded the scope, you've corrupted the nature of the thing, 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:17.040 and that person, that whom is no longer an appropriate target. 00:19:17.040 --> 00:19:20.640 And so those are the three aspects, as it were, of each 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.960 of these facets that has to be analyzed when you are determining 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:29.440 whether or not something is a particular kind of love, who is 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:33.920 doing the thing, whom is receiving the thing, and what is the 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:38.320 appropriate nature or scope of the love in question. 00:19:38.800 --> 00:19:42.960 Because if any one of those is absent or wrong, it is 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:45.760 a disordered love at best. 00:19:45.760 --> 00:19:48.720 Now as I said, that's a spectrum. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:50.000 That's the case with much of this. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.360 Well when I were discussing this before we started recording. 00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:59.040 One of the reasons that this topic is complex that there is 00:19:59.040 --> 00:20:04.160 some challenge in order to map out all of these connections between 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:10.080 the various kinds of love is that each analysis more or less 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.120 falls along a spectrum. 00:20:13.120 --> 00:20:13.760 And so 00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:20.400 charity. You can have the abject poor, the destitute, who are of 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:25.360 course the strongest case in terms of whom to receive charity. 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:29.440 And then you can have those who are just marginally below the 00:20:30.080 --> 00:20:31.840 level that we would consider 00:20:32.800 --> 00:20:35.840 the appropriate level for someone living in our society. 00:20:35.840 --> 00:20:37.200 That's a spectrum. 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:40.000 The charity should of course go first to those who are in 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:41.280 dire need. 00:20:41.280 --> 00:20:44.640 For instance, if you are going to provide clothing to those who 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.240 need it, you probably provide it to the person who is naked 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:50.800 first. Because he needs it most. 00:20:50.800 --> 00:20:53.920 The person who is liable to freeze to death, if you do 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:57.360 not clothe him, needs your charity first. 00:20:57.360 --> 00:21:00.000 But that is the case for all of these there is a 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:02.560 spectrum underlying it. 00:21:02.560 --> 00:21:07.840 And so, as Wo said in his introduction, we cannot necessarily give 00:21:07.840 --> 00:21:08.160 you 00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:14.160 A set of rules If this then that, if that then this. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:16.400 That's not how any of this works. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.520 As is the case with so many of the things we cover 00:21:19.520 --> 00:21:22.800 on this podcast, this is a matter of wisdom. 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:27.040 You are going to have to apply the gifts that God gave 00:21:27.040 --> 00:21:30.160 you to the facts as you find them, to the things set 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:31.520 before you. 00:21:31.520 --> 00:21:35.440 And so for instance, when it comes to familial love, you are 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:36.240 going to have to decide 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:40.240 the extent of that with each one of your siblings, each one 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:41.520 of your family members. 00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:43.120 How much do I aid this person? 00:21:43.120 --> 00:21:45.120 How much time do I invest here? 00:21:45.120 --> 00:21:49.200 Do I have to pull back because this is causing problems? 00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:52.240 There is wisdom involved. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:56.320 For instance, you know, as we've used as an example previously, you 00:21:56.320 --> 00:21:59.440 don't give money to a sibling who is a drug addict. 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:00.960 That's not love. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:02.640 That's not charity. 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:05.440 You're not actually helping that person. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:08.720 The same thing holds in general with charity. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:13.680 If you are giving money to drug addicts, you are not helping 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:13.920 them. 00:22:15.120 --> 00:22:18.720 Now, if you get them a job or help them to get 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:22.320 cleaned up, help them to get treatment, that's charity. 00:22:22.320 --> 00:22:24.080 That's appropriate charity. 00:22:24.080 --> 00:22:25.280 That's a good thing. 00:22:25.280 --> 00:22:30.480 But you can see that in each case, society, at least our 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:36.480 fallen corrupt society, would call both of those things charity. 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:41.520 If you give money to in this case poor drug addicts, many 00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:44.080 will call it charity, but it's not. 00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:46.960 Because the nature, the scope of the thing you are doing is 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:51.760 inappropriate, even if the target is appropriate as a recipient of that 00:22:51.760 --> 00:22:56.640 charity, and so each one of these aspects has to be correct 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:01.040 for the kind of love in question to be love. 00:23:01.040 --> 00:23:04.640 Because otherwise, again, it is disordered or it may very well just 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:06.080 not be love. 00:23:06.080 --> 00:23:09.680 And again, the most obvious examples will be in the episode on 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:10.800 Eros. 00:23:11.760 --> 00:23:16.400 One of the substantial aspects of the ancient definition of agape has 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:17.840 to do with preference. 00:23:17.840 --> 00:23:23.440 As Cory said, agape love is necessarily relational. 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:25.360 There's a subject and there's an object. 00:23:25.360 --> 00:23:26.960 And it's a known object. 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:31.040 There's some reason why you extend agape love to someone. 00:23:31.040 --> 00:23:35.600 And even though there's self-sacrifice involved and you're willing to give up 00:23:35.600 --> 00:23:40.160 something for the person for whom you express this type of love. 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:41.600 It's a preference. 00:23:41.600 --> 00:23:47.120 Because we are not omnipotent, it is necessarily a limited preference. 00:23:47.360 --> 00:23:51.040 What I mean by that is I can't possibly agape everyone in 00:23:51.040 --> 00:23:51.920 the world. 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:55.280 It's impossible and it's stupid to want to try. 00:23:55.280 --> 00:23:58.880 It's actually evil to think that I can have the same amount 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:00.960 of love that God has. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.360 Because that's not how God made us. 00:24:03.360 --> 00:24:04.400 We are not infinite. 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:05.520 We are finite. 00:24:05.520 --> 00:24:11.680 We're situated in certain places with families, neighbors, communities, the whole hierarchy 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:13.920 that we go through so frequently. 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:18.960 In our situation, we have the obligation from God to love our 00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:22.000 neighbor, to care for those who are around us, to care for 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.080 family, and to care in different ways. 00:24:24.080 --> 00:24:27.920 And so all of those are expressing preference. 00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:31.680 Yet what you find in the wicked corners of the church, which 00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:35.680 are not corners anymore, it's the majority of the church today, and 00:24:35.840 --> 00:24:40.800 almost the entirety of the secular world is that there can be 00:24:40.800 --> 00:24:45.840 no preference, which is itself inherently a preference, because they're always expressing 00:24:45.840 --> 00:24:46.800 a preference. 00:24:46.800 --> 00:24:51.280 But what they'll do is they'll say, you can't prefer your own. 00:24:51.280 --> 00:24:53.920 You have to prefer the far away. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:55.840 And then that means it's agape. 00:24:55.840 --> 00:24:57.200 Well, that's nonsense. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:01.760 Having it be alienated from your own personal situation doesn't make it 00:25:01.760 --> 00:25:04.240 more loving because your you're finite. 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:05.680 You're not omnipotent. 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:08.400 You can't love everyone the way God does. 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:13.440 There's necessarily a trade-off when you give to one when you love 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:17.680 one preferentially, someone else isn't gonna get it. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:22.560 Now there's situations where that subdivision doesn't really apply nearly as much, 00:25:22.560 --> 00:25:26.640 for example, inside a family, but again that's gonna be another facet 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.000 of a different type of love. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.600 When we're talking about agape, we're talking about I prefer to do 00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:35.520 this for this type of person. 00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:40.080 And as Corey's saying, another facet of another flavor of love is 00:25:40.080 --> 00:25:44.000 charity. And so there's a preference involved in charity, but it tends 00:25:44.320 --> 00:25:48.640 to be more externalized because the duty of charity, and in one 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.320 particular case in scripture and historically in the church, has been alms 00:25:52.320 --> 00:25:55.360 giving. You give alms to a stranger. 00:25:55.360 --> 00:25:57.840 You don't give alms to your family. 00:25:57.840 --> 00:26:01.520 Your family's needs fall under first Timothy 5.8. 00:26:01.520 --> 00:26:04.960 If you're not caring for your own household, you're not failing to 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:05.920 give alms. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:10.320 You're failing on a much more basic, much more crucial level. 00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:11.840 And so it's a different thing. 00:26:11.840 --> 00:26:17.040 It's the absence of love, but that opportunity cost of well, I'm 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:20.640 gonna give alms to the poor person, you know, across the road 00:26:21.360 --> 00:26:26.560 or ten thousand miles away when your own family is suffering, the 00:26:26.560 --> 00:26:28.080 world will say, Oh, that's wonderful. 00:26:28.080 --> 00:26:29.520 Isn't that isn't that a blessing? 00:26:29.520 --> 00:26:32.960 Well, no, it's not, because the opportunity costs is that you've deprived 00:26:33.120 --> 00:26:37.200 those to whom God has situated you most closely, and where you 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:41.680 may well have greater duties, because all of these facets have different 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:44.000 types of degrees of duties. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:47.600 As we'll get into in the third episode, the duties of love 00:26:47.600 --> 00:26:52.160 that a spouse has to each other is very different than the 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.760 type of duties of love that you have to a neighbor or 00:26:55.760 --> 00:26:57.200 to a sibling. 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:01.440 They're fundamentally different, but they're all duties to some degree, and some 00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:04.960 of them are very particularized, and some of them are diffuse, and 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:08.400 some of them are situationally random effectively. 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:12.240 The example of the Good Samaritan was basically random. 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:15.840 The man happened to be a neighbor for the moment. 00:27:15.840 --> 00:27:18.560 When the Samaritan passed by and saw the man who'd been beaten 00:27:18.560 --> 00:27:21.440 and bloodied, he took care of him 'cause he was right there. 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:23.920 It was happenstance that he came by. 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:26.000 He was situationally his neighbor. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:27.360 He showed love for him. 00:27:27.360 --> 00:27:31.600 He showed charity for him by taking care of those immediate needs. 00:27:31.600 --> 00:27:34.000 But that was basically the end of the relationship. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:35.440 He didn't adopt the man. 00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:38.480 He didn't become his lifelong adopted brother. 00:27:38.800 --> 00:27:40.640 He took care of his needs and that was it. 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:42.320 And that's not hostility. 00:27:42.320 --> 00:27:46.480 I think that's one thing as we look at these various facets, 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:49.760 the world and the evil parts of the church want to say, 00:27:49.760 --> 00:27:53.040 if you don't use an unlimited form of every one of these 00:27:53.040 --> 00:27:55.680 facets, you're being evil and hostile. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:00.080 Well, in the third episode and we're talking about marriage, obviously that's 00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:04.240 wicked. If I want to be your friend, that's one thing. 00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:07.120 If we want to have a you know a brotherly relationship, that's 00:28:07.120 --> 00:28:10.640 great. If I want to have the sort of relationship with your 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:13.040 wife, that's a completely different matter. 00:28:13.040 --> 00:28:15.360 It becomes an inherently wicked. 00:28:15.360 --> 00:28:16.560 They're lines. 00:28:16.560 --> 00:28:19.760 There are lines, there are duties, there are scopes of all these 00:28:19.760 --> 00:28:22.240 things. And so it's not the same. 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.480 The marriage is one-to-one. 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:27.920 The family unit is ordained and created by God. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:30.720 You can't make more children than God gives you. 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:34.880 And the scope of your family, your immediate family, is bounded. 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:38.160 You can adopt, and that's also bringing someone into your family. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:39.200 That's grafting. 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:42.400 And it's a blessing that we have always had that. 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:45.680 Jesus was adopted by Joseph functionally. 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:47.440 He became his father legally. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:48.640 He was his father. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.320 He was his earthly father. 00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:52.000 And it was by adoption. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:57.360 And then we become adopted sons of God through baptism, through faith. 00:28:57.360 --> 00:29:00.720 When we look at things like agape and we look at the 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:05.040 preference that's inherent to it, we have to just be clear about 00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:07.040 the fact that it's okay to have preference. 00:29:07.040 --> 00:29:08.880 I think that's one of the things that we hope to get 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:11.920 across in this series is that there's an attack on the idea 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:15.760 that you can prefer anyone or anything, which again is always fundamentally 00:29:15.760 --> 00:29:18.720 a preference, because they're never telling the truth when they say that 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:19.520 sort of thing. 00:29:19.520 --> 00:29:23.360 When I say, well, I prefer my race, I prefer my community 00:29:23.520 --> 00:29:28.080 over some other random community somewhere else, they'll say that's hateful. 00:29:28.080 --> 00:29:32.320 But what they're actually saying is that I have a moral obligation 00:29:32.320 --> 00:29:36.400 to love strangers, to have agape and charity for those who are 00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:37.040 somewhere else. 00:29:37.040 --> 00:29:38.800 It's still stating a preference. 00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:41.520 It's all of these are inherently preferential. 00:29:41.520 --> 00:29:42.640 And that's okay. 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:44.640 It because we're not omnipotent. 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:48.160 We can't possibly love in any degree everyone. 00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:50.000 We have to do it where we are. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.400 And so as we discuss the various aspects, just keep in mind, 00:29:54.400 --> 00:29:58.720 understanding the limitations and the scope and the giver and the receiver 00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:02.320 for all these types is important because people are coming along every 00:30:02.320 --> 00:30:05.040 day and saying, no, no, no, not like not like that. 00:30:05.040 --> 00:30:08.960 You have to love in this different way, in this different circumstance, 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:13.280 and they end up inverting that which is ordained by God, and 00:30:13.280 --> 00:30:16.400 they end up causing you to do evil because of the opportunity 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:20.640 cost of preferencing that which is far away, or whatever perverted preference 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:21.280 they're giving you. 00:30:21.280 --> 00:30:23.360 And it's always a perversion of preference. 00:30:23.760 --> 00:30:26.080 that's the flip side of all these things. 00:30:26.080 --> 00:30:30.720 When the world, when Satan perverts these types of love, it is 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:33.920 always to take that which is ordered by God as a good 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:39.760 preference, and rather to prefer something that's awful, something that's disordered, something 00:30:39.760 --> 00:30:43.120 that can only do harm, even if it's doing good for someone 00:30:43.120 --> 00:30:43.840 who's far away. 00:30:43.840 --> 00:30:46.000 You know, if if you give all your money to someone ten 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:48.720 thousand miles away, they're probably gonna be better off for it, at 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:50.080 least for a little while. 00:30:50.080 --> 00:30:52.960 But what's the opportunity cost that you've done here? 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:56.320 We did the entire episode on inheritance. 00:30:56.320 --> 00:31:01.680 Part of that was about the delinquency of the older generations today 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:04.480 despising giving an inheritance to their children. 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:07.920 That's an obligation that is inherent. 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:11.280 And yet they're preferring strangers. 00:31:11.280 --> 00:31:14.880 So love and preference are bound up. 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.640 And as limited creatures, we don't have unlimited love. 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:20.240 We only have so much. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:21.840 It can only go so far. 00:31:21.840 --> 00:31:26.240 And so when we prefer to give it to others, sometimes it's 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:27.280 a conscious choice. 00:31:27.280 --> 00:31:29.600 Sometimes it's situationally dictated. 00:31:29.600 --> 00:31:33.120 And sometimes you just sort of luck into it. 00:31:33.360 --> 00:31:36.240 You meet someone, you know, if it's someone of the opposite sex 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:38.480 and you're attracted to 'em, that's one kind of love. 00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:40.880 If it's the same sex and you just really get along very 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:42.400 well, it's a different kind of love. 00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:46.320 We call it friendship, brotherhood, things like that. 00:31:46.320 --> 00:31:49.600 Whichever one of those you have, it's still limited. 00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:51.600 You can only do it for a few people. 00:31:51.840 --> 00:31:54.240 Even if you get up to the like the Dunbar number of 00:31:54.320 --> 00:31:57.440 150 we've talked about a number of times recently, that's really the 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:00.800 maximum scope of any kind of meaningful relationship. 00:32:00.800 --> 00:32:05.600 And then within those relationships of about 150 people, you're gonna have 00:32:05.600 --> 00:32:09.120 a winnowing of the degrees and types of love that are even 00:32:09.120 --> 00:32:11.600 possible. And when you get to the very closest and most intimate 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:14.480 level, you have your family and you have your spouse. 00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:16.960 Those are all preferences and they're all good. 00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:21.280 It's okay to prefer your own because that's what God gave you. 00:32:21.280 --> 00:32:23.840 And it's okay to say, well, I have to do this duty 00:32:23.840 --> 00:32:25.680 first. This is what's in front of me. 00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:27.040 This is what God gave me. 00:32:27.040 --> 00:32:30.080 I'm going to prefer it because that's the way it is. 00:32:30.080 --> 00:32:31.520 Pagans understand this. 00:32:31.520 --> 00:32:33.680 Pagans can live godly lives. 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:37.440 It doesn't save them, but they intrinsically understand that this is how 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:38.880 God ordered the world. 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:44.480 And this modern notion of despising self and despising nearby and despising 00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:49.120 family for the sake of aliens is profoundly wicked and a way 00:32:49.120 --> 00:32:51.440 that is predicted as a sign of the end times. 00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:55.040 That's something we'll cover in detail next week in one portion of 00:32:55.040 --> 00:32:57.200 another facet of love. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:01.520 But just keep in mind that you have a permission slip from 00:33:01.520 --> 00:33:05.600 God to prefer certain people in certain situations. 00:33:05.600 --> 00:33:09.920 And when you have an outpouring of these facets of love, there's 00:33:09.840 --> 00:33:14.480 a basically a guidebook in creation and in scripture that says this 00:33:14.720 --> 00:33:18.720 is a good properly ordered version of it or this is disordered. 00:33:18.720 --> 00:33:22.480 And so think about it, check your work, see if you're doing 00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:23.040 it right. 00:33:23.040 --> 00:33:25.760 And if you are, you should have a clean conscience. 00:33:25.760 --> 00:33:29.360 You should have a clean conscience about preferring that which God says 00:33:29.360 --> 00:33:31.760 for you to prefer. 00:33:31.840 --> 00:33:35.680 Many of the terms that we're going to use in this episode 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:40.720 and in this series, in order to describe certain things. 00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:42.640 overlap each other. 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:45.840 There are going to be terms that have a core sense and 00:33:45.840 --> 00:33:49.200 then sort of a gray area and emanation around them. 00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:52.880 And one of those is going to be preference, which has a 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:56.480 range of meanings of intensities in English. 00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:00.720 And so I'm going to use the term in a slightly different 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:03.760 way from how Wo just used it, because I want to give 00:34:03.760 --> 00:34:07.440 you a sort of hierarchy to help structure some of this in 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:10.000 your mind, and many other things as well. 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.880 This is a general hierarchy, it's not just for this episode or 00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:16.800 this series. 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:22.720 And the hierarchy is duty, love, and preference. 00:34:22.720 --> 00:34:26.320 And that is in order, because as I mentioned, as I said, 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:28.080 it is a hierarchy. 00:34:28.080 --> 00:34:32.800 Duty is highest, love is second, mere preference we could call it, 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:34.000 is third. 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:38.000 And so when you have a duty, that trumps everything else. 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:41.520 When you have a specific duty, and duties of course all flow 00:34:41.520 --> 00:34:44.480 from God, that's the reason they trump everything else. 00:34:44.720 --> 00:34:49.040 So God is giving you certain duties to your wife. 00:34:49.040 --> 00:34:52.080 You are to fulfill those duties, period. 00:34:52.080 --> 00:34:54.240 Because they're from God, and it's a duty. 00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:56.240 It trumps all else. 00:34:56.240 --> 00:34:58.720 Love is second to that, and so love is going to trump 00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:00.960 a mere preference. 00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:05.440 And so for instance, the love that you have for family is 00:35:05.440 --> 00:35:09.120 going to trump the mere preference you have, which is a form 00:35:09.120 --> 00:35:11.760 of love, for friends. 00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:14.160 So keep that general hierarchy in mind. 00:35:14.160 --> 00:35:17.760 It helps to keep some of this clear and order some of 00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:22.160 it as we go through this topic and other ones as well. 00:35:22.160 --> 00:35:25.920 But to emphasize something that Wo said and to use another term 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:33.120 from economics, you are limited with regard to not just 00:35:33.120 --> 00:35:35.520 how many people you can love, as Woe was saying with the 00:35:35.520 --> 00:35:37.840 Dunbar number, but also 00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:44.880 any instance of using your resources or even just your time, because 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:49.520 many times loving someone is a function of time invested. 00:35:49.520 --> 00:35:53.840 We'll get more into that in the next two episodes. 00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:59.040 But there's a utility aspect to this, not in the economic sense 00:35:59.120 --> 00:36:02.640 necessarily strictly of utility, I'm not saying that there's a unit of 00:36:02.640 --> 00:36:05.520 love and you spend it in the most productive way Productive way. 00:36:05.520 --> 00:36:07.840 It's not like a dollar, I'm not talking about it as being 00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:09.200 fungible, but 00:36:10.640 --> 00:36:14.880 to some degree there is, because there's that unit of time and 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:17.920 you can invest it in certain ways, or there's the unit of 00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:21.120 money in the case of charity, and you can invest that in 00:36:21.120 --> 00:36:23.120 certain ways. 00:36:23.120 --> 00:36:26.400 There is a hierarchy with regard to these things, and so you 00:36:26.400 --> 00:36:29.280 owe a higher duty to your family. 00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:33.600 That love trumps that you're going to have for a stranger. 00:36:33.600 --> 00:36:37.280 We'll get more into this in the next episode in this series, 00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:42.640 but just to emphasize this as an example, if you have a 00:36:43.040 --> 00:36:48.080 poor family member who needs aid, you are to help that family 00:36:48.080 --> 00:36:50.880 member before you help a stranger. 00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:54.800 The charity that you would give to a stranger has to take 00:36:54.800 --> 00:37:00.320 a back seat to the love of family, which trumps the alien, 00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:05.120 which trumps the stranger, because as we have mentioned many times before, 00:37:05.120 --> 00:37:09.120 there is a hierarchy when it comes to those you love, when 00:37:09.120 --> 00:37:12.080 it comes to your duties to others. 00:37:12.080 --> 00:37:16.320 It flows first of all to those who are closest. 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:20.640 Now, as Woe was saying, today society would tell us that that 00:37:20.640 --> 00:37:23.440 is a wicked thing, that you can't preference your own over the 00:37:23.440 --> 00:37:29.600 alien. Step back and think about that for a minute. 00:37:29.600 --> 00:37:34.240 Those who are closest to you are closest to you because of 00:37:34.240 --> 00:37:37.920 the way that God has designed the world. 00:37:37.920 --> 00:37:42.960 It is not random that your children are closest to you after 00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:46.160 your spouse, and in fact in some ways closer to you than 00:37:46.160 --> 00:37:51.200 your spouse, because they are related to you by flesh and blood 00:37:51.200 --> 00:37:52.400 more directly. 00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:55.840 Your spouse should be a distant cousin because that's the way God 00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:58.880 has designed things in terms of fertility, which is a clear indication 00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:01.760 of God's approval. 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:04.160 But the reason that your children 00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:09.920 are closest to you is because that's how God designed the system. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:13.280 And so when those who believe that it's a wicked thing to 00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:18.480 preference your own tell you that you cannot prefer your family or 00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:22.560 your extended family or your nation, what they're actually saying is God 00:38:22.560 --> 00:38:23.760 got it wrong. 00:38:23.760 --> 00:38:25.920 We're more moral than God. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:28.720 We'll be better than God. 00:38:28.720 --> 00:38:32.560 And ultimately, the goal, of course, because it's Satan behind it and 00:38:32.560 --> 00:38:36.080 he knows exactly what he's doing the goal is to make it 00:38:36.080 --> 00:38:38.400 impossible to love anyone. 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:42.960 When you love everyone, you love no one. 00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:46.800 If you were to show the same sort of love that you 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:51.200 have or should have for your spouse to every single person you 00:38:51.200 --> 00:38:55.360 meet, you don't love your spouse, and quite frankly you're probably a 00:38:55.360 --> 00:38:57.360 pest, you should be put in prison. 00:38:57.360 --> 00:39:01.120 But fundamentally you no longer love your spouse. 00:39:01.120 --> 00:39:07.520 Part of loving someone is showing that preference, is having a partiality 00:39:07.520 --> 00:39:10.800 for that person, a partialness to that person. 00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:12.880 Now there are those of course who are going to say, well 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:15.840 doesn't scripture say that we can't be partial? 00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:20.480 We have gone over what that means in that context in Scripture. 00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:25.360 There is a wicked partiality, which is inappropriate, and there is a 00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:29.760 proper partiality, which is not only appropriate, but is required, it is 00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:30.800 a duty. 00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:34.080 You are required to be partial to your family. 00:39:34.080 --> 00:39:37.920 We will get into that when we are discussing Storge. 00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:40.720 And it is one of the signs of those who are not 00:39:40.720 --> 00:39:43.680 Christian, who are worse than unbelievers, that they do not have 00:39:44.560 --> 00:39:48.800 this form of correct partiality. 00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:54.160 And so you cannot say, well, I have set aside my money 00:39:54.160 --> 00:39:57.920 in order to provide charity for these people who are five thousand 00:39:58.400 --> 00:39:59.040 miles away. 00:39:59.040 --> 00:40:03.360 So I can't possibly aid my poor family members or those who 00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:06.560 are in my own community because I'm being charitable. 00:40:06.560 --> 00:40:10.960 I'm doing exact no, you're not doing what you're supposed to do. 00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:16.080 Because you are pursuing something that is lower down the priority list 00:40:16.320 --> 00:40:20.480 with regard to your moral duties, and then saying, look at how 00:40:20.480 --> 00:40:22.720 holy I am. 00:40:23.120 --> 00:40:27.360 That alone should worry you if you are engaged in that. 00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:29.680 Also the kind of people who engage in it if you look 00:40:29.680 --> 00:40:31.520 at them that should worry you as well if you want to 00:40:31.520 --> 00:40:32.640 be in that camp. 00:40:32.640 --> 00:40:33.760 Who's in that camp? 00:40:33.760 --> 00:40:35.440 Who is the leader of that camp? 00:40:35.440 --> 00:40:39.120 It's the wicked Pharisee who prays, Thank you God that I am 00:40:39.120 --> 00:40:40.640 not like other men. 00:40:40.640 --> 00:40:44.160 That's what you're doing when you are engaged in that sort of 00:40:44.160 --> 00:40:46.800 telescopic philanthropy one could call it. 00:40:46.800 --> 00:40:47.600 When you're engaged in 00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:53.280 supposed charity for those who are thousands of miles away, at the 00:40:53.280 --> 00:40:55.920 expense of those who are close to you. 00:40:55.920 --> 00:40:58.720 That's the key aspect of this. 00:40:58.720 --> 00:41:01.520 If we lived in a country 00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:07.840 that was so wealthy, so perfectly ordered and run, that we don't 00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:12.400 have any poor, which is very unlikely in this life, as Christ 00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:14.720 says, the poor will always be will always be with you. 00:41:14.720 --> 00:41:18.240 But let's say we manage to get rid of that kind of 00:41:18.240 --> 00:41:20.720 poverty, the worst sorts of poverty. 00:41:20.720 --> 00:41:22.880 We solve these problems. 00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:25.440 In that case, fine. 00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:28.880 Direct your charity to those who are more distant, because you have 00:41:28.880 --> 00:41:31.680 already helped those who are closer. 00:41:31.680 --> 00:41:36.560 That is a requirement from God, because again, God has created these 00:41:36.560 --> 00:41:41.280 hierarchies. Those who are closer to you are not closer to you 00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:42.800 by random chance. 00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:45.360 They are closer to you by design. 00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:49.040 God has given you a higher duty to them. 00:41:49.040 --> 00:41:52.960 And so if you engage in supposed charity with those who are 00:41:52.960 --> 00:42:00.320 farther away, you are not engaging in charity, because that is disordered 00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:04.320 to the point that it rises to being a sin. 00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:09.440 It is possible to engage in something that the world calls love, 00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:12.320 and one would think this is obvious and particularly we get to 00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:16.240 Eros later on, but it is possible to engage in something the 00:42:16.240 --> 00:42:20.480 world calls love and have it actually be a sin. 00:42:20.480 --> 00:42:23.520 It's one of the reasons that we are going over these two 00:42:23.520 --> 00:42:25.520 topics in this episode. 00:42:25.520 --> 00:42:30.320 Partly they lay the groundwork and partly they serve as a contrast. 00:42:30.320 --> 00:42:35.280 Because if you have someone to whom this agape love is owed, 00:42:35.280 --> 00:42:40.640 and instead you are engaging in supposed charity, you're sinning at both 00:42:40.640 --> 00:42:44.400 ends. Because you are not fulfilling your duty to the first person, 00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:49.920 and you are and you are wrongfully pursuing a wicked manufactured duty, 00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:54.960 one that does not exist, to the second person. 00:42:54.960 --> 00:42:59.200 There are things that are supposedly good, that if they were in 00:42:59.600 --> 00:43:04.400 a vacuum would be good, that in context, when you run a 00:43:04.400 --> 00:43:09.920 fact specific analysis, may very well be wicked, and so charity, all 00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:13.440 else being equal, is good, period. 00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:17.360 But charity that comes at the expense of those to whom a 00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:21.440 higher duty is owed is no longer charity. 00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:26.960 Because you have fundamentally violated that third step of the analysis as 00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:27.440 it were. 00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:32.240 They're not really necessarily steps, but that third aspect of the analysis, 00:43:32.240 --> 00:43:34.560 the nature and scope of the thing. 00:43:34.560 --> 00:43:38.320 And of course you have directed it to the wrong person, but 00:43:38.320 --> 00:43:42.000 you've directed it to the wrong person because you didn't realize, or 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:48.000 you didn't care, that you have a higher duty to others. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:52.640 This is not a buffet, all of these terms. 00:43:52.640 --> 00:43:55.280 You don't look at a table with all of the different kinds 00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:57.600 of love and just pick whichever one you want and pursue that 00:43:57.680 --> 00:43:59.040 and that that seems good. 00:43:59.040 --> 00:44:00.480 I'll do that today. 00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:01.600 There are duties. 00:44:01.600 --> 00:44:02.720 There's a hierarchy. 00:44:03.120 --> 00:44:06.160 There are those to whom these things are owed, just as we 00:44:06.160 --> 00:44:09.920 pay taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is 00:44:09.920 --> 00:44:15.200 owed. We also owe love, we have a duty to pursue the 00:44:15.200 --> 00:44:15.360 good 00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:20.240 of certain people that may very well even be at the expense 00:44:20.240 --> 00:44:21.920 of others. 00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:25.840 Because if you have a poor family member and you have X 00:44:25.840 --> 00:44:29.040 amount of money left over, or X amount of money that you 00:44:29.040 --> 00:44:32.800 can set aside to help someone, if you help that family member 00:44:32.800 --> 00:44:38.000 as you should, that is at the expense, under a certain conception, 00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:41.200 of others, to whom you could have given charity. 00:44:41.200 --> 00:44:44.960 The reason you don't give that particular charity is because you had 00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:47.840 the higher duty to the family member. 00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:51.520 The world wants to tell you you don't have a higher or 00:44:51.520 --> 00:44:55.200 a lesser duty, or even in some cases, most perversely, the world 00:44:55.200 --> 00:44:58.160 will invert it, as Will was saying, and will tell you you 00:44:58.160 --> 00:45:02.240 have the highest duty to the most distant person. 00:45:02.240 --> 00:45:04.160 That is satanic. 00:45:04.160 --> 00:45:06.720 That is incredibly wicked, and we will go over this at greater 00:45:06.720 --> 00:45:11.680 length in the next episode, but to invert the one to whom 00:45:11.680 --> 00:45:16.160 love is owed the most, and give instead that love to the 00:45:16.160 --> 00:45:19.760 one to whom it is owed the least is satanic. 00:45:19.760 --> 00:45:21.840 That is Satan attempting to destroy 00:45:22.880 --> 00:45:30.320 love. If you treat everyone the same, then you have no friends. 00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:33.840 If you treat everyone the same, then you have no family. 00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:37.920 As Well was saying, part of having a friend is showing a 00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:44.240 preference. If A is your friend and B is a stranger and 00:45:44.240 --> 00:45:47.120 both of them ask you Ask you to go out to dinner. 00:45:47.120 --> 00:45:51.120 You're going to say yes to your friend and tell B another 00:45:51.120 --> 00:45:55.040 time. Because that's part of what it means for A to be 00:45:55.040 --> 00:45:59.680 your friend, is to show that preference toward him and yes, at 00:45:59.520 --> 00:46:03.280 the expense of that other. 00:46:03.280 --> 00:46:08.000 As Woe was saying, we do not have infinite capacity, we are 00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:13.280 not God, we cannot be perfect with regard to these things. 00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:17.680 Now Now, in this case, we're saying perfect in an absolute sense, 00:46:17.680 --> 00:46:22.320 not perfect in a relative creaturely sense, because in the creaturely sense, 00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:26.480 to act perfectly is to act in accord with the hierarchy God 00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:31.200 is created, and so preferencing A over B is in a creaturely 00:46:31.200 --> 00:46:32.720 sense perfect. 00:46:32.720 --> 00:46:36.720 It is not perfect in an absolute sense, because you cannot be 00:46:36.720 --> 00:46:39.120 two places at the same time. 00:46:39.120 --> 00:46:40.080 God can do that. 00:46:40.880 --> 00:46:46.000 God can perfectly love each and everything He has created. 00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:49.040 You cannot do that because you are limited. 00:46:49.040 --> 00:46:50.400 You are a creature. 00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:53.280 You have a limited amount of time, you have a limited amount 00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:57.360 of resources, you have a limited number of relationships that you can 00:46:57.360 --> 00:47:03.520 maintain. That is a very important point here, and that is why 00:47:03.520 --> 00:47:06.320 we have mentioned it so many times. 00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:10.720 If you are attempting to pursue the same kind of relationship with 00:47:10.720 --> 00:47:15.360 every single person you meet, or God forbid, every single person in 00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:20.640 the world, you will ultimately have a relationship with no one. 00:47:20.640 --> 00:47:23.360 That will make you inhuman. 00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:26.400 That is a wicked pursuit. 00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:30.400 You have to invest the greater amount of time, the greater amount 00:47:30.400 --> 00:47:30.880 of resources 00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:36.400 in those closer to you because God has put them there, and 00:47:36.400 --> 00:47:40.640 God has required of you that you do that, that is obvious 00:47:40.640 --> 00:47:44.080 not just from scripture, but also from nature. 00:47:44.080 --> 00:47:48.160 This is This is one of those cases where the noble pagan 00:47:49.120 --> 00:47:54.400 is much more Christian than the modern so called Christian, who inverts 00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:58.240 that and pursues the good of the alien over family or over 00:47:58.240 --> 00:48:04.800 nation? There are very real demands here, there's a very real hierarchy, 00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:07.360 and you do not just get to pick and choose whichever one 00:48:07.360 --> 00:48:10.240 you want, because it is Because it is a hierarchy. 00:48:10.240 --> 00:48:13.840 You are to fulfill and you are to pursue those things that 00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:18.000 are higher, that have a greater demand, that carry a greater moral 00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:23.920 weight, above and before those that are lower down the list. 00:48:23.920 --> 00:48:27.760 The world doesn't want you to do that because the world, the 00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:33.120 flesh, and the devil seek to subvert and destroy. 00:48:33.120 --> 00:48:37.680 Because if you love everyone equally, you no longer love your family, 00:48:37.680 --> 00:48:41.360 and if you can destroy the family, you are destroying that fundamental 00:48:41.360 --> 00:48:44.080 unit of everything. 00:48:44.080 --> 00:48:48.640 That is the beginning of society, it is the beginning of civilization, 00:48:48.640 --> 00:48:52.320 it is of fundamental importance, and we will go over that in 00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:56.880 the next episode which will cover more in depth familial love. 00:48:56.880 --> 00:49:01.040 But if that can be subverted, then Satan is one because he 00:49:01.040 --> 00:49:02.640 can subvert everything. 00:49:02.640 --> 00:49:06.800 And if you don't realize that these are concentric circles, that they 00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:10.640 emanate outward from the family unit, if you say, Well, I don't 00:49:10.640 --> 00:49:15.520 have to preference my nation because my nation isn't my family, your 00:49:15.760 --> 00:49:20.560 nation is your family If you manage to subvert any point of 00:49:20.560 --> 00:49:23.680 this, you will eventually subvert the totality. 00:49:23.680 --> 00:49:26.560 And so when Satan says no, you have to love the stranger 00:49:26.560 --> 00:49:31.040 over your fellow citizen, over the fellow member of your nation. 00:49:31.040 --> 00:49:34.480 What he's telling you is that he wants to subvert your family, 00:49:34.480 --> 00:49:37.040 and he will eventually get there. 00:49:37.040 --> 00:49:40.240 And today we have many who think that they do not owe 00:49:40.240 --> 00:49:43.920 a greater duty to those who are of the same blood than 00:49:43.920 --> 00:49:46.400 those who are of alien blood. 00:49:46.400 --> 00:49:49.920 Because we've been told that's wicked, we've been told that's evil, and 00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:55.360 yet Scripture and nature both testify that you owe a higher duty 00:49:55.360 --> 00:49:57.920 to those who are closer to you. 00:49:57.920 --> 00:50:02.240 And so if you think that you are pursuing charity by aiding 00:50:02.240 --> 00:50:07.520 those who are entirely distant from you, entirely unknown. 00:50:07.520 --> 00:50:12.240 Earlier I said that charity has sort of an arm's length aspect 00:50:12.240 --> 00:50:17.120 to it that agape does not, because agape has that very real, 00:50:17.120 --> 00:50:21.680 very tangible relationship that is a necessary part of it. 00:50:21.680 --> 00:50:24.880 But charity does have a relationship as well. 00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:28.960 It is not as close, but it's not no relationship. 00:50:28.960 --> 00:50:33.600 You have no relationship with someone who is five thousand miles away, 00:50:33.600 --> 00:50:36.800 a person you will never meet, a person you do not know, 00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:40.000 a person with whom you have no connection whatsoever. 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.240 It is not charity to send your money to that person who 00:50:44.240 --> 00:50:46.800 may very well not exist in many cases, because we aren't even 00:50:46.800 --> 00:50:50.480 really touching on the aspects of corruption in this. 00:50:50.480 --> 00:50:54.640 But if you are sending your money to that person, in this 00:50:54.640 --> 00:50:56.880 day and age, most certainly you are doing you are doing it 00:50:56.880 --> 00:50:59.040 at the expense of those who are closer. 00:50:59.040 --> 00:51:01.120 And what you're doing is not charity. 00:51:01.120 --> 00:51:04.640 It is disorder to the point of being sin. 00:51:04.640 --> 00:51:09.440 And so philanthropy in the US context that is aiding those in 00:51:09.440 --> 00:51:13.920 Africa or Israel so called that's not charity. 00:51:13.920 --> 00:51:16.640 That's wickedness, that is sin. 00:51:16.640 --> 00:51:18.960 You should not be doing that. 00:51:18.960 --> 00:51:24.560 We went over in a previous episode how not Christian, even Christians 00:51:24.560 --> 00:51:27.680 in the United States are. 00:51:27.680 --> 00:51:31.600 And yet the world tells you to expend your effort and your 00:51:31.600 --> 00:51:36.640 resources in helping those supposedly who are thousands of miles away. 00:51:36.640 --> 00:51:38.560 But what are you actually doing? 00:51:38.720 --> 00:51:41.040 You're hating your neighbor. 00:51:41.040 --> 00:51:44.720 And that is the fundamental point here. 00:51:44.720 --> 00:51:49.920 If you are pursuing a love that harms those who are closer 00:51:49.920 --> 00:51:50.880 to you. 00:51:50.880 --> 00:51:55.120 What you are actually doing is hating those who are closer to 00:51:55.120 --> 00:51:59.280 you. You are exhibiting hatred, not the love that you think you 00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:00.720 are pursuing. 00:52:01.360 --> 00:52:05.360 The example of the hierarchy that Corey gave earlier is also a 00:52:05.360 --> 00:52:09.280 really good example of how the same word can be used in 00:52:10.240 --> 00:52:14.800 different contexts to mean either subtly or substantially different things. 00:52:14.800 --> 00:52:18.800 He mentioned duty, then love, then preference. 00:52:18.800 --> 00:52:20.880 And that is correct. 00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:25.200 And to think of preference in terms of I prefer chocolate to 00:52:25.200 --> 00:52:26.960 broccoli, yeah, absolutely. 00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:30.960 That sort of preference, even if it's in some flavor of love, 00:52:30.960 --> 00:52:32.400 is at the bottom. 00:52:32.400 --> 00:52:36.080 When I was speaking of agape in the sense of to prefer, 00:52:36.080 --> 00:52:39.840 it was actually much closer to the duty of you have a 00:52:39.840 --> 00:52:43.440 duty to prefer your children over someone else's children. 00:52:44.160 --> 00:52:47.920 It's preference not in the oh it's what I feel like. 00:52:47.920 --> 00:52:50.080 It's preference in the you have a duty to God. 00:52:50.080 --> 00:52:53.680 You don't have an option and it's perverted and it's wicked for 00:52:53.680 --> 00:52:57.760 someone who has a duty to prefer their own to instead be 00:52:57.760 --> 00:53:00.160 indifferent or to despise them. 00:53:00.160 --> 00:53:04.320 So that just to clarify, that's exclusively the sense of preference that 00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:06.720 I meant in that context. 00:53:07.120 --> 00:53:11.280 An interesting thing about agape that actually appears in the Song of 00:53:11.280 --> 00:53:13.120 Solomon, which is 00:53:14.080 --> 00:53:16.960 an interesting book that we'll probably talk about a little bit in 00:53:16.960 --> 00:53:22.320 the third episode where we discuss marriage because that book is typological 00:53:22.320 --> 00:53:26.800 of of marriage, of the nature of Christ's relationship to his bride, 00:53:26.800 --> 00:53:27.520 the church. 00:53:27.520 --> 00:53:30.320 And there's a lot that's going on there in that particular type 00:53:30.320 --> 00:53:32.960 of love that humans don't fully understand. 00:53:33.680 --> 00:53:34.960 And it's kind of a dangerous one. 00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:37.760 And that's another part of the reason we're kind of sequestering that, 00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:41.360 because it's very easy to get very weird with that subject very 00:53:41.360 --> 00:53:44.400 quickly. And a lot of times that's a hallmark of someone that's 00:53:44.320 --> 00:53:51.680 doing completely screwy wicked anti-theology is they will take something and suddenly 00:53:51.680 --> 00:53:56.240 turn it into this weird cult that's doing strange non-marriage stuff. 00:53:56.240 --> 00:53:58.640 Won't get into more details now. 00:53:58.640 --> 00:54:03.120 And yet, what we find in the Septuagint is that the word 00:54:03.120 --> 00:54:08.560 agape is used multiple times in the Song of Solomon to describe 00:54:08.560 --> 00:54:12.560 that relationship that the man and his beloved have. 00:54:12.800 --> 00:54:15.520 Another thing that I want to point out, especially for those of 00:54:15.520 --> 00:54:20.000 you who are still on the King James train, one thing to 00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:23.200 be aware of and one thing that's important when we're discussing these 00:54:23.200 --> 00:54:28.160 subjects, we're talking about specific words and definitions and translations. 00:54:28.160 --> 00:54:31.840 You should be aware that something we've said before, if you want 00:54:31.840 --> 00:54:34.880 good advice on what Bible to get or what translation or what 00:54:34.880 --> 00:54:38.880 type of Bible, the second listener mail episode we did, the first 00:54:38.880 --> 00:54:40.400 hour we devoted that. 00:54:40.400 --> 00:54:44.080 And we explained why the King James was a beautiful 00:54:45.040 --> 00:54:50.320 time capsule of the beginnings of the modern English language, really kind 00:54:50.320 --> 00:54:54.240 of an archaic version even then, but it is archaic. 00:54:54.240 --> 00:54:59.120 And I highlight it here because when you look at numerous places 00:54:59.120 --> 00:55:04.480 in the New Testament, the King James will translate agape as charity, 00:55:04.480 --> 00:55:08.160 which which if they were trying to make a particular point might 00:55:08.160 --> 00:55:08.960 be okay. 00:55:08.960 --> 00:55:13.200 And in fact charity four hundred years ago did actually mean something 00:55:13.200 --> 00:55:16.480 much closer to agape than it does today. 00:55:16.480 --> 00:55:22.320 So, you know, even the Webster 1828 dictionary definition of charity isn't 00:55:22.240 --> 00:55:23.680 the one that we're using today. 00:55:23.680 --> 00:55:24.560 And that's fine. 00:55:24.560 --> 00:55:28.960 And I'm acknowledging it because the scope and the nature of words 00:55:28.960 --> 00:55:30.640 change. Sometimes that's okay. 00:55:30.640 --> 00:55:32.160 Sometimes it's not subversion. 00:55:32.160 --> 00:55:34.720 It's just that we're using different words now. 00:55:34.720 --> 00:55:36.480 They haven't lost the sense. 00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:38.320 But what it means is that when you look at the King 00:55:38.320 --> 00:55:42.240 James, you're going to find that in some places almost a random. 00:55:42.240 --> 00:55:47.200 They have used agape as charity when it doesn't mean the same 00:55:47.200 --> 00:55:48.720 thing as we're talking about today. 00:55:48.720 --> 00:55:50.960 So if you were to look at your King James Bible, you 00:55:50.960 --> 00:55:54.640 would find passages in I think Corinthians and Timothy, both of them 00:55:55.600 --> 00:55:58.480 Using the term charity, it doesn't mean it in the sense that 00:55:58.480 --> 00:55:59.360 we're meaning today. 00:55:59.360 --> 00:56:01.920 But if you're to look at the Greek that they were using, 00:56:01.920 --> 00:56:04.960 they actually translated agape that way. 00:56:04.960 --> 00:56:07.280 Like I said, it'd be one thing if they were consistent, but 00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:08.080 they weren't. 00:56:08.080 --> 00:56:12.080 Interestingly, charaton, as Corey said, is Latin. 00:56:12.080 --> 00:56:15.520 I looked it up earlier and apparently the King James Translators didn't 00:56:15.440 --> 00:56:21.520 even follow the Vulgate, which was Latin to make those decisions about 00:56:21.520 --> 00:56:23.600 using charity, so just kind of a random. 00:56:23.600 --> 00:56:26.640 So it's just another case where it's fine to read whatever Bible 00:56:26.640 --> 00:56:29.200 you have, although it shouldn't be King James. 00:56:29.200 --> 00:56:33.760 Just know that when you're drilling down in specific words, translation choices 00:56:33.760 --> 00:56:36.960 matter. The example I gave a minute ago about preference. 00:56:36.960 --> 00:56:39.200 Preference can mean two very different things. 00:56:39.200 --> 00:56:40.960 I prefer chocolate. 00:56:40.960 --> 00:56:44.160 I prefer my parents. 00:56:44.160 --> 00:56:46.080 Totally different senses. 00:56:46.080 --> 00:56:48.880 I don't get to not prefer my parents. 00:56:48.880 --> 00:56:51.520 I can prefer whatever food I want. 00:56:51.520 --> 00:56:54.320 So prefer means fundamentally different things. 00:56:54.320 --> 00:56:58.400 Even though it's exactly the same word, same context, but the object 00:56:58.400 --> 00:57:00.880 is different, so the nature changes. 00:57:01.040 --> 00:57:05.360 So just don't pigeonhole with whatever your translation of choice is. 00:57:05.360 --> 00:57:07.200 It's fine to use one most of the time. 00:57:07.200 --> 00:57:12.800 Just be aware that you know love in these episodes, slavery, in 00:57:12.800 --> 00:57:15.840 the episode we done that, we mentioned there are three different words 00:57:15.840 --> 00:57:17.120 that are used in the Bible. 00:57:17.120 --> 00:57:18.960 Yeah, bondservant, slave. 00:57:18.960 --> 00:57:21.280 They're different contexts and connotations. 00:57:21.280 --> 00:57:25.440 Sometimes they're communicating something clearly, and sometimes it just gets confusing. 00:57:25.440 --> 00:57:28.640 So if you're doing your own Bible study and you're drilling down 00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:31.840 and you get to one of these words and you're curious, go 00:57:31.840 --> 00:57:35.040 back and look at the original Greek to see what it said. 00:57:35.040 --> 00:57:39.360 Because that will give you an a sense of what the translators 00:57:39.360 --> 00:57:41.840 were shading in as they made their choices. 00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:44.400 I'm not saying the King James is wrong when it says charity. 00:57:44.400 --> 00:57:48.400 It's a little inconsistent which is frustrating, but that's absolutely what the 00:57:48.400 --> 00:57:50.640 word meant when they translated it. 00:57:50.640 --> 00:57:52.160 So I'm not saying it's wrong. 00:57:52.160 --> 00:57:55.120 I'm just highlighting it's different than the sense in which we are 00:57:55.120 --> 00:57:56.080 using it. 00:57:56.080 --> 00:57:59.840 The sense of charity that we're talking about is for example, you 00:57:59.840 --> 00:58:02.240 know, the challenge coins, which by the way we don't have any 00:58:02.240 --> 00:58:03.040 update at. 00:58:03.040 --> 00:58:04.800 It's they're being manufactured. 00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:06.480 That is That is effectively charity. 00:58:06.480 --> 00:58:07.840 It's charity with a kicker. 00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:12.000 You're supporting us by buying something, by giving us effectively a donation. 00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:15.440 We give you a chotchki back, something a neat thing back. 00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:16.960 Forgive me for the Yiddish. 00:58:16.960 --> 00:58:20.640 And try to get that crap out of my my language. 00:58:20.640 --> 00:58:21.840 That's charity. 00:58:21.840 --> 00:58:23.600 You have no obligation. 00:58:23.600 --> 00:58:26.400 No one has any obligation to give us anything. 00:58:26.400 --> 00:58:30.400 And we'll be the first to tell you, don't give us anything 00:58:30.400 --> 00:58:33.280 if it means that you know your kids aren't getting something, your 00:58:33.280 --> 00:58:35.120 family's not getting something. 00:58:35.120 --> 00:58:38.080 But at the same time, we are much closer than someone who's 00:58:38.080 --> 00:58:40.960 a complete stranger just because you listen to our voices for hours 00:58:40.960 --> 00:58:42.720 a week, which no obligation. 00:58:43.120 --> 00:58:45.920 There's not in the remotest sense saying that. 00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:46.720 Just that 00:58:47.600 --> 00:58:52.560 the connection of charity doesn't have to be absolutely immediate. 00:58:52.560 --> 00:58:55.200 It just can't be completely random. 00:58:55.200 --> 00:58:56.560 And so there's there's a hierarchy. 00:58:56.800 --> 00:58:59.200 You have to choose to whom am I going to give my 00:58:59.200 --> 00:59:00.960 limited resources? 00:59:00.960 --> 00:59:03.040 Is it going to be used for something good? 00:59:03.040 --> 00:59:05.280 As Corey gave the example again. 00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:08.640 You don't give a brother who's a drug addict money. 00:59:08.640 --> 00:59:10.400 You know it might kill him. 00:59:10.400 --> 00:59:11.760 That's not love. 00:59:11.760 --> 00:59:15.360 That's the fact that the thing could be used for good goes 00:59:15.360 --> 00:59:18.000 out the window when you know there's a very high likelihood it's 00:59:17.920 --> 00:59:19.680 going to be used for evil. 00:59:19.680 --> 00:59:23.840 So the closest object of your charity may not be the right 00:59:23.840 --> 00:59:26.160 one because, as Corey said, it may not be charity at all, 00:59:26.160 --> 00:59:28.000 even though it looks and smells like it. 00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:31.120 The fact that we have charitable foundations and all these other things, 00:59:31.120 --> 00:59:33.120 most of them are just complete griffs. 00:59:33.120 --> 00:59:37.120 When you drill down into the way their finances work, it's just 00:59:37.200 --> 00:59:37.920 it's rubbish. 00:59:37.920 --> 00:59:41.440 You know, sixty percent of the funding goes to pay salaries for 00:59:41.440 --> 00:59:45.600 people who spend all their time flying around telling people how generous 00:59:45.600 --> 00:59:48.000 they are to people you'll never see or meet. 00:59:48.720 --> 00:59:51.200 it's a racket in a lot of cases. 00:59:51.200 --> 00:59:52.960 Some of them do good work. 00:59:52.960 --> 00:59:57.520 But even then, the question becomes where's the good work being done 00:59:57.520 --> 00:59:59.280 versus where it could be done? 00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:00.640 This happened last year. 01:00:00.640 --> 01:00:01.520 I think it was last year. 01:00:01.520 --> 01:00:05.040 I think it was twenty twenty three, when that train exploded in 01:00:05.040 --> 01:00:09.040 Ohio and that entire town was effectively poisoned. 01:00:09.040 --> 01:00:13.360 And the LCMS refused any charity to those people. 01:00:13.360 --> 01:00:16.960 They weren't refusing charity to people thousands of miles away in South 01:00:16.960 --> 01:00:18.400 America and Africa. 01:00:18.400 --> 01:00:21.680 But when people reached out and said, Hey, all these people in 01:00:21.680 --> 01:00:24.880 Ohio need fresh water, they need bottled water. 01:00:24.880 --> 01:00:26.240 Can we help them? 01:00:26.240 --> 01:00:29.120 The response from our church was we don't have anybody on the 01:00:29.120 --> 01:00:30.960 ground. There nothing we can do. 01:00:30.960 --> 01:00:33.840 That is despising neighbor and brother. 01:00:33.840 --> 01:00:37.440 That is a demonstration that there is no charity going on at 01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:40.160 all. There's only theft and grift. 01:00:40.160 --> 01:00:43.600 Because they're taking people's money and what they're doing is they're shipping 01:00:43.600 --> 01:00:46.240 it as far away as they can get it, but they won't 01:00:46.160 --> 01:00:49.200 help their own brothers in need. 01:00:49.200 --> 01:00:53.200 Why? Because it violates Satan's rules. 01:00:53.200 --> 01:00:57.520 We don't help those whom we have an obligation to prefer. 01:00:57.520 --> 01:01:01.600 You should prefer someone who lives in Ohio over someone who lives 01:01:01.600 --> 01:01:02.720 in Peru. 01:01:02.720 --> 01:01:03.600 You should. 01:01:03.600 --> 01:01:06.400 As an American, you have a moral obligation to prefer 01:01:07.440 --> 01:01:08.960 one over the other. 01:01:08.960 --> 01:01:10.880 Is that completely exclusive? 01:01:10.880 --> 01:01:14.320 No. You may have so much that it's possible for you to 01:01:14.320 --> 01:01:14.800 do whatever. 01:01:14.800 --> 01:01:16.640 And as Corey said, it's a matter of wisdom. 01:01:16.640 --> 01:01:19.600 It's not that there's a rule book that says here's where the 01:01:19.600 --> 01:01:20.880 bright line is. 01:01:20.880 --> 01:01:24.560 But the simple fact is that people have scarce resources. 01:01:24.560 --> 01:01:28.240 You shouldn't donate to a podcast before you donate to your church. 01:01:28.240 --> 01:01:34.400 You shouldn't donate to foreigners before everyone in your country is Christian. 01:01:34.400 --> 01:01:38.320 Somebody mentioned on Telegram a couple days ago that a lot of 01:01:38.320 --> 01:01:44.000 the Christian missions go to Uganda and mention that it's 84% Christian. 01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:45.040 Like, huh? 01:01:45.040 --> 01:01:48.720 And I had previously looked up the stats in Ohio because I 01:01:48.720 --> 01:01:53.200 mentioned that there are scumbag false pastors in the LCMS who brag 01:01:53.200 --> 01:01:58.000 about the so-called missionary work that they're doing to Ethiopians in Columbus, 01:01:58.000 --> 01:02:02.000 Ohio. Ethiopia is more Christian than Ohio. 01:02:02.000 --> 01:02:04.720 Uganda is more Christian than Ohio. 01:02:04.720 --> 01:02:08.160 So if you want to give money for missions to people you 01:02:08.160 --> 01:02:12.960 want to share the gospel, not only is it a violation of 01:02:12.960 --> 01:02:16.480 the tenets of charity to send it overseas, but it's also a 01:02:16.480 --> 01:02:20.240 violation of the gospel because our neighbors, as we said in the 01:02:20.240 --> 01:02:22.880 episode that we recently did on the state of the churches, even 01:02:22.880 --> 01:02:25.280 the people inside the churches need to hear the gospel. 01:02:25.280 --> 01:02:28.240 Even the people inside the churches for the most part are not 01:02:28.240 --> 01:02:30.880 Christian. You want to talk about a mission field? 01:02:30.880 --> 01:02:33.840 How about all these people who say they're Christian, who say that 01:02:33.840 --> 01:02:36.160 they believe at least some of the Bible, but they don't know 01:02:36.160 --> 01:02:36.800 what's in there? 01:02:36.800 --> 01:02:38.880 How about we start with them? 01:02:38.880 --> 01:02:40.880 No one's talking about that. 01:02:40.880 --> 01:02:44.240 And yet you want to go someplace where everybody's already Christian far 01:02:44.240 --> 01:02:47.600 more than your own lands, and spend the money there and say 01:02:47.600 --> 01:02:49.200 you're doing good works? 01:02:49.200 --> 01:02:50.800 That's stating a preference. 01:02:50.800 --> 01:02:52.720 It's stating a wicked preference. 01:02:52.720 --> 01:02:57.360 It's preferring the alien and it's preferring the grift machine over something 01:02:57.360 --> 01:03:02.080 that would actually serve neighbor and community and family. 01:03:02.080 --> 01:03:04.400 We're obligated to have a preference. 01:03:04.400 --> 01:03:06.400 It's a duty sense. 01:03:06.400 --> 01:03:09.440 It's not the chocolate and broccoli sense. 01:03:10.480 --> 01:03:14.720 Another relatively recent example of that wicked inversion 01:03:15.600 --> 01:03:20.960 of a lack of charity for neighbor in pursuit of supposed charity 01:03:20.960 --> 01:03:26.240 for aliens comes from Doug Wilson, we mentioned him in a previous 01:03:26.240 --> 01:03:29.120 episode for related reasons. 01:03:29.120 --> 01:03:34.480 But he said that he would feel a greater connection, have more 01:03:34.480 --> 01:03:39.120 investment in an attack on Israel, so called, than he would on 01:03:39.120 --> 01:03:43.680 Vermont. I've never been to Vermont. 01:03:43.680 --> 01:03:45.920 I've not visited Vermont. 01:03:45.920 --> 01:03:49.360 I don't currently have any plans to go to Vermont. 01:03:49.360 --> 01:03:53.600 And yet an attack on Vermont would be an attack on me 01:03:53.760 --> 01:03:57.840 in a way that an attack on attack on virtually any other 01:03:57.840 --> 01:04:00.400 country would not be. 01:04:00.400 --> 01:04:03.120 Because again, the distance matters. 01:04:03.120 --> 01:04:07.920 And so if someone attacks Uganda, that's not the same as attacking 01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:11.520 Kentucky, the state right next door. 01:04:11.520 --> 01:04:16.720 Because we owe that higher duty to neighbor, and when someone says 01:04:16.720 --> 01:04:20.560 that he owes a higher duty, he has a greater preference for 01:04:21.280 --> 01:04:23.440 the distant alien. 01:04:23.440 --> 01:04:26.560 You should believe him, and you should believe the fullness of what 01:04:26.560 --> 01:04:31.040 he's saying, because he's saying he is not Christian. 01:04:31.040 --> 01:04:36.960 Because Christians are supposed to have rightly ordered loves, and loving the 01:04:36.960 --> 01:04:42.720 far distant alien at the expense of neighbor is not love. 01:04:42.720 --> 01:04:45.360 It is again hatred, it is sinful 01:04:47.120 --> 01:04:50.880 And we see that in so many of our church and other 01:04:50.880 --> 01:04:53.360 organizations these days. 01:04:53.360 --> 01:04:58.560 They supposedly pursue charity, and it's all going out of the country 01:04:58.560 --> 01:05:03.360 to the distant, virtually unknown alien. 01:05:03.360 --> 01:05:07.840 And they do that at the expense of neighbor, even when there 01:05:07.840 --> 01:05:13.120 is immediate and ample opportunity to aid neighbor. 01:05:13.120 --> 01:05:18.160 And aiding neighbor is not just a matter of preaching the gospel 01:05:18.160 --> 01:05:20.080 to your neighbor. 01:05:20.080 --> 01:05:23.120 Of course that's something that we should do. 01:05:23.120 --> 01:05:28.400 But scripture also speaks of providing material aid to your neighbor. 01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:32.480 This comes up many times in Scripture. 01:05:32.480 --> 01:05:37.120 God cares deeply for the poor, and we should be as a 01:05:37.120 --> 01:05:42.560 church, as individual Christians, as Christian organizations, we should be aiding the 01:05:42.560 --> 01:05:44.560 poor in our communities. 01:05:44.560 --> 01:05:48.160 We shouldn't just be preaching to them. 01:05:48.160 --> 01:05:49.680 That may be part of it. 01:05:49.680 --> 01:05:51.360 That's important. 01:05:51.680 --> 01:05:55.120 But if you are preaching the gospel to someone who is starving, 01:05:55.120 --> 01:05:56.880 you're doing something wicked. 01:05:56.880 --> 01:05:59.440 Feed him first. 01:05:59.440 --> 01:06:03.280 You have to meet some of the material needs of your poor 01:06:03.280 --> 01:06:07.040 neighbor before before you're going to get anywhere preaching the gospel. 01:06:07.040 --> 01:06:09.760 In fact, if you preach the gospel first you are going to 01:06:09.760 --> 01:06:13.040 undermine the word of God. 01:06:13.040 --> 01:06:17.040 You are going to harm your witness if you are not aiding 01:06:17.040 --> 01:06:18.800 that man first. 01:06:18.960 --> 01:06:24.160 That's just the reality of being a creature, of having these physical 01:06:24.160 --> 01:06:27.840 needs. If a man is freezing to death, he doesn't want to 01:06:27.840 --> 01:06:29.680 discuss philosophy. 01:06:29.680 --> 01:06:31.280 He needs a coat. 01:06:31.280 --> 01:06:34.720 Clothe him first. 01:06:34.720 --> 01:06:37.920 And we do see that many places in Scripture. 01:06:37.920 --> 01:06:41.120 Of course there are the verses that deal with the poor. 01:06:41.120 --> 01:06:47.120 Those are all throughout Scripture, and these just directly address the issue 01:06:47.120 --> 01:06:48.880 of charity. 01:06:48.880 --> 01:06:51.760 And so some of the Psalms may come to mind Psalm forty 01:06:51.760 --> 01:06:55.280 one Blessed is the one who considers the poor, in the day 01:06:55.280 --> 01:06:58.480 of trouble the Lord delivers him, the Lord protects him and keeps 01:06:58.560 --> 01:07:02.000 him alive, he is called blessed in the land. 01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:04.640 You do not give him up to the will of his enemies. 01:07:04.640 --> 01:07:07.040 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed. 01:07:07.040 --> 01:07:10.640 In his illness you restore him to full health. 01:07:10.640 --> 01:07:14.400 Or from Proverbs, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the 01:07:14.400 --> 01:07:18.880 Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. 01:07:18.880 --> 01:07:26.720 But do bear in mind these apply first and foremost to neighbor. 01:07:26.720 --> 01:07:31.920 I want to address a specific instance in scripture that will undoubtedly 01:07:31.920 --> 01:07:34.880 come up, because there will be those who look for a way 01:07:34.880 --> 01:07:39.680 to subvert the actual teaching of Scripture. 01:07:39.680 --> 01:07:43.200 When the collection for the poor of Jerusalem is taken up from 01:07:43.200 --> 01:07:47.440 various churches, it is important to remember the context. 01:07:47.600 --> 01:07:52.240 Not only the specific context of the fact that these are churches 01:07:52.480 --> 01:07:56.320 planted by the apostle who is going back to them, or in 01:07:56.320 --> 01:08:01.440 some cases perhaps planted by another apostle, and then Paul is coming 01:08:01.440 --> 01:08:04.880 to make the collection or whichever apostle is doing it in a 01:08:04.880 --> 01:08:06.480 given case. 01:08:06.480 --> 01:08:11.680 But these are churches that were planted by the apostles, sending back 01:08:11.680 --> 01:08:16.640 money via the apostles in order to aid another church. 01:08:16.640 --> 01:08:22.000 And not only that, but geographically speaking, these churches are nearby. 01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:27.440 This is nothing like an American church sending money to Africa. 01:08:27.440 --> 01:08:29.920 That is thousands of miles away. 01:08:29.920 --> 01:08:33.760 Here we're dealing with hundreds of miles, and in some cases it 01:08:33.760 --> 01:08:38.400 may very well be the next large city over, effectively. 01:08:38.400 --> 01:08:41.360 This is also right along trade routes. 01:08:41.360 --> 01:08:46.240 We were discussing before we started recording, Paul was not chartering a 01:08:46.240 --> 01:08:50.880 ship in order to visit these churches and then take back aid 01:08:50.880 --> 01:08:53.200 to Jerusalem. 01:08:53.200 --> 01:08:57.200 He just hopped on the ship in port that was available and 01:08:57.200 --> 01:08:59.760 going in that direction. 01:08:59.760 --> 01:09:03.040 Because this was part of the Roman Empire, all of these cities 01:09:03.040 --> 01:09:06.640 were trading, they were related, they had connections with one another, they 01:09:06.640 --> 01:09:09.440 were pre existing relationships. 01:09:09.440 --> 01:09:12.880 This is not at all like what we see today with international 01:09:12.880 --> 01:09:19.280 charities. The advent of modern technology and particularly modern banking, which is 01:09:19.200 --> 01:09:22.480 Which is another topic for another time. 01:09:22.480 --> 01:09:26.160 But it makes it seem like everyone is next door. 01:09:26.160 --> 01:09:27.680 And that's just not the case. 01:09:27.680 --> 01:09:31.360 Just because I could send five dollars to someone in Uganda with 01:09:31.360 --> 01:09:34.720 a couple of clicks or taps on my phone now Doesn't make 01:09:34.720 --> 01:09:37.280 him my neighbor. 01:09:37.280 --> 01:09:42.800 Because as we went over in previous episodes, neighbor fundamentally means the 01:09:42.800 --> 01:09:45.600 person who is nearby. 01:09:45.600 --> 01:09:48.240 Charity should flow first to the neighbor 01:09:49.120 --> 01:09:51.520 that is part of this, so it is the poor in your 01:09:51.520 --> 01:09:54.880 own community you should help. 01:09:54.880 --> 01:10:02.320 Not some far distant, supposed poor person via some faceless international 01:10:02.320 --> 01:10:07.600 charity that takes in untold sums of money and is basically being 01:10:07.600 --> 01:10:11.680 run more as a business to enrich the board and others than 01:10:11.680 --> 01:10:13.440 as a charity. 01:10:13.440 --> 01:10:14.800 That may be easy. 01:10:14.800 --> 01:10:16.000 That may be very easy. 01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:19.120 Writing a cheque takes very little effort. 01:10:19.120 --> 01:10:23.120 Now again, as mentioned in a previous episode, it may very well 01:10:23.120 --> 01:10:25.440 have taken a great deal of effort to make the money that 01:10:25.440 --> 01:10:29.360 is represented by and transferred by that check. 01:10:29.360 --> 01:10:33.360 But charity needs to be something that is more involved. 01:10:33.360 --> 01:10:37.680 There has to be not the same sort of relationship again as 01:10:37.680 --> 01:10:42.240 with agape, but something. 01:10:42.240 --> 01:10:45.760 If you give money to someone who is in your community, there 01:10:45.760 --> 01:10:48.640 is a relationship to a certain degree because it is a fellow 01:10:48.640 --> 01:10:50.160 member of your community. 01:10:50.240 --> 01:10:53.600 Even if the person is just a fellow member of your nation, 01:10:53.600 --> 01:10:58.480 there is still that arm's length relationship because you are of the 01:10:58.480 --> 01:10:59.680 same blood. 01:10:59.680 --> 01:11:02.160 You are part of the same nation. 01:11:02.160 --> 01:11:06.640 And again, charity should flow to those closest to you first. 01:11:06.640 --> 01:11:10.640 It can flow to the far distant alien once things have been 01:11:10.640 --> 01:11:13.920 put in order in your own house. 01:11:13.920 --> 01:11:17.520 In this case to mean the expansive version of your own house, 01:11:17.520 --> 01:11:19.360 your nation. 01:11:19.360 --> 01:11:22.080 But to look at scripture a little bit more with regard to 01:11:22.080 --> 01:11:25.600 some of the contours of charity, we see 01:11:26.560 --> 01:11:29.360 an aspect of reciprocity. 01:11:29.360 --> 01:11:33.760 Because charity is not a matter of impoverishing yourself or your family, 01:11:33.760 --> 01:11:34.880 your nation. 01:11:34.880 --> 01:11:37.680 It's not a matter of doing these things at the expense of 01:11:37.680 --> 01:11:39.840 your own to aid the other. 01:11:39.840 --> 01:11:43.600 And so from Second Corinthians, for I do not mean that others 01:11:43.600 --> 01:11:46.880 should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of 01:11:46.880 --> 01:11:51.920 fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so 01:11:51.920 --> 01:11:56.320 that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness, 01:11:56.320 --> 01:12:00.400 as it is written, Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and 01:12:00.400 --> 01:12:03.600 whoever gathered little had no lack. 01:12:03.600 --> 01:12:07.840 And so as you can see there is this aspect of reciprocity. 01:12:08.240 --> 01:12:13.280 an expectation that those who have abundant resources will use them to 01:12:13.280 --> 01:12:17.280 aid the poor, And that if later fortunes happen to shift if 01:12:17.280 --> 01:12:22.400 they invert, the former poor now wealthy will help the former wealthy 01:12:22.400 --> 01:12:24.960 now poor. 01:12:24.960 --> 01:12:26.880 That is part of this. 01:12:26.880 --> 01:12:29.840 God gives out resources unequally. 01:12:29.840 --> 01:12:33.520 If he has given you a great deal of resources, then you 01:12:33.520 --> 01:12:34.560 aid the poor. 01:12:34.560 --> 01:12:38.560 He is given you the ability to engage in charity. 01:12:38.560 --> 01:12:42.560 If you do not have any money, if you have zero left 01:12:42.560 --> 01:12:45.520 over at the end of the month, God has not given you 01:12:45.520 --> 01:12:48.720 the resources to give charitably. 01:12:48.720 --> 01:12:52.720 Now again you may be able to give time or something like 01:12:52.720 --> 01:12:57.520 that, but God hasn't given you money in order to engage in 01:12:57.520 --> 01:13:01.760 charity. If God has given you great wealth, that is to aid 01:13:01.760 --> 01:13:04.800 your neighbor, that is to help others, that is the reason he 01:13:04.800 --> 01:13:09.840 has entrusted those resources to your care. 01:13:09.840 --> 01:13:13.440 This does tie in to the previous episode that we did on 01:13:13.440 --> 01:13:18.080 tithing, because tithing fundamentally is linked to charity. 01:13:18.080 --> 01:13:22.240 In fact, tithing and charity many times are almost synonymous. 01:13:22.240 --> 01:13:25.280 Yes, there's also the part of the tithe that goes to the 01:13:25.280 --> 01:13:29.360 pastor as his due, because you are not to muzzle the ox 01:13:29.360 --> 01:13:32.560 as it treads out the grain, you are to aid the one 01:13:32.560 --> 01:13:36.000 who makes his living from the gospel, to indeed make his living 01:13:36.000 --> 01:13:38.080 from the gospel. 01:13:38.480 --> 01:13:42.960 But from first Corinthians, now concerning the collection for the saints, as 01:13:42.960 --> 01:13:46.800 I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do, 01:13:46.800 --> 01:13:49.520 on the first day of every week, each of you is to 01:13:49.520 --> 01:13:53.280 put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so 01:13:53.280 --> 01:13:56.400 that there will be no collecting when I come, and when I 01:13:56.400 --> 01:13:59.680 arrive I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry 01:13:59.680 --> 01:14:01.360 your gift to Jerusalem. 01:14:01.360 --> 01:14:05.200 If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany 01:14:05.200 --> 01:14:06.160 me. 01:14:07.200 --> 01:14:13.440 We see here an additional setis doctrinae, an additional part of scripture 01:14:13.440 --> 01:14:16.160 that supports tithing. 01:14:16.160 --> 01:14:20.080 But this is also charity, because in this case it is going 01:14:20.080 --> 01:14:24.560 to the saints in Jerusalem who are suffering, who need that aid. 01:14:24.560 --> 01:14:26.720 It is going to aid the poor. 01:14:26.720 --> 01:14:29.600 But again there is that pre existing relationship here. 01:14:29.600 --> 01:14:35.200 This is not something that is distant and unknown. 01:14:35.200 --> 01:14:40.160 We may risk repeating it almost ad nauseum, but it is vitally 01:14:40.160 --> 01:14:45.040 important to understand that when it comes to love, there is a 01:14:45.040 --> 01:14:46.400 relationship of some kind. 01:14:46.400 --> 01:14:49.600 It seems like it would practically go without saying, and yet it 01:14:49.600 --> 01:14:51.440 does need to be repeated. 01:14:51.440 --> 01:14:54.960 Because in the modern context, people want to believe that love is 01:14:54.960 --> 01:14:59.280 just some general emotional feeling, and we'll get more into the difference 01:14:59.280 --> 01:15:01.520 between intellectual and emotional. 01:15:01.520 --> 01:15:06.160 Not in this episode, but in a future episode. 01:15:06.160 --> 01:15:11.360 But love is based on some kind of relationship. 01:15:11.360 --> 01:15:15.360 If what you are doing is just flinging money out into the 01:15:15.360 --> 01:15:19.920 void and saying you're engaging in charity, you're not engaging in charity 01:15:20.160 --> 01:15:22.880 because you're not doing the thing. 01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:26.800 You don't have a proper whom that you are targeting, and you 01:15:26.800 --> 01:15:30.720 don't have the right nature or scope of the act itself, and 01:15:30.720 --> 01:15:32.320 so it's not love. 01:15:32.320 --> 01:15:37.680 You're not engaging in charity. 01:15:37.680 --> 01:15:41.600 You have to pay attention to the whom and the nature and 01:15:41.600 --> 01:15:42.400 the scope. 01:15:42.400 --> 01:15:44.800 Because obviously if you're the one acting, you're going to be the 01:15:44.800 --> 01:15:47.040 who. There's no analysis there. 01:15:48.320 --> 01:15:52.400 But the person to whom you are directing that love, in this 01:15:52.400 --> 01:15:55.200 case it may very well be charity or if it's agape or 01:15:55.200 --> 01:15:58.800 whatever else it is, the person to whom you're directing the love 01:15:58.800 --> 01:16:02.240 has to be an appropriate target for that love. 01:16:02.240 --> 01:16:05.360 And then the nature and scope has to be proper. 01:16:05.360 --> 01:16:09.680 Otherwise it is not love, it is disordered. 01:16:09.680 --> 01:16:12.080 It may very well be sin. 01:16:12.400 --> 01:16:16.320 And so just because you can call a thing love doesn't mean 01:16:16.320 --> 01:16:17.520 that it is. 01:16:17.520 --> 01:16:21.120 As we've gone over a few times in this episode already, a 01:16:21.120 --> 01:16:26.240 single term may very well encompass a large array of meanings, or 01:16:26.240 --> 01:16:30.400 a spectrum of meanings, and that is most certainly the case with 01:16:30.400 --> 01:16:34.080 love, and most certainly the case with the way that the term 01:16:34.080 --> 01:16:36.480 love is abused in our society. 01:16:36.480 --> 01:16:38.880 Many things that are called love are in fact 01:16:39.840 --> 01:16:43.360 the inverse are in fact hatred. 01:16:43.360 --> 01:16:48.640 This will be obvious particularly again in the episode on Eros, but 01:16:49.920 --> 01:16:54.400 it is possible to call a thing love that is not love. 01:16:54.400 --> 01:16:58.800 It is necessary to apply wisdom, to look at the actual facts, 01:16:58.800 --> 01:17:04.400 to look at the circumstances, what is being done, by whom and 01:17:04.400 --> 01:17:06.000 to whom. 01:17:06.000 --> 01:17:09.120 You have to apply wisdom to these matters. 01:17:09.120 --> 01:17:12.400 This is not particularly easy in many cases. 01:17:12.400 --> 01:17:16.480 Again, we cannot provide you a flow chart, an if this, then 01:17:16.720 --> 01:17:19.920 that. God has given you 01:17:21.040 --> 01:17:27.840 certain abilities, sufficient abilities, to run this assessment, to run these analyses 01:17:27.840 --> 01:17:30.240 yourself, and you have to do so. 01:17:30.240 --> 01:17:31.760 That is part of being a Christian. 01:17:31.760 --> 01:17:34.880 It's part of being a human being. 01:17:34.880 --> 01:17:36.720 Pagans did this as well. 01:17:36.720 --> 01:17:39.360 This is not something that is limited to Christians. 01:17:39.360 --> 01:17:45.120 Pagans also made the assessment of preferencing family over stranger, of preferencing 01:17:45.120 --> 01:17:49.040 national over unknown, over the alien. 01:17:49.040 --> 01:17:51.440 This is part of being a human being. 01:17:51.440 --> 01:17:55.440 This is something that is inscribed in the human heart, and it 01:17:55.440 --> 01:18:00.080 is only in this Only in recent decades, in the last half 01:18:00.080 --> 01:18:05.440 century or century, that this has been subverted so almost totally by 01:18:05.440 --> 01:18:10.480 Satan. To the point where you have many Christians who have convinced 01:18:10.960 --> 01:18:17.120 themselves that they are engaging in agape by engaging in something that 01:18:17.120 --> 01:18:22.080 doesn't even qualify as charity. 01:18:22.080 --> 01:18:26.400 You cannot convince yourself that something that is 01:18:27.360 --> 01:18:28.480 inherently 01:18:29.440 --> 01:18:35.280 and extensively wicked is good just because you've applied a label for 01:18:35.280 --> 01:18:39.200 something that would be good if it were that actual thing. 01:18:39.200 --> 01:18:43.200 And so just because you call something charity doesn't mean that it 01:18:43.200 --> 01:18:47.920 is. Just because the world calls something love doesn't mean that it 01:18:47.920 --> 01:18:52.320 is. It is the nature of the thing that determines the thing. 01:18:52.320 --> 01:18:55.200 It is not the name that we apply to it. 01:18:55.200 --> 01:18:59.280 The reason we use the terms is because while you can communicate 01:18:59.280 --> 01:19:02.720 only using words, when you are doing a podcast at the very 01:19:02.720 --> 01:19:07.440 least. And we have to have some way to delineate these things, 01:19:07.440 --> 01:19:11.680 some way to identify the different facets of love. 01:19:11.680 --> 01:19:15.520 It's not because the term itself is the thing. 01:19:16.080 --> 01:19:17.840 The thing is a concept. 01:19:17.840 --> 01:19:19.200 The thing stands apart. 01:19:19.200 --> 01:19:22.240 The term is what we use to identify it. 01:19:22.240 --> 01:19:26.160 The world subverts those terms all the time, and so it is 01:19:26.160 --> 01:19:32.000 necessary to assess the actual thing, the acts themselves, the things that 01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:36.720 are being done, not just the words that are used. 01:19:36.720 --> 01:19:40.880 And this of course ties into the issue of works because all 01:19:40.880 --> 01:19:44.480 of this ties into the issue of works because this is living 01:19:44.480 --> 01:19:48.480 the Christian life, and so I want to read from James two. 01:19:48.480 --> 01:19:52.320 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith 01:19:52.400 --> 01:19:53.840 but does not have works? 01:19:53.840 --> 01:19:56.000 Can that faith save him? 01:19:56.000 --> 01:19:59.600 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily 01:19:59.600 --> 01:20:03.040 food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be 01:20:03.040 --> 01:20:07.120 warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, 01:20:07.120 --> 01:20:08.400 what good is that? 01:20:08.400 --> 01:20:12.320 So So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, 01:20:12.320 --> 01:20:13.360 is dead. 01:20:13.360 --> 01:20:17.280 But some one will say, You have faith, and I have works 01:20:17.520 --> 01:20:20.800 show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show 01:20:20.800 --> 01:20:24.560 you my faith by my works. 01:20:24.560 --> 01:20:29.520 This is one of those verses that is often abused, quite frankly, 01:20:29.520 --> 01:20:34.320 by many camps, but Rome in particular abuses this verse, but others 01:20:34.320 --> 01:20:38.560 as well do not get it entirely correct. 01:20:38.560 --> 01:20:42.960 A living faith will produce works. 01:20:42.960 --> 01:20:47.680 In many cases, those works are going to take the form of 01:20:47.680 --> 01:20:49.760 some kind of love. 01:20:49.760 --> 01:20:54.240 In this particular instance, the example used is charity. 01:20:54.240 --> 01:20:58.320 Because if you just say you love a brother or a sister 01:20:58.560 --> 01:21:02.320 who is freezing or starving, and you do nothing to help him 01:21:02.480 --> 01:21:04.880 or her when you can. 01:21:04.880 --> 01:21:06.560 That isn't love. 01:21:06.560 --> 01:21:09.120 The same thing is true of faith. 01:21:09.120 --> 01:21:13.360 If you say that you have faith, and it produces no works, 01:21:13.360 --> 01:21:16.880 it is a dead faith, it is not a living faith, because 01:21:16.880 --> 01:21:19.200 a living faith produces good works. 01:21:19.200 --> 01:21:22.640 That is why the example of a tree is so often used. 01:21:22.640 --> 01:21:28.560 A healthy living apple tree will produce apples. 01:21:28.560 --> 01:21:33.440 If it does not produce apples, something is wrong. 01:21:33.440 --> 01:21:36.400 There is something fundamentally wrong with a fruit tree that is not 01:21:36.400 --> 01:21:38.000 producing fruit. 01:21:38.000 --> 01:21:41.840 The same thing is true of faith, because if faith is alive, 01:21:41.840 --> 01:21:45.280 it will produce fruit. 01:21:45.280 --> 01:21:49.440 And many times that fruit is going to take the form of 01:21:49.760 --> 01:21:55.600 love. In this episode we are extensively discussing charity specifically, because that 01:21:55.600 --> 01:21:58.720 is going to be the form that that love takes in many 01:21:58.720 --> 01:22:02.080 cases. But it is also going to take the form of all 01:22:02.080 --> 01:22:04.560 of these other kinds of love. 01:22:04.560 --> 01:22:08.000 Because you are going to have that love for your children, for 01:22:08.000 --> 01:22:10.240 your spouse, for your parents. 01:22:10.240 --> 01:22:14.800 You are going to have that sacrificial love for others whom God 01:22:14.800 --> 01:22:18.560 has placed into your life, if you are actually a Christian, if 01:22:18.560 --> 01:22:19.520 you have a living faith. 01:22:20.560 --> 01:22:24.640 And as we've mentioned a number of times, even a pagan is 01:22:24.640 --> 01:22:28.960 going to have that kind of love with regard to family. 01:22:28.960 --> 01:22:32.640 So if you don't have that love for family, if you don't 01:22:32.560 --> 01:22:36.160 have that love for those who are placed closest to you, you 01:22:36.160 --> 01:22:40.320 are worse than a pagan, you are worse than an unbeliever. 01:22:40.320 --> 01:22:44.880 That is an abhorrent position in which to find a Christian, a 01:22:44.880 --> 01:22:46.800 supposed Christian. 01:22:46.800 --> 01:22:50.960 And yet we see that with many today, because there are many 01:22:50.960 --> 01:22:53.760 who do not aid their brothers, who do not aid their sisters, 01:22:53.760 --> 01:22:57.440 who don't aid their parents, who don't aid those in their community, 01:22:57.440 --> 01:23:00.720 those in their nation, who in fact despise all of those to 01:23:00.720 --> 01:23:04.400 whom they owe the highest duties, in pursuit of the good of 01:23:04.400 --> 01:23:08.880 the alien, and then call themselves more righteous than others. 01:23:09.440 --> 01:23:14.560 Quite frankly, even the Pharisee was probably not that wicked. 01:23:14.720 --> 01:23:17.360 As we wind up this episode and as we go through this 01:23:17.360 --> 01:23:23.920 three-parter, it's crucial to keep in mind that love is downstream from 01:23:23.920 --> 01:23:25.280 God's nature. 01:23:25.280 --> 01:23:28.560 We have all these good things from God. 01:23:28.560 --> 01:23:32.160 We have these good things, these facets of love in our hearts, 01:23:32.160 --> 01:23:36.640 in our societies, in our families, because God put them there for 01:23:36.640 --> 01:23:40.640 us. And so today, and in the next couple episodes, we're going 01:23:40.640 --> 01:23:43.600 to give a bunch of obligations, a bunch of duties, and say 01:23:43.600 --> 01:23:45.360 we should be doing this. 01:23:45.360 --> 01:23:49.360 And that's true and it's important, but it's also, I think the 01:23:49.920 --> 01:23:53.680 most important thing to remember where it's coming from, because these are 01:23:53.680 --> 01:23:54.800 God's gifts. 01:23:54.800 --> 01:23:59.360 When you have agape love for someone, when you seek the good 01:23:59.360 --> 01:24:03.520 of another, even at your own expense, that is God doing good 01:24:04.560 --> 01:24:07.280 through your love for neighbor. 01:24:07.280 --> 01:24:13.520 Whatever preference you're expressing by treating someone in a way that's self-sacrificial, 01:24:13.760 --> 01:24:16.800 that's God making the world a better place and using you to 01:24:16.800 --> 01:24:17.280 do it. 01:24:17.440 --> 01:24:21.760 And the thing is, when we act in these waves, we benefit. 01:24:21.760 --> 01:24:25.920 God benefits even those who are giving and perhaps even suffering in 01:24:25.920 --> 01:24:29.760 their giving through the acts of love that we do for others. 01:24:29.760 --> 01:24:31.520 The same is true with charity. 01:24:31.520 --> 01:24:34.960 One of the most rewarding things that many people who actually do 01:24:34.960 --> 01:24:39.360 real, real-world first-person charity, where they go and work in a soup 01:24:39.360 --> 01:24:42.560 kitchen once a week or something, they get as much out of 01:24:42.560 --> 01:24:46.320 it as the people that they talk to because actually interacting with 01:24:46.320 --> 01:24:49.760 the other human beings who are of your neighbors, who live in 01:24:49.760 --> 01:24:52.640 the community that you live in, who have needs that are not 01:24:52.640 --> 01:24:56.560 being met until your group shows up and can actually meet them, 01:24:56.560 --> 01:24:58.400 everyone is rewarded by that. 01:24:58.400 --> 01:25:01.200 God is pouring out his blessings to everyone. 01:25:01.200 --> 01:25:03.520 And so we're talking about these things in terms of duty and 01:25:03.520 --> 01:25:05.440 sin and wickedness, and that's part of it. 01:25:05.440 --> 01:25:06.000 But that is 01:25:06.960 --> 01:25:10.480 when we fail, when the world tells us, no, don't do that. 01:25:10.720 --> 01:25:13.360 do the opposite of what God wants. 01:25:13.360 --> 01:25:15.280 That is when the wickedness comes in. 01:25:15.280 --> 01:25:17.520 That's when the duty has to be hammered. 01:25:17.520 --> 01:25:21.520 But obeying God because he reveals it isn't about, oh, I gotta 01:25:21.520 --> 01:25:23.920 earn a higher place in heaven, or man, I gotta obey God, 01:25:23.920 --> 01:25:25.360 or I'm a bad person. 01:25:25.360 --> 01:25:26.720 This is a good thing. 01:25:26.720 --> 01:25:28.000 These are blessings. 01:25:28.000 --> 01:25:30.240 These are God's blessings to others. 01:25:30.240 --> 01:25:33.120 And as Corey said, you may well be the recipient of these 01:25:33.120 --> 01:25:35.200 things. That's the other part of it. 01:25:35.200 --> 01:25:38.800 You know, I've mentioned before, for years when I was a kid 01:25:38.960 --> 01:25:42.400 and my dad was in seminary, we ate a lot of donated 01:25:42.400 --> 01:25:44.160 food. That was charity. 01:25:44.160 --> 01:25:48.880 That was complete strangers feeding my dad's family because we didn't have 01:25:48.880 --> 01:25:49.680 the money. 01:25:49.680 --> 01:25:51.360 We really needed that. 01:25:51.440 --> 01:25:55.600 We had a roof over our head, like we were okay materially, 01:25:55.600 --> 01:25:59.120 but most of our calories came from charity. 01:25:59.120 --> 01:26:02.400 And I think that one of the things that I don't know 01:26:02.400 --> 01:26:06.240 what cultural background it has, but there are a lot of people 01:26:06.240 --> 01:26:08.880 that have this sense of pride about not receiving charity 01:26:10.240 --> 01:26:10.560 and 01:26:11.520 --> 01:26:14.480 there's a sense in which I think it's important to try to 01:26:14.480 --> 01:26:17.120 make your own way and to try to do things yourself. 01:26:17.120 --> 01:26:21.760 But at the same time to ever refuse charity when you need 01:26:21.760 --> 01:26:25.840 it, when it would actually benefit you, is not only depriving you 01:26:25.840 --> 01:26:29.200 of yours of something that you need, and in many cases, you 01:26:29.200 --> 01:26:32.800 know, the charity's there for the taking. 01:26:32.800 --> 01:26:36.480 You're also depriving those who wish to give the charity in obedience 01:26:36.480 --> 01:26:40.080 to God, who are being God's hands in the community you share. 01:26:40.320 --> 01:26:41.440 Like, oh, I can't take that. 01:26:41.440 --> 01:26:42.320 That'd be charity. 01:26:42.320 --> 01:26:42.640 Well 01:26:43.760 --> 01:26:45.440 at some point that's prideful. 01:26:45.440 --> 01:26:50.240 You can be dirt poor and completely broke and be a self-righteous 01:26:50.240 --> 01:26:51.280 prick about it. 01:26:51.280 --> 01:26:54.320 You can be evil and and be at the bottom of the 01:26:54.320 --> 01:26:55.600 totem pole. 01:26:55.600 --> 01:27:03.120 That sort of miserly attitude is ultimately harmful because you are harmed, 01:27:03.120 --> 01:27:06.800 you're depriving those who are trying to give the charity. 01:27:06.800 --> 01:27:09.680 Like it's just it's also unnatural. 01:27:09.680 --> 01:27:12.800 And I think that one of the benefits of giving to charity 01:27:12.800 --> 01:27:17.040 and being involved in charity is that you see the people on 01:27:17.040 --> 01:27:19.600 the other side and how much it benefits them. 01:27:19.600 --> 01:27:22.320 And it also is a reminder that that could one day be 01:27:22.320 --> 01:27:24.640 you. Or maybe in the past it was you. 01:27:24.640 --> 01:27:27.360 For a long time, I've recommended to friends to donate to the 01:27:27.360 --> 01:27:30.720 same food bank at the Fort Wayne Seminary, they used to feed 01:27:30.720 --> 01:27:32.880 me. Like if you don't know what else to give some money 01:27:32.880 --> 01:27:34.800 to, that's a good thing to give money to. 01:27:34.800 --> 01:27:38.400 Like I kept me in frozen fish sticks for years. 01:27:38.400 --> 01:27:42.640 I never want to eat them again, but I didn't starve. 01:27:43.360 --> 01:27:48.480 When we give or we receive, it's God working in both directions 01:27:48.560 --> 01:27:50.160 and everyone benefits. 01:27:50.160 --> 01:27:52.800 And so we we don't want to make this all about law 01:27:52.880 --> 01:27:56.160 and all about we gotta do and we gotta obey. 01:27:56.160 --> 01:28:01.040 The duty from God simply comes down to here's how it works. 01:28:01.040 --> 01:28:04.320 Let's just get out of the way and do it. 01:28:04.320 --> 01:28:08.080 And knowing and thinking about these things makes that a whole lot 01:28:08.080 --> 01:28:10.720 easier. You know, one of the things that's common 01:28:11.920 --> 01:28:16.560 in people who work in the actual legitimate charity field is that 01:28:16.560 --> 01:28:20.400 typically a lot of the people who work and who donate are 01:28:20.400 --> 01:28:22.880 those who are the closest to the edge. 01:28:22.880 --> 01:28:25.920 It tends not to be the very wealthiest who give to that 01:28:25.920 --> 01:28:28.320 sort of thing or certainly the work in it, although it does 01:28:28.320 --> 01:28:33.760 happen. Frequently the the folks who participate are one rung up the 01:28:33.760 --> 01:28:37.760 ladder. They may well be in that line for food the next 01:28:37.760 --> 01:28:39.040 year. And they know it. 01:28:39.040 --> 01:28:41.040 They're close enough to see over the edge. 01:28:41.040 --> 01:28:45.360 And so while they have more than they need, they're very happy 01:28:45.360 --> 01:28:48.800 and very grateful to be able to give to those who have 01:28:48.800 --> 01:28:52.160 not enough and actually need to receive that charity. 01:28:52.160 --> 01:28:56.080 So all of these facets of love, we'll get into more examples 01:28:56.080 --> 01:28:57.120 next week. 01:28:57.120 --> 01:29:01.440 It's God pouring out his gifts for us through each other. 01:29:01.440 --> 01:29:02.720 And that's a good thing. 01:29:02.720 --> 01:29:06.160 It's yes, it's an obligation, it's a Christian obligation, it's a Christian 01:29:06.160 --> 01:29:08.320 duty, but it's also a blessing. 01:29:08.320 --> 01:29:11.600 We'd we don't want any of this to ultimately be about condemnation 01:29:11.600 --> 01:29:15.280 and leave people feeling beaten up and like, oh man, I gotta 01:29:15.280 --> 01:29:16.640 do a whole bunch of stuff. 01:29:16.640 --> 01:29:20.240 Think of all the great ways that we can help our neighbor. 01:29:20.240 --> 01:29:21.280 That's a good thing. 01:29:21.280 --> 01:29:24.160 That's something to actually be happy about and excited about. 01:29:24.160 --> 01:29:27.520 With all the terrible things going on in the world, what better 01:29:27.520 --> 01:29:31.440 time to help your actual neighbor to show up and they say, 01:29:31.440 --> 01:29:32.000 why are you here? 01:29:32.080 --> 01:29:33.440 And you say, I'm a Christian. 01:29:33.440 --> 01:29:34.720 I have a duty from God. 01:29:34.720 --> 01:29:35.520 You're my neighbor. 01:29:35.520 --> 01:29:36.160 I don't know you. 01:29:36.320 --> 01:29:37.440 I want to get to know you. 01:29:37.440 --> 01:29:38.560 I want to help you. 01:29:38.560 --> 01:29:39.920 Let's sit down and have a meal. 01:29:39.920 --> 01:29:44.800 Like what whatever the context is, when we do what God wants 01:29:44.800 --> 01:29:47.440 us to do, everybody wins. 01:29:47.440 --> 01:29:52.400 Like it's it it's actually a good thing without downsides. 01:29:52.400 --> 01:29:58.320 And that gets completely lost when it's turned into this machine that 01:29:58.320 --> 01:30:03.120 is then just disgorging checks thousands of miles away. 01:30:03.120 --> 01:30:07.120 It's unnatural, it's inhuman, it's not properly ordered. 01:30:07.120 --> 01:30:12.080 Even when, you know, the stuff is actually doing some good, it's 01:30:12.080 --> 01:30:16.320 still at the expense of something that's more immediate. 01:30:16.320 --> 01:30:18.320 And you were also deprived of the benefit. 01:30:18.320 --> 01:30:21.680 You know, it's I've often said that it's one thing to write 01:30:21.680 --> 01:30:23.840 a check, which I used to be good at. 01:30:23.840 --> 01:30:25.920 I used to, you know, like I would donate, but I would 01:30:26.000 --> 01:30:27.840 I would just I'd write a check and that was the end 01:30:27.840 --> 01:30:28.080 of it. 01:30:28.080 --> 01:30:30.320 I didn't want to get my hands dirty, didn't want to do 01:30:30.320 --> 01:30:30.880 the work. 01:30:30.880 --> 01:30:33.200 That's kind of a scumbag way to do it. 01:30:33.200 --> 01:30:35.920 Because well, as Corey said, on one hand, maybe it took work 01:30:35.920 --> 01:30:38.320 to earn the money, and it does do good. 01:30:38.320 --> 01:30:42.320 You know, just having dollars transferred for one bank account to another 01:30:42.480 --> 01:30:44.400 absolutely makes a difference. 01:30:44.400 --> 01:30:47.600 You know, someone who was giving from their surplus to the food 01:30:47.600 --> 01:30:50.240 bank, they bought a lot of food for my family to be 01:30:50.240 --> 01:30:50.880 able to eat. 01:30:51.120 --> 01:30:52.400 It was cheap food, it was fine. 01:30:52.400 --> 01:30:53.360 It kept us fed. 01:30:53.360 --> 01:30:55.680 I'm not complaining, but any stretch. 01:30:55.680 --> 01:30:59.760 Dollars can go a long way in someone's more meager context. 01:30:59.920 --> 01:31:01.520 That's a blessing. 01:31:01.520 --> 01:31:06.960 But at the same time, when the charity is limited to writing 01:31:06.960 --> 01:31:10.480 checks and to making it completely it completely external and not seeing 01:31:10.480 --> 01:31:14.560 face to face and not getting your hands dirty, you're being deprived 01:31:14.560 --> 01:31:16.800 of actually seeing the benefit. 01:31:16.800 --> 01:31:20.880 And it's the universal sentiment from any anyone who's been involved in 01:31:20.880 --> 01:31:24.960 actually doing that stuff of how of how rewarding it is to 01:31:24.960 --> 01:31:28.160 meet the people and to see the the recipients of that charity, 01:31:28.240 --> 01:31:31.120 see the objects of the love that God has put in our 01:31:31.120 --> 01:31:33.920 hearts to help a neighbor that we didn't even know we had. 01:31:33.920 --> 01:31:36.720 And then you go and you meet them in some charitable situation 01:31:37.360 --> 01:31:39.760 and it's good for everyone. 01:31:39.760 --> 01:31:41.440 You actually feel good about it. 01:31:41.440 --> 01:31:42.160 And that's okay. 01:31:42.160 --> 01:31:44.160 It like that's that's part of it. 01:31:44.160 --> 01:31:47.680 You know, there God gives us good feelings around all of these 01:31:47.680 --> 01:31:50.720 things. You know, people say that Corey and I are just filled 01:31:50.720 --> 01:31:52.800 with hate and you know it's they're gonna be making fun of 01:31:52.800 --> 01:31:55.760 the fact that we're doing a series on love, as though that 01:31:55.760 --> 01:31:58.480 were just completely ironic and insane. 01:31:58.720 --> 01:32:00.160 These are God's things. 01:32:00.160 --> 01:32:03.280 Anyone who has the Holy Spirit is going to have an outpouring 01:32:03.280 --> 01:32:07.360 of God's things, and it's going to be informed by what God 01:32:07.360 --> 01:32:09.600 reveals in scripture about how it works. 01:32:09.600 --> 01:32:12.720 It's how it actually works, whether you're a Christian and you don't 01:32:12.640 --> 01:32:15.920 know, or you're a Christian and you do know, it's gonna work 01:32:15.920 --> 01:32:16.800 the same way. 01:32:16.800 --> 01:32:19.920 But we as Christians have no excuse because God reveals all this 01:32:19.920 --> 01:32:22.880 stuff to us in scripture and then says, hey, go do it. 01:32:22.880 --> 01:32:23.680 Here's how it works. 01:32:23.680 --> 01:32:24.720 It's from me. 01:32:24.720 --> 01:32:25.360 Have fun. 01:32:25.360 --> 01:32:27.280 You're gonna love it. 01:32:27.280 --> 01:32:28.400 That should be the end of it. 01:32:28.400 --> 01:32:32.000 Like that should be a really simple task for anyone. 01:32:32.000 --> 01:32:35.120 It shouldn't even be a task of like, okay, I'm I'm happy 01:32:35.120 --> 01:32:36.080 about this. 01:32:36.080 --> 01:32:39.520 And one of the challenges of charity sometimes is that 01:32:40.640 --> 01:32:44.320 because there are certain programs set up like you know, Christmas programs 01:32:44.400 --> 01:32:47.760 where you know donations for you know poor kids or whatever, that's 01:32:47.760 --> 01:32:48.640 all great. 01:32:48.640 --> 01:32:51.440 But the people who are in need are in need year-round. 01:32:51.680 --> 01:32:57.120 If somebody needs Thanksgiving meal donated, they probably need meals other times 01:32:57.120 --> 01:33:01.440 too. And so if your mind and your heart and your pocketbook 01:33:01.440 --> 01:33:05.840 and your time is oriented around giving in that direction, remember those 01:33:05.840 --> 01:33:07.040 people you're around. 01:33:07.040 --> 01:33:10.080 Remember the people who are in need when no one's thinking about 01:33:10.080 --> 01:33:14.400 'em. Because a belly doesn't just get hungry and Thanksgiving and Christmas. 01:33:14.400 --> 01:33:16.800 You can be hungry any time of the year. 01:33:16.800 --> 01:33:19.440 Especially when times get tough economically. 01:33:19.440 --> 01:33:23.520 Sometimes those places fall off a lot in their donations. 01:33:23.520 --> 01:33:28.240 So pay attention to the world, see who's suffering, and see how 01:33:28.240 --> 01:33:31.120 you can be God's love in the world. 01:33:31.600 --> 01:33:33.680 As I say these things, I fail many of these tests. 01:33:34.000 --> 01:33:35.600 I'm like I'm nailing it all. 01:33:35.600 --> 01:33:38.000 I'm thinking about all the ways that I should do a much 01:33:38.000 --> 01:33:39.280 better job than I am. 01:33:39.280 --> 01:33:42.320 I've done some of these things and better or worse, we'll have 01:33:42.320 --> 01:33:44.000 our strengths and weaknesses. 01:33:44.000 --> 01:33:46.480 I don't mean to be a hypocrite by saying something I'm not 01:33:46.480 --> 01:33:49.520 doing a good job at, but that's the nature of these things. 01:33:49.520 --> 01:33:51.600 Sometimes you just say, you know what, here's what it says. 01:33:51.600 --> 01:33:54.000 We need to do a better job and you know, if you're 01:33:54.000 --> 01:33:56.400 the one saying it, you reflect and say, Wow, yeah, I I 01:33:56.400 --> 01:33:58.240 really do. 01:33:58.560 --> 01:34:03.680 The fact that these conversations are often missing, even from Christian discourse, 01:34:03.680 --> 01:34:05.280 is a big problem. 01:34:05.280 --> 01:34:09.840 You know, the Roman Catholic Church has long preserved preserved almsgiving, which 01:34:09.840 --> 01:34:12.480 is stray from scripture, it's a good thing. 01:34:12.480 --> 01:34:16.800 The problem is that they turned it into a ritual that has 01:34:16.800 --> 01:34:21.520 something to do with the satisfaction of sins, which is Protestant Christians, 01:34:21.440 --> 01:34:23.760 we understand, is completely excluded. 01:34:23.760 --> 01:34:26.800 You're not satisfying your sins by helping your neighbor. 01:34:26.800 --> 01:34:29.760 You're helping your neighbor because God satisfied your sins. 01:34:29.760 --> 01:34:32.240 The outcome, the actions are the same. 01:34:32.240 --> 01:34:35.200 You're just not confused about the causal relationship. 01:34:35.200 --> 01:34:36.960 And so all this should be a blessing. 01:34:36.960 --> 01:34:38.720 All these things should be a joy. 01:34:38.720 --> 01:34:42.880 Even if you find that you're falling short in some area, be 01:34:42.880 --> 01:34:45.840 thankful that you're like, oh, I I guess I needed that kick 01:34:45.840 --> 01:34:46.800 in the butt. 01:34:46.800 --> 01:34:48.880 I did a poll on on X a few weeks ago asking 01:34:48.960 --> 01:34:52.640 what people's favorite uh episodes were. 01:34:52.640 --> 01:34:55.760 And a number of people made comments that the ones that meant 01:34:55.760 --> 01:34:58.480 the most to them were the ones that kicked them in the 01:34:58.480 --> 01:35:02.640 butt the hardest, the ones that really gave them a wake-up call. 01:35:02.640 --> 01:35:06.240 Because it's one thing when you just you're entertained and you're learning 01:35:06.240 --> 01:35:07.120 something new. 01:35:07.120 --> 01:35:10.080 It's another thing when you realize that you've been completely missing a 01:35:10.080 --> 01:35:14.240 part of the Christian life that has been depriving you and depriving 01:35:14.240 --> 01:35:15.600 your neighbor and your family. 01:35:15.600 --> 01:35:18.800 And when you're missing out on God's things, then you realize, hey, 01:35:18.800 --> 01:35:21.440 there's a whole bunch more here going on that I just wasn't 01:35:21.360 --> 01:35:22.640 even thinking about. 01:35:22.640 --> 01:35:23.440 It hurts. 01:35:23.440 --> 01:35:25.200 You're like, wow, I was sinful. 01:35:25.200 --> 01:35:26.080 I was, I was meager. 01:35:26.080 --> 01:35:28.320 I wasn't doing the thing. 01:35:28.320 --> 01:35:33.600 But that condemnation is immediately, as Christians, we recognize it's satisfied by 01:35:33.600 --> 01:35:35.840 God forgiving all of our sins. 01:35:35.840 --> 01:35:38.400 You're forgiven for the sin of not having done the thing that 01:35:38.400 --> 01:35:39.120 you should have been doing. 01:35:39.760 --> 01:35:42.240 And then once you realize you should have been doing it, not 01:35:42.240 --> 01:35:45.280 only do you know that you're forgiven, but you should go do 01:35:45.280 --> 01:35:49.040 it. Not because of God's wrath, but because of God's love. 01:35:49.040 --> 01:35:51.920 For us to be God's love in the world is a blessing. 01:35:51.920 --> 01:35:53.280 It's a command, it's a blessing. 01:35:53.520 --> 01:35:54.320 That's the gospel. 01:35:54.320 --> 01:35:56.080 It's all these things at once. 01:35:56.080 --> 01:35:59.280 It's really simple when you stop worrying about how can I save 01:35:59.280 --> 01:36:04.240 myself and just say, okay, God is God, what's next? 01:36:04.560 --> 01:36:08.560 There is a particular saying that comes to mind that has really 01:36:08.560 --> 01:36:14.080 fallen out of use in English, along with many other excellent Christian 01:36:14.080 --> 01:36:17.680 sayings, but this one in particular relates to the content of this 01:36:17.680 --> 01:36:23.360 episode. There but for the grace of God go I. 01:36:23.360 --> 01:36:27.440 I want you not necessarily to bring that back into your vocabulary, 01:36:27.440 --> 01:36:32.720 but to bring that back into your mindset with regard to charity. 01:36:32.720 --> 01:36:35.360 Recognize two things. 01:36:35.360 --> 01:36:41.600 One, everything you have is a gift, is a blessing from God, 01:36:41.600 --> 01:36:44.400 and none of it is guaranteed. 01:36:44.400 --> 01:36:49.440 You may wake up tomorrow, poor, you may wake up tomorrow, wealthy. 01:36:49.440 --> 01:36:52.320 That is in God's hands. 01:36:52.320 --> 01:36:56.640 And the second point is that we should not shame the poor. 01:36:56.640 --> 01:36:57.920 God loves the poor. 01:36:57.920 --> 01:37:01.280 God cares for them, He has concern for them, and that is 01:37:01.280 --> 01:37:04.720 why He provides for them, using the means of those who have 01:37:04.720 --> 01:37:06.800 been given wealth and resources. 01:37:06.800 --> 01:37:11.200 Charity is the means God uses to provide for the poor. 01:37:12.560 --> 01:37:17.040 But in addition to that, to emphasize and to add one additional 01:37:17.040 --> 01:37:18.800 aspect to what Wo said 01:37:19.680 --> 01:37:23.920 about the poor and how we interact with that concept and charity 01:37:23.920 --> 01:37:25.520 in our culture. 01:37:25.920 --> 01:37:30.960 When you refuse charity if you need it, what you are doing 01:37:30.960 --> 01:37:35.760 is setting the precedent that taking charity is shameful, that it is 01:37:35.760 --> 01:37:38.160 something that men should not do. 01:37:38.160 --> 01:37:42.320 And that is the exactly wrong mindset. 01:37:42.320 --> 01:37:45.520 Yes, if a man is able he should work and provide for 01:37:45.520 --> 01:37:50.720 himself, because again, Scripture is very clear that man is to work. 01:37:50.720 --> 01:37:55.360 However, those who need charity should not feel ashamed when they need 01:37:55.360 --> 01:37:57.200 to take it. 01:37:57.200 --> 01:38:01.200 Because it is a Christian duty to give that charity, and in 01:38:01.200 --> 01:38:04.240 some cases it may very well be a duty to take that 01:38:04.240 --> 01:38:07.040 charity. If you are the head of a household and you need 01:38:07.040 --> 01:38:10.080 that charity to care for your wife and children, then it is 01:38:10.080 --> 01:38:13.200 your duty to take it, and you should not feel ashamed that 01:38:13.200 --> 01:38:14.640 you need to do so. 01:38:14.640 --> 01:38:15.440 God has provided 01:38:16.480 --> 01:38:20.160 that for you, whether He provides the means to care for your 01:38:20.160 --> 01:38:25.760 wife and children, via your job, via an inheritance, or via charity, 01:38:25.760 --> 01:38:27.600 all of it comes from God. 01:38:27.600 --> 01:38:30.640 We need to get rid of this sense of shame with regard 01:38:30.640 --> 01:38:33.040 to those who take charity. 01:38:33.040 --> 01:38:36.320 And so when you refuse it, when you say no my pride 01:38:36.320 --> 01:38:40.800 wouldn't permit me, what you're doing is creating that sense of shame 01:38:40.800 --> 01:38:44.720 in the next man who needs that charity. 01:38:44.720 --> 01:38:48.800 So get rid of that, jettison that from your thinking. 01:38:48.800 --> 01:38:54.160 Another matter that Woe raised that this is actually an action item, 01:38:54.160 --> 01:38:58.800 as it were, something about which to think, and something that should 01:38:58.800 --> 01:39:02.960 cause some changes for most people. 01:39:02.960 --> 01:39:07.840 Do not set duty and blessing against each other They are not 01:39:07.840 --> 01:39:10.400 mutually exclusive concepts. 01:39:10.400 --> 01:39:12.880 It's not, oh, I have a duty to do this, and so 01:39:12.880 --> 01:39:15.120 it's a burden, and so I have to do this. 01:39:15.120 --> 01:39:17.040 There are cases where that's true. 01:39:17.040 --> 01:39:19.680 If your nation is attacked as a man, it is your duty 01:39:19.680 --> 01:39:22.720 to take up arms and repulse that attack. 01:39:22.720 --> 01:39:25.120 And so that is certainly a burden. 01:39:25.120 --> 01:39:29.120 You should also consider it a blessing in a certain sense because 01:39:29.120 --> 01:39:32.560 you get the opportunity to defend that which matters to you most, 01:39:32.560 --> 01:39:34.320 that which is most important. 01:39:34.320 --> 01:39:39.200 But there are also duties where it is simply a blessing. 01:39:39.200 --> 01:39:41.760 As a father, you have a duty to spend time with your 01:39:41.760 --> 01:39:44.320 children. Do you consider that burdensome? 01:39:44.320 --> 01:39:45.920 You shouldn't, that's a blessing. 01:39:45.920 --> 01:39:48.080 You have a duty to spend time with your wife. 01:39:48.080 --> 01:39:50.000 That is also a blessing. 01:39:50.000 --> 01:39:54.800 In the Christian life, you have a duty to read Scripture. 01:39:54.800 --> 01:39:57.520 But don't think of that as a burden, that's a blessing. 01:39:57.520 --> 01:39:58.880 God is speaking to you. 01:39:58.880 --> 01:40:04.400 He is giving you His Word That is an inestimable blessing, that 01:40:04.400 --> 01:40:06.800 is an enormous blessing from God. 01:40:06.800 --> 01:40:08.560 It is also a duty. 01:40:08.560 --> 01:40:11.680 It is a duty to spend time in prayer, but it is 01:40:11.680 --> 01:40:15.520 also an enormous blessing because not only do we get to speak 01:40:15.520 --> 01:40:19.360 to God, but He tells us that He listens, and that He 01:40:19.360 --> 01:40:21.120 will respond. 01:40:21.120 --> 01:40:24.720 Even if sometimes the response may be no or wait. 01:40:24.720 --> 01:40:27.680 We get to speak to God, and He responds. 01:40:27.680 --> 01:40:31.840 So don't think that duty and blessing are divorced and totally separate 01:40:31.840 --> 01:40:36.800 things. More often than not, they are intimately connected. 01:40:36.800 --> 01:40:40.080 They are, in fact, one and the same in many cases. 01:40:40.080 --> 01:40:44.320 The duty and the blessing are the same thing. 01:40:44.320 --> 01:40:48.960 But we'll close out this episode with another reading from scripture, this 01:40:48.960 --> 01:40:53.600 one very clearly related to charity. 01:40:53.600 --> 01:40:56.320 When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the 01:40:56.320 --> 01:41:00.080 angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 01:41:00.080 --> 01:41:03.200 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate 01:41:03.920 --> 01:41:07.760 people, one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the 01:41:07.760 --> 01:41:11.280 goats, and he will place the sheep on his right, but the 01:41:11.280 --> 01:41:12.800 goats on the left. 01:41:12.800 --> 01:41:16.240 Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you 01:41:16.240 --> 01:41:20.000 who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 01:41:20.000 --> 01:41:21.920 from the foundation of the world. 01:41:21.920 --> 01:41:25.280 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty 01:41:25.440 --> 01:41:28.800 and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed 01:41:28.800 --> 01:41:32.480 me. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick, and 01:41:32.480 --> 01:41:36.320 you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me. 01:41:36.320 --> 01:41:40.400 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see 01:41:40.400 --> 01:41:43.680 you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 01:41:43.920 --> 01:41:46.800 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or 01:41:46.800 --> 01:41:48.480 naked and clothe you? 01:41:48.480 --> 01:41:51.280 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit 01:41:51.280 --> 01:41:55.040 you? And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, 01:41:55.040 --> 01:41:57.360 as you did it to one of the least of these my 01:41:57.360 --> 01:42:00.640 brothers, you did it to me. 01:42:00.640 --> 01:42:03.840 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me 01:42:04.000 --> 01:42:07.520 you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his 01:42:07.520 --> 01:42:11.360 angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I 01:42:11.360 --> 01:42:14.720 was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger 01:42:14.800 --> 01:42:18.240 and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe 01:42:18.240 --> 01:42:21.680 me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. 01:42:21.680 --> 01:42:25.760 Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you 01:42:25.760 --> 01:42:29.120 hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in 01:42:29.120 --> 01:42:31.440 prison, and did not minister to you? 01:42:31.600 --> 01:42:35.360 Then he will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as 01:42:35.360 --> 01:42:38.400 you did not do it to one of the least of these, 01:42:38.400 --> 01:42:40.480 you did not do it to me. 01:42:40.480 --> 01:42:44.720 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into 01:42:44.720 --> 01:42:46.160 eternal life