Dive deep into a variety of listener questions that cover expansive topics, from the sometimes harsh-seeming Old Testament laws to the ultimate expression of love through forgiveness. Discover why spiritual discernment is key in the Christian journey and how, through the Holy Spirit, believers can transform their experiences of suffering into testaments of faith. Be prepared to see familiar Bible passages in a new light, including the story of Jesus healing the blind man, and explore what it means to live out a faith that sees Jesus as King even in modern governance.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and once again we’re live for an hour. This is the case every weekday afternoon, generally speaking, with rare exceptions. And the reason we have a live program is so that you can call in with a question if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian faith. Anything related to the Christian faith or the Bible, we’ll be glad to talk to you about even if you’re not a Christian and not a believer, and maybe you want to bring up challenges to Christian beliefs or to the Bible, feel free to give me a call. The number is 844-484-5737. One more time, that’s 844-484-5737. All right, our first caller today is Dean calling from St. Augustine, Florida. Welcome to the Narrow Path, Dean.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey, Steve, thanks for taking my call. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey, I was wondering about gluttony. I haven’t really heard many people talk about it. I know the Bible mentions it, like in Proverbs and then Deuteronomy 21, the rebellious sons, the glutton and the drunkard. But how would you describe gluttony? Can you explain from your perspective what it is exactly? Is it overeating or is it being obese or something?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, the only problem with that is that when it comes to overeating or being obese, that’s a sliding scale. We actually, you know, there’s no point at which, you know, you’re not obese and then you gain one more pound and now you are obese or, you know, where you’re eating a certain amount of calories of the wrong sort one day and the next day you’ve crossed that line. There’s not a clear line like that. I think the whole idea of gluttony is that it is just a surrender to the carnal desires of your flesh to the point where you’re not stewarding food and your health well. It’s also possible that in biblical times, somebody eating way too much was considered to be heartless toward the poor because in general… there were not in those days middle-class people. They were just very rich people who were well-fed. And poor people, like in the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 17, it is said of the rich man that he fared sumptuously every day, but the beggar at his gate was just begging for breadcrumbs. And so a person might be seen as, in a sense, taking more than his share at the expense of others. and not just a matter of compromising one’s own health or overindulging one’s own desires. In principle, it may be that they’re saying that if there’s enough food for three people there and you eat all of it, that means that you could have eaten enough for you and given enough for two other people who are in need. Remember when Paul is angry at the Corinthian church because at communion, which was in those days held at a meal, some of the people were taking more than their share. Excuse me. He didn’t say they were gluttonous per se, but he said they were taking more than their share so that some people were going away hungry, which obviously is that same concern I was mentioning. Now, therefore, gluttony might not be regarded as having reached a certain weight or having consumed a particular number of calories or even eating – a particular percentage of unhealthy food. Now, all of those considerations would be perhaps concerns to the Christian on the basis of being a bad stewardship of one’s own health, because your body is the Lord’s and you present your body living sacrifice to him. If you do things that would shorten your life or compromise your health, you are messing with what is not your own. You’ve been bought with a price and you should be taking better care of it. So That may or may not have anything to do with the concerns about gluttony because stewardship of the health was not quite the same issue back then that it is now. Most people worked so hard just to stay alive that they didn’t get very fat unless they were just wealthy people who didn’t have to work at all and just ate all day. But I think gluttony is perhaps making food more important to you than it should be, maybe making food more important to you than other people should be to you, so that you’re taking more than your share while others are not having enough. Now, I’m not saying that if you look at the meals you eat and you realize that actually you could take half of that and send it over to some starving country and help the poor that way. that you should feel guilty about that. The truth is we aren’t in the position very often to share food with people who are really, really poor because most people who are really, really poor are in other countries. We might send money to missionaries or to agencies that buy rice and so forth for them, but for the most part, the people in this country who are poor have other resources available to them, and many of them are poor because they won’t work and things like that. So, I mean, it’s a little more complicated. I’ve never felt that I had to worry too much about the idea of gluttony because, you know, in my mind, food is in its proper place with me. I don’t eat much, and I don’t think I’m overweight. But the thing is that in a really indulgent society – where people are just enjoying more than their share. Well, I shouldn’t say more than their share, but more than most people have. And when there’s a lot of people in need, this would be possibly the worst part of gluttony. The other part that I mentioned earlier, being a bad steward of your health, would be another issue. And I don’t know if that’s the issue with gluttony or not, but we can see that there are certain eating habits that would be compromising to your health. So I just think, you know, Paul said – In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. So, you know, most of the things we do, unless we think otherwise not to do so, we do it simply because we want to. But we have to realize that some things we are doing that we may want to do may not even be things that God forbids, but that they are not glorifying God in ways that other behaviors could be. Actually, the context… where Paul talked about whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God, which is 1 Corinthians 10, 31, is in the context of people who have a liberty before God to eat that’s been sacrificed to idols and others who don’t. And basically, Paul says, well, you do have that freedom, but what if it stumbles somebody else? And therefore, he’s actually advocating freedom. at least in some circumstances, not indulging in all the things you have the liberty to indulge in, not because it’s forbidden to eat it, but because it doesn’t glorify God. It stumbles somebody else. So our whole life should be oriented toward the glory of God. And Paul says that comes down to the things we eat and drink. I would say the amount we sleep, the way we entertain ourselves, the way we spend our money, the way we You know, spend our free time. These are all things that belong to God because we’re not our own. We’re bought with a price, the Bible says. So we should always be thinking, you know, how does my behavior, even my eating, glorify God or not? And if it doesn’t, is there something I should do differently that might? So, you know, gluttony is never really explained in the Bible. So those are the kinds of issues that I think may lie behind concerns over it. There may be more to it than I know. All right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hello? Yeah, sorry. Can you still hear me? Uh-huh. Oh, sorry. I just… Great explanation. I thank you for your commentary. It just seems like when I read Deuteronomy 21 that, you know, it was a death sentence for the son because he was a glutton and a drunkard. Maybe there’s more to it. There probably was, but it’s interesting they noted those two things.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, the death sentence for him was that he was not submitting to his parents. He’s living a self-indulgent life that his parents did not agree with, and he was out of their control. So the law required people to honor their parents, and especially kids at home. And that particular law describes, it seems, a young man still living at home, not yet free from his parents, and therefore very much obligated to live as they choose while he’s in their home. And he’s not doing it. There’s similar laws in Exodus about, you know, if a son curses his father or mother, he’ll be put to death. Or if a son strikes his father or mother, he’ll be put to death. Now, that’s not talking about necessarily striking the parents hoping to kill them, but just showing no respect to the parents. And the reason for this is And it might seem rather severe, but a child can be controlled by his parents while he’s smaller than they are. But once he’s grown up and still in the home, often the parents can’t make him do anything, in which case the community is supposed to be standing by the parents in this. Now, in a Middle Eastern culture, normally the shame-based nature is, of one doing things that are unacceptable, like disrespecting his parents, would prevent most people from violating that. But there’s always those cases where people will not be motivated by shame and honor, and they will be instead rebellious and ungovernable. And if they’re old enough that the parents can’t physically restrain them, then the community is supposed to come up and actually stone the child. Now, Some might say, well, that’s a little excessive, isn’t it? Well, if God thinks it isn’t, I’m not sure that it is excessive. But the truth is, I believe laws like that. And there are a number of laws in the Bible that, you know, if you do that, you’ll be stoned to death. I don’t think God ever intended, for the most part, for a lot of people to be stoned. I think he intended to restrain people from doing things because of the threat of being stoned. You know, if I lived in a society where if I cursed my father or my mother, I knew that the whole community would throw me on the street and throw stones at me until I was crushed to death. I don’t think I would curse my father or my mother. If I did, under those circumstances, I must be extremely evil and stupid. And, you know, putting me out of my misery would be the community doing me a favor. I win the Darwin Awards for that stupidity. But, I mean, literally, it’s like stepping out in front of a truck. If it’s a fast-moving truck, it’ll kill you. Okay, so the knowledge that that is true prevents almost everybody, except perhaps an idiot, from stepping out deliberately in front of an oncoming truck. You know, in other words, the fact that death is the result of it prevents people from doing it. And I think that that’s what most of these laws are about. Now, once in a while, God made an example of somebody by actually having that law carried out, like the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath and a few other cases. But that was simply to make it clear that this law is not unserious. It’s a serious law. But once you live in a society where it’s very clear this is the penalty for doing this kind of thing, If it is something the community is serious about obeying, that law, then you’re going to have a civil society. You’re going to have respectful kids and so forth. And so the glutton thing, you know, basically that law says that if a son is ungovernable by his parents, and it’s clearly talking about an adult son because he’s a drunkard and glutton, and they can’t control him. They are supposed to come out and tell the community, our son is ungovernable, he’s a drunkard and a glutton, and, you know, so, I mean, the community is supposed to take care of that, just like they would any other incorrigible behavior. Anyway, laws are intended, and penalties of laws are intended to deter people And if a society actually carries out swift response and penalties for crimes, it does deter. Some people say, well, you know, having capital punishment in a state doesn’t prevent people from killing people if they’re not afraid of it. Well, partly they’re not afraid of it because they know that there’s not very many states in this country that would actually carry it out, even if it’s on the books. Many states have capital punishment on the books, but But murderers are sitting on death row for 30 years until they die of old age because it’s not carried out. And it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, I think it’s verse 12, might be 11. It says, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. In other words, because there’s not really quick punishments, and societies that have punishments on the books often don’t take them seriously, well, the criminals don’t take them seriously either. Why should they? But God intended for Israel to take these laws seriously, and it would have, if they always did it, it would have had a very civil society and a very respectful one. Anyway, I hope that helps.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, sir. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, Dean. Thanks for your call. All right, let’s talk next to Paul from Buena Vista, Colorado. Hi, Paul.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, Steve. My question today is our nation. Of course, we’re coming up on our 250th, July 4th, and so I’ve been doing a lot of contemplating and thinking about it and looking into some things. One of them is called tactical civics. First question is, have you ever heard of that specific term, tactical civics?
SPEAKER 01 :
I don’t think so. No, I don’t think so.
SPEAKER 05 :
No. Okay. I just was curious if maybe you knew about it. So in my introduction to this, I was addressed by the people that were involved in it to, you know, if you’re going to join, number one, you need to be a born-again Christian, and you need to, you know, acclaim Jesus as your king. And I remember the first book I read was King Jesus. And then the opening paragraph on that book described one of the founders. I haven’t got it in front of me right now, but the names were… And that doesn’t matter because we all know the story of back in New England or in… Yeah, what I’m going to ask you to do, Paul, is let me know what you’re talking about because we’ve got a lot of people waiting.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, yeah. So my question is,
SPEAKER 05 :
is there’s only one king, King Jesus.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And if we continue, as you just described in Ecclesiastes, you described our nation to the T. We’re not doing anything speedily to keep our laws intact. And I think that basically we’re in a leadership crisis. And so is it not right for Christians that believe Jesus is their king to implement that into their lives, of course, and walk that out then in governing the nation and seeing to it that we are involved in the original founders’ setup for the nation so that it can be brought back to its roots. And that’s kind of a bad question for you because you’ve never looked into it at all.
SPEAKER 01 :
I don’t even know what you’re suggesting. You’re saying is it our obligation to do that? I’m not sure what doing that means.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, following through with the The law, the following of the laws.
SPEAKER 01 :
Are you talking about vigilante justice?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, absolutely not. This is specifically Christian-based. It’s Christ-centered. It’s not passive. It’s kind of aggressive, but yet it’s more of the thing that if we don’t have godly leadership in our elected offices, first of all, then the nation’s going to not be led down a godly road.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, well let me jump in here because this is taking a long time and I’m not really sure that I have a much specific response, except that should this nation follow the Constitution? Yes. That’s the supreme law of the land. Now there are countries that don’t have a Constitution like ours, and so they’re not obligated to follow it. Ours is founded on the Constitution, and it is universally agreed that it’s the supreme law of the land, so I do believe that the principles of the Constitution should be followed. Now, does it mean that we should, as Christians, try to make sure that all people acknowledge Jesus as king with the force of law? Let us say, should we legislate that people should acknowledge Christ as king? No, no, that would be contrary to the Constitution. Now, as Christians, we are obligated to appeal to the consciences of everybody and tell them that Jesus is the king and that they need to obey him. And that’s what God commands all people to do is obey him. But to give that message, which is our commission, and to disciple people who respond to it, Is one thing. It’d be another thing to say, OK, we need to seize governmental power and make sure everyone does obey Jesus. Now, I don’t think you’re. suggesting that, but I don’t know what it is specifically you’re suggesting. Should we enforce the laws of the land is kind of what I hear your question being. I say, yes, those who are engaged in law enforcement should. Now, should I engage in law enforcement against my next door neighbor? Probably not. I mean, maybe if they’re about to murder somebody. maybe I should intervene, even a citizen’s arrest kind of thing. But I don’t know that every Christian is supposed to do what the law enforcement agencies do. The Bible indicates that God has ordained law enforcement agencies, and that’s what Romans 13 is talking about in verses 1 through 7, to punish evildoers and to praise those who do well. So there are people that God has ordained, But the point I would underscore is, though we have many Christians in this nation, and there have been many Christians in the nation from its very founding, and it has been founded very largely upon Christian truths and morals and things like that originally, it is not specifically a Christian nation. It is a nation that allows freedom of religion, which would mean even freedom for non-Christians to practice their religion, which means it would be unconstitutional for us to make laws that enforce Christianity per se. Now, so, I mean, your general question, to my mind, is not even a controversial one. Should we as Christians, you know, try to put forward good leaders? who will, you know, obey the laws and enforce laws, yeah, I would say we should do that. I mean, insofar as we’re involved at all in government, that’s exactly what we should be doing. There are some Christians who say that Christians should not be involved in politics because they see politics as a secular thing. And as a secular thing, we should just kind of let it take its course and do our own thing, following Jesus and evangelize and make disciples and let God worry about the political scene. But I’m not sure the Bible allows us to see politics as a secular thing because Paul specifically says in Romans 13 that the governmental powers are ordained by God to do a mission that God has for them to do and that they are God’s ministers or servants to do this. Now, when Paul wrote, of course, nobody he was writing to had any power to choose who their leaders are. And if the leaders didn’t do what God ordained for them to do, well, that was on them. That was on the leaders. They’d have to answer to God for that someday. The Christians who had no power in the situation, their hands were clean. They were to pray for their leaders, but they couldn’t do much more. Now, we are also, I think, to pray for our leaders, but we can do more, too. We can also vote. We can also even advocate for certain policies that some leaders would support and others would not. In other words, we have a very different kind of government here because they had kings and Caesars in those days. We don’t. We have a government that’s set up for the people, the citizenry, to be the ultimate governors and to select representatives to do their will in Washington or wherever. So we do have ability to be involved, to influence who’s going to be the leader, what kind of laws are going to be good. We don’t have complete power because where we’re outnumbered, a lot of times the things we would put into place will simply not be put in place because those voting against us would be greater numbers than us. But, you know, to me, your question’s not even a controversial one, but I’m not really sure I understand all that was involved in your question. I wish I did because I could probably give a more focused answer. All right, let’s talk to… Jerry from Manchester, New Hampshire. Jerry, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, Steve. How are you? Good. Awesome. I’m glad you can hear me. So my question is coming from Mark chapter 8. And it’s when Jesus healed the blind man. There’s two parts of the question. The first part is the man says that the first thing he saw is everyone walking like trees. I’m trying to understand that more. And the second part is they show that Jesus had to re-heal the man twice. So I just don’t understand why the Bible would put something in twice what Jesus had to heal. I don’t know if you can take that, help me understand that, and I’ll take my answer across the air. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right. Well, it sounds like your question is why in this case, unlike others, was the healing of this blind man in two stages rather than one. Jesus healed, I think, over eight or nine blind people on record in the Gospels. And in every case they were healed instantly. Whereas in this case, he touched the man and said, what do you see? And the man says, I see trees. He said, I see men, but they’re like trees walking. And then Jesus touched him again. And he said, now what do you see? And the man said, I see all men clearly. So your question, I think, is why did it take two touches this time? And I don’t know the answer to that because we’re not told. Some might say the man’s faith was not great enough for complete healing until he began to see somewhat. If he’d been totally blind, it’d be very encouraging to start seeing colors and light and even hazy images. But And then he might have had increased faith to receive his complete healing when Jesus touched him a second time. I don’t know that this is the reason it comes to mind. It also might be that it points out that instantaneous healing is not the only kind of healing that God does. You know, a lot of times when people read that God heals sickness… they think that that means they’ll be miraculously and instantly healed. Now, in this case, this man’s healing was miraculous, but it was not instantaneous. And it may be communicating to us that sometimes God lets us, you know, our health improve gradually and doesn’t always heal instantly. But these are just guesses on my part because the Bible doesn’t answer the question of why it happened this way. But those are some things to think about. And maybe someone has another idea that they’ll want to bring up I appreciate your call. We need to take a break at this time. We have another half hour coming up. And so don’t go away. You’re listening to The Narrow Path. We are a listener-supported ministry. If you’d like to write to us, our address is The Narrow Path, P.O. Box 1730, Temecula, California, 92593. Our website, thenarrowpath.com. I’ll be right back. Don’t go away.
SPEAKER 03 :
The book of Hebrews tells us do not forget to do good and to share with others. So let’s all do good and share The Narrow Path with Steve Gregg with family and friends. When the show is over today, tell one and all to go to thenarrowpath.com where they can study, learn, and enjoy with free topical audio teachings, blog articles, verse-by-verse teachings, and archives of all The Narrow Path radio shows. And be sure to tell them to tune into the show right here on the radio. Share listeners supported The Narrow Path with Steve Gregg. Share and do good.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome back to the Narrow Path Radio Broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we have another half hour. One last half hour today and of this week. If you want to call in with your questions about the Bible or the Christian faith or perhaps what you consider to be a correction of anything that’s been said on the program previously, The number to call is 844-484-5737. That’s 844-484-5737. And for anyone who may be listening in Southern California, we do have a lot of people listening there. There is a meeting tomorrow morning that I’ll be speaking at. I’m not usually the speaker there. I’ve spoken there once before, but this meeting happens a couple times a month. I think it’s the second and fourth Saturday of each month. It’s in Temecula, the town I actually live in, but it’s not in my home. It’s in another home. But I’ve been asked to come speak there tomorrow morning, 8 to 10 in the morning, on the subject of the four views of Revelation. Now, this is usually a men’s Bible study or men’s Christian fellowship when this group meets. But the host has told me to announce it. Anybody, men, women, children, anyone’s welcome on this occasion tomorrow where I’ll be speaking on the four views of Revelation. If you’re interested in that… go to our website, thenarrowpath.com, and there’s a tab there that says Announcements, and look down at tomorrow’s date, which is June 14th, and you’ll see how to find a place to join us there tomorrow. All right. We’re going to go back to the phones now, and we’re looking to talk to Alex from Seattle, Washington. Hi, Alex. Welcome.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hello, Steve. How are you doing?
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m fine, thanks.
SPEAKER 07 :
Awesome. So I have, like, a couple questions. They’re pretty quick. So my first question is going to be from 1 Corinthians 2, verse 15, where it says, Can you explain that real quick?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I can. First of all, the spiritual man makes spiritual judgments. You know, Jesus said in the book of John, I judge no one, but if I do judge, my judgment is right. Sometimes the business of just judging is spoken of ambiguously because there’s different kinds of judging. Jesus said in John 7, I think it’s in verse 24, He said, do not judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. So he actually says that he doesn’t generally judge people, but when he does, he makes a righteous judgment. And Jesus also said that we shouldn’t judge according to appearances, but judge righteous judgment. Paul says a spiritual man judges everything. Now, what that means simply is that the word judge there means to judge. to discern between one thing and another. A little later in the same book, in chapter 14, Paul said, let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others judge. So the spiritual men and prophets will speak, and other spiritual men will judge what they’re saying, because they’re spiritual. They’re men of the Spirit, men filled with the Spirit. And the more filled with the Spirit you are, the more you’re walking in the Spirit, the more you have the spiritual capacity to make righteous judgments about things. And we all make judgments about things. When someone says, well, didn’t Jesus say don’t judge? Well, in a certain sense, he said don’t judge. But in another sense, he said we should judge. And the Bible continually makes it very clear that moral beings and human beings are in that category. Make moral judgments. How could we not? I mean, making a judgment means you decide whether something is right or wrong. That’s what judging means. And if someone suggests some activity to you and you recognize that it’s a bad thing to do and choose not to, that’s because you made a judgment call. Right. You’re recognizing that’s bad. Making those judgments is the right thing to do. And the more spiritual a person is, the more qualified that person is to judge reliably about all things. But he says, but that man is judged by no one. Or I think the translation he read says rightly judged by no man. What it means is that he, because he is a spiritual man, he is not subject to the negative judgments. from other people. And by the way, spiritual people often are judged negatively by people. Jesus was judged negatively by the Pharisees. Paul was judged negatively by some of the people in Corinth who thought he was a false apostle and made all kinds of accusations. He says, well, they may judge you, but they don’t have the competence to do so. A spiritual man basically lives above that realm of being judged by other people. And he actually says two chapters later, 1 Corinthians 4, he says, It’s a small thing to me if I’m judged by you. You know, it’s no big thing if you judge me. Because what he’s saying is, you know, if I walk in the spirit, I’m not going to be doing anything that you could rightly condemn me for. In Galatians 5. Paul talked about the fruit of the Spirit, enlisted love, joy, peace, goodness, self-control, gentleness, all this stuff. And he said, against this, there’s no law. And there’s no laws against this. And what is this? This is the fruit of the Spirit. This is the way a person lives when they walk in the Spirit. A spiritual person is living that way. And there’s no laws against it. So he’s, you know, there’s no one who can judge what he’s doing. No one can condemn him. And Paul said later on to Timothy, and I have to say, I don’t remember if it’s 1st or 2nd Timothy, it’s the first chapter. He talks about how knowing this, that the law is good if it’s used lawfully. But he said the law, I think it’s 1st Timothy 1, the law was not made for a righteous man, but for, and then he lists all kinds of criminal behavior. You know, murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, all kinds of things like that. Basically, he’s saying, if you’re a righteous man, you don’t need the law because it’s already written in your heart. You’re already living within its boundaries. You don’t need the law to keep you honest if you’re an honest man. You don’t need the law to keep you pure if you’re a pure man. You don’t need the law to keep you self-controlled if you’re already internally self-controlled. So the point is, the law wasn’t made… to regulate the lives of righteous people. It’s made to regulate the lives of people who aren’t righteous and need to be regulated. So when Paul said the spiritual man is judged by no man or is properly judged, righteously judged by no man, basically he’s saying the man who’s a spiritual man doesn’t have to worry about anybody’s judgment. Like he says to the Colossians, let no one judge you. concerning whether you eat or drink or observe festivals or new moons or Sabbaths. When he says don’t let anyone judge you about that, it means you’re not guilty of anything in this regard. So no one has any right to judge you about it. If you’re doing wrong, then everyone has the right to judge you for it and to correct you and to condemn your behavior. But if you’re doing that kind of wrong, you’re not a righteous man. You’re not a spiritual man. To Paul, a spiritual person is one who walks in the Spirit and therefore… the fruit of the Spirit would be a description of their way of life. That’s how they live because the Holy Spirit is governing their lives. So they’re not really subject to human criticism because they’re not doing anything that’s to be criticized. That’s what I understand him to mean in 1 Corinthians 2 there. All right. Let’s talk next to Priscilla from Vancouver, British Columbia. Hi, Priscilla. Welcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello, Steve. It’s great to speak to you, and thank you. Can you hear me okay?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, it’s kind of hard to understand you, but go ahead. Is this okay? Yeah, I don’t know if you’re just too loud or what, but I can go ahead and speak, and if I can’t understand, I’ll speak to you.
SPEAKER 04 :
I was just wanting to ask you, again, for those of us who are dealing with, like, major stones in our heart when it comes to resentment and unforgiveness. What are some of the guiding steps that you suggest on a good standpoint as a Christian, especially when you’re suffering with them, those stones in your heart privately, the stuff that like from past now and going the future, the unforgiveness, questioning, all deep-rooted cuts that you want to look for healing. You can’t talk to anybody. You’re ashamed to talk about it, or you’re too frustrated to, and it’s really that God and you know about it. How do we function, especially if you have to dwell with the person?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, let me, yeah, if you have to dwell with the person, it can be very difficult. especially if they’re continuing whatever behavior it is that’s hurtful. But on the other hand, we as Christians, as I mentioned earlier, have the Holy Spirit, and we therefore have a different nature given us. It says in 2 Peter 1.4 that we’re partakers of the divine nature, as God’s nature has been given to us through the Holy Spirit. And therefore, since he is gracious and merciful and forgiving, This is his character that should be manifested through his divine nature given to us. We should be merciful and forgiving and things like that. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. By the way, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t hurting. He was hurting real bad, probably worse than any of us have ever felt pain. And yet, while hurting, he was still forgiving. So the Bible doesn’t say that once you forgive someone, you won’t be hurt anymore. Hurting is an entirely different kind of situation than forgiving. Forgiving means I’m going to wish you well. I’m going to give up my right to retaliate or to hold a grudge or to wish evil on you or to do any evil to you. The way you’ve behaved toward me, in a sense, gives me that right. But I’m going to give up that right because I want God to do the same thing for me. Jesus said, if you don’t forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father. Forgive you your trespasses. In fact, if we don’t forgive people, we can’t even pray what’s called the Lord’s Prayer. I mean, what we usually call the Lord’s Prayer. Because part of that prayer is forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who’ve trespassed against us. So we’re asking God to show the same kind of mercy to us that we are showing to others who’ve wronged us. We’ve wronged God. And by the way, our wronging of God is false. much more culpable than anyone else has wronged us simply because, you know, I mean, people shouldn’t wrong us. That’s wrong for them to do that. But we are not innocent people. We are not people who’ve done no wrong ourselves. You know, if we suffer injustice, we can’t say, but I’ve always observed justice toward everyone else. I’ve never hurt anybody in my life. you know, I shouldn’t have to suffer any of this stuff. Well, maybe that person was wrong who wronged us, but we can’t really argue that we don’t deserve to suffer because we’re sinners. Now, God has never done wrong to any man, and yet we’ve wronged him. And so our offenses against God are much more inexcusable than those that others commit against us. And he is, of course, much more worthy of of being honored and respected and so forth. So if we fail in that area, we’re wronging him because I don’t deserve to be respected and honored by everybody. So if they don’t honor me and respect me, if they don’t treat me well, well, okay, I can’t really argue that I deserved it. I might say they owe it to God to treat me well, but they don’t owe it to me. So, I mean, there’s nobody I’ve ever held a grudge against that I know of for the simple reason that I actually don’t want God to hold a grudge against me. I actually like the idea of being forgiven and realizing that this is the spirit of Christ. Christ is forgiving. Stephen, the first Christian martyr in Acts chapter 7, when he was being stoned to death quite unjustly, he said, Father, do not lay this sin to their charge. This is exactly how I pray whenever anyone warns me because I don’t want to carry a grudge. Why let them punish you further in your own head? I mean, if you have to live with someone, they may be continually disrespecting you. They might be continually bringing you pain and shame on them if they are. But the Bible indicates that God will give us grace to extend toward them if we ask him. If we walk in the Spirit, the Spirit will give us the love of Christ toward them. And we should always realize that the person who’s hurting me is a defective person. Frankly, I’m a defective person in many respects. All of us are defective people, but the pain that somebody causes me, It’s happening because they are themselves defective. And in many respects, their defects are defects they didn’t choose. You know, and, you know, I can thank, you know, if somebody goes around doing horrible things to people, I can say thank God that whatever made them that way, you know, I missed that gene. You know, somehow that didn’t happen to me. I’m glad not to be them. On the other hand, you know, they need forgiveness. They need Christ. They’re doing as much harm to themselves, or not more, in terms of the final judgment, than they’re doing to other people. So there’s a way to look at it. The easiest, or the first step, I guess, of getting it right, is Jesus said, if anyone comes to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, the Bible makes it very clear that that denying yourself means you’re not claiming any rights for yourself. As soon as you stop claiming any rights for yourself, you won’t feel that anyone is wronging you. Because even though they may be, you’ve already given up your rights. You’ve already denied yourself. Taking up your cross, well, bearing a cross means that you’re going to be hated. People are going to despise you. People are going to treat you wrongly. And as far as following Christ, Here’s what Peter said about this in 1 Peter chapter 2. It says about, he says in verse 21, Now, in the context, the this he’s talking about was being treated badly. Let me just go a few verses earlier because he’s talking to servants. You mentioned, what if you have to live in the proximity of the first century? Well, if you were a slave in the first century, you lived in the house of your master and you had no discharge from that. You were there for the rest of your life or until someone else bought you and you went to someone else’s house. But if you were with a cruel master, You were in a hard spot, and yet over 50% of the people in Rome were slaves, and therefore when people were converted, as often as not, they were slaves. And so these were slaves who had become Christians, and they were, some of them, living with the bad masters who were abusive. which they shouldn’t be, but their masters weren’t necessarily Christians. And so he’s talking to these servants. He says that they should submit to their master. He says in verse 19, 1 Peter 2, 19, For this is commendable. Actually, in the Greek, the word is charis, grace. This is grace. If because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults you take it patiently, but when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is commendable. Again, the word grace in the Greek. This is grace before God. You receive grace from God. You extend grace to others. People are mistreating you, but you take it patiently. And he says, for to this you were called. Namely, what? to take abuse patiently verse 21 for to this you were called because Christ also took abuse wrongfully Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps so you know Jesus said take up your cross and follow me well following him in this respect is follow his steps what were his steps well he tells us what his steps were it says in verse 23 who when he was reviled did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously. Now, what he’s saying here is that when Christ suffered, instead of retaliating or wishing to retaliate, he just committed his fate, his well-being into the hands of God. By simply submitting to God and saying, okay, Father, if this is what I’m going to go through, if this is the cup you’ve given me, I’m going to drink it. Now, Peter comes back to that same thought at the end of chapter 4, 1 Peter 4. He says in verse 19, he says, Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator. Now, he’s saying if you’re suffering wrongfully, you don’t deserve it. But God hasn’t delivered you from it. It must be something he has in mind for you that’s going to do you good. Just submit to God. Just commit yourself into his hands as you would to a faithful creator. You know, if you know that God is faithful, you can easily surrender your case into his hands. And you just keep doing good. So, you know, you need to forgive routinely. Jesus said in what Mark 11, 25, I think it is, when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against anyone, that your Heavenly Father may forgive you your trespasses. So you need to routinely forgive. But you also may have to live with the person who continues to give you things that need to be forgiven. That is, they keep doing wrong to you. Well, what did Peter say? Well, that’s what happened to Jesus. Walk like him. You know, just commit yourself to God in well-doing as unto the faithful creator. Now, this may sound to some people like you’re making yourself a doormat. You know, I don’t know if it’s making yourself a doormat. I mean, being walked on or letting, you know, that’s something that Jesus allowed to happen to him. That’s what the apostles allowed to happen to them. And they did it because that was the right thing for them to do, not because they didn’t have any power. But many people, many Christians, like the slaves that Peter was writing to who had masters who mistreated them, they didn’t have any choice in the matter. They couldn’t just run away. They’d be arrested, maybe killed for running away. They couldn’t make their master behave. So what can you do? You commit yourself to God and just take pleasure in his will, even sometimes when it’s painful. This doesn’t sound like what American Christianity would advise, but American Christianity isn’t necessarily authentic Christianity sometimes. Throughout history, really pretty much until America was founded, almost all Christians in the world suffered some kind of persecution. Some of them were systemically persecuted throughout the whole country they lived in and fed to lions and tortured and imprisoned and beaten, killed. So, I mean, this is the lot that Christians have faced. We haven’t, most of us. But if we did, we would be expected to do the same thing they did, which is the same thing Jesus did. And he said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. So that’s a short course. I would suggest you might look at my lectures, Making Sense Out of Suffering, which are at our website, TheNarrowPath.com. God bless you, Priscilla. I’m so sorry that you’re going through hard times and that you’ve been wronged. We all have been, but not all of us come through it successfully. smelling good that’s our choice if we forgive others you know and trust God with our case that’s really what else can we do really all right let’s talk to Chris from Vancouver British Columbia there’s two in a row oh hi hi Chris yes I just have a question about the book of Enoch I remember once you said that on your free website that you did have some information on the book of Enoch and Well, I don’t have anything specifically on the book of Enoch, though I’ve been asked about it a lot. And in Matthew713.com, where there’s an index, a topical index of calls that have come in over the years, there must be dozens of calls there. You could listen to free online at Matthew713.com. The short answer is the book of Enoch is not written by Enoch. Enoch was translated into heaven before the flood of Noah, which is, you know, like 2,500 years before Christ, but the book of Enoch was written around 200 years before Christ, which is 2,000 years too late to be written by Enoch. And therefore, if it’s not written by Enoch, the fact that the author claims to be Enoch means he was not telling the truth. And if an author doesn’t tell the truth, there’s not much reason to take him to be speaking for God because God never lies. So if you want more on that, I would just say go to Matthew713.com, and you’ll see there’s a topical index of calls. You can look up the Book of Enoch, and you’ll find a whole bunch of times that people have called about that book and where I’ve given answers of varying lengths. Thank you for your call. Let’s talk to Angie from East Bay, California. Hi, Angie. Welcome.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi there. Thank you. Yes, I recently joined a Bible study, and I’ve come across something that I’m not quite sure how to feel about, and I was wondering if you could help me from a biblical, of course, perspective, reconcile this in my head. But there is a very nice woman in our Bible study who is obvious for love, is deep and genuine for our God, and I have to say I was a little taken aback to hear her refer to him as her daddy. And at first I thought, okay, this is different. I’ve never had anyone ever refer to our Lord as daddy before. And so I thought, okay, this is bizarre. How am I to think of this? So you want me to answer about that? Yeah, thank you. Okay.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I’ve never called God Daddy. It’s just not the way that I’ve grown up to address him. On the other hand, the Bible does say that we can call him Abba. That’s an Aramaic word that Jesus himself used. He actually used the word Abba, speaking to God when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, Abba, Father, if it’s your will, let this pass from me. Paul said, In Galatians, I’m going to say maybe chapter 4, and in Romans, chapter 8, Paul said that we receive the spirit of adoption, and by that spirit, that is the spirit of God, we cry out, Abba, Father. That is, we call God Abba. Now, the word Abba, Greek or Aramaic scholars would tell us, is sort of the way a child spoke to his father in that society. And they often say that it’s essentially the equivalent of our English word, Papa or Daddy. And so, you know, the Bible does actually say that Jesus referred to God that way, and so can we. The spirit of Christ in us is the spirit of sonship, therefore we can call God Abba or Daddy or Papa. We can… But we’re not told that we have to. You know, we can use the more, I suppose, the more mature word for a father. But we are told to pray to the father. And there’s nothing wrong with calling him daddy. It is a bit, it does, it kind of gives you a jolt to hear someone talk about God that way sometimes. But that’s technically not wrong. It’s just something I don’t personally, I never called my dad daddy, at least not Not in the last 70 years. So I don’t call God Daddy either. I just call him Father. Anyway, I hope that’s helpful. I’m sorry to run out of time. We’ve got more calls waiting and no time to take them. I apologize. Maybe we can talk. Maybe if you call back Monday. We’re on Monday through Friday. I’ll be glad to talk to each of you. You’ve been listening to The Narrow Path. We are listener supported. Our address is The Narrow Path, PO Box 1730, Temecula, California. 92593. Everything at our website is free, but you can donate there at thenarrowpath.com. Have a good weekend.
