075 The Fundamentals: Love

Do you know the Bible is God's Holy Word? Do you know it is

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subscribe and support this podcast. So we are Maranatha Ministries and now Reduction Draweth

Nigh. Welcome, Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the program. We are

your host, Matthew and Mariah. Tonight we're getting back to the fundamentals.

But tonight we are going to go write of conservative because most people won't say

that what we're going to cover tonight is a fundamental of christian But Bobo exactly.

Mariah takes umbrage with that. And not that that's a bad thing,

not that it's a good thing, but once I got to thinking about it,

well, it is absolutely mandatory. It is a fundamental of Christianity,

and that singular thing being love. So Mariah, give your opening comments as

to how this even entered your mind. Well, I just I've always thought

that, you know, before I even started thinking about these fundamentals, I

ever since I had learned about love, and I had learned about the love

of Jesus Christ and what it meant to act like a Christian, I had

been taught that the root of everything is love. If I can't love my

neighbor, how how am I Christian? If I can't love the sinners?

How am I Christian? And so it just astonished me because I was thinking,

well, of course, it's one of the fundamentals. Of course,

it's what it's one of the most important things. I mean, it says

that so many times, just in Matthew. I found so many verses just

inn Matthew about love. Well, yeah, that that is the that is

the medium through which Christians are supposed to operate. I mean, just like

a fish, you know, operates in water. That's what its medium is

water. Our medium is supposed to be loved. There's no doubt about that.

I mean, this is what makes us Christian, it's what separates us.

Yes, it's what defines us. There's no doubt about that. And

you know you can take the ten commandments and culminate them, even as the

Lord Jesus Christ did and said, you know you should love the Lord your

God with all your heart, soul of mind. And then he said the

second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, right,

this is a this is fundamentally true. If you love someone, you will

not lie to them. If you love someone, you will not steal from

them. So how Jesus put that was absolutely perfect. But let's take a

look at the last verse of First Corinthians chapter thirteen, and this is a

quagmire of theology right here. But now, faith, hope, and love

by these three, but the greatest of these is love. So isn't this

saying that the three primary pillars of Christianity is faith, hope, and love.

Yes, but you never hear anybody say that. I mean, you

know, we started this series off of the book The Fundamentals, right,

I mean, this is this is it's troubling that this verse is stating the

obvious. But yet faith, hope, and love is not found in the

work The Fundamentals. It's not there. There's no essays contained in that work

that describes love being one of the fundamentals of Christianity. And that's kind of

disturbing to me now that I think about it. So there are so many,

oh so many places we can go. But I mean, I mean,

I think it's paramount that we read these thirteen verses because that's what First

Corinthians chapter thirteen is. Yeah, it is the love chapter. You cannot.

There's no consternation on that point. It is the love character. I

had so many notes about that from that chapter. So do you want to

read it or you want me to? Oh, you can read it.

Okay, I'm going to be reading out of a New American Standard Bible,

the nineteen ninety five update, as is the mainstay of this ministry, boys,

has been since it came out, because well, that's just what we

do. First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, Verse one. If I speak with

the tongues of men and of angels, but do not love, I have

become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of

prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith

so as to move mountains, but I do not have love, I am

nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and

if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love,

it profits me nothing. Love is patient, Love is kind and is not

jealous. Love does not brag, It is not arrogant, does not act

unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not

take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices

in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hope, all

things endures all things. Love never fails. But if there are gifts of

prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will

cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we

know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes,

the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I

used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a

child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things.

For now we see in a mere dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as

I also have been fully known. Now, faith, hope, love abides

these three. But the greatest of these is love. You know that that

leaves you speechless. I mean that it's direct message, just directing to the

point. It's very blunt, and I don't see how you could read these

thirteen verses and come to the conclusion that you could even be a Christian if

it were not for love. No, because that's the point that he's trying

to make. That's the point he's trying to get across. It can't be

Christian if you don't love. There's what's the point? You know, that's

a good question, Mariah. What is the point of being a Christian?

What's the point love? I mean, what is the point of giving your

money to any cause if you don't love? If you were to say,

let's take a very Christian scenario, if you were to go to Africa and

give your money to children who don't have food, but you don't love.

If you sit there and you hate those children, if you unlove those children,

what is the point of your gift? What is what's God gonna think

when he sees you giving a gift not out of love? Oh, I

guess at the end of the day. Well, this chapter brought up that

very thing. I mean, it literally brought up that example of giving everything

that you have in order to feed the poor. It did say that verse

three, And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and

if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love,

it profits me nothing. So what does that mean? That's a very disturbing

statement. So's that's saying that if I don't love I'm not a Christian.

I'm not going to heaven. Think about this last phrase. It profits me

nothing? I mean, are you what? What a very disturbing conundrum you

have brought up? Mariah. This is disturbing to me because I never thought

about it in dislike. But it's saying that no matter what I do,

no even if I prophecy. It says, even if I know all things

and I do not love, it does not profit me anything. Therefore,

the actions themselves is not going to get me into heaven. I mean,

is that what this is saying. Is it saying that if you don't love,

you will not enter the kingdom of heaven? Because it sounds like to

me that's exactly what it's saying. Without coming out and saying it, let

me ask you something. Can you accept Jesus Christ into your heart? Can

you believe in Jesus Christ and allow him to enter into your heart? If

you do not love, if you don't know how to love, and you

don't love him as your loving Lord and savior, your father, your best

friend, how could you allow him to enter into your heart and be saved.

I'm gonna read this very small part in Acts where what chapter chapter eight.

Okay, no, wow, that lost these Chapter eight, verses thirty

six and thirty seven. Okay, I'll start in thirty five. Then Philip

opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.

And they went along the road and came to some water, and the

eunuch said, look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And

Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And

he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

And he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into

the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized it.

So it doesn't say anything here about love. So what do you what's your

point here? What is your point in bringing us here? Are you saying

that that we don't know if the eunuch loved or not? No, I'm

saying Philip said, if you believe with all your heart? Can you believe

with all your heart? If you do not have love, what can you

do with your heart? What say that again? What? What what can

you do with your heart? If you can't love, how are you going

to believe with all your heart? If you don't love. So you're saying

that the heart is the wealth spring of emotions. I'm saying that the heart

is the way to God. When I was saved what I believed in Jesus

Christ, I loved, I felt love. I felt it in my heart.

Do you purport a very difficult riddle, Mariah? This is a very

difficult thing you were saying. I mean, you're saying you cannot be saved

unless you love. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Do you have

any verses to back that up? I mean any, I mean, what

are you basing that statement off of everything? Everything? Let me read a

golden rule says I can find it ye doing to others as you would have

them do to you, teacher, What is the great commandant in the law?

This is Matthew Chapter twenty two, verses thirty six through forty. And

remember you told me this once. The golden rule is not the golden rule.

The golden rule that we know comes second. The first rule is and

he said to him, you shall love the Lord with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the

great and foremost commandment. The second is like it you shall love your neighbor

as yourself. And why is that? Because once we love, once we

have the love of Christ, then we can know how to love others too,

right, right? Well, you know? And and it follows the

statement of it says on these two commandments to bend the whole law and the

prophets. Right, so, so, so I understand what, I understand

what you're saying. But I mean, God is love. How can he

come from anything but love? How can he come without? So? So,

so let's go back to Philip and the Eunuch. Okay, Philip never

asked the dude if he loved. He never said that. Now they ask

him if he believed. You have to believe with all your heart, you

mad. He didn't say all your mind, He didn't say all your actions.

He didn't say all your little facts that you learned. He wanted to

know that he believed with his heart after he told him the whole story of

Jesus Christ, and and and and you've come to this conclusion. How I

don't know you? Yeah, Rio, you know me pretty well, right?

Who would you say? No? Who who would you point to that

that that might know the scripture better than me? And I don't mean your

translation. I mean the Hebrew, the Greek, who knows this better than

me? God? How is it you have opened this can of worms?

Because I understand exactly what you're saying, and I am not I'm not contradicting

you, but I don't know what it was that made you arrive to this

conclusion. This is why you completely confused me when I said, Mariah,

what's the next fundamental we're gonna do? And you said, love, Michael,

was just no big deal? Like duh? I was raised on it

wasn't I What did mom? What? What did? What did my mother

teach me? When I was young? I've known little else more than love

my entire life. I was raised on love and Jesus Christ. This is

like, this is like common knowledge for me. What you create quite the

conundrum for me, because who's the one that that that that facilitated all your

family, churches, your whole life, right? Who? Yep? But

yet this thought is outside of my paradigm, even though it is it's so

obviously true, it's disturbing to me. Well, church didn't teach me everything

I know about everything I knew about God? You did. But Mariah,

I did not teach this to you. You taught it to me. Your

actions teach it to me. Though my mom's actions teach it to me.

The Word of God, you choose it to me just by anyone reading it.

And I absolutely I'm not. Like I stated at the beginning of the

program, it's obvious that the three greatest pillars is faith. Hoping loop,

let me read another one to you, just for fun, Okay, all

right? John Chapter thirteen Versus thirty four through thirty five. Way for it

to load here thirty three through thirty five. Little children, I am with

you a little while longer you will seek me. And as I said to

the Jews, now I also say to you where I am going, you

cannot come. A new commandment. I give to you that you love one

another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this, all men will know you are min disciples if you have

love for one another. Okay, that's cheating. Okay, it is very

confusing to me, and it's putting me out of sorts because there is no

there is no doubt you heard this from my mouth. It was my voice

that read this to you the first time. Because okay, you literally had

family Church every single night your whole life. Correct, yep, So who

knows how many times I actually read this to you, And many of the

times when I was reading it to you, you had no idea what I

was talking about, right, I mean, because you you know, you

were in somebody's lap a great deal of the time. I mean, I

realize up until you were two years old, because we couldn't have you escaping

family church, right, yeah, until you were two three? You know,

through there, you know, somebody had to hold you to make sure

that you stayed in place. But we did this every night. We we

did this every night. So there is no doubt it was I who first

read this to you. Why why has not this thought engaged in my consciousness?

Because that is what he's saying. But the little people will know you

are a Christian if you love one another. That means it's a very worthy

thing to say. It's using a whole bunch of words to say this.

You must love to be a Christian. You must. How could you not

be? I mean, Jesus talks about it all the time. Yeah,

but he doesn't come out and say it, just like this. First he

did not come out and say it. I mean he did. It's like

it's like when you read a novel, you got to read it from beginning

to end, so you can just you can't just read the book report.

Jesus wants you to read his book, his epistles. He wants you to

read the whole story to get the plot. I mean, what about the

story with well, obviously, story with Jesus interacting with anyone. About the

story where he healed that merchant's daughter. Was that not love? You're about

the story where he healed the lepers, healed the lame man when he was

scolding the the pharisees. Yes, all these things are true, but they

are only pieces to a pustle, just like this verset we just read.

I mean, first off, you realize in this context, Jesus is stating

that he is God, the Son. He is able to interject a new

commandment. You do understand. This is the eleventh commandment, right, Okay,

I'll read it myself. Okay, not that I need to read it.

I know it. Okay, A new commandment. I give you that

you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love

one another. This is the eleventh commandment. Only God, and only God

himself can add to the commandments. This is the eleventh Commandment. And verse

thirty five he comes out and says, now, if you keep this commandment,

by this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you

love for one another. So you calling love a fundamental of Christianity. It

well, it is very confusing to me because the Bible never comes out and

says that. But yet if you put all the verses together like a puzzle,

you you, you know, you wind up with this great, big,

huge puzzle, and that puzzle states that you must love to be a

Christian. You must love to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You must,

I mean, But yet it doesn't say it. I don't know about any

other Christians, but that is how I define. That's who I am as

a Christian. That's how I define my Christianity is love. Well, and

that's exactly what he just will come out of Jesus mouth. I mean,

I was. I was saved at a very early age, like in my

tweens, when I was like a jew in junior high. But I do

remember what I was like before I was saved, and I did not have

love, not the way I did after I was saved. I did not.

Yeah, you're contradicting yourself. You just contradicted yourself because in the beginning

of this program you said that you have to love before you get saved.

You have to decide to love. You're not and that's what you so.

So, so you're saying that you got saved, right, and you decided

to love. No, I decided to love, and that led me to

get saved. Okay, that that puts it out of order. Then that's

not why. That's not what I was hearing. So so now you're saying

the exact opposite. You're saying because you began to start loving. No,

no, no, no. I read about Jesus and I learned about Jesus

and Jesus's love, and I thought to myself, I want to love like

Jesus. And this was before or after you got saved off. And then

I found that love in my heart and that led me to the love of

Jesus Christ, and I would not be the same without it, and all

and all, Okay, let me explain it to you this way. I

was filled with the Holy Spirit. I was given the Holy Spirit. And

you're saying that the Holy Spirit triggered, Yes, the emotion for love.

I mean what I'm saying, If a person does not love, they're not

a Christian. That's what I'm saying. What well, I mean, that

is basically what Jesus is saying here in John chapter thirteen. Because if you

don't I mean, Marian, I am. I am hyper extenuating this to

the rest of Bible. And how many verses do I have in my brain?

All of them? All of them, so I'm able to look past

what you're saying. And you're saying this. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ

made this eleventh commandment. It's the ultimate trump. If you don't love,

you are breaking the eleventh Commandment. You are not going to enter the Kingdom

of Heaven because you've broken feel it and the commandment. And I'd never seen

that before you brought this up. It's like the fruits of the spirit that

we were talking about. If you're the fruits of the spirit is love,

joy, peace. If a person, I don't care what you say to

me about going to Sunday School, about being raised in a Christian family,

if you don't love, I don't believe you. You are not a Christian.

If I see you and you are not loving, I don't care what

you say about yourself. I don't think you're a Christian. I don't think

you've been saved. That's just not possible to me. So I think you

have to love. Well, I'm just trying to say this to not be

confusing. You have to love before and during. If you never have love

in your heart to begin with, and you don't have love when you're a

Christian, love never convicted you to be a Christian. Okay, So that's

really what you're saying that it is the emotional feeling of love that will convict

you to get saved. Yeah, and it's the emotional feeling of love that

you will continue to walk in the ways of righteousness. If I never had

loved, and I was saved when I was thirteen, and I didn't love

all that time, eventually I would have been like the seed that fell in

love, what was it? The thorns? I would have continued my life

and I've been like, screw this, I want I want, you know,

this thing that I want to steal from this person. There's no reason

why I shouldn't I want to lie. Why shouldn't I right, because breaking

the Ten Commandments is only for your benefit. This is the crux of the

problem. And you've probably heard me and your mother talk about this. This

is the crux of the problem. If you love, your actions will only

benefit others. If you break the ten Commandment, it only benefits you.

I mean, isn't this the quickest way for you to move up in your

career? This is common knowledge. Whoever's above you lie about them, falsely

accuse them, plant false evidence that they've done something, get them fired to

get them relieved to their duties, and you take over the duties. This

is absolutely the most common practice in the United States of America. But then,

once you have love, how much more amazing is it when you do

none of that and you lead one person to Christ who you never knew before

because you love them, You never met them in your life, and you

love them because you have that love in your heart that Jesus Christ gave to

you, that Jesus Christ amplified. So let me ask you this. You

know what the definition for empathy is. Yes, empathy is when you feel

for another person. Yes, you know you walk It's not when you do

it, it's you have the ability to do it. Many many people,

well, criminals do not have the ability to do this. We'll just say

that. Okay, hard core criminals do not have the ability to do this.

They they they don't have the ability. Now let's read the see this

is the dictionary definition from the opt for dictionary. It is the ability to

understand and share the feelings of another. It's not whether you are actually feeling

and sharing the feelings of others, it's when you have the ability to do

so. That's empathy. So what you're saying is, I mean, this

is very disturbing to me. This can of worms to me because what you're

saying is you must first have this love toward Jesus. Were we not taught

in Sunday School to accept them into our heart? What does that mean?

If it does, that literally translates to you have to love Jesus. And

you're saying, once you do, that will trigger a salvation event that will

trigger a crisis. It has to And you're saying that after that, after

salvation, the Holy Spirit induces empathy in the Christian This is the end game

conclusion that you're stating, as far as psychology is concerned. If you accept

the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe with all your heart upon him. Ask

him into your heart, ask him to change you. The change that he

induces is empathy. Let me read somewhere verses for you, and reading in

first John, chapter four, and starting in verse four. You are from

God, little children. You have overcome them, because greater is he who

is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the

world. Therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to

them. We are from God. He who knows God listens to us.

He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we

know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us

love one another, for love is from God. And everyone who loves is

born of God and knows God. The one who does not know God the

word. The one who does not know God. The one who does not

love does not know God or God, is love. By this, the

love of God was manifested in us. That God has sent his only begotten

son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is

love, not that we loved, but that He loved us and sent his

son to be A propitation, propitiation propitiation for our sins. Beloved, If

God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one

has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides

in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this, we

know that we abide in Him and he in us, because He has given

us of his spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent

the Son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is

the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God,

and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected in us,

so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Because as

He is, so, also are we in this world. There is no

fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment,

and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because

He first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother,

he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother,

whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And

this commandment we have from him, and that the one who loves God should

love his brother also, I am stunned to silence. I mean, you

didn't read anything I didn't already know. The problem is is that you've put

this into an entirely new concept because he is coming out and saying, if

you don't love, you're not a Christian. That's basically what he's saying.

But he's not saying that. He is not coming out and directly addressing it.

And by the way, empathy is manifested in verse nine, by this,

the love of God was manifested in us. What's that Greek word for

nay up to make visible? Literally, that's what this is saying that it

triggers empathy. That's what the man. Let me read this plainly, by

this, the love of God was manifested in us. That God has sent

his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him.

This is exactly what you described a few minutes ago. You had you exhibited

love toward Jesus and got saved, And this verse is saying that once that

happened, God triggered empathy. In you, and that is how the rest

of the chapter plays out. And he's saying that if you don't have this

manifested empathy to love you know other people, you're a dead issue. You're

not Mariah. But let's not give it another name, because what is empathy

if not love? Right, it is the ability of love. And that's

what verse ninety is saying that once you become a Christian, this has manifested

in you that we might live through him. So don't you understand what it's

saying. It's saying that the empathy that you require is not yours child.

It's saying that it is exactly you know. That's bold words to say to

somebody like me. I knew this in the Greek long before you ever realized

what I was reading to you. So how is it that your eyes have

been open to this but mine has not until now? I don't know.

Let the little children come, you know, let's listen to this one more

time. Let's do the KJV this time. Listen. This is what it's

saying. What you've stated. It says in this was manifested the love of

God toward us. Okay, so you're saying that God triggers this event,

and you started loving. You loved Jesus right because that God sent his only

begotten son into the world that we might live through him. What's this saying?

How is it that we live through him? It's saying that he's the

one that gave us this empathy. Now I'm gonna word this a different way,

but I've thought this before. I've never really said it to anybody.

I've never really talked about to anybody. But I do consider Jesus to be

my teacher. God is my teacher, right. God and the love of

Jesus taught me to love. Once I was saved, and once I opened

my heart to him, he did teach me how to love. And I

did not know things before that I know now. I need you to qualify

that for me. You know things or you feel things. If you know

things now that you didn't know before, or you feel things you didn't feel.

I know things I didn't know what. Give me an example. I

didn't know how to love before. I didn't know why. I didn't know

why I would give something up for someone. I didn't understand that. But

now I know, Well, there's any child I would die for. Before

I was saved. I didn't really understand giving up anything for anyone, but

I would give up my life for most people without badding an eye. And

I was taught that. I was taught to give, I was taught to

love. I was taught to have compassion for people that I didn't have any

reason to feel anything for. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to tell you,

that God gave you empathy exactly. And if I meet another person who

claims to be a Christian and they do not also feel those things, I

cannot trust. You know they're not well. Obviously from just the few verses

we've read here tonight, obviously they're not. And you've run into this before

I have. I'm speaking from a personal experience, and we don't need to

say from who, No, but you have obviously met Christians, not only

met them, interacted with them at length, and at the end of the

day, you were having problems with their own relationships toward their own family members,

correct your own relationships with each other. Yeah, that's what I'm trying

to say, that the members of their own family, they were exhibiting actions

that proved that it was not love right. What what? What was going

on? In this between these family members was not love. It was not

and not only the family members, but all these people who well there wasn't

a ton, but like these people who I was surrounding myself with and spending

a lot of time with and put my trust in, they were not treating

each other with love. And I didn't understand it till later. What was

wrong? I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on

it. But looking back hindsight is twenty twenty. You know, they obviously

were not loving not only each other, they weren't loving their own family members.

Oh so you knew these individuals, You had seen them interact with not

only their own family members, but with other people, and you were able

to come to this conclusion that they don't even love their own family members.

They can't be Christians. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, I Christians

are my second family. If you don't love other Christians, what's wrong with

you? You're not That's that's the thing. That's like, you don't.

It's like you're disowning your sister or your daughter before you even met them.

You know. That's like that's like divorcing your husband at the altar, right

before you said your vows, right before you put the before you put the

ring on you. You know it? You know it? Yeah, Mariah,

tell me this. We did that first show on the fundamentals, right,

Yes, did you come to this conclusion after or before? M h?

I think after, But it's always kind of been in here, Like

I never had the idea to like put it in there, but like it's

always kind of men floating around in my head, you know, like I

just kind of know because of passages like this would be a Christian is to

love and meeting people who that was not a priority for them. Confused me.

It confused my brain. I did not understand. Well, one thing

is for certain, a ministry is not a business, okay, and let's

keep that very clear. And this is the main problem that the Church of

the Lord Jesus Christ has right now. Right, we're in agreeance that a

ministry is full of expenditures. You will literally expend yourself to get people saved

and to train them up in the way they should go. But a business

is exactly the opposite. A business is the man on top. That's all.

It is a pile of bodies climbing a ladder to be the man on

top. And that is the opposite of what I believe in. I don't

know what anyone else thinks that they believe in when they say they're a Christian,

but that is not what I believe in. I believe in the love

of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, my brother, my best friend,

and my father, and he is love and he is Well, that's

what this that's what this these verses just said you read from, and what

it's literally saying is that we are an extension of Him. That's how this

this word you know, fanahru in the Greek works very hard saying. These

are very hard words. It's noriah. They're very hard words because when you

weigh these very simple words against the bulk of Christianity, I don't care,

because I've met them and I did not care for them. If you say

you're a Christian and you do not love the man standing next to you,

I don't care. You are a foreigner to me. You are not my

brother or sister. That is to say, they are not in the body

of Christ. That's what this verse I mean literally, it's what these verses

are saying. But yet it does not come out and say that you must

love to be a Christian. It's not using that phrase always, not just

it feels like betrayal. It feels like a lie. When someone says they

are Christian, and yet they turn around and they push down the man behind

them down that ladder so they can get a step up. That feels like

betrayal. And it is to be sure. And then you're turning around and

you are claiming to be a child of my Father, who is love.

So what other verses you got for us? Do do? Do? Do?

Do? Do? Do? Do? Do? So? This is

it? Well, I mean, what about Matthew Chapter five. I'm looking

here at your notes point two? What is love to us? Matthew Chapter

five, verses thirteen or sixteen. Yes, you put this in here for

a reason, so give it to you. So this verse, this passage

doesn't come out and say that it's love, but it is when you think

about when you think back of that verse where he's saying, this is how

they will know that you are my disciples because you love. Okay, read

Matthew five, verses thirteen through sixteen. You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt has become tasteless. How can it be made salty

again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and

trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city

set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and

put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light

to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in

such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father,

who is in heaven. And then again in verse twenty. I don't know

why I skipped some verses. You definitely did. Let's go to it to

it's loading. Oh, so while this is loading, what is the light?

How do we shine the light of Jesus Christ. Well, it said

with your good works, that they may see your good works and glorify your

Father's and heaven. So obviously utilizing this empathy. God is expecting you to

take the empathy that he's given you and carrying it out by performing good works

to just or most notably people who are in need. Right, Oh,

this gets good, So leave it where we left off verse sixteen. Let

your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good

works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven. Do not think that

I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I do not come to

abolish, but to fulfill. For truly, I say to you, until

heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from

the law, until all is accomplished. Whoever, then unmolls one of the

least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, shall be called

least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he

shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven. For I say to you,

unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and pharises you will not enter

the Kingdom of Heaven. Which is this is bearing out the same thing that,

And it is obvious numerous occasions when Jesus engaged with the scribe and Pharisees,

they did not have empathy. And this is just a little bit from

my brain. But unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees,

what were the scribes and Pharisees? What did they do? They were the

clergy. They're the ones that ran the church. They studied right, Yes,

and they read everything, they memorized the Yes, the scribes, that's

what the scribes job was. Yeah. They were very smart people, weren't

they. Yes, they had to be highly intelligent, probably the most some

of the most intelligent people in that society. Absolutely, yes, So how

could your righteousness surpass that of the smartest people you could put a finger on?

There was toutly one way empathy. If those people, I mean,

no matter how smart a scribe is or was, if they did not love

the people they were studying for, they were a dead issue. It would

have to surpass knowledge, right, And only feelings can do that exactly.

Feelings is the only thing that can surpass or go beyond the thoughts. And

I said this earlier. It is only to other people's benefit if you follow

the ten commandments. The only way you can do that is going to beyond

the thought process. And that means spice up this conversation by bringing in a

worldly two worldly sayings and bringing them together. Okay, knowledge is power,

but also the most powerful thing in the universe is love. Those are two

sayings that are completely unrelated to each other. But what happens when you put

them together? Even people of the world know this. Love is the most

powerful thing in the world, not knowledge, Right, this is true.

So it really does that this conundrum really does bother me that I didn't realize

this until you brought it up. I mean, because literally, shouldn't these

be the pillars of the faith? I mean, is it not faith,

hope, and love? That's the pillars of the faith? Everything else is

fundamentals. This is a pillar. These are the pillars. These are the

three pillars. Yep. So you know you have me, You have me

lost in my own thoughts. You have me because what you're saying is absolutely

true and not only that love is the litmus test to Christianity. And yep,

this is part and parcel with with with. You will know them by

their fruits. You will know them by what they're doing, because obviously what

they're doing, you'll be able to distinguish this from what they're doing. Either

they love people or they love themselves. It's one or the other. Another

verse I have in here. I have two more verses in here, passages

in here that are more on the difficult to choose side. Okay, but

the first one is Listen to this and tell me if you don't hear love.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me,

you must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his

life for my sake will find it. Right, that's exactly what I was

saying, exactly as you were saying that I read this verse. It's literally

backing up exactly what you just said. I wasn't thinking of that verse or

not. But yes, that verse is saying exactly what I was saying.

But I don't know. It makes me thinks that I think that the reason

why I was saying what I was saying is because that verse is in my

subconscious But no, I wasn't thinking of that. So what's the other set

of verses? This one's a little bit more out in the water. But

Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you,

unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

And Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he years

old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born.

Can he and Jesus answered truly, Truly, I say to you,

unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of

God. I think that when you are born again, it's like learning to

love in a whole different way. Well, I would have to agree.

All right, we're at the top of the hour, so you get to

pray us out of here. I think we should sing the song? What

song? Mm hmmm, mm hmmm, sing it our father, guy,

will be done, honor as it is in you lastnesses day, our day

read and forgave baside as gamely to tempted, but as from the slicky and

the power and the glory. Fo uh Father in oh, Amen and Amen.

Till next time, ladies and gentlemen, God bless, God speed.

Thank you for listening to Marinath the Ministries with Matthew Miller. I appreciate you

tuning in. For more information, stop by and visit us at patreon dot

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