DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again

Hey, everybody.

Today is Friday, February the 10th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have a question for Dr. Shah or suggestion for a future episode, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere where you get your podcast content from. We're going to leave you a couple of links in the description below this podcast on iTunes, so you can help us do that.

We want to make sure you're leaving us some good, solid five-star reviews. Please? Please.

Please. I actually copyrighted AmandaPlease.com. Good reference! Oh, my goodness.

That was great. Where's AmandaPlease? Oh, man.

Go ahead and read the verse of the day before I crack myself up. I hadn't thought about that in years. AmandaPlease. Where's AmandaPlease? Oh, everybody older than us.

Everybody past like 35. They're so confused. What's happening?

Why did they let these guys on the radio? Oh, my goodness. All right. Verse of the day today comes from 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7. While we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Yeah.

In Christian life and in Christian media, especially, because that's where we're starting to break into, there's lots of talented and successful Christians in the world. But the thing is, no matter how big you might make it, you're always a vessel of God's glory. It's kind of like that thing where you give a kid a really nice, expensive present and they just want to play in the box. You know what I mean? Like the container, that's where all the focus is. I don't care about this present, like how expensive or how glorious this present is. I just want to play with the box. And the present doesn't direct you back to the box. Rather, the box is just merely meant to display the present. So our earthen vessels are not the source of our talents and abilities and gifts that God has given us, although they might be wonderful and spectacular, and you might be able to use those to great effect. Ultimately, they reflect back to the giver of the gift in the first place.

Our talents, our gifts, our abilities reflect back to the source of those, God Himself. I couldn't have said it better myself. And trust me, I tried. I have a gripe.

Uh-oh. And I don't often begin the episode with a gripe, but I have one today and you're going to hear it. We're going to peek through the gripe line. You're going to hear it today. Saucy.

I like that. Let me hear it. There's a harvest of gripes. Let me hear it. You walked in here today.

Oh, the gripe is about me? Yes. You walked in here today with some black brick-looking shoes on your feet.

Ryan. What in the world are you wearing? I'm wearing my NBs.

What? You don't like them? Why are you wearing those? I get roasted for these every time I wear these not in the gym. As you should. I get really roasted. As you should. A lot of your Illuminate students are very mean to me regarding my NBs. I have taught them well. What's wrong with them?

Everything. They look like orthopedic shoes. I paid $120 for those.

John! Now, here's why. Here's why I goofed up.

Those shoes could not have been more than $40. So I was at the beach with my family, my sister and her husband. He lives in the gym. So I was like, all right.

This was last year, I think. I was like, yeah, I'll go work out with you. But I didn't bring any shoes. I just had flip-flops. I was like, I can't go in the gym and flip-flops. So we went and found a shoe store down on the pier. And I walked in and I said something really stupid because I was in a hurry.

I'm in a hurry. Just give me some close-toed shoes and I'll pay for them. I'll buy them. So I think dude was like, oh, this dude's a sucker. So he brought me these and he was like, yeah, these are like $120. So I was like, fine, whatever.

So I paid for them. And we got back in the car and Cole, my brother-in-law who was with me, was like, yo, that was kind of crazy. I was like, what? He was like, those shoes are cheap. Those are new balances. I was like, what is that? I'm not a shoe guy.

I don't know. So he was like, no, I just thought they were like, I thought they were like, I would like a pair of new balance. No, no. I just was like, I went in. I said, I'm in a hurry.

That changes it a little bit. I want a pair of close-toed shoes because it was a beach shoe shop that had flip-flops and stuff like that. I was like, I just need a pair of close-toed shoes and I'm in a hurry. So he was like, all right, cool. He gave me those. Maybe it was like 80. It might not have been 120, but it was, it was up.

It was up there. It was like a hundred. That's pricey for new balance. So Cole was like, those are new balances. And I was like, what does that mean He was like, those are like cheap shoes.

You should have got those for like 40. I was like, well, why didn't you say something? You were standing behind me texting.

He was like, honestly, I thought that was kind of crazy, but I'm in a hurry too. So I, so then I went and showed Ellie the receipt. And when I say she reamed me out, I mean, she scolded me to death. I got, she scolded you dreadfully.

She scolded me dreadfully. And I, uh, now I have to wear them because they were $120 for, for shoes. And everybody, every time I wear them, not in the gym, I get roasted because not only are they big and thick, they're ugly. Apparently.

Yeah. They're ugly. They are ugly. I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. So now you have to wear them.

Now I just endure the torment that comes because you. I don't, I don't typically I've worked out this morning, so I don't typically wear them out. But when I do, uh, some, cause sometimes I just forget or I'll, I'll just go from the gym to wherever. And all the time, uh, a lot of your illuminate students are like, what is on your feet? Yeah. And I didn't think New Balances were that, that bad. Are they dad shoes or something? That's what they, that's what they are.

That's what they are. Okay. Yeah. Well, if somebody wants to, if somebody wants to send me some, some cool shoes as a, as a fan gift, I'll wear them on live.

Let us know. Send us a text if you want to get Jon some new shoes. Yeah. What are you going to let us know that New Balances are ugly? They're they're just ugly. They're just ugly.

I mean, if they want to send you shoes, like coordinate it through the text. Oh yeah. Let me know. I'm sorry. Sorry. I started with a gripe.

I'm trying to help you out. I'm about to just leave you in the New Balances. I don't want to, I don't want to be in the New Balances no more.

You stepped in a big pool of tar. I don't want to be in the New Balances no more. Good gravy. Well, well, let's move away from that cause I'm getting upset about the New Balances. We've got an exciting show for you guys today. We're continuing our series on love.

I don't love the New Balances. I knew you, I knew you were going to bring it back up. I said we were going to move away from it, but I brought it back up just for a minute.

You can't back up. And now I'm going to drop in and leave it alone. We're going to get Dr. Shah, but if you have a question or a suggestion for a new episode, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Elly Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series, and the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start, and that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things. His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below, and if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, a daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shaw, happy Friday. Welcome to the studio. It's finally Friday. We're free again. It's good to be here.

We've got our motors running for a while weekend. Y'all remember that? We used to play that on the radio. When I skate on past that, if you guys are new and visiting with us, you've never listened to the show before. We're going to welcome you. Dr. Abbadon Shaw has a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode. You can find his work on his website.

That's AbbadonShaw.com. So today we're continuing our discussion on love. We've been talking about love this month. It's February.

It's Valentine's month for some people. We've been talking about love and how we understand it based on Paul's letter in 1 Corinthians, how we understand it based on what the Bible teaches us. Today we're going to talk about how love accomplishes something that without it we would be lost without. We would be struggling. We would be trying to figure out how to move forward, but love accomplishes something for us. That's going to help guide our discussion today.

Absolutely. So this is Valentine's week coming and we're looking at love, not just any kind of love, but divine kind of love. And Paul gave a description of this love, listed out the attributes of love. And you know, often people say, well, that's not romantic love. What does that have to do with Valentine's? It has everything to do with Valentine's because unless your love, romantic or whatever, is undergirded by divine love, your love will only result in selfishness and it will only manifest its own ugliness. So you want to truly love somebody, oh, definitely go to 1 Corinthians 13. It will convict you, but it will also redirect you. And if I may add, it will also help you understand your own and others' selfishness.

You will see that inherent sinfulness in us and how much we need God's grace to love people the way they're supposed to be. Amen. I love the way you put it last time. Love isn't this feeling that comes over us.

It's a list. That's right. I love the way you said that. And it's something where, you know, if we don't have it, if we remove God from my love, then my love is only going to be focused on what I can get from people and how they can benefit me.

I only love my wife because she does things for me, not because she is the helper that God has given to me. Right. And it will also help you because we all slip up, we all mess up, we all say, do things that are, you know, contrary to what we believe about love and loving a person.

But this series or 1 Corinthians 13 will help you course correct. It'll help you get back on track and go, okay, I messed up. Oh, okay. Last night wasn't good.

Or this morning we did not act like, or I did not act like the way I was supposed to. So now let me get back here. So I hope this series will also serve as a course correction for some.

I love that. I love that you bring that up because there's some people who may be listening who are, you know, maybe several months or even years into loving the wrong way and into this kind of self-serving, this self-centered, I love you for what you do for me or for what I get out of this relationship kind of mindset. And they're thinking, you know, I mean, you're talking about a kind of biblical love and that's great, but is my relationship too far gone at this point?

Am I too, have I made too many mistakes up to this point to have this kind of love that you're talking about? Yeah. And I'm hoping that this series of radio shows or podcasts will help people find hope. You know, now about faith, hope, love, the greatest of these is love, but there's also faith and hope.

So hopefully they will be able to get back on track or get back, get to the level where God wants them to be and love the other person the way they're supposed to. Yeah. Absolutely. I think, well, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that it's, it's a rejection of selfishness. And I think that's kind of, you know, what we're talking about today, because when you build yourself up and when you put yourself on this pedestal of this person, so deserving of love, it almost sets you at odds with the people that you're called to be loving to the point where like when they do finally make a mistake or when they do finally, I put this in air quotes for the radio audience, but prove you right, you know, you almost are happy about it.

You're almost, you're almost, you feel validated at their shortcomings. Yeah. There's a sense of vindication. Like, see, I knew. Like I was right all along. It's just, it's that, it's not confirmation bias, but it's just like confirming something that's still not true. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, so far we've looked at 1 Corinthians 13, starting in verse four, love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. Now comes love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. So what are we talking about here about love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

So let's break that word down a little bit. First the word for rejoice is kare, which carries the idea of being glad or taking pleasure in something. Love does not, you know, does not rejoice or is glad in what? In iniquity. What is iniquity? The word for that is the combination word of epi adikia. So epi is upon, adikia is wrongdoing, injury, or, you know, injustice, unrighteousness, all of that. So together they carry the idea of someone's loss or wrong action. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, meaning love does not get joy or gladness because of someone's injury or wrongdoing.

So think about that for a moment. We're talking about the Corinthians, right? If you, if you learn anything in this series, in this, these past three, four radio shows is that the Corinthians were quite an interesting crowd of people, right? We had the freedmen. We had the military generals, veterans. We had the business people. We had the ethnically Greek, Grecon people. We had the working class people. We had, we had some headstrong people.

Put them in a church. Just because you're saved doesn't mean that you are completely sanctified, you know, that's a process. That's what goes on throughout our Christian life.

So you are still a work in progress or some of that, some of the old attitudes, some of those outbursts of anger, some of those temper issues are still there. Some of those envies and jealousies and evil intents are still there. And one of the things that's very interesting about the Corinthians, if I can add some more archeological evidence here, is that according to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, they had done some archeological surveys. When I was there in Athens, you know, right on the, in the Acropolis or in the Agora, really, in the Agora, you see, you see still some digs going on. You know, John Camp, the professor, he's a, he's a world famous archeologist, did a lot of work in Athens.

Some of y'all may remember when we went to see the Greek exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in DC. Some of you were actually met John Camp, I think one of our converged people. And they immediately told him about me. So they brought me over and I met him. And so I connected with him and asked him for some information. And he said, look, I'm going to be in Athens come January end or something like that.

And if you text me or email me, I'll see if I can meet up with you. It never happened because he went a different time, I went a different time period. But anyways, he does a lot of digs, especially in Athens. And he's written books on Athens and archeology and all that stuff.

But here's, here's where I'm going with this. They unearthed 1,500 inscriptions from the Roman period. I'm talking about 44 BCE to 276 BCE, okay?

These 1,500 inscriptions bragging on self. Hang on one second. Do you, do you, is 44 BCE to 276 CE? CE, I'm sorry. No problem. No problem. Right.

You're going to have to take that out. Okay. So they found, they unearthed 1,500 inscriptions from the Roman period, which is 44 BC to about 276 BCE or CE. So we're talking about 44 before Christ and 276 AD. Wow.

You can say it like that. That's a big, that's a big span. That's a big window.

Big span. But they found 1,500 inscriptions of people bragging on self. What are they bragging on? Scholars know that the boasting about self was considered to be an art form. So you brag on self.

Now here's the funny thing. We went through a period where, don't brag on self. It's not about you. Right? Gen X. Right. It's not about you.

You know, keep it real. Then we went into the millennials, which is everything is about you, right? Now it is the Gen Zs, which is, it is still about you, but it's not like you're doing great. It's more of a, how traumatized you are. It's about how, how, how bad you're doing. How injured you are.

How injured you are. So still the bragging is there. So nothing's changed, nothing new under the sun.

So it was totally acceptable to not only brag about self, but also secretly and sometimes even openly wish for the other person to fall and even cheered when they fell. Wow. Yeah.

It's like you said, nothing new under the sun. Like sometimes I go to ball games and I don't like the negative cheering. When somebody misses a shot, yeah. It's like we missed a shot.

It's great to cheer when somebody makes a shot and not misses a shot. Right. Well, you see that a lot online nowadays, like if someone is canceled or if someone is, it gets what I think society at large would call their just desserts. There's a lot of celebrating and they're like, cool, yes, we got this person fired. We've silenced this person.

There's a lot of that going on and it's, and it's like you said, it's, it's open. It's not even like a, yeah, we, we, we did that. We should kind of feel bad about it. It's like, no, celebrate it. Yeah.

This is good. This is justice. I mean, negative attention catches on much faster and more widespread than positive attention. Oh yeah, I would say so too. So it was normal for people in Corinth at the time to not only climb over each other in order to move up the social and financial ladder, but also brag about it. So it was all just as part of the normal, you know, the Darwin's survival of the fittest.

Nothing new under the sun. They were doing that back then. So the Corinthian Christians were not only boasting about self, but they were also secretly and sometimes even openly wishing for the other person to fall. And when they fell, they would cheer that. Now how do we know that?

I mean, love does not rejoice in inequity, but rejoices in the truth. Right. Paul felt the need to tell them specifically. Yeah. Hey, listen, you don't need to be cheering because someone in the church body just tripped or they sinned or they were not living good enough or couldn't speak well enough because they even made fun of Paul. They said Paul was not, you know, couldn't preach, but he wasn't much to look at either. Yeah. So they said his appearance is not as impressive and his preaching leaves much to be desired. Wow.

Paul, the apostle. That sounds like a Yelp review for some church. I know. Yeah.

Just some kind of church review. Yeah. But it's Paul, literally the apostle Paul. Yeah.

And he founded the churches there too. Yeah. Now here's the question. Who told us that, that they were saying that? Wasn't it Paul? Oh, Paul. Yeah. So think for a moment, Paul is saying, I know what you're saying about me.

That his appearance is weak and his speech contemptible. You're like, thanks a lot. Yeah, I know. Let me go ahead and immortalize this real quick in the word of God, so you can read it for the rest of it. I'm about to put y'all on blast.

And everybody else knows what y'all are saying. Can you imagine the Corinthian church? I don't know what it would have been like to walk into a church like that. It just feels so like, I want to cry. Yeah, I know, right?

Can we visit like Thessalonica or something? These people are mean. They're mean, man.

Mean Christians. And have you ever been like walking and because you got so much on your mind, you just trip over your own shoe. It's not like that. And you look at the ground thinking like, oh yeah, there was like a raised surface there, but there was nothing.

It's smooth. You just like hit it hard for some reason. And then you always look around, even if you're in an empty room. If you looked around the Corinthian church, you would see all the leaders laughing.

Hey, y'all see what he's, y'all he fail. That happened to my wife one time. We were in a Bojangles and Ellie pulled out her chair and fell. And I mean, a girl across the restaurant just just laughed right in her face.

Oh my goodness. I was like, yo, that's kind of crazy. So I remember that. I was like, Hey, what's up? And then she didn't say nothing.

I was like, no, I'm not going to push it no further. But I remember that people do that being people are mean. Yeah. And they said, I mean, David just pointed out to me that his letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. Come on. Come on.

That's Paul. You can write from far away across the seas, but when you show up, number one, you're ugly. And next, you can't even preach. This is like when like you're passing notes about the teacher in class and the teacher catches it and reads it in front of the class. Like you wanted those words immortalized in front of everybody. Here we go.

Yeah. You know, there's a apocryphal work called Paul and Thecla. Okay, and in this work, Paul is described, he's described as a short man, bald headed man, you know, kind of not stocky, but, but, but kind of sturdy, but kind of bandy legged. I don't know what bandy legged means, but anyways, and then also sounded like a long nose, beard and all that, you know, that's how they describe him.

And so if, if that apocryphal work is true, or if somebody had passed that information down and that information is true, even though the work may not be a hundred percent accurate or worthy to go into the scriptures because the Holy Spirit didn't inspire that. But if Paul's description is right, can you imagine a man like that? You know, he was not like a scrawny dude.

He was a short, you know, but he was not stocky, but he was sturdy. Yeah. Yeah. I just looked it up. Bandy leg is pretty much the same as bow legged. He's had a lot of space in between his knees.

There you go. So he was kind of bow legged. And imagine being made fun of.

I know you trying to come preach to these people, trying to show them God's salvation. Like, look at him. Look at his legs. Good grief. It's like, it's like Mean Girls.

He ain't got no hair either. Hey, can you step to the side of the sun is right in my eyes, man, right off your head. I'm sure that did stuff like that. Oh man. And then Paul writes to them, he's like, hey, cause this seems to be an issue for y'all. Love doesn't act like this. Does not rejoice in iniquity. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness and hatefulness and injustice. Somebody gets taken advantage of who's your enemy is like, ha ha ha. So you know, somebody may say, what kind of a person does that?

I mean, what kind of Christians were these Corinthians? Just like us? Yeah. Yeah.

I was, I was going to say something similar. Like, yeah, it is fun to laugh at this, but I've definitely felt that way. People who I felt have wronged me in life are people who I hate to say that I dislike them, but I mean, just when things happen to them, it's like, I mean, not, may not laugh or post about on Facebook, but there is something wicked inside of this like, yeah, that's what, that's justice.

Yeah. So, you know, it comes from a very dark place, which is not, which is not good. It's it's what the Germans call the schadenfreude, which is, you know, schaden means damage and Freudian means joy. It means the emotion of pleasure we find or we feel in the misfortunes of others.

And it's very sad. We all struggle with that, some more than others, but it comes from an age old problem called sin. But I appreciate you bringing it up and acknowledging it though, because I feel like what we do is just pretend that it's not there. Yeah. We just pretend that it doesn't happen.

Or if it does happen, it doesn't happen to me, but then, you know, you can't deal with it. Yeah. So Paul says, love is not this. It's not rejoicing at others' misfortune, but he says, love is rejoicing in the truth. Right. The word for rejoice is sukare, which means, which is much more than just rejoicing, to be honest. It's actually joyfully celebrating or congratulating or applauding. And truth is aletheia, which is not necessarily gospel truth. Because when we think about, you know, Jesus said, I'm the way, truth and life.

No, no, no. Here, it's not just the good things of life. Truth here is something objective. It doesn't matter if it benefits me or hurts me. It doesn't matter where it leaves me on the social ladder.

It doesn't matter where it leaves me on the financial ranking. Truth is truth. So it's just like, it's good. That person is good rejoicing in that, right? The person is better than me in this area rejoicing in that. Seeing something positive, something uplifting, something commendable in someone's life in the body of Christ and rejoicing in that. It's acknowledging the good that God is working in someone else's life, even if it doesn't benefit me at all. It's knowing that God is impacting the world through someone else. You're a great person.

Great. But then you see someone treating their wife so kindly and gently and you go, I'm not quite sure if that person is 100% good in every area of their life, but that right there, that's good. And that's better than me. That rejoices in the truth. So you know, that's what Paul is telling them. Do not rejoice in inequity, but rejoice in the truth.

I love that it's still focused externally from themselves. It's not look at how good I'm doing or look at all the things that I'm doing right. It's look at this other person and how they are living out what God's word teaches, what love truly looks like, and I'm going to rejoice in that, even though it doesn't directly impact me.

I don't get anything from it. I'm going to rejoice in that and I'm going to recognize that I've still got a ways to go. Right.

Exactly. That's awesome. If you guys enjoyed today's topic or you have suggestions for future topics, let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028.

You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and don't forget, you can support us financially on that same website. We're grateful to all of you, all of our giving partners, and grateful to have you as teammates as we seek to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. I got a question coming in from Caitlin E. When you left India for America, did you know that it would be for life?

That's a great question. When I left, my dad wanted me to just go for two years and do Bible college. He was concerned about me and my convictions, and he wanted me to have some good, solid Christian teaching, but he kind of left it open. He said, if you stay there and build your life and become a doctor, engineer, whatever, go for it. If you want to come back and go to college here in India or university, whatever, you want to do that. We will leave that into your hands. When I left, it was sort of like, we'll see what happens. America is the place to be, no doubt. I felt that this could be the place, but it was not as definite. I was close to Thomas's age because I came in June, and it was in July, August, September, October that I turned 17.

I can't imagine sending Thomas overseas and being like, have a good life. I turned 18. Got it. Wow. Very cool. That's amazing. We love you guys. Thank you so much for being with me today.