I Want to Know What Love Is!

Hey, everyone. Today is Monday, February the 6th. I'm Ryan Hill.

John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shaw or suggestions for future episodes, 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 this conversation going by supporting the show. You can like it and share it online. You can leave us some good reviews on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave us a good review so you let all those algorithms up in AI land know that you like this conversation and you want to hear more of it.

We're going to leave you a couple of links in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. But for right now, AI land sounds like a scary place. That's a place you don't want to be.

That's like an attraction at Disney World that I don't want to go to. It's the CGP chat or something like that. Have you been seeing about that? The AI stuff? I'm going to show it to you later.

I want to learn more about it before I talk about it on the podcast. But it's a little creepy, I'm not going to lie. Why don't we balance that out with some nice, good verse of the day? The verse of the day today comes from Philippians chapter 4, verse 19. And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

That's amazing. We were just talking right before you came in, but as we were prepping the run sheets for this week, we were just talking about Psalm 23 because we did that just last weekend in our worship. God is a provider. God gives you everything that you need in life. A lot of times he gives you the things you want in life, your desires.

He understands that stuff. And his desire is to bless you and to prosper you, to give you the things that you need. We don't serve a God who's completely detached from us and who's completely removed from us. Of course, God is concerned with his glory and with his kingdom, but he is also concerned with the things that you need and the things that are going on in your life.

When you really wrap your mind around it, that's unbelievable. I kind of want to contrast that with some sin that's been going on. Some people who have not been giving me the things that I want. Let's engage in some healthy confession and repentance. So we were talking about God gives you not only the things that you need, but the things that you want as well.

Your heart's desire. So David has— Provided that they're not sinful. Right. And this is not sinful. David has a goatskin NKJV Bible.

He does. It's beautiful. It's very nice. Beautiful Bible.

It's beautiful. We have lots of Bibles around here, but we love the goatskin Bibles because they feel good. They're great for when you lead on stage.

They just kind of open right up. I think too, if you're like teaching or preaching from a pulpit or podium, they lay flat. No matter where you are in the Bible, you could be in Genesis or Revelation, one of those kind of outlying books, and they still lay flat. His has the verses outlined in blue, so it's just quick reference. It's just a good, solid Bible. So he's like, I don't want this Bible. I'm going to send it back. And I was like, oh, I'll take it.

I would love it. He's like, no, no, don't even start. That's what he said to me. He said, no, start. I think that he's exchanging the Bible, right? Am I, am I correct in saying that, Dave? Okay.

So here's what, here's the deal. I bought this Bible. I was like, okay, this is a nice Bible. I like it a lot.

It's a little too big. David is a Bible aficionado. Yeah, David collects Bibles.

Yeah. I have, for anybody who doesn't know, I have 17 Bibles. Two of which, I think, two of which are goatskin.

Three now. And he gave me his goatskin ESV. So I mean, I'm not saying he's, I'm not saying he's a stingy rat.

I'm not saying that. This right here is just a normal, it feels like you are, but look, normal New King James. So see the size. Nice. It's handheld. I can open it in one hand. This is, this is perfect. The one that I had was just a little too big. It was big. It was tall.

It was a tall Bible. So what I did was I, instead of going to send it back, I was like, hey, this is a goatskin. I paid a hundred dollars for it. I'll let you buy it off of me for 75.

Yeah. He paid a hundred. He's going to charge me $75 for the word of our living God. Will you hand me that NKJV right behind you? I'm not charging you for the word of God.

I'm charging you for the binding. Dr. Shah is, he preaches from the NKJV. So when we are on stage and when we're leading the congregation, we like to stick to the NKJV so that there's consistency.

Not that the other translations are wrong or bad, or it's just that we like to, we like to be consistent. And when we put them in pro presenter, people can look them up really easily. So I got a Wiersbe NKJV study Bible and I love it. Only problem is when I'm on stage, it's huge. It's humongous. Study Bible you don't want to read from.

Yeah. You don't want to, if you, pro tip for anybody who's leading worship or getting into that, if you're, if you need a quick Bible to put down, do not use a study Bible because this thing is massive. Also you might get confused and read the notes.

You might read Wiersbe's notes, which are good in a pinch, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't use them for worship as the word of God. So I was, I saw his and I was like, Hey, it's thin, it's, it's goat skin. It opens easily and it's got quick reference. I was like, that would be perfect just to keep on stage. He's like, yeah, 75 bucks and it's yours. I even dropped it down to 50.

I've already given you a goat skin. It's ESV though. That's what I'm saying. This lined up perfectly. The stars lined up and he's just like, no.

The stars didn't line up. I went and searched for a Bible and you thought you could profit off of it. I'm not profiting. I'm not making money off of it. I'm just using it. It's, I'm just asking you to not send it back.

That's all I'm asking. But then that's a waste of his money. It's not a waste cause I'm going to use it. No, that's, then that's him buying you something.

Yeah. No, because it stays here. It'll stay here at the church. I'm not going to take it home.

And who will use it? I offered this one to you. I offered this one to you. It's not in KJV. Yes it is. Let me see.

It's in KJV. What are you talking about? Ludicrous.

Is it a study? It's a handheld. It's smaller. Once my goat skin, my new goat skin gets here, you can have this one. It won't be good. I don't want to, I want to, yeah, no, I want the sleek black goat skin for on stage. I'm just going to use it on stage.

I won't even take it home. I feel like I'm begging on the podcast. I'm with David on this one. Really?

Yeah. The thing is, and I love giving gifts. I love being nice.

Being a friend. This was, this was like a $30 Bible. You can have it for free. I can't just give you a hundred dollar Bible. Can I get it? I'm not, I can't. Oh, hold on. I got it. I can't just give you a hundred dollar Bible.

That's why I said. This one's nice, but I liked the goat. I wish you had the goat skin in here so I could show these people.

No, man. I need the goat skin one. I need the black goats.

I know I need the black goat skin one. You can order it. I can, but there's one here is my point. There's one here that does not need to be sent back. So then just pay David for that one.

Less. I don't have that kind of money. And I feel like it's sinful to ask me to pay for the word of God, which is free for everyone who believes. You know what? You need to condemn Thomas Nelson.

Who's that? They charged me a hundred dollars for it. So it's not, it's not me. People charge for a copy of God's word. Also I'm not, I'm not charging you for the words.

You can get the words from the Bible on your phone for free. I'm just charging you for the binding around it. This is, this is extortion and I don't have to take it. This is unbelievable. Let's, let's go into it. Let's go into the ad.

This is unbelievable. The advertisers are knocking at the door. We're going to get Dr. Sean in just a second. We've got a great episode planned for you guys. Text us those questions to 252-582-5028. We'll be right back. Good morning, afternoon, evening, Clearview Today listeners. My name is John and I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Sean's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, PhD. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know, if you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast, David. I'm just playing. Hop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Sean is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the word of God spoken into your life. And God's word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abbadon Shah PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes, but you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at ClearviewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shah's website, AbbadonShah.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question or suggestion for a future episode, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028. It's the start of the week, Dr. Shah. How are you this week? I'm doing very well.

Hope you guys are doing well. Monday fun day. Monday fun day. We are the opposite of Garfield over here. We love Mondays. We love Mondays. That's right.

Because it's a brand new week of Clearview Today. That's right. And if you guys are joining us for the first time, you've never listened to the show before, Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode. You can follow his work on his website.

That's AbbadonShah.com. That's right. And I love that you said we love Mondays because we're continuing our series on love.

We started that last week. Excellent segue. Very nice segue. Very nice segue.

Thank you for the setup. Appreciate that. Absolutely. So we're continuing this series on love today, talking about what love is, what love isn't. You know, we have some kind of misunderstandings about what love truly looks like. Right. But when we go to God's word, those, those are cleared up for us. Paul gives us a great rundown of what love is in 1 Corinthians 13. And we, we started talking about that last week.

Right. And we talked about love suffers long and is kind and the importance of patience and those kinds of things. But today let's go one step further in 1 Corinthians 13.4 where love does not envy.

Now you can keep the context in mind. Paul is talking to the Corinthians who were not being very lovely at the moment. They were criticizing Paul. They were you know, being passive aggressive kind of behavior. And Paul saw that and he's, and he heard about it. And so he wrote those letters to sort of tell them, Hey, I still love you.

I'm still not going to be nice to you, but I'm not going to tolerate that behavior. And in turn, he's also giving them some guidelines on how to be loving, because if you're not loving towards someone like Paul, then you'll have problems with love in your own life. You cannot, you cannot you know kind of categorize or what's the word I'm looking for? Like compartmentalize love.

Like I'm going to be loving and really great over here, but here is my bitterness coming out. Sooner or later it's going to seep through and every relationship is going to be contaminated. Right.

Absolutely. That's not the way relationship or that's not the way love works. You can't just kind of like keep it over here hidden and then, you know, do whatever you want with the other relationship. I think that's even the point you made on Friday's episode is that love, there's this, this biblical godly understanding of love. And then all these attributes of love that we tend to think are different types are really just attributes of the same thing. We can't, we can't separate them out into, I'm going to show love to these people, but these are my enemies over here.

So they don't get access to it. It's all godly love. That's right. That's right.

And it truly, if you, if love is in your heart, if the person is your brother in Christ, then how can you hate them? Right. Right. I mean, you have to still love them. You may have to have some boundaries. You may have to do those kinds of things, but overall you still love that person. Right. But if that person is your enemy, all the more reason to actually love them because that person may not know Christ as their savior.

So either way, whether it's a friend or an enemy or brother or an outsider, love is always the language. I remember that story you told, speaking of just like loving people and uplifting people, I remember that story you told, I can't remember when you told it to me, but it was the time you went to that basketball game. I think it was like when you first came to America. Yeah. Oh, seeing the cheerleaders. Yeah.

Yeah. Cheering and stuff. So it was at college and I had never seen anything like that. I've been to cricket games and I've seen tennis and I've seen, let's see, soccer growing up, hockey, you know, field hockey, not ice hockey. There's no ice hockey in India, but field hockey.

My grandfather used to play field hockey. But you know, coming to America, I saw these people right before the game, they would walk in with these things, like a megaphone, you know, and then they would have these, you know, I didn't even know they were pom poms, but I didn't know that. I just saw them walking around with these streamers, looked like streamers to me, like from Christmas. I'm like, why are they doing that?

And then they would turn towards the audience and begin their cheer. What are we doing? The girls were pretty, and I'm like an 18 year old, 17 year old watching this. I'm like, wow, this is interesting.

It's pretty great. What's happening? They're talking to us. They want us to do something. I'm part of the game.

Yeah. And then, so then I realized, oh, they're cheerleaders. I said, you need cheerleaders? Like these guys can't play without them?

He said, well, they play better when they have people cheering them or when the cheerleaders go around to the crowd and get them all hyped. Like, man, Americans, all kinds of things here. So when it comes to love, I think, I see why you brought that up. You know, love cheers the other person, right? Envy, right? It says love does not envy. Envy is the opposite of cheering somebody. I mean, can you imagine those cheerleaders coming to the floor and turning towards the audience and saying, we really don't like these guys. That should be us out there. That should be us. I should be out there. I mean, that's the opposite. I don't think I'll go over quite as well. So, you know, think of yourself in that relationship, whether it's marriage or your children or your family or the church family.

Are you a cheerleader? Because that's the attribute. That's what love is about. Yeah. That's a great point. That makes me think we just had a Juana not long ago, last week at this point.

Right. And that's one of the things that we emphasize with our Juana Clubbers. At the end of every Juana night, we announce the awards that kids have gotten, what they've earned, and they come across up the stage and kind of go get high fives from their teachers. But a big thing that we stress to the other kids is like, hey, you're not just watching your friends get these awards. You're an active participant in this because you're cheering them on. And we always remind them every week, it feels good when people encourage you when you memorize God's word. So we want you to do that for other people. Well, that's one thing I love about Clearview is that you have established that culture. When something is done right or when something is done well, you acknowledge that person. You tell that person, hey, I appreciate this. Good job.

That was really great. That's going to make my life a lot easier. That's going to make the work have more impact. And that is fuel. Like for a person like me, that's fuel to keep going and to keep pushing. And I think Paul does that in a very intentional way where, and I know you and I were talking about this earlier, where Paul chooses these words very carefully.

You know, he chose that word envy very intentionally. Right. The Greek word for that is zeluo, which literally means to burn or to boil.

Okay. It can have a positive and a negative meaning. Positively, it can mean deeply desire or eagerly desire or zealously strive for something. Like I can say he was burning with energy and the same word is used where she was burning with excitement. Again, same word. So, you know, in first Corinthians 12 31, Paul says, but earnestly desire the best gifts. Did you know the same word is used?

Zelluo. But in this context, in first Corinthians 13 and verse four, it takes on a different meaning. Zelluo here is not, you know, zealously striving. It's about you do not like this person and you're burning with envy against them. Now, let me clarify very quickly. There's a difference between envy and jealousy. People often get those two confused.

All right. Jealousy. What is jealousy?

I have something that I'm not going to share with you. That's jealousy. God is a jealous God, right? He has, of course, He will share with us in His glory, but not necessarily in His attributes, right? Right. So He will share some of that with us. But at the same time, God is not envious.

Big difference. When we're talking here, when Paul says love does not envy, don't confuse that with love is not jealous in the sense that love does not want to share with somebody. No, love sees another person doing great, being successful, and internally begins to burn and says, I don't like that. I want that person to fall. I want that person to fail.

Whatever it takes. It's interesting because it's like the desire is still there, but there's, like you said, there's like, there's almost a resentment and a bitterness. There's a bitterness in it.

It's like warped, twisted. And I feel that sometimes because like, I mean, we live in this or we're starting, we're really starting to get deep into this like production mode where we're making shows and where we're talking to different people about different things. And so we're starting to get into it. And so one of the things that I do is I go and I watch like experts and people who are really, really good. And there's always that sense of, wow, man, these guys are good. But every now and then I do feel that I want that. I do too. I mean, I've been there, you know, where envy has struck me.

It did it to me years ago. We were headed to the Southern Baptist Convention. I'm talking about, this is 2003, four.

Okay. And when we got there, there was a certain individual who was really being praised, a lot of accolades being poured on him. And he was older than me, of course, but maybe, maybe 10, 15 years older than me, but not that much. So he was still young, but it really bothered me. But the way it manifested itself, it did not just bother me in the sense that I was like talking trash about him or actively waiting for him to fall. But internally I could feel that I was not happy, you know, just, just walking around a little dejected little, you know, just, just not in a happy mood.

And so when we left that convention, we went here and there did some sightseeing, but on the way back I could tell I'm not feeling well. Yeah. And it's not sickness.

I'm not sick, no temperature, no cough, no cold, nothing, none of that. But just in my spirit, just in my spirit, something was not right. Yeah. You feel sick almost.

Yeah. And just nothing could make me happy. I should be happy. Nicole and I are away. Our kids are safe. Our families are watching them.

We should be having a good time. No envy, the bug, the bug of envy, right, had bit me. And it was horrible.

How, how were you able to make it to, I guess, a resolution after that? Right. Well, I had to understand what that was about. So we need to understand what envy is and how dangerous it is.

You know, John Piper said it, envy is desire mingled with resentment. Wow. That's a good statement he made. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So in other words, you have something I really want and now I resent you for it. That's envy. Yeah. So you can like something that someone has, but not become envious of them.

Right. They have a nice dress. They have nice shoes. They, they look pretty or handsome or successful. You know, you can model yourself after some person and that's still not envy. Envy is not admiration either. A lot of people I admire, you know, and envy goes one step beyond. It is desire plus resentment. It says you know, I don't like you because of what you have and I don't have it. Why not me? That's a good, that's a good clarification because I typically tend to think, I tend to fall short, I think we're in my definition where it's like I look at you and I want the, I want what you have, but I don't want you to fail.

You know what I mean? I want you to, you personally, Dr. Shot to succeed. Right. I want you to succeed in your endeavors. At the same time, I want to be a man like you are. Right. I admire you and you. I admire both of you two guys and I want to be the types of fathers and leaders that y'all are, but I don't want either of you to fail in your endeavors.

I don't want you to become lower so that I can become higher. Right. And I typically, I never thought of it like that before. I always thought envy is just, I want what you got. Yeah.

It's satisfying. Just look at the Bible. There are some very powerful examples of envy. So let's start with the first person who got in trouble for envy was Lucifer.

You know, he saw what God, the glory that God had and he said, why him not me? Which I think is ridiculous. Yeah. It's ludicrous that a created being would say to the creator, why not me? Right.

It's like, Oh, what? He made you bud. Like you find your existence through him. Right.

Not just at the moment of creation, but your entire existence is because of him. And you're saying, why not you? Yeah. Like what's good about you?

What's inherently good about you that you are in that or even capable. Right. Right. So, and then it was also the cause of the first sin Eve envied God and wanted to have his knowledge. Why does he have the knowledge and not me? I mean, you see how, how ridiculous it is. Then if you think about murder, Cain killed his brother Abel because he envied his offering.

Why your offering gets accepted and not mine, even though God told him, Hey, you know, if you do better, don't you think your offering will be accepted? Yeah. No, I don't want that. I don't want to take personal responsibility. It's not man.

I wish my offering was accepted. Like my brothers. It's how dare you. Yeah. Right. And he ended up killing his brother. First murder is brother killing brother.

Isn't that crazy? Yep. And then it's, and by the way, for those of you, you know, go watch our content series.

When we talk about Cain and Abel, it's not like he was Adam and Eve Cain and Abel. That's it. No, there were a whole lot more people in the world. That's right. That's right. So we tend to think like, that's it. You know, it's these four people, right? No, no.

There are a lot of people there. Nonetheless, this sin happened and this was of cause of the first murder. Then if you go down through the ages, you see Ishmael envied Isaac. Esau envied Jacob. Joseph was envied by his brothers, right? They were so frustrated with him about his dreams and how his father, their father loved him more or so they thought. David was envied by his brothers. Even Jesus was envied by his brother. So typically envy happens in the family. Crazy, isn't it? Yeah.

And just just in case somebody out there says, it must be a man thing. No. Rachel envied Leah. Martha envied Mary in the New Testament. Why does she get to sit here and enjoy all this stuff? And I get, I have to work. Yeah. Tell her to get up and do something, Jesus. Yeah, bring Jesus into your envy. I forgot about that.

And then Jesus said, no, she's found a good part and no one will take it away from her. Right. Wow. It's so helpful to clarify that. And by the way, Dr. Sean mentioned that message. If you guys are looking for that message, it's rivalry from the content series.

If you go to ClearviewBC.org, we can send you a link as well. That message is titled rivalry. So go check it out.

It will help you understand the story of Cain and Abel much better than you, than you may have been struggling with. Yeah. And before we, before we close, I did want to mention this because, because we're talking about envy, this is something that you said years ago that really revolutionized my thinking is that you said that one way that God deals with envy is that when one person envies another, God typically judges the person who's actually being envied. Yeah. Not the person who's doing the envying.

That's so backwards to the way we think. Yeah. That's a tough lesson to learn, but some, you know, and by the way, if you get this part of this show is going to help you tremendously because we tend to look at life as just God, I know what your word is saying about how to find more grace and how to find more strength and how to find more, you know, wisdom and all of that. Let me do it. Okay. I'll do, I do this. Like the kids love to say, I do, I do it. I do it.

We're in that stage now. Yeah. I hate to say it, but no, you can't. Yeah. So what God will do is he will allow you to go through problems because problems are the way you lean on him.

Problems are the way you can truly depend upon him. You know, we think we can, but we can't. Yep.

Right. We think we can, but we can't. And sometimes our problems don't make any sense. It's like, why am I struggling with this?

Why, you know, it's like one, one fire goes out, another one starts. Why do I have to go through that? Could it be that God is is, is allowing you to suffer so that someone who's envying you will go, no thank you.

I don't want this life. Maybe I don't want what they have. Like when you, when you get close enough to your heroes, what you find is they got problems. That's right. They're struggling.

That's right. They have relationship struggles. They have financial struggles. They have health struggles and they have spiritual struggles and you go, hmm, that's okay. So, you know, I just learned this lesson.

This may be a little deep for some of you, but I hope in time you will learn that this is part of the Christian life and love does not envy. Amen. That's right. Amen. I love that. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, you have suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. We are so thankful for all of our giving partners. Those of you who are faithfully supporting what we're trying to do here on the Clear View Today show and standing shoulder to shoulder with us as we impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus. Amen. We got a question coming in. This is from Jackson R. What was the first thing you bought when you came to America? That's a long story. Oh, do we have, do you want to maybe give the answer and then tell the story tomorrow?

Sure. I bought two things actually. I bought those pumps, Nike pumps. Oh, I know the story you're talking about.

And then I bought this Casio watch, which was like amazing. These are, this is a good story. You need to tune into tomorrow's episode. Let's tell it at the top. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.