What's Love Got to Do With It

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

It is February the 8th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abhinand Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah or a suggestion for a future episode, send those text messages in to 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right. And you guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you consume podcasts.

We're going to leave you a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. We want to set you up for success, so you can turn around and set us up for success. You see how that circle of giving works, that circle of support? That's what we call reciprocity. Oh, nice word. Reciprocal relationship. It's symbiotic.

Oh my. You're hitting me with so many Pee Wee Herman style words of the day. Say reciprocity again.

Reciprocity. Yay! Some listener who's driving just swirly house. You put a party sound in there, David, the grunt birthday party. Hooray! Yay! Oh, man. You want to hit them with the verse of the day?

I would love to. The verse of the day today comes from Matthew chapter six, verse 33, one of my favorite verses. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.

Yeah. You know, the kingdom and the righteousness of those in the kingdom, that's not like a wish or a dream or a hope. We tend to think of the vision of heaven as the one day fairytale dream, that one day when I die, I'll get there. But Jesus said that we seek it while we're here on earth. The pursuit is happening right now.

Yeah. It frames things rightly in our mind because it says in all the... Oh, I'm moving my mic. And all these things will be added to you. If you skip back a few verses, it's the things that we're looking for that we need for life. We need sustenance, we need provision, we need food, we need shelter. But if you seek God's kingdom first and all those other things that you need, you're going to get them because God's going to meet those needs if you keep your primary spiritual need in full focus.

Heaven is here and now, and that's going to change the way that you live if you truly believe it. That's right. I have a question for you. Elizabeth and I were just kind of combing through Disney Plus, just making sure we were caught up on everything Marvel, because Marvel's doing a lot with TV shows now, so we want to make sure that we haven't missed anything. And I think the only thing that we're missing currently is the newest Black Panther. I haven't seen that one yet.

Yeah. I thought I was caught up with phase four, but I haven't seen Eternals and I haven't seen Black Panther, the new Black Panther. But you've seen everything else?

I know the last time we talked, it was kind of... Yeah, I've seen everything else. You were missing a couple of things. I didn't finish What If, but I kind of got the gist of it. You didn't finish it?

No, I didn't see the Ultron episode. I know it's supposed to be really good. Oh, you've got to watch that.

I want to, and I probably will. What If was great. I loved all the episodes, but the last one is a huge payoff. Everyone said the finale was really good.

Oh, man. It's fantastic. I saw Shang-Chi. My favorite phase four, I think, was either Shang-Chi, which I thought was really, really good up until the third act was kind of dumb, but the bus fight and the scaffolding fight, I was like, oh my good gracious. It was great.

It was next level. And then She-Hulk, believe it or not. I loved She-Hulk. Over Spider-Man?

No. Okay, I forgot Spider-Man was in phase four. All right, Spider-Man's at the default top. I was about to say, I'm surprised that you didn't put Spider-Man there.

Everybody knows Spider-Man's going to be at the top. I forgot that was phase four. I really enjoyed Moon Knight in phase four. That one was kind of a wild ride.

I really liked that one. Moon Knight started really strong. I feel this way about all the shows, except for She-Hulk. I feel like all the shows start super strong and then end super strong. And there's always that little lull in the middle. I felt it a lot with The Falcon and Winter Soldier.

But overall, I mean, incredible shows. Ant-Man is about to be hype. I'm excited. The trailers for Ant-Man are looking sick. I am quantum manic for Ant-Man. When does that show come out? Hang on one second.

I'm very excited. When does that movie come out? We were talking about Black Panther.

I think that drops on Disney Plus later this month. I'm pretty sure February was the mark. That may not be right.

So listeners, if I'm wrong, don't come for me in the text message. I heard that somewhere, but I don't actually know that that's true. Oh, 10 days. Ant-Man comes out in 10 days. Really? Yeah.

Oh, man. I'm excited about that one. We need to see it and then watch it.

I'm excited about that one. We need to see it and watch it. I mean, I'm going to see it and then talk about it.

We need to see it and then watch it so we can view it. Yeah. Oh, nine days.

Because today's the eighth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Kang the Conqueror looks really good.

I was nervous when they said they were going to bring him in, but they did him right. Well, here's the thing. In Loki, spoiler alert if you haven't seen any of these. In Loki, he was silly and goofy. I'm Kang the Conqueror. I was like, what is this clown? Really, spoiler.

Sylvie stabs him. He's like, oh, I'll see you soon. I was like, what the heck is this? Then I saw the trailer for Ant-Man. I was like, oh, here we go.

Variant, variant, variant. If you haven't watched Loki, sorry. Yeah, big spoilers, but I warned you.

That's right. Sometimes I wonder how much of our demographic is comic book nerds. Like this is Christian talk radio. Probably not many.

I don't know. If you guys can't tell, we're huge comic book nerds. We are.

If that's not your bag, I'm sorry. Sorry. Yeah. But it matters to us. It matters to us. We want to talk about it.

Yeah. You're listening, so thank you for listening. Amen. Thank you for indulging us. Amen. Now let's go talk about the Bible.

That's right. We're continuing this series that we started talking about love and what it is and how we should understand it. We're going to get Dr. Shaw in just a minute, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028 or visit us online at that same website, cleaveytodayshow.com.

We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shaw'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 Shah, the 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, send us a text at 252-518-5028. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio on this wonderful, wacky, wild Wednesday. It's Wednesday.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. That's how they say it. That's how we say it. Well, I'm glad to be here. I'm sorry. Why are you looking at me like I'm Frankenstein? That's how we say it.

Wednesday. There's no we. Don't say we. You're from deeper south than I am. Not that part. Whatever that is, I'm not from that part. Well, listen to the coast.

That's right. Well, listen, if you guys are here and you're new with us, you've never seen the show before, I want to introduce you. Dr. Shah is a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. You can visit his website and see all of his work at AbbadonShah.com. I love that tone shift so much. Wednesday!

Dr. Shah is a Ph.D. in textual criticism. It's Wednesday, gang. But for real, let's get serious on this. I appreciated that. That was very funny. As we get started today, we want to take a minute and recognize that we promised you all this story and didn't deliver. On the end of Monday, someone wrote in...

I wish I had the name pulled up. I'm sorry to the person who wrote in. They wrote in and said, what's the first thing that Dr. Shah bought when he came to America? He said, it's a long story. I said, let's tell it on the Tuesday show. Tuesday came and went, and we forgot.

We just got wrapped up. Now that it's Wednesday, Dr. Shah, what was the story behind your first purchases when you came to America? My dad gave me, I believe it was $500 or $600 to kind of get me going. That was a big deal for them. If you know anything about money across the world, the dollar is always higher.

Most times. There's also European currencies that are pretty amazing. Overall, it was like 25 rupees to $1. It was very hard for them, but of course it got me $500 or $600 to go ahead and buy the necessary things I need, the toiletries, whatever, because I came in the summer. Immediately, I started working and all that, but no paycheck. I, of course, went and got my toothpaste, my toothbrush, all that. My brother made me buy a comforter. He said it's going to get cold in the winter.

You need to have a comforter. All that was done. Maybe that was the first thing. The real important first thing for me was when I went back to the mall. This is Gwinnett Mall, Atlanta, which is pretty large. I walked in and I made my way to a shoe store.

I had gone by there before, but I was like, yes. I had seen a commercial, if I'm not wrong. If you all remember those pumps, you pump them up with air. And the shoe gets bigger? Yeah, bigger, and it helps you jump and bounce.

Which actually is a big lie. It's like you got moon shoes on. But in those commercials, it's like, oh yeah, the science tracks.

Absolutely. I've got a cushion of air on my feet. I should be able to spring up like Sonic the Hedgehog.

That sounds right. But guess where the air is. It's not under your feet. It's on the sides. How in the world would it do anything? It's like, I got to buy it and see.

In fact, if anything, it makes your feet heavier. But you bought them? You bought the pumps? I got the pumps.

Nice. Were they clean? Oh, man. I remember to this day, they had this light blue streak and all that.

And the place where you pump was also light blue, got these ridges on it. But I remember that. That was my first purchase. But that was not enough for me.

Oh, man. You bought some more? To go with the pumps, you had to have. I had to have a new watch. So I went down the mall and went to this place, I think it was a jewelry store maybe, and got this Casio watch that could do amazing things like 200 feet under water. I could look at time. You were like, there's probably going to come a day where I'm submergeable of the ocean, but I need to know what time it is. Just in case I need to know.

In case I can sleep with Ivan. Maybe see how long I can hold my breath. Stopwatch, everything was pretty amazing. It even had a little light, so you can press it and you can see the light. Anyways, I spent out of this, let's just say $500. Maybe I spent about $100 on my toiletries and comforter and all that. Then I spent about $120 or $130 on those pumps. Then spent about another $140, $150 on that Casio. It was not like an ordinary Casio. That was nice.

This was a really nice one. So my question is, do you still have the pumps and the watch? No, I don't have either of them. Oh, no. Sorry. I spent about $300, close to that, $400 with the toiletries. I had only $100 left. I remember my brother seeing me come back home with these things. He's like, come back to the dorm. He's like, what is this? I thought I got a pair of shoes. He said, dad told you to keep that money, right?

So you can use it on a rainy day. I'm like, yeah, but I need a pair of shoes. I needed them.

Sure. I wanted to buy those. I'm like, well, they're pretty cool. Well, I didn't play basketball at all. That was the first thing.

Waste of money. Secondly, I think it was maybe a couple of months after having those shoes. Maybe six, two, three months after that. Maybe longer. I think it was longer.

I think it was like seven, eight months after that. I went hiking in my pumps and realized where I was going. Went through a creek. This is up in Georgia.

This is down in Georgia, up in the mountains, hiking through the creeks and all. Oh yeah. So they're gone. Oh no.

For months, for weeks after I pressed those pumps and water would come out. Oh yeah. Pretty much from every angle in that shoe. That's awful. Oh man. Ruined, huh? Oh yeah.

The Casio watch lasted for a decent time. Maybe a couple of years. Yeah. Wow. Oh man. I've always loved that story.

I knew as soon as I saw that question come in, I was like, yeah, we've got to have that one. Years ago when my wife, Nicole, met my dad, she asked that question to him. She was like, so I have to know, how did you trust Abidhan's judgment when he told you that he was marrying a girl that you've never met?

Nothing like that. And my dad said it so calmly and so accurately. He's like, when it comes to small decisions, you know, yeah, he's made some dumb decisions.

When it comes to big things, he's never wrong. So I was like, small decisions. Oh yeah.

The pumps and the watch. But I think that showed a level of trust that your dad had in you that ultimately you were mature for your age. And I think that's kind of what we're talking about today as we're going through our series on love. You know, that Paul says that love is mature.

Absolutely. Like you said, Jon, we've been in this series where we're talking about, as we're leading toward Valentine's day, what love is, especially as Paul's talking about it in 1 Corinthians 13. We've learned a lot. We've had some misunderstandings about love cleared up for us, but that's what we're talking about today. Love is maturing. That's not something we necessarily think about.

Like if I love someone, it's going to mature them or I'm going to be matured as I love them. Right, right, right. Well, Paul says in verse five, this is 1 Corinthians 13, he says, love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own.

All right. So, you know, think about this Corinthians again. Last week, last podcast, we talked about how the population of Corinth in the first century was either veteran soldiers or business people or freedmen, you know, freed slaves or laborers. I mean, so think about the kind of attitudes they had. They were not very mature. And so Paul had to talk to them and he was frustrated with them at times.

I'll give you some examples if that's okay. In 1 Corinthians 3, 1, he says, and I brethren could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes or children and infants in Christ, I fed you with milk and not with solid food for until now you are not able to receive it. And even now you are still not able. Oh no, you don't want to hear that. That's not what you, that's not the letter you want to get. No. And then he says in verse three, for you are still carnal for where there are envy, strive and divisions among you. Are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? So think about that for a moment. Paul is saying to them, you're spiritually immature because you are so inconsiderate, hateful and rude to each other. Yeah.

You haven't learned how to treat each other with honor, dignity and decency. Wow. Yeah. So spiritual maturity is like, it's connected to how we treat other people. It's connected to how the fruits of God's moving and working in us is displayed. Yeah.

Yeah. Behaving rudely, uh, it goes contrary to true love. And that's, that's a mark of, you know, where you are in your Christian walk, where you are in your, in your walk with God. If you are behaving this way, you need to take a hard look at, are you growing spiritually?

Because if you are, it's going to manifest itself and how you love other people. That's right. You know, when he says love does not behave rudely, the Greek word there is Ashkemanoi. Ashkemanoi, the word belongs to the family of words that convey inappropriate behavior, shameful attitude, repulsive acts, vulgar actions, and unattractiveness. You know, and when the Jewish people translated the Bible from Hebrew to Greek, remember that, you know, the Septuagint is what we call it.

They use this word group to translate the idea of nakedness, private parts, and even sex. Wow. So it's not a, it's not a very kind word when Paul says love does not behave rudely means you're, can I say it? I mean, you just, you just drop in your pants.

You're just like, you know, you're, this is who you are. If you are a loving person, you won't do these kinds of things to each other, right? Right. You won't, you won't, you know, subject other people to your bad, indecent behavior. Indecent.

I love that. That's a great way to put it. That kind of seems to be the heart of it is there's a vulgarity to people. There's, there's a, just a raw sort of, just a, just an edge that's not good. You know what I mean? It's tough to put in words. I think indecent is probably just the best way.

It's just unpleasant. Sometimes you see that, you know, even among Christians they will talk in very coarse language as if like, we're boys right here, guys. We're just guys. We're just guys talking guy stuff now. As if this is how we're going to win the world is like being as rude and obnoxious as possible because that's how we get guys to come. Like Jesus and the disciples, man, they were, maybe not.

Maybe you want to have a license to talk crass and there's not a place to be crass. Well, I mean, Paul even said, you know, don't be, don't look like the world. You know what I mean?

Don't look like out there. You don't, you're not going to win them to Christ by looking like them and valuing what they value. That's right. So if I were to translate this, because I think some of our translations need a lot of updating, you know, and I think the best translation is probably the next one, you know, whoever that is. But I would say, Paul is saying, if you love someone, you'll be polite to them. You will hold the door for them. Now, this is kind of paraphrase.

You will say please and thank you to them. Not just be rude and crass. I know we joke with each other. That's fine. And it's okay to do that, but just be careful when you cross the line and it just becomes, it's just betraying where you come from.

And I don't care for it. Yeah. And that's one of the cop outs I think we as Christians, especially I think guys tend to do is they don't want that line defined or they use the vagueness of it to say, well, there really is no defined line or everyone just has their own lines. But there always is this social understanding of there's a line and everybody knows when you cross it. I think what we tend to do is we tend to blind ourselves to where that line is so that once we cross it, it's someone else's responsibility to tell me.

You know what I mean? It's just a way to take accountability off. I've done that in the past where I'm going to, I'm going to joke around and I'm going to just push the envelope a little further each time so that I can just, it's someone else's responsibility to tell me where the line is. And that's not at all a mature way of looking at things.

Yeah. Well, and, and you know, Paul describing that as indecent behavior, you know, it really takes it up a notch. It's not just a matter of, you know, don't be actively against this person, but it's, you know, we need to give honor to that person. We need to show dignity to that person. We need to act in a way that communicates respect to that person.

That's what love is. It's not just, you know, I'm, I'm going to hold my tongue around you. It's, it's, I'm going to act in a way that gives you honor.

I'm going to act in a way that shows respect to you. Well, the Corinthians was struggling with this because they were disrespecting each other and Paul, you know, called him out. For example, in first Corinthians five one, he says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife. So not his mother, but he, you know, father has a wife and the son to the father is sleeping with her. I mean, just, how do you, you're just treating people as objects at this point.

That's crazy. You know, that's where our culture is now. That's where our world is now.

We're just objects, objects that can manipulate each other or themselves. And Christianity brings a sense of decency and maturity in the world. And so, you know, we can talk all about, Oh, I respect you. I respect you.

No, no, you've been disrespectful. Right. Right. And so there needs to be some boundaries.

Yeah. Well, I think that's the thing is that there's like, respect is, is one of those byproducts of love that we were talking about. When you've got real godly love, you're going to show respect to people. And that's something that I think Christians by and large are accused of withholding is, is love, but love as the world defines it just as blind compassion and blind acceptance and support is not that, you know, there's a respect for, that we have for one another as human beings, but that respect comes from godly love.

It doesn't come from the fact that you've earned it or that you, you know, by your worldly values have merit. It's because of the godly love that Christians have within us, that we show each other that respect. There's another passage in first Corinthians six, six, but brother goes to law against brother. And that before unbelievers, again, the word Ashkemenoi is not used here, but you can tell from Paul's tone that there was a disgraceful behavior taking place, taking each other to the court. Now, how, how, how is that respectful?

How is that mature? So, and then there is in first Corinthians 11, you know, this is the passage we pastors use during the communion, right? But have you ever read the context in which Paul gave that passage? It was because they were being shoving and pushing when it came to eating food. Listen to what he says in first Corinthians 11, 20, therefore, when you come together in one place is not to eat the Lord's supper for an eating each one takes his own supper ahead of others. So the early church used to have this love feast, okay. Fellowship dinner every week, along with the Lord's supper. And they used to have a better room known as the triclinium, which is literally three couches. Okay. It was a formal dining room in Roman buildings, homes, and some of the Christians would get there early to beat the rush and get the better seat in the dining room while the late comers had to crowd out or crowd into the atrium 2000 years later and not much has changed.

No. And one is hungry and another is drunk. So while people were in the atrium waiting to get in, many of them were taking their time eating and drinking. Like you walk into a restaurant and the waitress tells you it's 35 minutes. Okay.

It's a weight of 35 minutes. And you look and see people just sitting there relaxing, having a good old time, just chill. And you're thinking, Hey, you know, you're done eating.

The waitress has picked up your plates. Maybe it's time for you to leave. Some of us would like to sit down. But imagine that in a church setting when people are still in the triclinium and then there are church people standing in the atrium waiting. I get it. In a restaurant, you'd be like, well, my family's here. We don't get to get together that much. So we're going to use this time for us.

Yeah, I get it. But in church. And so what was happening in the process is Paul says in verse 22, this is first Corinthians 11, 22. What do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this?

I do not praise you. And so he tells them flat out that there's nothing good about this. I don't like it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, that's Paul's message to them is grow up. You know, you behave you're shameful.

Yeah. And that's, and that's something I think is missing as we, in a lot of churches, we, we, I think pastors tend to talk about sin in this very spiritual sense. They don't talk about real, like just misbehavior. Like Christians are just misbehaving. You know what I mean? It's, it's a very raw, visceral, what you're doing is wrong.

Not just the way you think, not just the way you believe, but the things that you do is shameful. Yeah. And then, you know, Paul, of course, in other parts talks about them. You know, if you're a hand, you know, how can you say, you know, if you had a foot, because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body?

I mean, all in all, he talks about that every part has a, uh, has an important, uh, you know, every, every organ has a part to play in the body. But why were they behaving this way? You know, Paul clarifies, love does not behave rudely with does not seek its own. So they were acting rudely because they were selfish and self-centered people. It was about them.

And so, you know, very, very sad. Yeah. Yeah. That self-centeredness. I mean, I think that helps understand how love can be mature and how love can, can communicate honor and respect to other people. Because if God has said that those people are valuable, God has said that those people are made in his image, then we ought to treat them in a way that communicates that to them.

Yeah. Well, and God even demonstrated what he wants out of us in laying down his own life for us, putting himself, you know, in a sacrificial position. You know, he wants us to do the same for others, to care about others first, to make sure that, that, um, you know, just, just to make sure that it's not about us, it's about them and it's about serving them.

And that's a mature stance. Yeah, exactly. You know, so a couple other things to point out over here, this is a very powerful passage. You know, Paul talks about the different gifts we have in the body, how we need to recognize one another.

And, you know, this is first Corinthians chapter 12. I encourage the listeners and viewers to just kind of take the time to, to read this passage. But overall, be mature, be unselfish. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, or if you have questions or suggestions for future topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com. And don't forget, you can click that donate button and support us financially through that same website.

Every gift that you give not only, not only goes to building up this radio show, but communicating that message of a mature love of a God-honoring and people uplifting love to the nations. Amen. I got a question coming in from John D. What would you rather give up forever, Dr. Shaw, coffee or candy?

Oh boy. I love candy. You love coffee too?

I love coffee too. It's a tough one. That's a tough one. I would give up coffee.

Really? You'd give up coffee for candy. Yeah.

I mean coffee is just more utilitarian for me. It just keeps me awake. That's not like a treat.

It's not a treat. Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess so. I would give up if I could. Yeah, because you can find other ways to stay awake, but nothing's going to satisfy that sweet tooth. I'm with you. I'm with you on that. Man, that'd be hard. It'd be coffee for me. Oh yeah. I'd give up candy for coffee. Yeah, same. Wow. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear Read Today.