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Episode 855: In this episode of The Bible Guys, Chris and Jeff wrestle with Jesus’ challenging command to love our enemies and what it looks like to live that out in real life. Through honest conversation, personal stories, and biblical insight, they explore how love is shown through action, rooted in God’s common grace. Listeners are encouraged to seek wisdom, choose kindness over instinct, and reflect Christ’s love even in difficult relationships.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.
Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, we'll do the bob Guys. We are Chris and Jeff, and I'll let you guess who's who. Well, let me see. I'm gonna guess I'm Jeff. Yes, yes, okay, anything you I met them? Oh, okay, you made eye contact with me. I'm gonna let you guys who too? I think I'm Jeff. I'm pretty Wait if something has changed, am I Chris? I don't know. You can be so lucky. Hey, so anyway, welcome to the Bible Guys. And I just want to say this. We haven't said this in a while. If you would like to share the Bible Guys link, maybe on your social media and just say, hey, I appreciate this episode. Help us get the word up, or share like a little short clip or something. Or say these are my two favorite Bible guys in the world, in the world, and you should listen to them too. I'm the friends on the whole planet Earth. If you don't start listening to the Bible Guys, you're gonna stop being my friend. Oh is that is that too far? Somebody, somebody unfriend me. Yeah. I actually had, uh, my brother, one of my one of my brothers said, if you're friends with my ex wife, I want you to unfriend me right now. I was like, I was like, oh, when people throw those. Yeah, yeah, well that's it. Then if you're not a listener of the Bible, guys, unfund me right now, link and follow. That might be a little harsh, It might be harsh, but something of whatever you feel is the best way to get by the way I can trust you. I called my brother and said, take that down. You cannot you cannot ask that. I can understand this, the the frustration. It's hurt people. And to do those things hurt people. Well, hey, uh you know that our are one of our commitments. Our longtime listeners know one of our commitments is to bring the finest news and the finest commentary that we can bring. And we scour the Internet and we keep coming back to the Babylon b one of the great sources of Internet facts and truths. Yes, if you don't know, Babylon Bee's a satire website, very very funny, and this one really hits close to home for you for me. Absolutely. So the title is twelve funny and this is post Christmas. We're still kind of in the holiday season. Sure, families are still kind of doing some stuff together, acting like they like each other. Year's resolution, we're gonna have We're gonna have family, more family time this year. Yeah, yes, hopefully right. I'm pausing because technically today on the filming date, it's the twenty ninth of December. But they're gonna hear this like mid yeah. Yeah, sure, yeah, but still it's New Year's resolution, more time with the family, probably for some people. Yes, So here it is twelve fun activities that are less likely to destroy your family than Monopoly. There it is, And you are obsessed with Monopoly? Yeah, Monopoly is by far my favorite game. Like how many games of Monopoly have you played in your life? Thousands? Thousands? How many of you won? Thousands? Pretty good? So you know every single Monopoly spot? I do you know how much they're worth? With every house and I wouldn't say every house, but if you name if you name a property and you can even give me a number or a color, and I could name you the property, I can tell you a lot of information about property So Saint James Place is the orange property, right, It is four from go, and Saint James Place is one hundred and eighty dollars to purchase. It is one hundred dollars a house, fifteen hundred dollars for hotels, and Saint James Place will give you five hundred and fifty dollars income with hotel with the hotel and six hundred. Oh no, I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm sorry. It's nine hundred and fifty dollars than one thousand, because the thousand is the most expensive orange. So nice. I thought Saint James Place was purple right around the corner. No, you're thinking of you're thinking of Saint Charles. Saint Charles all your right, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, good job. Yeah, thanks so so, and you can do that with virtually every spot on the tape on the board, yes, just about yeah yeah yeah. And then you have a speed version of this that you and your buddies play. We do. Yeah, so you sit through a whole game in an hour, but just over an hour, hour and ten minutes we would start. There'll be five of us, by the way, five so what not like two or three? Five? Of us and and the speed version is simply this when I rolled, and I you know, moved my piece and then I did the transaction with the bank. By the time I did the transaction, it was my turn again. Wow, because you guys, the guys are just going around the thing. Yeah, I'd rolled, And there's a lot of trust that everybody's being honest. Money. Well, when you when you've played so much, you actually can. Pay attention everybody. So everybody's moving at one time, and I could see all five people transacting. Wow. So that's that's the way it was. Wow. So people like you make Monopoly dangerous to your family, yes, and so this might be useful to countless families have been destroyed by games of Monopoly grown awry. Don't let that happen to you. As a public service, the Babylon b has come up with the following list of fun activities that are less likely to destroy your family. Number one, give your kids medieval weapons and tell them the winner gets twenty roebucks. Wow, that can only be one survivor. That's less. That's let's less destruct less destructive yesday. Number two, hide and seek in the Old Swinging Axe Factory. The old Oh yeah, old fact, Yes, and adventure no one will ever forget. Number three play game was sorry? And every time you send your kids pawns back to the start, you yell in your face. Suck up. Adversity makes kids stronger. That's so good. Number four acting out classic Bible stories. Oh Nan Lot and his daughters e Hud and King Eglon. So many favorites. Wow? Okay. How about number five? A Somalian food eating contest. Whoever keeps it all down the longest becomes mayor of Minneapolis. Wow? No, wow, that's terrible. Okay, here we go for it. Lure your brother into a field and kill him. That's number six. It's especially satisfying if God accepted your brother's sacrifice but not yours. And by the way, that's less destructive. And monopoly, that's right, less destructive. Number seven Russian roulette. Kids need to be introduced to the classic class. This is terrible. Number eight Storm Area fifty one is a family. It's heavily guarded, but just imagine the adrenaline rus. Wow, these are funny. Number nine family speedboat trip transporting cocaine from Venezuela. Oh no, terrible, that's get us some trouble. This is how you know we don't read these things before we get to them. This is hilarious. Yeah, this is If everyone somehow lives through it, they'll have an amazing story to tell for the rest of their lives. Number ten taking turns playing William Tell and shooting apples off each other's heads. When see how many successful shots family can strained together before tragedy striking okay. Number eleven play a game of diplomacy where the winner gets the full inheritance raising steaks. Raising steaks makes every game better. And then number twelve an exciting game a Guess which kid is adopted? Oh, it's a secret identity party game where one child learns they aren't related to everyone else by blood. It's fun for the whole family. With so many fun activities listed above, you'll have no need to put your family harmony at risk with the dangerous game of Monopoly. What other family activities was you suggest? Point them in the comments? It's so good, dude, that's terrible. All right, We're gonna get some hate mail on a couple of those. You know that, right? Yes, okay, thanks Dez for that one. You know, Speaking of games, Jesus wasn't playing around when we when he listed all the beatitudes? Yeah, yeah, And which beatitude are we reading today? I think it's the same one, Meek, right, is it? Meek? Still? Yeah? Okay? Well. In Matthew chapter five, verse forty three through forty eight, here's what Jesus says. He I just wanted to confirm that I was correct, and you nailed it. I was you nailed it, Yeah, I just Saint James place. Yeah, yeah, I was just I was wanting to make sure that I didn't misquote it. But I'm relieved that I. Nailed That's awesome. Yeah. In Matthew chapter five, verse thirty forty three, he says, you have heard the law says love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and in that way you'll be acting as true children of your father in heaven, For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much? If you're kind only to your friends. How are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that? But you are to be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I love your enemies is a very very difficult thing. For my least favorite. I'm always telling you, yep, how I am always telling you. Oh, that's one of my favorite verses. This is one of my least favorites. I don't care for this one. Come on, man, I love my enemies. How about tolerate your enemies? Right? Right? And so you just to be clear, it's your least favorite because you don't want to do it. That's right, right, That's right, that's the reason least favorite. Yeah. And in this way, you'll be acting as true children of your father in heaven. For he gives sunlight on the evil and the in the good, and he sends rain on theust and the unjust. Did you ever hear Wesley quote that verse? Wesley Woods loves to quote this verse. How and he's talking about God's fairness, you know, Oh yeah, And he says, hey, God gives rain on the just and the unjust. I've heard him say that so many times. And uh and again we just sort of talked about this yesterday, where when Jesus was talking about love, he was introducing, you know, this new commandment, you know, when Jesus comes along. You know, there are some people that actually say that love your or love one another was actually a summary of the two greatest commandments, right, you know they say they say that it could be looked at as Jesus saying like, hey, the two greatest comandments in the Old Testament, or love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind's strength, love your neighbor as yourself. And then hey, a new commandment I give to you love one another. And uh, you know, just the idea of loving God and loving others just in that one verse. But either way, Jesus is uh, you know, bringing both truth and grace, both dynamics to the equation. And so the God who and I've always and I've always said this God is the same yesterday, today and forever, right right, So nothing changes about God's view of sin, nothing changes about how he feels about you know, injustice or sinful things. Right, God's punishment for sin, his bar for sin, his attitude towards sin, all of it is the same. The only difference is is his reaction toward our sin changes because of Jesus Christ, because you know, after all, the payment for sin had to be dealt with in a different way before Jesus than after Jesus. Right, So Jesus comes and dies on the cross, so to get to Heaven we no longer have to, you know, go through the things that we went through. Now we just lean on and believe in and trust in the sacrifice that Jesus already paid. So it is the idea that Jesus has come to bring us both truth and grace is just an unbelievable concept that God. Once we are Christians, we sin and then God forgives us every single time. Yeah right, I mean, just you know, there's a reason why God's grace is called. Amazing, right, and God gives that grace even before we're Christians in the common grace areas, which is this where he says he causes a terrain on the just and the unjust. That's exactly right, and that's called common grace. Where he gives that grace where air is available to all the people. Right, whether you're a follower of Jesus or not, Food, water should be available to all the people. You know, every perfect gift comes from the Father above. God deals justly with all of his with all the people. God is kind to all of his creation, David says in in the Book of Psalms, Paul quotes this where he says, you know, God causes it terrain on everybody. So this common grace, which is like, why do the wicked prosper? That's right, Hey, life happened, and God isn't always intervening and punishing every chance he gets to punish and blessing some and not blessing others. Right, So he set the laws of nature in order, and the laws of nature provide a certain amount of common grace that everybody has access or should have access to, you know, err for instance. And so that's different than what we would call preveniant grace, which is where God then begins to intercede specifically with you, trying to capture your attention and capture your heart and bring you to Jesus. That's how the work of the Holy Spirit in you. It's a different kind of grace, but that's the grace that precedes salvation that God begins to bring to us. So there's multiple graces that God extends. But here he's saying, Jesus is saying that love each other, and this shows how God also, he says, in that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven, because God also gives grace to people who don't deserve it. Right. He's not even talking about believers here. Oh yeah, you're right, because because he said rain on right. So he's just saying you should treat whether whether your enemy is a Christian or not, you when you choose to love your neighbor or love your enemy, and do good to your enemy and pray for your enemy. He said, it's just like you acting like your father, who gives grace to everybody who doesn't deserve it. Right. Otherwise he'd be he'd be smiting the wicked all over the world all the time, all the time. All the time. Yeah, yeah, so I really love this. I hate it, but I love it. He says, you've heard the law says love your neighbor. Jesus said that love your neighbor as yourself and hate your enemy. Jesus didn't say that, but that's that's what that they take. The love your neighbor, which is a quote from Leviticus nineteen, and they would add to it, well, if he says love your neighbor, that means we can hate our enemy. They added, you can hate your enemy. You can see that even how it's written. You have heard the law that says, quote, love your neighbor, end quote, and hate your enemy. And but that's not in the quotes. Right, you've heard it said with along that. Yeah, so the rabbis would have taught that when God doesn't say a thing, he means something else. So what he said was love your neighbor. He doesn't say anything after that, so that means he must mean it's okay to hate your enemies. They put a flip side on the on something. God didn't put a flip side on sideay, side B Sideay, love your neighbor, side B. Go ahead and hate your enemy. Right. But he doesn't say that. Right, that's not what God says, So they misquote, and so Jesus goes, but I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In another passage, I think it's in Luke chapter ten, he says love your enemies, pray for your enemies, and then he says do good to your enemies. It's the same message. Yeah, it's the same messages as this one in Luke chapter ten, and he says, do good to your enemies. And the dude, that's a whole other level. That's a whole other level because love can be interpreted as an emotion. Oh yeah, okay, I don't hate my enemies. That must mean I love them, right, right, I'm such a good Christian. But you but that's unprovable. Yeah. But the thing is is love is not proved with words, right, It's proven by action. And so we've taught this a million times. When Jesus says love the poor, he doesn't mean emotionally, right, he means go and serve them, because he you know, he definitely describes in his word over and over and over how love is proven with action, right and and and so yeah, loving is an action word. It's a verb. And so, uh, the only way to prove your love is to show it by action. So, you know, loving your enemies means that other people have to see and your enemies therefore have to see, and that can that could include your reactions to them, you know, by by not responding with such hatred in your in your response to them, showing love through your words, or showing love through your attitude, and certainly showing love through serving them. So have you ever like on a modern day example, can you think of I mean not that I want you to mention your enemies in the microphone. But oh I was just about ready to list them all. That's so funny. Well we only have just a few more minutes. But uh, there you go. You don't have enough time. But but can you think of a modern day example of someone that you would probably consider an enemy where you have done something to go over and above to express love and Christian Christian love? Can you think of something? Yeah, let me think I can think of something by text? Can you sure? No? I can't, Oh you can't, No, no, no. Somebody texted me something and I felt like I have the right to respond and say what are you thinking? Like like the last time we texted, we talked about how this is not correct, You've done me wrong, right, Like that's our last conversation. It was years ago, right, And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, they texted, and I'm like, I have every right to express you know, let's talk, let's talk about the injustice that was done right, but instead I responded in kindness. And actually, you're the one that told me to do that, you said, you said, be vague, you said, but but be kind, And that way, nobody can ever say anything against my care. Yeah. Right. I had recently somebody that I felt like I knew well that really came after me and my family in a shocking way, shocking way, incomprehensible way, like if I was going to write a horror story kind of situation and the failure of a relationship kind of thing, that this is something I would write. And it was just so devastating and very vitriolic and an incredibly divisive and I just realized, you know the phrase, and we've taught this before, hurt people, hurt people. I realized, Okay, there's a lot of pain back there that I don't totally comprehend. And for whatever reason, every time before I talk to this person, I'd pray, God just give me wisdom and discernment and a heart like Jesus. And so instead of going after this person and trying to argue you every point, I really felt like the Lord just kept leading me to be kind as much as possible and try to work for them. So I would before we would end any conversation and say, well, let me know what can I do for you? Or if they made some demand or some request, I would say, you know what, I'm going to do the best I can to try to figure out how to make that happen. And every single thing they asked for except one, every single thing that they asked for, I found a way to make happen by leveraging my relationships with other people who they were also offended by, right right in order to be able to work for their benefit in that situation. And I mentioned to this person, listen, I'm praying for you, praying for your family and alls we got paid to us. I think was negative and hurtful, but my conscience is clear and knowing that I didn't say anything negative or hurtful back. And the one thing I couldn't give them, I just couldn't give them, But I gave them everything else I could, And I did good when I didn't have to, right, I went beyond when I didn't have to, and I tried to encourage and lead my family do the same. And on the front end, my family didn't want to do the same. On the front end, people in my family wanted to punish back in the way that they were being punished right. But now on the back side of this, people are walking with a relatively clear conscience and knowing, Hey, we did the best we could, and not only that, we've left the door open now perhaps for reconciliation because we didn't burn those bridges right. Then later on I wind up getting another message from somebody associated with that that was very angry, how dare you give me all these accusations come after me really really hard, And somebody else was included in that chain of messages, and my reply back was I'm so sorry, you're hurting so bad, and I just want you to know I love you. If you ever want to talk without arguing details, I'm I'm heavy tough. So instead of me proving why they were wrong in all those issues or justifying myself, I just acknowledged, Hey, there's a lot of pain going on. Let's stop hurting each other. And yeah, I think that that's practical application for what Jesus is saying here. Pray for them. I can. I can say I love you, there's no proof and really me claiming I love you without proof is me claiming I'm better than you a little bit? Oh I love you, Oh I do love you. How nobody knows right? Right? Pray for them? Well, my temptation is God, kill them, y, God, punish them, let them know how horrible they are. Right, that's our temptation. If Jesus just left it there. But when you get in there a little further and Jesus says, and do good to them, do good to your enemies. Well, now, all of a sudden, that's a whole other level. Where does God so loved the world that he gave right? We love and so we serve a generous God, and so we should be generous to others. We serve a God that gives grace when we don't deserve it. We should give grace when they don't deserve it. And the way we can do that is by actively working for their betterment, not just praying for God's judgment, but working for their betterment. And there's something about that. I was talking to you earlier about a situation in my life where I really felt like God set me free from a situation when I showed up and did for others when that person never was able to do it for me, and I felt like I was that beat down little kid prior. And I discovered when I showed up that I was a man that wasn't going to be that guy. I was going to go Jesus way instead. And there's tremendous fame. It doesn't make any logical sense on the front end, and there's so much freedom just on the other side of that. And that's why Jesus saying you're blessed. The best life you want to live is when you go down this path, right, and this one is the meekness path. Right when when we choose meekness instead. Of which which again is strength under control, strength under control, because strength is I have all the ammunition to debate back with you, I have all the right to say no to you. I have all the right to put you in your place. I mean, all the all the things right, But instead you choose love. Instead, choose love forgiveness, kindness, mercy, and and and and it shows the strength and the power of God's love because ultimately God is glorified in that yes, right, because because you know the apostle Paul says, it's not by our strength we do any of those things, because nothing good lives in me, right, but only the power of Christ within me. That's the only good thing. And so yeah, so God is ultimately glorified. But in the end, uh, you know, you're you're gonna benefit, You're gonna you're gonna live the rest of your life knowing that. That's how you react it. We all want to be blessed, Yeah, right, everybody, everybody in the back row, everybody wants to be blessed. Raise your hand, right, everybody's gonna raise their hand. We all want to be blessed. And then he goes on for the next three chapters and writes a manifesto of what it means to be one of his followers. You will do this, you will not do this. And by the way, and that's why I say, the beginning of the book, or the beginning of the message is bless bless blessed. But you can be blessed for you, this way, blessed for you, this way, bless All the rest is just a manifesto explaining how that blessing happens. And it's so countercultural. It's almost always the opposite of my instincts. And all I can say is when you have the guts to go against your instinct and to try Jesus' way, It's like a breath of fresh air and the sunshine comes back out on the other side of that horrible moment and you just you feel free every time, whether it's a forgiveness thing or it's doing good to somebody who's doing bad to you, praying for them, loving them, you come out on the other side. And so how do you know when, Because you know, we can get into situational things and that's useful, but it's situational instead. James says, if anybody lacks wisdom, let him mask go. God, who gives generously to everybody, doesn't hold back from anybody. So I would say, if you don't even know what to pray every day, you should be praying every day. You should be praying multiple times a day. If you don't want to pray, just say God, I need wisdom and discernment. God, I need wisdom in deterrement. I prayed it today. I had lunch with a guy today and I prayed it in my prayer. Lord, thank you for my friend that if there's food, give us wisdom and discernment. Move on. He goes, I've heard you say you pray for that all the time. I said, I do all the time. He said, I've started praying for wisdom to deterernment all the time too. I've got a question. Then, he says, when when somebody's asking me for money and I don't know whether I should do it, how do you know if she should get money? And I said, well, tell me the situation tells me situation. So what'd you do? He said? This is what I did. I said, why'd you do that? He said, just felt like I should do it. I said, how often you've been praying God give you wisdom and to decernment? He said for months. I said, well, then I think God gave you wisdom and discernment right in that moment, right, so when you ask for it, God does it right, he does, And it's the same thing, wisdom to discernment. You don't know how to apply these things, but under pressure either. You only believe these things if you can function under pressure with them. And the only way you can do that is that wisdom and discernment. To see it from God's perspective and then act like he would, he would behave Well Hey, that is definitely our time, so thank you for tuning in and hopefully we will see you back on Monday on the Bible Guys,