Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - November 02, 2026


Ep 1416 ｜ Is 'Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner' Biblical？ My Argument

REPLAY ｜ Is 'The Chosen' Biblical？ ｜ Guest： Dallas Jenkins ｜ Ep 726

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour

Words per minute

178.59

Word count

10,769

Sentence count

661

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

22

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That's Hebrews 10, 30 through 31.
00:00:05.560 If we take this fear out of the equation and we give people the impression that God has nothing
00:00:09.860 but fuzzy feelings for them, that he's a cheerleader on the sidelines, cheering on their
00:00:13.940 decisions regardless of their actions, then we're doing them a very grave disservice. The unsafe
00:00:19.400 should be aware that they are under God's wrath as we all once were. It's not from a place of
00:00:24.120 judgment that we say to a sinner, to someone who is unrepentant, someone who has not been
00:00:28.880 saved by Christ, you are under God's wrath. Like God has wrath for you. You are an enemy of God
00:00:34.040 because we read in Ephesians 2, oh yeah, I was too. I was following Satan. I was a child of 0.92
00:00:39.780 wrath. You don't have to teach a person to sin. It comes naturally. You have to teach a person
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00:01:27.920 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day, wonderful week
00:01:41.720 so far. God's eternal plan of redemption still going off without a hitch no matter what in
00:01:46.260 the world is going on in the world, in your world, in your life, in your community, in
00:01:52.260 your kids' lives. God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch no matter what
00:01:56.500 you're going through or thinking, and that is a comfort. Today, we are going to talk
00:02:00.800 about two Christian-sounding myths. Actually, it's kind of like four into two myths, but
00:02:09.200 they're all similar ideas. These are ideas that are very popular to say within the church
00:02:15.220 but aren't exactly true if we look at Scripture. I always learn a lot when I am preparing these
00:02:20.680 episodes. I don't want you to think that I'm going into them thinking, well, I just know
00:02:24.120 everything. And these people are all saying this wrong. This starts with me thinking about popular
00:02:29.280 phrases that I've heard and then asking myself, okay, but is that completely true? It sounds true
00:02:35.280 to me. I've probably said these things before. And then I go into the word of God and I look to
00:02:39.680 see what God actually says, because I don't want to say something because it sounds good. I want
00:02:43.720 to say something because it is good, because God is good, because it's his word. So first I want
00:02:48.600 to talk about this idea that God loves everyone. I've said that, you've said that, we've all heard
00:02:55.760 that, slash the idea that we are all God's children. We are all God's children, we hear, and so
00:03:02.640 we are all loved by him in the same way. God loves everyone the same. Okay, let me just give you an
00:03:10.600 example of kind of what this sounds like. Here's that one. Everybody you hate, God loves. I'm gonna
00:03:17.140 say it again. Every single person that you're opposed to politically, God loves them. Everybody
00:03:23.760 that's in a different sexual orientation, God loves them. What I'm telling you is I'm going to
00:03:29.420 step on your opinion right now. But when God came to the world, he saw all of the mess we would all
00:03:35.880 be in. And he said, I came to save you. Okay, so I'm not a fan of Mike Todd for a lot of reasons.
00:03:44.980 I think he says a lot of things that are untrue, but there is something true in what he said.
00:03:50.160 The question is, is it completely true?
00:03:52.780 Is it totally true?
00:03:54.020 Is that the whole message?
00:03:56.060 Here is that two.
00:03:57.140 Does God love me?
00:03:59.580 Yeah, God loves you.
00:04:01.100 Then that's all that matters.
00:04:02.420 Baby!
00:04:03.640 Well, listen.
00:04:05.620 Listen. 0.89
00:04:06.900 So that last person was kind of in a debate with a Christian trying to justify, okay,
00:04:12.020 if God loves me the way that I am, then what else matters? That is kind of the faulty mentality 0.71
00:04:17.400 that we see a lot. That if God loves me, then it really doesn't matter what I do. If God
00:04:23.800 loves me, then he loves how I identify. He loves my behavior. He loves my choices. He loves
00:04:30.280 everything I do. And that is not the kind of love that we see in scripture. The truth is,
00:04:36.520 the answer to this question, does God love everyone, is nuanced. The answer is actually
00:04:42.540 uncomfortably yes and no. It is not a lie to tell someone, hey, God loves you so much that he sent
00:04:48.980 his son to die for you. It is not a lie to tell someone that God loves everyone. But this kind of
00:04:55.100 love is not a justification for sin. This kind of love is actually not the same kind of love for
00:05:01.400 every single person. Not everyone experiences the love of God in the same way. So let's go through
00:05:09.440 this. Does God love everyone? Let's look at what scripture says. Love is a fundamental part of the
00:05:15.620 character of God. He is the source of all love. John writes this, Beloved, let us love one another
00:05:22.600 for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not
00:05:27.900 love does not know God because God is love. That's 1 John 4, 7-8. I talk about that passage a lot
00:05:34.940 because that's such a comfort to me that, you know, so often we think that we can be nicer than
00:05:40.140 God, that we're more merciful than God. So we disagree with what God's word says about sin or
00:05:45.340 about justice or about any of these things that seem in our modern fallible minds too harsh. And
00:05:50.260 I just always go back to, okay, but if God is love and God says it, then the most loving thing that I
00:05:55.260 can do is agree with it. So God is love. The most loving thing that we can always do is be in
00:06:00.940 alignment with God because we are not love and God is. John 3, 16, probably the most famous verse
00:06:07.160 when it comes to God's love, for God so loved the world that whoever believes in him will not perish
00:06:12.960 but have everlasting life. And maybe you think, okay, well, that's the end of the conversation.
00:06:17.780 Love, God is love. God so loved the world. Therefore, yes, God loves everyone the same.
00:06:24.080 But it's important to note one thing here. The noun and verb forms of love used in these verses
00:06:28.820 are all forms of the Greek word agape. So this is an unconditional kind of love. There are
00:06:37.420 different kinds of love that we see in the Greek. There's eros love, which is more erotic love.
00:06:42.460 There is phyllos love, which is the love of a brother, a brotherly love. And we see these kinds
00:06:48.380 of loves talked about in different contexts in scripture. But actually what we see here
00:06:51.940 in both of these verses is that kind of unconditional, incredible love that God gives.
00:06:58.320 So we do read in scripture that God is that, but also that he extends that in a sense to
00:07:03.280 all of humanity. So in a way, yes, God loves everyone. However, even though God gives his
00:07:08.920 love to humanity in that way, that agape love in a general sense, he does not love all individuals
00:07:14.820 the same way and not all experience his love in the same way. R.C. Sproul, a Reformed theologian,
00:07:20.980 late Reformed theologian, he noted that there are three different kinds of divine love that
00:07:26.780 we see in Scripture, God's benevolence towards men, his beneficence towards men, and his divine
00:07:32.400 love toward those with whom he is pleased. So God's benevolence is general goodwill toward
00:07:38.240 mankind. God is gracious and merciful to mankind in general, and his mercy even extends to all of
00:07:44.120 creation. You might have heard this idea of the gift of common grace, that God has allowed us all,
00:07:49.620 sinners and saints, people who love him, people who reject him, to be able to take in the
00:07:57.080 blessings of a beautiful world, the blessings of the natural resources, even the blessings of
00:08:02.280 marital love and sex and the joy of having children. You don't have to be a Christian 0.76
00:08:07.160 to be able to partake of God's merciful extension of those blessings. So there is a general goodwill
00:08:13.020 there. And we see in Psalm 145, 9, the Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has
00:08:20.840 made. Of course, we know that that is true because he allows us to live. And again, he allows us to
00:08:26.620 partake of so many good things. But God's beneficence is closely tied to his benevolence.
00:08:32.500 So God's benevolence is an attitude of goodwill towards men. And God's beneficence is his action
00:08:38.560 of goodwill toward men. Jesus emphasizes this aspect of God's blessing toward all mankind in
00:08:44.000 the Sermon on the Mount, saying, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor
00:08:47.800 and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
00:08:53.520 you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his Son rise on the
00:08:59.220 evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. That's Matthew 5, 43 through 45.
00:09:05.780 Also in Genesis 9, God makes a covenant with Noah that extends to all of creation.
00:09:10.520 He says, I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by
00:09:15.100 the waters of the flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.
00:09:19.320 And God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living
00:09:23.900 creature that is with you for all future generations.
00:09:26.860 I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the
00:09:30.620 earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember
00:09:35.680 my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. That's Genesis 9,
00:09:41.600 11 through 15. So in many regards, God's general compassion and his mercy and his love is extended
00:09:49.100 to all on earth. There is, however, a different kind of specific saving love that God shows
00:09:56.460 towards those who please him through repentance and belief in him. And while God demonstrates a
00:10:01.980 general love and kindness toward all people through his care and provision, he reserves
00:10:05.560 this kind of unique, salvific, fatherly love for his own children. All right, y'all, if you are
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00:10:44.720 texture of my skin. And that's why their products make amazing gifts. Christmas is almost here.
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00:11:00.580 always with essential oils and totally natural ingredients. And it is really cutely packaged.
00:11:08.640 It's always very festive. I love it. And they, just like they always do, are pointing to the
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00:11:30.720 Not everyone is a child of God. Not everyone is a child of God. We hear that a lot, and it's not
00:11:37.480 true. We don't see that biblically, that everyone is a child of God. That is actually a very specific
00:11:42.860 and special and privileged place that is bestowed upon God's people that are redeemed through
00:11:49.340 Christ. Only those who place their faith in Christ are given the right to become children
00:11:54.180 of God. John writes, but to all who did receive him, Christ, who believed in his name, God became
00:12:00.200 or God gave the right to become children of God. John 1, 12. Also, we read, see what kind of love
00:12:07.860 the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. So that is the kind of
00:12:13.020 love that the Father has given to Christians, that we would be called children of God, and that is
00:12:21.000 what we are, 1 John 3.1 says. And then, of course, we go back to John 3.16 that we've already read.
00:12:29.240 I won't read the beginning. For God so loved the world. But then he goes on to say, for God did not
00:12:34.540 sent his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
00:12:38.300 him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already
00:12:43.960 because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. So that's all the way through
00:12:50.160 verse 18. So even in this verse, we see that God's love toward the world, his general love toward the
00:12:55.900 world is coupled with a very different experience for these two groups. Salvation for those who
00:13:01.440 believe, but condemnation for those who reject the Son. So in the end, we see that Scripture
00:13:07.080 presents God's love as universal in one sense and very particular in another. God shows kindness
00:13:12.820 and mercy and patience toward all people. He allows us to participate in so many wonderful
00:13:18.320 things, Christian or not. He is sustaining the world. He is saving everyone from a massive flood.
00:13:24.420 And He is also calling sinners to repentance. The Bible draws a clear distinction between those who
00:13:31.000 remain a rebellion against him and those who are united to Christ by faith. God does not love
00:13:37.700 Christians and non-Christians in the exact same way. For the Christian, it is a fatherly type of
00:13:43.780 familial love in the same way that you could say, you know, an individual says this because people
00:13:49.620 are going to have a hard time with what I'm saying, but you're a person. And if you're a
00:13:55.180 parent, you definitely understand this. You would say, I love kids. Like I would say, I love kids.
00:13:59.700 I love babies. I love volunteering at church. And I really do. I've always been a person that
00:14:06.660 loves teaching children. And I love holding babies and rocking babies. I've always wanted
00:14:13.840 to be a mom. And when I say, I love babies, it is very different than saying, I love my baby.
00:14:19.920 I do. I want good things for all babies. I want them to be fed. I want them to be loved. I want
00:14:25.940 them to be held. I want them to be nourished. I want them to grow up knowing the love of God.
00:14:30.760 I want them to be able to have access to the teaching of truth, all of these things that I wish
00:14:35.900 well for them, but it's not the same love that I have for my babies. The love that I have for
00:14:41.860 my babies is a particular kind of love of knowing them and them being a part of me and a part of my
00:14:49.320 family, not just the biological connection, because we also have the ability to feel this
00:14:54.000 for our adoptive children and our foster children, but there is something about taking people in
00:14:59.600 to your home, your family, having them be a part of you that gives you a different kind of
00:15:06.420 particular love. And that is the kind of love that God has for his people that have been adopted
00:15:12.380 through Christ or have been redeemed through Christ. And the difference between God saying,
00:15:17.720 oh, he loves all people and he loves his people. They're different. All people are God's creatures
00:15:24.680 and all people are made in the image of God. And I think that actually would have been
00:15:28.800 a little more of a compelling point for Mike Todd to make at the beginning, although I don't
00:15:34.180 completely disagree. I don't disagree with what he's saying. I just don't think it's complete
00:15:38.580 there. And I think we have to be careful that, again, just like in the second clip that we saw,
00:15:42.680 that God's love is not used as an excuse for sin, as a justification for sin, as a justification for
00:15:48.500 all self-identity and self-worship. The important thing is that all of us are made in the image of
00:15:54.340 God. C.S. Lewis that I have over my shoulder, and he's probably disappointed in how often I
00:15:58.780 paraphrase him and therefore butcher his beautifully articulate quotes, but he talks about in mere
00:16:05.300 Christianity that every single person that you come across is in eternity, either a creature
00:16:11.200 so grotesque that you would not be able to look at them because they will inhabit hell, or a 0.99
00:16:16.640 creature so glorious that you wouldn't be able to look at him. There are no mere mortals, he says.
00:16:21.280 Okay, so there's not someone that has no meaning. There's not someone who has no afterlife. There's
00:16:25.480 not someone who doesn't have an eternal soul, who was not created by God, especially in his image,
00:16:29.940 who was not formed and knitted in their mother's womb, intricately and with purpose. That is
00:16:35.460 absolutely true. But not everyone is God's child. And not everyone has the same experience of the
00:16:41.320 love of God as God's children. Only believers are adopted as his children, brought into the 0.98
00:16:49.120 intimate covenant love of the Father. And this distinction doesn't diminish the greatness of
00:16:53.620 God's love, but it actually magnifies it. Because the wonder of the gospel is not that God generally
00:16:58.500 shows kindness to the world. It's that he graciously saves sinners while you were yet
00:17:04.800 sinners. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and he makes us his sons and daughters
00:17:10.520 and co-heirs through Christ. He completely wipes us clean, like as we were mocking Jesus on the
00:17:16.080 cross, even though it was our sin who nailed him there, as that hymn in Christ alone says.
00:17:22.760 He loved us so much that he died for us, that we could be wiped clean of our sin, that we could
00:17:28.920 be made friends of God, that we could be made a son and daughter of God, even though we are
00:17:33.540 responsible for the death of Jesus. We're responsible for his perfect sacrifice. That is
00:17:39.480 the gospel. And so we think that Jesus loves you is the entirety of the gospel, but it's not. And
00:17:45.220 in fact, today, when people, the world really equate love with tolerance and love with acceptance
00:17:50.680 of everything, I don't know that that is the final message that we need to tell people. Actually,
00:17:57.140 when you see Jesus going around, as we're about to get into, and he's preaching the good news,
00:18:01.680 he's not going around saying, I love you, I love you, I love you. He does talk about God's love,
00:18:07.100 but that's not his main message. That's not what he wants to leave people with.
00:18:11.900 John the Baptist, Jesus, they had a similar message in different ways. Repent, repent,
00:18:17.560 the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, go and sin no more. That was so important to God.
00:18:24.560 It wasn't just that God loves us. Yes, God loves us therefore, therefore, and that therefore is
00:18:30.380 there for something. It's very important that we understand the gravity of sin. God's love
00:18:37.880 is not sentimental. It's not unconditional affirmation, as we commonly misdefine love
00:18:44.460 today. It is a holy, redeeming, sanctifying, refining love that calls people out of darkness
00:18:50.580 and into fellowship with Him. It's actually that it is much more powerful. It's not that it is
00:18:57.400 much smaller, but that it's much more powerful than we understand. I remember my first run-in
00:19:04.120 with kind of liberal theology was as I was either a freshman or a sophomore in college, but I took
00:19:09.660 a religion class. And anyone who's gone to college knows that it's very often the religion professors
00:19:16.720 and the professing Christian religious professors that are some of the most liberal. And I had this
00:19:21.560 Older professor, sweet guy, you know, he called himself a Christian, certainly, you know,
00:19:26.800 Southern, you would have just thought he's like your standard, you know, Baptist Sunday
00:19:31.280 school teacher.
00:19:32.120 But I remember him saying, I don't remember any of the context of what we were talking
00:19:36.940 about really, but I remember him saying, I think God's love is bigger than sending people
00:19:45.480 to hell.
00:19:45.840 I think God's love is too big to allow people who don't believe in him to go to hell.
00:19:52.960 And that was however many years ago that was.
00:19:55.420 I don't even want to calculate it.
00:19:57.160 Gosh, 15 years ago.
00:19:59.160 And so that idea in the South on a pretty conservative campus was already prevalent.
00:20:04.020 Of course, liberal theology has existed for a really long time.
00:20:07.860 It's not new.
00:20:08.740 But we think of these things as just kind of developing in the past few years.
00:20:12.660 Not true.
00:20:13.660 Not true.
00:20:14.740 These ideas have been promulgated in Christian circles for a while that love equals tolerance,
00:20:20.940 that love equals the affirmation of sin, that love means there is no punishment for sin,
00:20:26.720 that love means that God doesn't care about sin, that love means that people wouldn't go to hell.
00:20:31.380 And I remember pushing back against him, surprise, surprise, and talking to him about it and saying,
00:20:37.960 but you know what about all of these verses that say that you know john 14 6 that jesus is the way
00:20:44.660 the truth and the life that no one comes to the father except through him and isn't it loving that
00:20:49.800 god would give us any means by which we could have salvation he didn't have to do that like he could
00:20:55.300 have just allowed us to have what we deserve he could have just allowed us all to bear the
00:21:00.060 consequences of our sin but the fact that he offered his son as a sacrifice as a way to be
00:21:04.420 reconciled to him, even though we didn't want it and we didn't deserve it. Isn't that incredibly
00:21:08.860 loving? He's a perfect God. We don't get to say what is loving and what is not, because again,
00:21:13.400 God is love. I love Operation Christmas Child. This is a project of Samaritan's Purse. It's
00:21:24.580 been running since 1993, my entire life. And I remember growing up in the church and getting
00:21:31.240 these shoeboxes and putting items in it, choosing, okay, do you want to give this shoebox to a boy
00:21:36.620 or a girl? And what age group do you want to give this shoebox to? And it's so great if you can to
00:21:41.280 get shoeboxes for all of the categories to make sure that one little boy or girl who needs to
00:21:47.820 know the love of Christ, the generosity of the body of Christ, who just needs the joy of opening
00:21:53.300 a present and getting things that they need, that they want, that they can have fun with, that they
00:21:57.920 don't typically get any other time of the year.
00:22:01.420 Like if you want to be a part of that, it really is so easy.
00:22:04.680 All you have to do is go to samaritanspurse.org slash OCC.
00:22:09.060 There you will get all of the information.
00:22:10.740 You can even fill a shoebox online or they'll give you instructions, which I think is really
00:22:14.920 fun for you and your kids to actually go to Walmart or go to another store and get the
00:22:22.180 toys and get the toothbrush and get the hairbrush and get the socks and the colored pencils and all
00:22:29.160 of the things that you're supposed to be putting in these boxes and pack it together and talk about
00:22:33.980 what you're doing, why you're doing this, and talk about how this is an entryway for those who work
00:22:40.900 at Samaritan's Purse to share the love of Christ and to share the gospel with these children
00:22:45.240 around the world. This is a way that we can share the good news of Christmas with so many children
00:22:51.500 that maybe have never heard it and never have experienced the generosity of Christ followers.
00:22:58.000 So if you want to be a part of this, just go to SamaritansPurse.org slash OCC. Learn how to pack
00:23:03.920 a shoebox. You'll also see the drop-off locations. There are over 5,000 of them in the United States.
00:23:09.520 Drop-off week is November 16th through the 23rd. So you got to drop off your box
00:23:13.460 sometime during that week. SamaritansPurse.org slash OCC.
00:23:21.500 Now, here is also an uncomfortable part of this, is that God doesn't only have just a particular
00:23:32.000 love for his people, general love toward everyone, but a particular, special, possessive kind of love
00:23:40.060 of his people. He also hates some people. There are people that God hates. We hear a lot,
00:23:46.520 hate the sin, love the sinner. Again, I've said it. You've said it. We've believed it.
00:23:53.540 And it sounds really good, except it's not completely true. Here is an example of a pastor
00:23:59.080 saying this very popular idea, Sot 3. 0.99
00:24:16.520 Okay, my opinion is that a lot of that is true. It is partly true, but it misses this uncomfortable
00:24:40.920 idea that actually the Bible does say that God hates some people. This phrase, hate the sin,
00:24:49.520 love the sinner, comes from Augustine. He said, with love for mankind and hatred of sins. Again,
00:24:57.140 I would say that in general, God does have that general love and he hates sin, but it's a little
00:25:03.100 bit more particular than that. Over the centuries, variations of this statement have been repeated
00:25:08.240 popularized by many people. Some credit to Gandhi. He kind of changed it and also made it well known.
00:25:14.620 As with a lot of popular sayings, there is a grain of truth. God does hate sin. God does love
00:25:22.360 in general sinners. Paul writes that God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still
00:25:28.300 sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5, 8. In a similar way, we are to show love to sinners while
00:25:34.320 still hating sin. For example, June says, we have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by
00:25:40.820 snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained
00:25:46.200 by the flesh. That's Jude 1.23. Where the saying goes wrong, however, is sometimes there is an
00:25:52.140 implication that God does not hate sinners or that we are never to feel wrath toward unrepented
00:25:57.680 sinners. As we'll see, love and righteous anger are ultimately not incompatible because you can't
00:26:04.040 actually separate the sin from the sinner. God does not just punish sins. He punishes people.
00:26:09.280 It's not just sins that one day go to hell. It's people that will go to hell. It's souls that go
00:26:15.420 to hell. Jesus didn't just die for sins. He died for sinners. So scripture has a lot to say about
00:26:22.200 God's love for sinners. Obviously, he sent his son. He wants redemption and salvation for them.
00:26:27.980 But the Bible also describes his hatred of sinners. For example, in Psalm 5, David writes,
00:26:32.780 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall
00:26:37.740 not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors
00:26:44.620 the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Okay, so not just deceit, not just bloodthirst, not just evil,
00:26:52.480 but those who actually perpetrate these things. In Psalm 11, David writes,
00:26:57.060 The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
00:27:04.160 Psalm 11, 5.
00:27:05.300 David also adopts God's attitude towards sinners.
00:27:08.160 So David, a man after God's own heart, he wrote in Psalm 139.
00:27:11.860 This is like the famous pro-life chapter that we recite a lot, but we don't typically recite
00:27:18.100 this when we're talking about that.
00:27:19.880 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
00:27:22.420 And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
00:27:25.140 I hate them with complete hatred.
00:27:26.680 I count them my enemies, Psalm 139, 21 through 22.
00:27:32.180 This means we shouldn't imply that God's love for sinners somehow negates his hatred of them.
00:27:36.580 As we read in Hebrews, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
00:27:40.940 That's Hebrews 10, 30 through 31.
00:27:43.480 If we take this fear out of the equation and we give people the impression that God has
00:27:47.740 nothing but fuzzy feelings for them, that he's a cheerleader on the sidelines, cheering
00:27:51.880 on their decisions, regardless of their actions, then we're doing them a very grave disservice.
00:27:57.620 The unsafe should be aware that they are under God's wrath, as we all once were. Again, I always
00:28:03.000 go back to Ephesians 2, that we were all under the power of the prince of the power of the air,
00:28:12.860 the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once walked
00:28:19.260 according to the passions of our flesh, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of
00:28:25.600 mankind. And so it's not from a place of judgment that we say to a sinner, to someone who is
00:28:31.120 unrepentant, someone who has not been saved by Christ, you are under God's wrath. God has wrath
00:28:36.300 for you. You are an enemy of God. Because we read in Ephesians 2, oh yeah, I was too. I was there 0.97
00:28:42.580 to, I was following Satan. I was a child of wrath like the rest of mankind. Most people aren't as
00:28:52.720 bad as they could be, but all of us have the innate sin that make us guilty. You don't have
00:28:58.880 to teach a person to sin. It comes naturally. You have to teach a person to do good. That
00:29:03.000 relies on discipline. That relies, of course, on the Holy Spirit and sanctification and things
00:29:08.220 like that. Now, even non-Christians have access to the moral understanding of right and wrong and 0.99
00:29:13.700 have the ability to choose good, but all of us still innately are simple. Our heart is just
00:29:21.220 oriented in that direction. It takes the power and the love of God to change that in us. But we
00:29:27.660 were all children of wrath. We were all enemies of God. But by grace through faith, Ephesians 2
00:29:35.200 goes on to say we have been made alive in christ we are now children of the promise we are now
00:29:40.900 recipients not of his wrath but we are children of his love that is again the power of the gospel
00:29:47.000 and i don't think that the power of the gospel resonates as much if we don't tell people the
00:29:52.640 bad news the bad news is that there is a god who is totally just and he is justified in his wrath
00:29:59.920 And right now, without Christ, you're not reconciled to him.
00:30:03.000 You're not his friend.
00:30:04.360 You are his enemy.
00:30:05.640 But there's really good news.
00:30:07.440 There's really good news is that he has given you a way to get out of that mess that you're in.
00:30:12.900 But if the only news we ever tell people is that God loves you and that he cares for you, look, most people believe that.
00:30:21.060 Most people believe that.
00:30:22.840 Most people don't have a hard time believing.
00:30:25.080 Some people do.
00:30:26.280 Most people don't have a hard time believing that they're lovable.
00:30:29.260 Most people don't have a hard time believing that they're awesome, that they're special.
00:30:32.680 Most people don't have a hard time believing that God is watching them, loves them, is
00:30:38.640 cheering for them.
00:30:39.620 Most people already believe that.
00:30:42.180 That is not the radical message of Christianity. 0.97
00:30:45.480 The radical message of Christianity, which is different than what the Buddhists say and
00:30:49.840 the Hindus say and all of these different groups that would all say, oh yeah, God loves
00:30:53.700 us, the divine loves us, the gods love us.
00:30:56.380 A lot of groups would, not every religion.
00:30:58.540 is that, no, no, no, no, this is all preceded by some really bad news,
00:31:03.140 that we are headed for a really bad place,
00:31:05.100 we are headed for judgment and wrath that we completely deserve,
00:31:08.040 but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he has loved us,
00:31:12.040 made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved through faith.
00:31:15.380 That's the rest of Ephesians 2.
00:31:16.860 That's the good news.
00:31:18.500 And the reason I reference Ephesians 2 so much is because it's so good at saying,
00:31:22.400 here's the really, really bad news, here's the amazing news. 0.89
00:31:25.720 and it's not amazing unless you know the bad news first the hebrew word translated hate in the old
00:31:31.960 testament is sanay and it's used to express hatred or enemy or disfavor it's a large range of
00:31:38.980 attitudes than we might think of when defining our english word hate and so when david is saying i
00:31:44.000 hate those who hate you he is not talking about necessarily what we think of he's not talking
00:31:50.360 about necessarily selfish vengeance. He's not talking about murderous rage. He might be saying,
00:31:59.420 those people are not in my favor. I don't want to be friends with those people because they're
00:32:04.080 not friends with you. I don't want to hang out with those people. Those people are not my allies.
00:32:07.780 Those are not the people I'm going to link arms with because they hate you, Lord, and my fidelity
00:32:11.260 is to you. So that's the less harsh meaning of this word, sanne, disfavor. It's illustrated in
00:32:19.040 Malachi 1, where God says, yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated. And you recognize that phrase
00:32:24.860 if you read Ephesians 9, when Paul is trying to explain vessels of wrath, vessels of mercy,
00:32:30.820 the clay can't say to the potter, why did you make me this way? God saves who he wants to save.
00:32:36.700 He shows mercy to who he wants to show mercy. And before Jacob and Esau were even born,
00:32:42.700 Jacob he loved, Esau he hated. Esau was still blessed with prosperity and became the father
00:32:48.400 of a great nation, but he was not chosen by God in the same way that Jacob was. So it's not a kind
00:32:54.540 of love that is like an active violence or anger or vengeance. It is a disfavor. So how do we
00:33:03.120 resolve the fact that God hates sinners but also loves them? Are these two things logically 0.66
00:33:07.460 incompatible? They're not. God can't be logically incompatible. He is the logos, John 1. He is the
00:33:13.680 source of logic, just as he can't be anything other than love. So even God's wrath is loving.
00:33:20.560 God's wrath towards sinners and his love for them can coexist without contradicting each other.
00:33:25.520 And we really don't have to worry about resolving that tension because God resolved it. He resolved
00:33:32.020 that seeming paradox, or I guess I could say paradox because paradox is a seeming contradiction.
00:33:36.800 He resolved that paradox through the cross.
00:33:41.620 Jesus took all of God's wrath.
00:33:43.300 He satisfied it on the cross and was the payment for the sins of those who would believe in him for salvation.
00:33:50.440 So while God has a love for sinners, the only way for them to experience his love is through Jesus.
00:33:55.340 Otherwise, in their sinful state, there can only be enmity between them and the Father, because the Father's perfect.
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00:35:43.220 So we have to make it clear to people that our sins can't be separated from us
00:35:46.960 by some mental gymnastics or a feel-good phrase, love the sin, hate the sinner. I think that there
00:35:52.960 is some benefit to that phrase and understanding like, okay, I don't like the choices that that
00:35:58.420 person makes, but I'm going to serve them. I'm going to be truly kind to them. I'm going to
00:36:04.400 speak the truth to them. I'm going to wish well for them. I'm not going to yell at them, spit on
00:36:09.480 them. But again, I think if we expand our understanding of like what hatred means to
00:36:15.760 disfavor, then that kind of helps us understand the attitude that we have. We don't hate everything
00:36:21.900 about that individual, but we also can't separate the sin from the sinner. The only way our sins can
00:36:27.280 be separated from us is through the cross. Christ's sacrifice pays for those sins. Our repentance and
00:36:31.800 bearing good fruit result from that salvation. Now, we also have the very progressive take on
00:36:38.800 love the sinner, hate the sin. There's always going to be the progressive side of things that
00:36:44.720 tries to take it to an extension of its meaning. So this is a t-shirt that is sold, and it kind
00:36:54.480 of typifies this idea. It says, love the sinner, hate the sin, but then the sinner, hate the sin
00:37:00.400 is all crossed out. One version of this claim, all Jesus did was love and accept people. We can't
00:37:08.220 love people and point out their sin. This is from why love the sinner hate the sin is the opposite 0.54
00:37:16.740 of Jesus's teaching. This is, I guess it's a blog post by some kind of professing progressive
00:37:24.620 Christian. Or we have this from John Corvino, who argues you can't apply love the sinner hate the
00:37:30.040 sin to gay people because their identity is their gayness. So he basically posits that you can't
00:37:37.180 love gay people without loving their sin because their sin is part of their identity, which, yes, 0.98
00:37:41.800 that, of course, is the problem. And, of course, he goes on to say it's probably not really simple 0.98
00:37:47.300 anyway. Jesus did explicitly define marriage and sexuality in terms of one man and one woman,
00:37:53.180 Matthew 19, 4 through 5. They questioned him about divorce, and Jesus answers,
00:37:57.700 Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said,
00:38:01.360 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two
00:38:04.660 shall become one flesh. And so Jesus is very specific about this. Of course, we read in 1
00:38:08.920 Corinthians 6 that men who practice homosexuality will not enter the kingdom of heaven, that we all 0.51
00:38:14.700 were in some manner of sin before this. Such were some of you, God through Paul says, but you were 0.91
00:38:20.540 washed, you were sanctified, you were made new. The old has passed, the new has come. That's a
00:38:25.680 different passage, but we are all called to deny our flesh and to deny our sin is to take up our
00:38:30.860 cross and follow Christ. Your identity is not in your sexuality at all, period. No matter who you
00:38:36.480 are attracted to, your identity is in Christ, and Christ calls us to certain standards. That's
00:38:41.440 actually very freeing. If your identity is tied to the person to whom you are attracted, I mean,
00:38:48.840 it's a cheap identity. It's an ever-changing identity. It's an unreliable identity. It's
00:38:56.240 in a never fully satiated identity but if your identity is fixed in the one who does not change
00:39:02.760 because jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever hebrews 13 8 then you've got confidence
00:39:08.320 you've got peace you've got freedom jesus did repeatedly call out sin he didn't just accept
00:39:14.720 people for who they were after forgiving the woman that was caught in adultery in john 8 he says go
00:39:20.340 and from now on sin no more like i always see this passage used as justification for sin that god
00:39:25.740 didn't care about the consequences of sin. John 8 is totally misused and misinterpreted,
00:39:31.160 by the way, as to try to say that, oh, we don't need the death penalty anymore.
00:39:36.160 Jesus didn't care about the consequences of sin. First of all, the people who were trying to stone
00:39:40.660 that woman were violating the law. They were violating the law because the Hebrew law required 0.96
00:39:47.300 the presence of two to three eyewitnesses for people caught in adultery before you executed
00:39:51.560 them, and it demanded the execution of both the man and the woman committing adultery together,
00:39:56.560 and it was the only woman who was being executed in that moment. And so this is not Jesus saying
00:40:02.220 the law didn't matter. This is Jesus yet again, just as he did with the Pharisees, saying you
00:40:06.260 don't get the law. You're actually not following the law. You think you're following the law.
00:40:10.380 You think you're following the letter of the law, but you've changed it over time,
00:40:14.300 and you forget God's heart, who is a God of justice and a God of mercy. And he does use
00:40:19.200 that opportunity to, I think, double down on the justice of God, but then extend mercy to this
00:40:24.000 woman, but also call her to repentance. It's strange that people forget that. The message
00:40:30.800 he began his ministry with was one of repentance. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,
00:40:36.100 Matthew 4.17. In Luke 13.3, Jesus warned, unless you repent, you all likewise will perish.
00:40:42.520 this is in sharp contrast to the myth that jesus was all of this like tolerant accepting progressive
00:40:50.620 type love and that the god of the old testament was the only one who spoke about judgment and
00:40:54.920 wrath jesus warns of the danger of hell repeatedly he talks about hell more than he talks about
00:41:00.960 heaven he says the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels matthew 25 41 and he warned
00:41:06.500 if your eye causes you to sin tear it out it's better for you to enter the kingdom of god with
00:41:11.080 one eye, than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire 0.74
00:41:16.560 is not quenched. Jesus really cared about putting the fear of God in people. He really did. I mean,
00:41:22.320 whether it was a lowly prostitute, whether it was a person who was paralyzed, he would say things 0.57
00:41:28.660 like, your faith has made you well. He would tell sick people, go and sin no more. He would tell the 0.97
00:41:34.680 Pharisees where they were wrong spiritually. It's true that Jesus hung out with prostitutes, 1.00
00:41:39.700 with tax collectors, other people who were sick with sin, but he always called them out of these
00:41:44.520 sinful lifestyles. That was not at odds with his love. This was a manifestation of his love.
00:41:49.120 His love for sinners is what caused him to call them to repentance, but also this love and hatred
00:41:59.640 of the sinner and the enemies of God. He wanted to be friends. He wanted to be reconciled with
00:42:05.020 them. Any truly Christ-like love will emphasize this hatred of sin, a call to repentance when we
00:42:10.660 are talking to those who are unsaved. And this reminds me, I get questions a lot about tips for
00:42:16.900 debating and how you hold firm. In the Jubilee debate, these people who really disagree with me,
00:42:24.080 who are living, in many cases, LGBTQ lifestyles and who insisted that it's fine, God loves them,
00:42:29.940 all, you know, all of this stuff. And how do you hold the line with people that are offended by
00:42:36.000 what you're saying? And, you know, some people might have all different kinds of debate tips
00:42:40.280 and all different kinds of maneuvers. And I could talk about that and how you kind of logic your way
00:42:44.440 into your position and hold firm. But really, it comes down to do you love the person across from
00:42:49.680 you enough to withstand the awkwardness? Do you love the person across from you enough to possibly
00:42:57.080 hurt their feelings. Do you love the person across from you enough that disagrees with you
00:43:02.000 to tell them the truth? Not rudely, not with attacks, not with a mean, sarcastic tone,
00:43:08.300 but with gentleness and persistence. Look, I've done this. I post my messages sometimes that I
00:43:13.220 have where people are just vile to me and they're saying awful things about me and what I say.
00:43:19.340 Recently, it was a guy who was angry about my stance on surrogacy and that two men should not
00:43:25.220 be contriving to make a motherless child because every child has a right to a mother and father.
00:43:30.780 He called me all kinds of names. He was very angry. I'm calm in my response because I truly
00:43:35.500 feel no vitriol towards this person, but it didn't calm him down. It didn't make him nice to me,
00:43:42.360 and he just got angrier and angrier and ruder and ruder. And so just know that. Just know that
00:43:49.400 even if you're nice, even if you're kind, even if you're gentle, that the person who is stuck
00:43:54.980 in sin and does not want to believe and doesn't want to repent, they might not respond well to
00:44:00.200 you. Do not judge your love for someone else, your obedience to someone else, or your obedience to
00:44:06.900 God by how someone responds to you. You have to judge it by the Word of God. Do you agree with
00:44:11.560 God? Well, God is love. So the most loving thing you can do, again, is agree with God. Do you love
00:44:17.060 the person in your life who is lost enough to tell them the truth? Not enough to just invite
00:44:22.320 them over, not enough to just be nice to them, not enough to just text them. All those things are
00:44:26.800 great. Do you love that person enough to tell them the truth, even when it's awkward, even when it's
00:44:31.520 hard, even when they call you names? That's what it comes down to. Do you love them enough to not
00:44:36.440 want them to be trapped in their sin? I think that's what we see with Jesus, that he loves us
00:44:42.100 so much that he hates when we are enemies of God. He hates when we sin, yes, because it hurts us and
00:44:51.240 it hurts other people, but because he's perfect too, and he just can't stand it. And I'm thankful
00:44:57.240 for that. I'm thankful that one day for once and for all, because of the promise of heaven and
00:45:04.040 because of the new heaven and the new earth, one day we are going to be totally free from the
00:45:07.520 shackles and the weight and the stress of sin in our lives and the lives of everyone else.
00:45:11.760 I mean, think about how much sin is destroyed. Some people think about this and they're like,
00:45:15.420 gosh, God is, it's so cruel. It's so cruel that God would punish sin this way. But think about
00:45:21.020 everything that sin is. Think about how many children have been abused because of sin. Think
00:45:26.300 about the Holocaust that have happened because of sin. Think about all of the children who have 0.98
00:45:30.400 been aborted and dismembered because of sin. Think about all of the people who have been tortured,
00:45:35.080 who have been kidnapped, who have been hurt, who have been harmed, who have been maimed,
00:45:38.440 who have been crucified, who have been martyred because of sin. Think about all of the confusion
00:45:43.540 and the heartbreak and the objectification and the exploitation that has happened of human beings,
00:45:49.800 of women, children, poor and vulnerable people, the human experimentation, evils beyond what we
00:45:55.700 can even bear, the things that people have perpetrated against their neighbors. Think about
00:46:02.300 all that has been destroyed and all that has been hurt because of sin. Aren't we so glad that we
00:46:06.600 have a God who hates that and who one day will destroy those who have done evil, who do not
00:46:12.380 repent of their sin? Aren't we glad for that? Aren't we glad that we serve a God who hated
00:46:17.940 the Holocaust and whose wrath is kindling against the evils perpetrated and who promises one day to 0.91
00:46:24.500 do something about it. I want to be saved from that wrath, don't you? And he's made a way for 0.88
00:46:30.140 us to be. Praise God. Praise God for Jesus Christ. I think when we think about it, I'm like really,
00:46:36.740 really glad that I serve a God who has justified anger and wrath toward really, really bad and
00:46:42.400 harmful things and yet somehow has chosen to love us through christ that is really good news
00:46:48.060 another pause to tell you about every life well we are getting down to the wire with this
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00:47:48.600 All right, we got a couple minutes here, a few minutes for a voicemail. Let's see,
00:47:56.420 a few voicemails that I have to choose from. We probably only have time for about two. Let's go
00:48:04.040 with, let's go with voicemail two. Hi, Allie. My name is Kelsey. I am a mom of three,
00:48:13.940 three and under. And my question for you is how do you deal with fear for your children's safety,
00:48:23.260 especially growing up in the world that we are now? It's something I really struggle with,
00:48:28.300 just the deep fear for my children's safety, whether it's out in public or whatnot, just being
00:48:36.100 able to—I just don't trust people at all. And so I struggle with that, and I'm curious what your
00:48:43.560 biblical advice would be on that. Obviously, first and foremost, to trust God's protection over them,
00:48:49.500 but yeah, I would be curious to see just your further insight on that. Thank you.
00:48:56.620 yeah gosh i think every single mom can relate to this i certainly relate to this all of us have
00:49:03.640 anxieties over our kids safety because there are evil people out there and the news and social
00:49:09.040 media does not make this easier there are statistics that show that kidnapping is actually
00:49:14.420 much less likely today than it was 30 years ago which is kind of crazy um there is a whole movement
00:49:20.760 of free range kids that encourages parents to kind of let loose a little bit and let the leash
00:49:26.800 a little bit longer, allow kids to bike around the neighborhood without you overseeing them.
00:49:32.620 And I do think that there is a lot of good and a lot of benefit to that. When it comes to the
00:49:37.120 spiritual side of it, look, I'm speaking to someone who has to tell myself these things
00:49:40.800 every day. I'm not speaking as a mom of 20 years who has figured this all out. But when I deal
00:49:47.360 with these concerns and these anxieties every day. I have to remember a few things. One, that God
00:49:55.720 knows more about my kids, loves my kids more, sees my kids better, understands every part of them
00:50:04.380 more than I do. I have to remember that God loves my children independent of me. And when I look
00:50:13.960 back over the past few years of my kids' lives, and I think about preschool teachers, I think about
00:50:20.620 Sunday school teachers, I think about friends, I think about their grandparents, and I think about
00:50:25.800 all of the ways that God, independent of me and sometimes independent of my prayers,
00:50:32.080 things that I didn't even pray for, the way that God has so intricately taken care of my kids
00:50:38.060 and shown his love for them and provision for them in ways that I could not have even imagined
00:50:44.360 or asked for, I remember, okay, God sees them. He cares for them. He has a plan for them that
00:50:51.200 is independent of my control. Now he has given them to me to steward and to care for and to do
00:50:56.760 the best that I can with them. Obviously we want to make wise decisions and protecting them, but I
00:51:01.560 want my kids to be strong and courageous. And I know that if I keep them inside all day, I know
00:51:07.300 that if I don't let them have any independence, I know that if I don't let the leash out a little
00:51:13.100 bit, that they won't be, that they'll be fearful, that they'll be anxious, that they will be weak,
00:51:18.820 that they will be in a not healthy way sheltered. And we really need, like the world really needs
00:51:25.160 strong, courageous, wise, daring, in a good way, Christians. And like the world is scary. Okay.
00:51:32.980 hey, there's a lot of threats out there. I want my kids to be able to withstand those
00:51:37.000 because they've already, under our care and protection, already weathered difficulties
00:51:42.580 in some way. When I say difficulties, I'm navigating difficult friendships without mom
00:51:47.700 interceding immediately and taking care of it. Even working out arguments between the sisters
00:51:53.560 without mom coming in immediately and taking the toys away and curtailing their ability to work it
00:52:00.560 out, navigating the neighborhood, having to talk to someone at the restaurant. My kids are really
00:52:05.600 little, so that's the context that I'm talking about. It gets more and more, I think, as they
00:52:09.260 get older. I think that's a practice in self-control and self-discipline for us with the
00:52:14.280 hope that one day our kids will be independent and strong and courageous. We don't want to make
00:52:20.440 it more difficult for our kids to obey God's repeated command, do not fear. Do not be anxious
00:52:27.140 about anything. Don't worry. I mean, Jesus tells us that over and over again, even knowing exactly
00:52:34.000 the kind of world we would face here today, even knowing that there are kidnappers, even knowing
00:52:37.460 that there are pedophiles, even knowing that there are terrorists in the world, even knowing
00:52:41.860 that all of these evil people and evil things exist, Jesus, the God of the universe, the Alpha
00:52:47.540 and the Omega, the person who is just as present today as he was 2,000 years ago, says, do not
00:52:53.420 worry. Don't you see the lilies of the field? Don't you see the birds in the air? You matter
00:52:58.460 more than them. And God is going to take care of you. Now, I'll be honest. I say all of that,
00:53:04.500 and it's still tough for me because God does allow really horrible things to happen.
00:53:10.520 And I don't know why, because me as a fallible, imperfect mom, I would never allow, if I had the
00:53:16.460 power to stop something horrible happening to a child, I would do it. I would. And I know I'm not
00:53:22.020 as good and loving and powerful as God, and yet he chooses not to stop some things that happen
00:53:26.220 against children. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I don't know
00:53:30.920 why God and his power can't stop at least horrible things from happening to kids, but
00:53:35.720 I do trust kind of what we were just saying, that he's coming back one day, that he sees all of it,
00:53:41.580 that he cares about all of it, that he cares about the shedding of innocent blood, that he cares
00:53:45.760 about evil, and one day he's going to do something about it. And I trust that his eternal plan of
00:53:50.460 redemption is going off without a hitch. And honestly, I know this is kind of like all over
00:53:54.720 the place, but I think the only thing that we can do is do the next right thing in faith with
00:53:58.660 excellence and for the glory of God. And we got to trust God with our kids a little bit more every
00:54:03.360 day, a little bit more every year. The purpose in parenting is not only to love our kids and
00:54:11.540 comfort them and nurture them, that's a big part of it, but it's to make them into good adults,
00:54:15.680 right? And they're not going to be good adults if we don't trust God with them and we don't
00:54:20.860 allow them the independence that comes with trusting God. So that's my long-winded answer
00:54:25.800 because I'm still working through a lot of that myself. I totally feel you.
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00:54:39.360 women are 50% more likely to need psychiatric treatment and 87% more likely to experience
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00:55:31.580 preborn.com slash Allie. Let's do this one. It's interesting. This is voicemail four.
00:55:45.060 Hi, Allie. My question is about guns. I recently had a discussion with a friend who told me I
00:55:51.320 wasn't trusting God because I have a gun that I sleep near in my bedroom for home protection.
00:55:58.080 What are your thoughts on home protection and using a gun in that case? And do you think I
00:56:04.860 am not trusting God because I do that? Thanks. Love the show. Okay. Really great. Interesting
00:56:10.860 question. Okay, I would say that this logic just doesn't check out. I mean, by that logic,
00:56:17.160 you shouldn't be doing anything. You also shouldn't live in a house. You also shouldn't
00:56:21.720 have a job. You shouldn't be saving money. You shouldn't have pepper spray. You shouldn't
00:56:29.380 defend yourself in any way or protect yourself in any way or try to ensure that your family
00:56:38.060 is taken care of in any way because you're not trusting God. But we use all kinds of material
00:56:43.320 things and use all kinds of preparedness to make sure that our family is cared for.
00:56:48.080 I mean, you could, I guess, just sit on your couch, not work and say, well, I trust God.
00:56:53.620 He's going to give me my next meal. He's going to provide for me the money that I need. I don't
00:56:58.220 need to work. I'm going to sit on my couch. I'm not going to do anything. And I just trust God
00:57:03.480 that He's going to give me a six-pack. I'm believing it. There are a lot of things that
00:57:08.580 I guess you could wait around for and trust God for and just hope that He does automatically.
00:57:15.320 But what we see throughout Scripture, what we see throughout history is that God uses natural
00:57:19.800 means to accomplish His will. And there are many blessings that God gives people in order to be
00:57:26.160 able to provide for themselves, to provide for their families, or to protect themselves.
00:57:30.420 I think about Noah, for example. God didn't have to have Noah build an ark. If God wanted to protect
00:57:38.360 Noah and his family from the flood, then he could have just done that. He could have scooped them
00:57:43.440 up. He could have built the ark himself. He could have spoken the ark into being. He didn't need
00:57:49.960 the materials. He didn't need the gopher wood in order to protect them. He didn't need for Noah to
00:57:55.780 follow all of these things. He didn't need for Moses to follow all of these different steps in
00:58:02.100 order to dispensate the law out to his people. He didn't need the people to walk around Jericho 0.54
00:58:10.340 several times for him to crumble the walls. But God seems to use material resources and processes
00:58:16.800 to accomplish his will. And it seems to me that God has given us the ability to work.
00:58:23.000 He has given us money. He has given us the ability to build homes. He has given us
00:58:27.780 weaponry and other means by which we protect and provide for our family.
00:58:33.780 So again, I would just ask that friend, okay, well, let's take that. Let's apply that logic
00:58:38.640 to everything then. Why is it that I'm not trusting God if I use this means to possibly
00:58:44.200 protect my family, this gun, but it is still trusting God to go out and make money,
00:58:52.300 to buy things to have a home to be proactive to take steps i mean do you meal prep do you have
00:59:00.400 like emergency preparedness again these are just all blessings of gifts of common grace that god
00:59:06.280 gives us we are humans we occupy a physical world and therefore there are physical means by which
00:59:12.600 god blesses us and protects us so that's what i would say um i think that you're just being wise
00:59:18.080 you're just stewarding the responsibility that god gave you to protect who you are a person made in
00:59:26.480 the image of god if you have kids to protect them too obviously that's primarily your husband's job
00:59:30.900 if if you're married um but no i just think it's i think it's wise like many other things that we do
00:59:37.080 just in case all right that's all we got time for today we will be back here next time
00:59:48.080 Thank you.