Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
Murders, Drunkenness and Revelings, Oh My! | Walking in the Spirit | Bible, Bros & Brew
Murder is by far the most obvious "work of the flesh" listed in Galatians 5:19-21, so it can be easy to skim over it for that very reason. Interestingly enough, there's more to this word than meets the eye when you begin to study it in the Word of God. In this latest installment of our series titled "Walking in the Spirit", David and Phil take a closer look at the true root and nature of murder as defined by the scriptures. In addition, they also cover the last two items on the list of the works of the flesh: Drunkenness and revellings. So grab your bible and a cup of warm brew, and join us as we continue making our way through this eye-opening study.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
On this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. We're going to continue in our theme of walking in the Spirit and we're going to finally wrap up that list that we've been on from Paul in Galatians 5 of the works of the flesh, so we can learn a little bit more about the things that we need to avoid Up next. Stay tuned, hey guys. Welcome to Bible Bros and Brew.
Speaker 2:Sorry for, okay, we always end up cracking up, live your best life.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I got. I was in a 90s hip-hop theme for a minute there and I had to kind of pull myself back, so, but anyway, we want to just first of all welcome you to the podcast and say we're glad to have you listening and watching. My name is Philip and of course, with me to my left, your right, I guess, would be David, and then a little further down is Ryan. We're here to the point.
Speaker 1:Game is a pretty serious situation, man.
Speaker 1:It's like how the people used to have to do the weather where they'd have to point, you know Right. So anyway, we've been talking about the theme of walking in the spirit, and we've been on this for several weeks now, just going through the list of items that Paul had in Galatians, chapter five, when he talked about the works of the flesh, and of course we're coming at it from the angle of here's some things that you can identify that are definitely not walking in the spirit, and so and that's pretty much a lot of times how you can help define something is also learning what it's not. So we wanted to spend some time to talk about that battle of walking in the spirit versus, you know, leaning towards the lust of the flesh and what the differences are, and so forth. And so, with that, we've been making our way through, slowly but surely, with that list that Paul had in Galatians 5. So, but before we get further into that, let's talk about what is in the cup. Let's see. Ryan, would you mind telling us what you're brewing up, sir?
Speaker 3:Well I am doing I'm back to the Pete's, we're back to the Pete's and we've got the Big Bang, and for the Big Bang we've got the big box of K-Coats. Yes, sir, that is a big box. The Big Bang is a signature blend for Pete. It is vibrant, full-flavored and boldly original.
Speaker 1:Yes, loving it, dude David. How about yourself, sir, what you got going on?
Speaker 2:Tonight, as I search the world for fresh new coffees to introduce the peoples to, I have found a local brewery that just opened up by our house, just up the corner, called Sangster's Coffee Shop. And so tonight I am trying their house blend. It's a light roast, jamaican and central. Oh, I don't know what word that is. What is that word? It's central somewhere. Nice, if you could make it out, hold on, it should be here we go Central. Oh, my goodness, that looked like Central Korea to me but it's Sonoya but no, that's not right or something like that.
Speaker 2:But, as you can see, its taste notes are nutty and cherries and honestly, you guys, I'm feeling the cherries here. I told you, I think I said last week, that I am not a cherry guy. That's Philip's realm. But these cherries are actually, you know it's like, and when I say I'm not a cherry guy, I'm not a red cherry guy, I don't like maraschino cherries.
Speaker 2:But the black cherries like we used to have on the tree. We used to have a cherry tree when I lived in germany and it had the black cherries on it and I lived under that tree eating black cherries that popped off.
Speaker 2:So black cherries I love, but this is a nice sweet taste. Um, I haven't found the nuttiness for the sweet, and that's weird for a coffee to taste kind of so sweet and yet not be. You know, I've got my little bit of sugar in it, which I don't usually do a lot of sugar. But it's very interesting and I'm finding it quite an enjoyable drink.
Speaker 2:My conversation is going to be on fleek, as they used to say Partially because my coffee is on point, as they used to say, as the kids are saying these days, or maybe a few years ago that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1:I of course have to flex the new Peregrine bag once again for this episode here.
Speaker 2:Boy, you be buying that peregrine up like you got stock.
Speaker 1:It's. I don't know what spiritual condition I'm in at this point where this is concerned, but I just really like this coffee. So, but this is actually called the Costa Rica. Let's see how do I do that. There we go. Notes of brown sugar, churro and oatmeal cookie. Very nice coffee, very flavorful in terms of like the different kind of details and little fine points and all that good stuff like that. It's like a smorgasbord of coffee goodness in one cup. And, of course, my Spider-Man situation here, which I'm very happy about.
Speaker 2:There's a little goofy for you. I forgot to share goofy with you.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that is dope. I love the gorsh. That's really cool, man. I love it. Dude, that's awesome. All right, man. Well, so we've learned what's in the cup.
Speaker 1:Now let's continue with what's in the word. We're going to pick up right where we left off. We had almost made our way to the very end of that list in Galatians 5 when it was talking about the works of the flesh. So we'll go ahead and start there in Galatians 5. And just to give a little bit of context, we've been the overarching arching.
Speaker 1:Whatever theme that we've been on has been verses 16, through the end of the chapter, because that really is where Paul illustrates the whole business of walking in the spirit versus fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And just as a quick reminder, he said in verse 17, that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. So we see right off the bat that there's a constant conflict that all of us who are human beings are going to have some level of issues dealing with at times, even though we're born again, even though we've received Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. The Bible makes it plain right here, as a letter addressed to New Testament Christians, that you will still have to deal with this wrestling match between the spirit and the flesh. Now there is a certain amount of I don't know what to call it spiritual maturity that you can attain to to where those battles become easier to win. You can attain to to where those battles become easier to win.
Speaker 1:But believe me when I say, when you're first kind of starting out on your journey, you're starting to get rid of some of the things that maybe you used to do just as habit, that were more flesh led or carnal and that kind of thing. You're going to run into all kinds of stuff in terms of having to resist temptation, having to put things down that are desires that you know are not godly, those things like that and so. But after a while it's like any other thing where, if you train long enough, you can begin to develop a resistance to those things. It's very similar to like weightlifting and that kind of stuff. Let's say you're starting out trying to bench, you know, 200 pounds. Whatever the first time you try it. It may be the biggest struggle of your life or whatever. But then as you continue to work that out and just continue to make your best effort, after a while those muscles break down and then build up back stronger. They continue to break down and build up stronger until after a while you've developed that strength necessary to push that heavier weight.
Speaker 1:And it's really very similar with operating in the things of the spirit, as Hebrews 5 talks about. It says that those who are feeding on strong meat, talking about the word of God, those who feed on the strong meat of the word, not just the milk, he says, after a while your senses become trained to determine or distinguish between good and evil. That comes over time. It comes by being a doer of the word, being more and more consistent with choosing the things of God over the things of the flesh. And after a while you start developing kind of a sensitivity about it, like, ok, that can't be from God. Even though I may not have an explicit written command to do or not do this thing, I can. I can discern it after a while that I probably shouldn't go that route. You know those kinds of things. So before I get too far off on my theme, though I definitely wanted to just reemphasize that that battle is a real thing. Every Christian deals with it. David, any comments on that part of it?
Speaker 2:No, no, just two things kind of popped in my mind while you're talking, and it's once again. It's why we emphasize so much, and we'll say it over and over again, that your study of the word is really critical, because you can't, you can't develop that muscle Without that word, you can't develop the, even even the sense of. You know the Bible teaches us right from wrong, but you won't even have a sense of right and wrong in this world system just by living. You need God's word to help you discern, or to what's that word, that to differentiate.
Speaker 2:if you will to cut, to separate between good and evil and what's righteous in God's eyes, and you know it's important to say that it's not just what's right but what's righteous in God's eyes versus what's acceptable to this world. The other thing that I was thinking about, philip, as you were reading through that Galatians, I just happened to take a look at the New Living Translation and I love verse 17. There it says these two forces are constantly fighting. In the New Living Translation it says these two forces are constantly fighting each other so you are not free to carry out your good intentions wow
Speaker 2:and um, it was good to look at that other translation and see that, because it just it reminds me again of how we walk through Romans and Romans 6, 7, and 8 and that whole concept. There we have good intentions to do the right thing. My good intention is to go to dinner. You went out on the date with that girl and your intention was just to go to dinner and a movie and that was it. But somehow or another you ended up in her bed.
Speaker 2:Part of it is the war of the flesh here that you're dealing with. That doesn't allow you to do your good intentions. You need jesus to help you do good in this right. That's good dav.
Speaker 1:That's good, david, that's good. And speaking of doing good, there is a list given by Paul that makes it plain and very obvious as to what's not good. That's kind of my segue into this. But he puts this list out there, I believe, for a very specific reason. He's like okay, if you find yourself doing these things, you can't say that you're walking in the spirit. It's just, you know, the two are incompatible completely. And so, ryan, if you don't mind, we'll go to that Galatians 5 list.
Speaker 1:And I like how Paul starts it off. He says in verse 19, now the works of the flesh are manifest. Now, the word manifest there means obvious. He's saying the works of the flesh are obvious. This is not a mystery for anybody who is discerning. It says which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, which we talked about, all these in previous podcasts. So definitely go back and check up on the ones we've done leading up to this podcast. I think it'll really bless you. Then we get down to wrath and strife, seditions, heresies, and we basically ended up on envying in our last episode, kind of touching on that. But then I remember we kind of stopped before the murders and then we didn't want to go too far over time and kind of just skim over that. So, david, I think this is oddly enough where we should start tonight with murders. It sounds pretty serious so what's your take on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a fascinating little piece here because I want to start with the reality that if you look at the, at other translations like Ryan, if you'll bring up that list you've got if you look at other translations of the Bible outside of the King James and the New King James, the word murderers is left out or murderers, not murderers, but it takes somebody to commit a murder.
Speaker 2:So, um, but murders is left out of other translations. So that left led me to do a little digging, because there's something we also missed, another word that we didn't cover, that was included for the same reason in the King James and New King James and not in other translations, and that's the word adultery. And so the reason why these words are left out of these translations has to do with the original manuscripts that they came from, what's called the Textus Receptus. No, I did not just make that up, that really is the name of something. It's Greek, as you can probably imagine. The Textus Receptus includes the word murders in the list of the works of the flesh. However, other manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vitanicus that's Vatican with an S on the end- Okay, okay, that's Vatican with an us on the end.
Speaker 2:Okay, codex botanicus omits the word murderers, leading to some of the modern translations. Some people believe that murderers was added in later in those transcripts to align with other lists of similar sins, for example in Revelations 21,. Romans has another one as well, paul's different list, and we even looked at some of those lists so you can go back and listen to those episodes. But this isn't the first time Paul has made a list of sins or bad behavior and they're all kind of different, and so some people believe that it was added later in the manuscript so that it would align with some of Paul's other lists, like in Romans 129. However, some believe that the reason why the omission in early copies is that it was unintentionally skipped in the early copies so that it was a mistake to have left them out. Either way, if you start digging in, you'll see that the concept of murders in Paul's writing is strongly condemned in other places. So I'm amongst the. I guess I don't have a preference. Well, I don't know, man, I don't have a preference. Well, I don't know. I don't want to get myself in trouble because I'm about to say something. That's my personal feeling and not necessarily. You know theological exegesis 101. But to me, I think it's helpful that it is there, because it is helpful to communicate the heart of what Paul was saying, and so, whether it came in, was added in a little bit later on, or whether it was there as part of the original, which I think it probably was, I think it has benefit for you.
Speaker 2:Now I want to point out just a couple of scriptures really quickly, philip, around this concept of murderers, and specifically one I want to look at.
Speaker 2:And Ryan, if you don't mind going there, romans 129 says fornication, wickedness this is on Paul's list Covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, and it goes on. That's an example of Paul using murderers in these lists that are similar to this. But now look at Revelations 21 and 8. Now we see John with another list, but the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimimstone, which is the second death. So once we again we see here in the New Testament here's a list again and it adds murderers in to that list of pretty much very similar to some of the stuff that we see right here in Galatians. So we see a kind of a pattern developing here. 1 John 3, 15, one of Philip's favorites. It says whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And this is an interesting point that I think helps to make the point that Paul wanted to make to the Galatians, and it is that murder is not just the physical action of actually killing someone, but it now says that whoever hates his brother is a murderer. So now it goes back to intent. It goes back to what's going on in your head and how you feel about someone else. That may imply whether you are a murderer or you aren't. And then if we look at Matthew 5, 21 through 22, it says you have heard that it was said by them of old time you shall not kill.
Speaker 2:And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Rakah, shall be in danger of the council. To say Rakah is to, in one sense, to say that somebody is, they're unwise, it's to say idiot. And back in the day, with the Jewish people, to call somebody an idiot publicly was a significant problem. And so then it goes on to say but whosoever shall say thou fool, to call your brother a fool again, back in the day was one of the highest levels of ill things that you could do to your brother.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So notice that all of this, it says thou, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. So you see, there's a couple of things here that um make sense. Number one Jesus is expanding the law. He moves beyond the external act of murder to the internal heart condition that leads to it. Goodness, goodness. The second thing that it tells us is anger and contempt are a real problem. Even insulting or despising someone can bring spiritual judgment. And you notice that if you look back at those verses, there are three levels of judgment that were identified there In 521,. Whoever murders will be liable to judgment. Anyone who's angry with his brother, I'm sorry, anyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.
Speaker 2:And whoever says you fool, will be liable to hellfire. So there were three tiers. If you would back in the day of justice for how you handled, felt and what you said about your brother, wow, wow. And so one of the other things that leads us to say is that, you know, one of the scriptures we know about tells us that God looks on the heart of man. One of the scriptures we know about tells us that God looks on the heart of man. You know it talks about how he is. The spirit is the candle of the Lord and it searches the inward parts of man, and so our heart condition becomes a critically important part of this murder thing. Yeah, and it has everything to do with being angry and hating your brother to such a degree. Remember, these are the sins of animosity that we're talking.
Speaker 2:Right, but you're hating on them to such a degree that you take action and you actually take life. Wow, and this was happening in Galatia and Paul was trying to bring it to an end.
Speaker 1:My goodness, you know it's interesting man. It made me think of the story of Cain and Abel.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right off the bat, the very first recorded murder, and it came from a contempt and a resentment that Cain had towards Abel and I believe a lot of it probably dealt with jealousy and envy as well. You know, that's just fascinating to me that something like that, those types of emotions even, are something that could prompt somebody to go all the way to the point where they're in their mind, they're like I got to end this person's life. You know, it's that's just, it's wild, but we've seen it over and over again, david, you know, I mean you can watch any, I don't know like a 48 hour video.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those, those crime shows and there's always talks. They always talk about crimes of passion that happen, you know where. Somebody is jealous because they caught their spouse cheating and next thing you know is they either kill one or two or everybody, including themselves. You know, sometimes it just gets wild and these things can come from just a welling up of extreme resentment or even hatred towards a person and it starts in the heart. And that's something that, if you don't mind, ryan, something popped in my head about Mark 7. If you could go there for me.
Speaker 1:Jesus talks about this once again and it was kind of in the context of where the Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus in this whole thing of oh, you're going against the tradition of the elders by not washing your hands before you eat and all this stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And Jesus ends up telling them let's see here in verse eight he says you know, laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such things you do. He said unto them in verse nine full well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition, and then he kind of goes into a little rant about that. Not a rant, that's probably not the best word, but anyway. Down in verse 14, it says when he called the people to him, he said unto them hearken to me, every one of you, and understand. There's nothing from outside of a man. That's what the word without means there. There's nothing from outside of a man that entering into him can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are they?
Speaker 1:that defile the man. And he says uh, in verse, let's see. Okay, I'm gonna skip down to verse 20 for the sake of time. Verse 20 it says he said that which comes out of the man that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, thoughts, adulteries, fornications, and look at air murders. So murder begins as a heart issue.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And so if you're not dealing with I don't know what to call it like the extreme resentment, extreme hatred that wells up and builds up in your heart and I'm not saying everybody that feels anger or hatred is going to end up killing somebody, but all murders do come from that level of heart resentment and heart anger.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:You know so.
Speaker 2:You know, Philip, you said something a minute ago and you're talking about what's welled up inside, and as you think about that, you start jumping back into words. We've covered already that tell you about that welling. You get into words, like when we talked about zeal, but it wasn't the zeal for the Lord, it was the negative zeal. The zeal for the Lord.
Speaker 1:It was the negative zeal.
Speaker 2:You know we talked about fits of rage during our time walking through these works of the flesh. You know we talked about jealousy. We talked about this concept of factions so widely, so staunchly set up in your corner that everybody else is wrong and you guys are the only ones right and you fight to the end for that stuff yeah and that's all of that stuff. Now you see why it's animosity, yeah all of that stuff welling and building you know, it's interesting too.
Speaker 1:Just maybe think of this man. Um, you know, recently we just had the Ides of March. You've heard of that whole thing.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:The famous event that happened was the murder of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar, the reason why they murdered Caesar was because he was very popular with the people, and the religious leaders. I mean, the political leaders at the time hated that. The political leaders at the time hated that, and so the envy that they felt towards Caesar prompted them to plot his assassination. And this stuff has happened over and over again in history. That had a built up resentment or hatred or envy towards someone, maybe in leadership or whatever the case was, and so this is not a light thing, you know. It's not a light thing to let this type of stuff fester in your heart. You got to be, you got to do it how the word says to do it and live a life of forgiveness.
Speaker 2:That's the key.
Speaker 1:Otherwise it can get like I said do it and live a life of forgiveness. That's the key. Otherwise it can get. Like I said. I'm not saying that everybody that feels anger or hatred or whatever will end up killing somebody. I don't want that to come across like that, but all murders do originate from that type of thing.
Speaker 2:Look, and the word tells us, be angry but don't sin, right. So it's not like even being angry is necessarily wrong. I've been angry at my children for decisions they've made and choices they've done, things that they've done around the house to destroy the place. You know, the kid puts a hole in the wall and now I've got to plaster it up and I've got to figure this out and fix it and all that good stuff. Now, you know, in hindsight it's like he wasn't trying to put a hole in the wall. That wasn't, that wasn't the intent, just being silly, being a kid. And it happened and I was mad for a minute but I had to get over it because you could let the list of things that people do to you pile up in your mind. And we again philip already said it we see it happen in their lives people who get bullied, uh. People who get pushed around, uh. You know, if this happens, somebody cheats. All of these different reasons why people begin to hold hostility.
Speaker 2:And if you don't, you guys, this is why forgiveness is so critical. If you don't forgive, the root of bitterness is ready to take hold in your life. And now you've got a plant bitterness that you never intended to have growing and it has hatred in it, it has animosity in it, it has anger in it. You can't even see that person. I was telling Philip, I was reminding him of a story of a place that I used to work at. Philip, I'm covering a little bit here.
Speaker 2:No you're good, but a place that I used to work at where I felt like I was under such hostile attack by my supervisor At one point I could see myself going across the table and choking him and I envisioned I saw the whole thing and then, as time would have it, we'd meet more and more, and the more we met and the more he would do things, the more I saw myself taking this action. Yeah, and I quickly learned that I better forgive that guy because if I don't, I was already envisioning an outcome that wasn't going to be beneficial for he or I.
Speaker 1:Right, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:God is trying to stop us from making certain mistakes and where there is anger, where there is hatred, where there is hurt, where there is pain, god has given us the antidote of forgiveness. Yes, yes, so that we can let this stuff go and not let it hold us hostage, because if we let it hold us hostage, we, we can potentially put ourselves in position to become part of this list of works of the flesh and ultimately cause now you know you and you Philip, you know this Ryan, you know you and you Philip, you know this Ryan, you know is our prisons are full of people who took action on their anger, who took action on their hatred, some of it out of fits of rage and moments of passion.
Speaker 2:They didn't even intend to do it. Some of them just lost their selves inside of it out of fits of rage and moments of passion. They didn't even intend to do it. Some of them just lost themselves inside of it and next thing they knew they wake up from that oppression and realize oh my God, what have I done? Yeah, and from that point there's no turning back.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, it's crazy and it makes me think of, actually, as you were talking, another scripture popped in my head about that, with Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. And Ron, if you don't mind going there, god was warning Cain before Cain actually ended up committing the murder. God basically gave him a warning. He was like dude, watch this. He tried to help him out. He did, he did, and it was right. After the if you could scroll back up a little bit, ryan in verse 5. Actually, verse 4. It says he also brought of the first thing, of firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering, but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect. And look what happened. And cain was very wroth. So there's your anger right there. The word wr wrath there means anger. And his countenance fell and the Lord said unto.
Speaker 1:Cain. Why are you wrath? He's asking Cain. He said why are you angry and why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not, well, look what he told him Sin lies at the door. He's like you have no idea how close you are to doing something you're going to regret. And he knew that because he knew Cain was in a place in his heart that he didn't need to be.
Speaker 1:But, but you know what? Cain obviously didn't handle it correctly and in verse eight he ends up killing Abel from that anger that he had let build up and fester in his heart. Rough stuff, man.
Speaker 2:That is, that is, and there again there is your warning. Don't y'all. If I could say it to you in a brotherly way, in a fatherly way, maybe don't let these people get to you, right.
Speaker 2:This world is wild right man, it is, there are all kinds of things going on, people doing all kinds of stuff and they don't even know why they're toying with you. Don't let these people get to you. Live a life of forgiveness. Let that be the way that you drive forward. You know what this happened today, and I'm not and you know what, and you guys you know. You can tell me I'm wrong, but I think that if you live a life of forgiveness, I think you're bound for good things.
Speaker 1:Me too, man, I agree.
Speaker 2:I think God just causes good things to happen to you. First of all, because you're quick to shake it off. You don't hold anybody hostage for their past events, and I think God blesses that. But not only does God bless it. We already know that the scripture tells us in Matthew, chapter 6, that if you don't forgive, you will not be forgiven. So why toy with your own forgiveness by holding somebody else hostage? Wow, what you thinking, ryan.
Speaker 3:You know, I totally agree and I was just going to say is, like you know everyone, I think probably 99% of the people that are you know you mentioned people, 99 of the people that are you know. You mentioned people sitting in jail. Uh, like you know, a prison, probably 99 of them. Probably never thought that they would be a murderer.
Speaker 3:You know, we all right no one thinks that, and you know, just as you were talking about matthew, chapter five, I was just thinking like you know it talks about. When you say it, you know you call someone a fool or an idiot. How common is that in today?
Speaker 3:I'm guilty of doing that even today, me too, and it just goes to show that there's this active force in our world and we know what the force is, but there's this active force and I think, as a believer, you've got to be cognizant of this force. And the force is to downplay the value of life.
Speaker 3:That's what murder does Like I have no value in this life, in this other being's life, so I can take it. They've made, they've done me so wrong, so dirty, so you even like what David was saying. You know, the grandkids like how often do we just joke around and I'm not condemning anyone because I get the joke like, oh, he busted a hole in the wall, I'm going to kill him, Right? But there's this active force in our world to downplay the value of life and I think we have to be cognizant of that.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 3:And if you go down in Matthew five, he talks about loving your enemies and, uh, you know the power that that that love has when you love somebody that actively hates you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you what, ron. It's interesting, man, when you think about just some of the stuff we hear in the political sphere. It's crazy Like folks, folks were talking about I mean no empathy, no compassion, no sense of even humanity A lot of times. I mean I remember back when you know and forgive me for whoever might disagree, but yeah yeah, lord knows.
Speaker 1:But back during the COVID situation, when the the, the mania and the craziness was at its highest level, uh, you had folks saying that if somebody didn't want to get vaccinated, we need to take them outside and shoot them. Yeah, I mean, it had gotten that crazy where, just for if somebody didn't want to wear a mask or somebody didn't want to get vaccinated or somebody didn't want to quarantine that, they need to be shot and killed. I'm like, do you hear yourself right now?
Speaker 1:You might have gone a little too far. It's just not just that, but basically anyone who disagreed with them politically deserve death, you know, and it just it's getting, like david says, kind of wild out there right now. Even with stuff going on currently with they don't like some of the things this current administration is doing. Um, it was also in the reverse when the previous administration was here, you know, people talked about killing folks then. So it's like it's from both sides a lot of times and it's just it's ridiculous, though I mean, like Ryan said to me, it just demonstrates such a low value placed on human life and it's like how could you look at things that way when, when that's completely opposite of how god sees humanity?
Speaker 3:for sure, it's like, even when yeah even like when you get down to like if we're gonna go a little political here, it's like, even like they try to say you know carbon is bad, but we're, you have to exhale carbon. So the very thing that you're exhaling, they're telling you you're bad for breathing it out. You know they don't come out and say that directly because it sounds so crazy. But if you boil down exactly what they're saying, they're saying carbon, you're leaving a carbon footprint and they, they leave it to your car and the emissions from your house and business and things like that. But really, what they're saying they're what, half a step away from saying is, because you are breathing, you are bad, you're polluting the earth.
Speaker 3:And we value, yeah, mother nature and the earth that we have. Yes, it's, it is great, it's the only home we have but it. But what's a home without a person? So you know, we have to make a? Um, a very conscious effort to value human life, because there's this active force that we don't even see and we become so numb to it. If you're not careful, you'll start to. It's an idolization, is what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Of other things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll throw one more little piece of meat on this. And then I know we got to run forward. You know, jesus calls us to be peacemakers in Matthew 5. It's good Jesus calls us to be peacemakers in Matthew 5. It's good. He says blessed are the peacemakers. And one of the things we also have to do is we've got to help people to get over things. That's true when we see people stuck. We've got to do our best in Christ to help them to get unstuck Right, to help them to move forward. And one other thing is I want to read this thought to you. It says Jesus's words show that murder starts in the heart, with anger, bitterness and contempt, but through his grace we can choose love, patience and reconciliation instead. And one of the places we have to choose that is our online activity as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You guys have got to be careful about your words and what you're posting online.
Speaker 1:That's true, man.
Speaker 2:That is part of the way you speak nowadays. That is part of the way you speak nowadays and I think that we're going to have to give them. You know the Bible says you're going to have to give an account for every idle word. I'm not convinced that that does not mean the type words that you put out there on social media. Wow, wow. The Bible doesn't tell me specifically, but they were your words, they came out of your heart and out of your mind.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And literally, the social media is acting as your mouth to communicate to other people. Yeah, yeah, it's not like God is giving you some sort of loophole.
Speaker 3:It's not.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? No, I believe you Right?
Speaker 3:Because if there was, then don't you think someone like Peter would have wrote something down, right, peter would have definitely found a loophole on that one.
Speaker 2:Here's the sneaky way out, guys.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Wow, there's literally much more, because this opens the door and it leads to so many things. We've got to move forward for the next couple things. But again I just want to say Paul was not crazy when he was putting this list together.
Speaker 2:And he knew the deeper meanings of all of these things and what they would mean to the church in Galatia and the surrounding areas and he wanted that behavior to stop and for them to live differently than the Romans lived. Some of this behavior was perfectly normal for the Romans and they would not have seen it especially right now when we're about to get into drunkenness and orgies.
Speaker 2:That was not uncommon behavior for the romans oh no paul was saying it should be uncommon to those who are believers hey, david, really, really quick before we move on.
Speaker 3:uh, stephanie, she was asking can we give an example, um, I guess, of like what, um posting on media, like something that's maybe not biblical?
Speaker 1:Gotcha, wow, uh, it could be something even even to the point of, um, like if you disagree with someone politically or um, that kind of thing. You could put it out there. You know, I mean, I've seen this, I've actually witnessed these types of things. I hate such and so he's such a liar I hope he dies in a fire. I've seen people just go completely nuts.
Speaker 3:I've got a great example. I've got one too.
Speaker 2:Ryan, the one that, oh, it's a shame it only hit his ear.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, yeah, like when the attempted assassination against Trump. It's like, next time find somebody who can aim good, and I've heard, I've seen all kinds of stuff like that out there.
Speaker 2:Right, go ahead, ryan. Let me shut up.
Speaker 3:Well, this is not political, this one. He said ladies, if you bump into a man of God in the club and you have a chance to ride up on that thing, you need to take moments as they come, because moments are fleeting. How did you put a man of God in the club and riding up on that thing?
Speaker 1:on a one-night stand, that's amazing oh lord, not sure how you did those mental gymnastics, but god oh my god, help us Jesus help us lord. A lightning bolt is waiting for that I think.
Speaker 3:Stephanie said okay, that's enough, we got it too many of y'all out in the club.
Speaker 2:You know who you are Get out from in there. God almighty. Jesus doesn't want you bumping in there like that. All right, let's dig into the next one.
Speaker 1:That's actually a segue into the next one, though, david. We're talking about the revelings and all that stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:And we, kind of Philip, can take these two together because they do actually go together. So we talked about the categories, right? Yeah, we talked about the sins of the sexual immorality sins of sexual immorality. The second grouping was the sins of idolatry. The third that we just wrapped up were the sins of animosity, and now this next group here is called the sins of temperance. Um, and darn it, um. Y'all, forgive me, I'll come back to it in just a minute, but I I do have a definition for that that I want to share with you. But I'll come back with that definition in just a minute. But, phillip, when we talk about um, both drunkenness and let's hit on drunkenness first and ease into the other one but when we talk about drunkenness, you know it's this, it's this sense of um that's being drunk it's pretty simple and yeah, it's not a it's, it's, it's not deep's not deep and abiding in one sense, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I do. I tell you, though, David, I think one of the big issues that and you and I have talked about this before there's always been this debate about should Christians drink alcohol Is drinking alcohol a sin. How much is considered to be sinful versus okay, I'm just a social drinker, blah, blah, blah. And so I think the Bible makes it very plain. Paul said in Ephesians 5, or Ephesians 4, maybe. He said be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess right, but be filled with the spirit. I think is the rest of that verse um. There's another part where he tells timothy to drink wine. He said drink wine, for for the sake of your stomach. So there's obviously a cutoff point where it's okay. You know, I mean, he didn't. He didn't. Paul, I'm assuming, was not talking about non-alcoholic wine. I'm not even sure they had that back then.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So when he encouraged Timothy to drink wine for the sake of his stomach, he obviously wasn't talking about drinking to the point where he's getting plastered. You know what I mean. But then in Ephesians 5, and I'm sorry, ryan, I've got you all over the place, man, but Ephesians 4, he does say be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. So, and there's a whole chapter. Yeah, there it is Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit. Now, remember, I heard a minister say this one time. They said excess is the devil's playground.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is.
Speaker 1:And that's where we get into trouble with this whole drinking situation.
Speaker 2:That's where we get into trouble with this whole drinking situation, if that's where we get into trouble with so many situations with everything, man, I mean anything done to excess, including including excessive religiousness, lead to some crazy stuff.
Speaker 1:So God is a I believe he loves when we we know how to be moderate and balanced in the things we do in life, not extreme over here and pendulum swing way over here. Either side of that, most of the time, is something that's going to be out of whack and taking you down a path you don't need to go, you know. But in terms of the drunkenness situation, you know I'd be lying if I say I've never been drunk in my life. I definitely have had my fill. I've imbibed a few times, way back in my late teens, early 20s. It's ancient history now. But so the heart motive is a big thing Like why are you even drinking?
Speaker 1:You know what's the point of of, of doing it, and I remember, you know, hanging out with friends and their whole thing was man.
Speaker 1:Let's go get messed up, they'd say another word, but we all knew what it meant. Um, and it was all about. You know, let's go get some alcohol and just get plastered and figure out what we're going to do next. And most of the time it was a bunch of stupid stuff that we got into, got into trouble, sometimes into fights or whatever. Or I've witnessed so many dumb fights of people who are drunk. You know, things like that it just gets to be. Nothing good comes from it. I can definitely tell you that.
Speaker 2:It opens the door to foolishness.
Speaker 1:It does. It comes with the territory. You know, you end up like in Proverbs I think it's Proverbs 23,. Maybe there's a whole list of things that happen at the end of that chapter. He's like you know, here's why you shouldn't be messing around with the alcohol to the point where it's. You know you're going to mess yourself up with it. Ryan, I don't know if you're there in Proverbs 23, but I think it's at the end of that chapter. Yeah, there it is.
Speaker 1:He said in verse 29,. He said who has woe, who has sorrow, who has contentions that means fights. Who has babbling, who has wounds without cause? I remember a few times I had those when I got who has redness of eyes? He says they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine he starts talking about. He says don't look upon the wine when it's red, when it gives its color in the cup, when it moves itself aright, and here's why At the last or at the end of it all, it bites like a serpent, it stings like an adder. You're going to get some type of damage from this thing. Man, I don't care who you are. In verse 33, 33, your eyes shall behold strange women. Um, y'all might have heard the thing uh, beer goggles. You know, people talk about that. Where they they get drunk, they see somebody that they think is attractive and find out later, when they're sober, that it wasn't like that. You know, uh, their eyes beheld strange women.
Speaker 2:Or don't you mean she wasn't like that Right.
Speaker 1:And it's like, and it says, your heart shall utter perverse things. One of the things that happens is you lose all inhibitions when you start getting to, you know, getting over into drunk territory. You lose the ability to say no sometimes, or you lose your ability to discern and have good judgment. It never turns out well, man, when you're getting drunk.
Speaker 1:And in verse 34, it says you shall be as he that lies down in the midst of the sea or as he that lies upon the top of a mast. You're reeling back and forth and it just turns out pretty bad. And in verse 35, they have stricken me, you'll say, and I was not sick. They've beaten me and I felt it not. That's not good. When shall I awake? I'll seek it yet again. It's like I'll just go back and get drunk again.
Speaker 2:You know, so that's wild yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It hardly ever turns out well when you go over into excess with this stuff.
Speaker 2:Proverbs even talks about how the king has no business being a drunkard because of the foolish choices and decisions that he'll make after drinking. We even see that in John I forget which maybe it's matthew, but we see with uh, with the um, with john the baptist.
Speaker 2:well before john the baptist was beheaded, the king was drunk there you go yep, and then he was spouting off at the mouth about what he would do. And once it all came down to it and he was sober again, it repented him what he had said, but he couldn't undo it because he was the king and he decreed it and he'd be held to his word. So it's wild. Let me throw these couple of things at you first. Um, this word temperance, these sins of temperance, and temperance refers to a lack of moderation yeah particularly in the habitual or excessive drinking of alcohol.
Speaker 2:it can also describe a general lack of self-control in various behaviors. So you see why it's a problem there. And then out of my concordance, but out of the book I read that helps me to get some deeper understanding of the Bible. Commentary Commentary sorry. It shares a thought and it says that there is no place for drunkenness in a spirit-directed lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:Alcohol abuse was a common feature of urban life in the Roman Empire, but Paul expected a different, higher standard of conduct among those who belong to Christ. He later wrote to the Ephesians, which Philip shared a moment ago, in this same vein do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. And then the other part was that Paul portrayed excessive drinking as incompatible with real Christian commitment. And you just think about it. How can you be drunk and walk with God If you're drunk? You're barely walking anyway, right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So where is your mind at when is right? So where is your mind at where is? And then, philip, if I can transition here, it leads us. Drunkenness often is part of the next word, which is revelings, yeah, which the greek says means orgies. Oh boy, it comes from the greek word komai, uh, komoi, possibly. So again, remember, david doesn't speak greek, he's doing his best, um, but it says this word is variously translated in the king james it's translated revelings, and the rsv has translated carousing, and the tl it's translated carousing, and the TLB it's translated wild parties. And then a certain thing called the cotton patch, translation which I have never seen.
Speaker 1:Never heard of that.
Speaker 2:It's translated horsing around, but for the most part those words don't really communicate to you what this is talking about. Don't really communicate to you what this is talking about In each case it is linked to the sin of drunkenness. Yeah, In New Testament times, as in on our own day, the abuse of alcohol contributed to marital infidelity, child and spouse abuse, the erosion of family life and moral chaos in society.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So this thing gets ugly and it was not, and I know you know about this, Philip, but these wild parties were connected with the god, Dionysus.
Speaker 1:Actually, ryan, the page you were just on it had a paragraph about that on there. It was talking about in the ancient Greek culture, these wild parties down there where it says cultural and historical background. It says in ancient Greek culture, a komos was a common feature of religious festivals and social gatherings where participants engaged in revelry and merrymaking. These events were often associated with the worship of Dionysus, the god of wine, interestingly enough, and were marked by a lack of restraint and moral boundaries. Goodness, lack of restraint and moral boundaries. Goodness, it says the New Testament writers, aware of these cultural practices, use the term to caution against the dangers of such excesses and to promote a life of holiness and discipline. So you basically had the prototype of a ditty party happening back in ancient Greek days. That's kind of how things were going.
Speaker 2:You just had to bring that ditty party into it, didn't you?
Speaker 1:Sorry, I couldn't resist, man, but it was a time when folks purposefully let off restraints. It's like I'm just going to let whatever happens happen. You know, if I happen to slip up and sleep with a few people, to let whatever happens happen. You know, if I happen to slip up and sleep with a few people, hey whoops, you know, it is what it is and it was just that kind of a thing and it was so common back then and I think we don't really understand the cultural context of those days. They were pretty freaking wild. Okay, it was just kind of a wild situation going on, but but Paul, in the midst of all that, he, he was clearly delineating that Christians, believers, that type of excessive behavior is not a mark of someone who can claim to have the spirit of God in them, or being led by the spirit of God, yeah, as someone who's led by the flesh instead. Because if you're giving into every single whim that comes your way, every single impulse that happens, it's not possible for you to say that you're led by the spirit.
Speaker 2:And you just look at it, you know we, we know this of even of this day. Once again, it's the other things that come into, because we're talking about revelings, but this now includes the sins of immorality.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It also brings in the sins of idolatry, because you know that pharmakia, that pharmacia that we talked about, people do drugs at these things that help them get in the mood and into the moment, in some cases even just to keep it up.
Speaker 2:You know watch out and so all of this, all of these different things, you see how they're all intertwining with each other, creating greater sin in your life. That just helps to destroy you. And these things will destroy you because you know you Philip mentioned the Diddy Parties, but have you ever I mean, oh God, have you ever seen? Just okay, we're talking about Diddy, right, I'm not saying Diddy's guilty or not guilty, but what I do know is two people that were involved in that, and that was Usher and Justin Bieber, and I'm going to tell you, justin Bieber is a broken young man he is sadly absolutely and you hear him sing about some of the stuff he was trying to tell people, singing about what happened.
Speaker 2:Usher has had interviews where he's told you he's implied certain things happen, but he was another young man that was broken, trying to reach a dream, and they ran into the wrong person that absolutely abused them and used them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they became broken men. And I mean, there's just no, there's no telling now the pathways that their lives have gone through and the things that they will go through as they go forward, as they go forward. But I'm going to tell you what I do know is Justin Bieber, at least to my knowledge, has seemed to have started trying to walk with Jesus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank God, right, I'm going to tell you that's the only path home. That's the only path home. That's the only way to heal the destructive stuff that has happened in your life. And Phil, I'll read this one final thing from this commentary. It says Only the interposition of divine grace, made operative by the transforming power of the spirit, can rescue one from the stare of such a loveless life and when it you.
Speaker 2:When it uses that word, interposition, it it almost means an intervention. Intervention it's as if, if only by the Holy Spirit stepping in and those intervention of divine grace can you hope to be rescued from the stare of such a loveless life. And let me tell you that desire for intervention you're only a cry away from it.
Speaker 1:Lord help me.
Speaker 2:That's the heart cry that the Father wants to hear from you that will allow him to open the door and enter into your situation and help you to turn into a different direction.
Speaker 1:Wow, praise God. What's so fascinating to me is when you really think about it, when we talk about getting saved and people ask well, what is he saving me from? Honestly, the truth is most of the time, from yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's saving you from yourself. And all this stuff we've been going through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's a thing of when you, when you're born into this world everyone's born with a sinful nature or a nature that tends to move away from God's ways You're going to, honestly, for the most part, you'll be bent on your own self-destruction until you, until you, can encounter the one who has the power and the ability and the grace to help you understand how to walk in his way, and that is a way that leads to productivity.
Speaker 1:It's a way that leads to life. It's a way that leads to love. It's a way that leads away from things that are destructive for you. That is one of the biggest eye openers to me about encountering who Jesus is and what he can do for you is that he saves you literally from your own impulse towards destruction, and it can come in a thousand different ways. It may look different for every person, but at the end of the day, he's there to bring grace and to show you his path, his way, his will, and that's what can lead you to the place where it'll be life, and life more abundantly, instead of destruction.
Speaker 2:Pray for the people, phil, let's put a bookmark there. But maybe if I could just add one more thing, and it's the rest of this verse. It says in verse 21 envying murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like, or anything's like this. Let's not forget this. As we've said before multiple times, this is not an exhaustive list, but it's these things and things like them that will cause you to miss heaven. It'll cause you to miss the kingdom of God and I believe it'll cause you to miss the kingdom of God functioning in your life on earth as well as your final home in heaven. Just, you can't live in these things and let them be your home and expect to also walk with Christ.
Speaker 2:You know light and darkness don't go together, and it's one thing you know. We say light and darkness don't go together. But you can be light and have experienced darkness, but still be light. That's right. That's right. So God doesn't exclude you because you were once in darkness. He says no, because we were once in darkness. Now we can have sympathy for those who are in it and we can reach in and pull them out.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Because we, too, once experienced that. We know what that's like. That's how come we can reach for those people and bring them back in.
Speaker 1:Praise God.
Speaker 2:Let's pray for everybody tonight, and then we'll wrap up.
Speaker 1:All right. Heavenly Father, thank you for just bringing out these truths from your word tonight. Thank you for showing us the path to life. You said in your word that you'll guide us with your own eye. Thank you for being that guide, that teacher, that helper, by way of the Holy Spirit living in us. And, lord, you also said in 2 Corinthians where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We thank you for the freedom that is in Christ. You told us to stand fast in that freedom that Christ made us free with and to not be entangled with any yokes of bondage.
Speaker 1:Lord, I pray for every person out there who's been struggling in that wrestling match of the flesh versus the spirit. I pray for those people who are wrestling against old habits, destructive habits, sinful behaviors and things like that. But they know deep down that they don't want to live that way anymore. But they're finding it hard to fight those temptations off. Father, I pray that you'll strengthen them in their spirit.
Speaker 1:First, you said in your word that the strong spirit of a man will sustain their infirmity and so, lord, I pray that you will give them that grace that they need, that power from the Holy Spirit that they need to resist that temptation. You said in Hebrews that Jesus suffered being tempted, so he's able to run to the cry of those who are being tempted. Lord, I pray that in that time of need, in that moment of temptation that they're facing, that you would give them that grace to put them over the line to where they resist and fight that thing off and become stronger in their spiritual walk. And we just give you praise for that, father. We thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 2:Those are the works of the flesh, everybody. It took us a little bit longer than we planned. We did it To get through it, but we're glad we did and we're glad we took the time to do it, because the Bible says in all of your getting, get understanding.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so there's a benefit in understanding each one of these things, if no other reason than to be able to identify them when they're trying to work in your life so that you can, as Joseph did, flee and live your best life. We're glad that you joined us, and next week we're going to start talking about the fruit of the spirit, and this is how God wants us to live. But, just like in these works of the flesh, every word has a deeper understanding to be pulled out with it, and so we're going to pull those words out and we're going to better understand the fruit of the spirit so that we can better or best walk out this Christian life that God has given us in this journey that he's put us. We hope that you'll join us. We hope that you'll connect with us on social media. You can reach us on X. You can reach us on Instagram. We're also available on Facebook. We'll be on TikTok soon.
Speaker 2:Also, you can comment or, of course, right here on YouTube or Rumble. You can comment within here. Tell us how you like this episode, tell us what stood out to you as an important piece of the puzzle, which one of these fruit or works of the flesh really stands out to you most. We'd love to hear your thoughts about it, so share that in the comments. Also, if you'd like to ask us to you know, maybe work on a certain subject for you, help you through something else or even just pray for you, you can reach out to us by email at gotbrewed at biblebrosnet. That's gotbrewed at biblebrosnet. I think that's it for now. Make sure you pull up on a previous episode if you missed something and get the whole picture. I'm David, he's Phillip and we're out of here. Have a good night.
