About this Episode
This week Craig is joined by Hodey Johns, co-host of the Enemy of My Enemy podcast from the We Are Libertarians Network. They discuss focussing on love that looks like how God loves us, contrasting these with social media discussions that look more like hate. They talk about political statements that assume God hates those on the wrong end of our favorite policies. However, Christians shouldn't even be on the political spectrum. Can the love of Jesus be made visible when we fight online over our political positioning?
The Israelites received laws from the very hand of God, but they missed His heart for humanity to follow their consciences in loving their neighbors. Not even Jewish regulations could justify people in the sight of God because love is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus proved this when he righteously ignored the Levitical laws, and the Pharisees proved that one could follow the rules perfectly and still be unrighteous.
Unfortunately, we haven't learned this; hate may be more natural to Christians than love. We fail to worship God according to His desires when we fail to love those around us. As Christians, rather than looking for the boundaries we should not step on and assume that the rest of our conduct is loving, we need to seek the narrow path and aggressively love everyone, including our enemies. After all, this is how Christ first loved us.
Hodey Johns:
Episode Timestamps:
1:56 – Introduction to Hodey Johns
· Loves debates
· Theologian
· Writes about video games
· Parents weren't very interested in their own Christian faith
o Hodey was self-taught in Christianity and the Bible from a young age
· Became a Mormon for 15 years
· Lived all over the states
o Noticed that Christian culture differs from place to place
6:19 – Christians on Social Media
· Do more Christians need to put themselves out there on social media?
· People don't change their minds in an instant or one conversation
o They contemplate new ideas for a while
o Like planting a new tree, waiting and tasting its fruit
· We can't let others do the theological thinking for us
o Not even religious folks
o Jesus called the Pharisees a brood of vipers
· No Christian has everything figured out
o Christianity is a process
o But we don't need to worry because we know who God is
16:14 – Love one another and love your enemy
· Christians have a tough time balancing being in the world but not of the world
· Thankfully, it's not all over once you sin
· When you sin and recover, you get better
· Christians wield hate and fear as a conversion method
o We have all experienced hate
o As Christians, we know that hate is evil
· Love is the highest commandment
o Jesus loved us and died for us
o Would we give up our lives for those we are fighting with on social media
· Love is not just the absence of hate
· We ought to be aggressively loving
o Christianity is a narrow path
· Christianity should not be us saying, "God opposes [insert pet peeve here]"
· There is real hate from both left- and right-wing Christians
· Christians should not be on a political spectrum
· Biden's student loan debt write-offs are not forgiveness
· The left likes to think it has a monopoly on love
· Jesus only spoke in parables to the public
o Stories of love and goodness
o We should be using stories too and asking, "who is the loving neighbour?"
· Moral choices are required for good deeds to be produced
· Paying taxes is not a virtue
33:09 – How ethical is the law?
· Immigrants from Mexico who come to better their lives are human beings too
o They cross an imaginary line to come here
o The law of the land is in opposition to God's law
o They only come to eat and feed their families
o Christians don't seem to understand this
o They are still image bearers of God
· Jewish law was superior to today's laws
o They still condemned people
o They still allowed for the killing of Jesus Christ
· The Bible can be summarised as people trying to justify themselves by the law
o It was to show the way to being led by the Holy Spirit
o It was to give the Israelites time to escape the slave mentality of Egypt
· Where is your faith?
o Do politicians protect you and your nation?
o It should be in Jesus Christ
o Why are Christians scared of immigrants?
o In Jesus' death and resurrection Christianity grew
· Christianity's hey-day was when Christians were stateless
· The Israelites' laws changed from chapter to chapter of Leviticus
o The law was being revised constantly
§ God was stable; His people were not
o They couldn't enter the promised land until they realised the law could not save them
· Even the wandering Israelites went astray when they tried to turn their relationship with God into a law-based system
40:19 – We can't legislate love.
· The complex legal system that we have cannot be used to promote Christian values
o The Israelites walked together with God and couldn't make the law work
· Laws are written on paper, but let's try to figure out what is right
· The will of God is to love one another
o Love is the command
o We worship someone else when we fail to love
· When Christians think they are God, they become hateful
· Are you really a Christian if you are not moving towards love?
· Are we being motivated by the love of Christ?
45:57 – Church is unappealing when we don't have love
· Church attendance has dropped off since 2013
· There are reasons why people don't go to church
o Hate-filled sermons
o Hate-filled conversations with people after church
· Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax-collectors
o We should also be showing them the love of Christ
· Jesus' measure of how to get into heaven was to forgive and not judge others
o That is mentioned more often than other methods usually suggested
· Homosexuality is not a sin
· Whosoever is angry with his brother is at risk of being judged
· Jesus said himself that if you call someone gay, you are in danger of being judged
· Wanting to punish people crossing a border is wrong
· Jesus ignored the law and healed on the Sabbath
o This is why Hodey trashes the law
o Jesus never denied breaking the Sabbath
· The scriptures are stories of people working out morality in a complex world
· The transformation of your heart is all that matters
· You can break the law and be right
· You can follow the Levitical law and be wrong
o The Pharisees proved it
· Jesus ignored the laws, so we can ignore immoral laws also
1:05:47 – Smoked meats
· During covid, Hodey picked up a smoking meats hobby
· Smoking meat makes Hodey a better person
o It's a philosophical journey
o The community is full of nice people
· Well-cooked brisket is a bad piece of meat turned good through cooking
· Mesquite trees make the best-smoked meats
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