Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1386 | Jase Fears a Venomous Bite After a Bizarre Swamp Injury

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Jase and Al’s uncle Gordon Dasher steps in as Zach’s replacement—and possible upgrade. The guys trace James 3 back to Genesis, uncovering how fear, survival instinct, and selfish ambition can drive people to tear one another down. Jase recounts a mysterious, painful, and perhaps venomous injury that left him contemplating his early demise. Gordon opens up about the painful realization in his own life that careless words and gossip can damage reputations, wound relationships, and deny the image of God in others.  In this episode: James 1:14–20; James 3:1–13; Genesis 9:1–6; Ephesians 2:1–11; Hebrews 2:14; 2 Peter 1:3–4 “Unashamed” Episode 1386 is sponsored by: https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "Al Robertson" to get 2 weeks free in the program! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Chapters 00:00 Gordon Dasher Replaces Zach 03:58 Jase’s Dangerous Expedition 08:12 Jase’s Mysterious Thumb Injury 12:04 Jan’s Prophecies for the Robertson Family 16:33 The Cycle of Life & Death in James 20:40 Why the Tongue Is So Dangerous 25:52 The Biblical Meaning of Taming Animals 32:26 Why Humans Turn against One Another 35:28 The Survival Instinct behind Sin 38:01 The Truth about Human Nature  44:54 Becoming a Participant in God’s Divine Nature 47:25 Gordon Confronts the Damage Caused by His Words — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. We, uh, Jason, we, we've got a big bonus today. We've got a, a plus for the Unashamed podcast. We, we have ditched Zach. Actually, he ditched us for, for parts unknown, wherever he's going to do in Zach things. And so we have the pattern familias, the patriarch of the Dasher clan. We have replaced Zach with Gordon Dasher. Gordon, welcome back to Unichange. It's been a minute since you've been on. It has.

It's good to be here. Should I put my hat on? No. No. I looked at the hat and said, no. University of Florida for you all listening. Good joke. Gordon.

Gordon, I want to hate to be the bear of truth, but you are a result of a guilty conscience. Because Zach, wherever he is, He does that. He sends a representative. Well, he was scrambling quite a bit because Gordo had some scavenging problems. We had to move around just to make sure we got him here today.

But, yeah, Zach kind of left us in the lurch because we re-arranged everything, Gordon, because of the family vacation, which we're glad to do. Because, you know, we like when people get some free time, ours included. But then Zach ditches us. for the new route. And so all of a sudden, we were scrambling. But I'm saying it's an upgrade to get you on a couple of podcasts is a plus. So I'm glad you're here.

Just to let you guys know, I don't know. Lunds the last time I said it. But Gordon is a very talented writer and speaker. But he does, so he co-wrote and ghost wrote Dad's last, what, Gordon three maybe or two or four? Two books. And then also you help fill us with hers. You also write and help us with our. our blog on now Lisa Robertson.com. So you're kind of plugged in to everything we've been doing

the last few years. Well, I don't, we don't use the word ghost writer. It's collaborative writer. Oh, sorry. I mean, I just, is it scary? It sounds a lot more professional. Do you not believe in ghosts? No. Not ghost writers. People ask me that they said, do you believe in ghosts? And I said, well, I believe in one. Holy Ghosts. At least one. Thank you. Yeah, Phyllis corrected me on that as well. And I said, well, we collaborated. And I was like, oh, okay. I didn't realize that was the thing.

It's a big difference. I'll try to. I think a ghost writer does it all, which it kind of did for Phil's first book that I did on a uncanceled. But collaborative writer, and with her, it was a true collaboration. We spent hours ago. She was very picky about the use of language and a good way. Well, that would be the way it would be with Jay. because he would be very,

Jason's a picky, picky writer would be picky with his book, don't you think, Josh? You would be, you would be collaborative. I collaborated with a sports writer, Mark Slayball,

who really enjoyed the relationship. He's a good guy. But, you know, I didn't know what I was doing. And let's write a spiritual book and collaborate with a sports writer. Probably not the greatest idea, you know?

So it wasn't that great a book. You know, I was a little young and immature. But it was since it was just kind of my life story, you know, God's story through my life, I mean, I think it's okay. But wish I could do it again. What we need to write a book on and collaborate on Gordon is what I just got through studying for three days. So is there a rabbit hole coming days? Am I sensing a rabbit hole? Is it bigger than a rabbit hole?

This is bigger than a rabbit hole. This is more like a bear cave. Oh, boy. Because I felt like I was in a cave, and it all started when I went frog hunting. I had a near-death experience in my mind. Because me and Jay, I thought he was hungry for frogs. He said, you want to go frog hunting? I was like, sure.

So we go to a place that no humans had ever been in a boat. they had been there my cousin who we affectionately called lulu her husband it was around where he hunts he said we've been out there we've walked but nobody's ever been in it in a boat and so i was like huh that's a strange way to describe this place now when you talk about danger I've been in swamps my whole life, but this place, whoa. It took the bait? Oh, yeah. This is, you know, brought out your manhood, your fear of death, your relationship with the animals,

because that's a lot of what I've been studying the last three days after this experience. Because we were in James III, and he starts, you know, he's talking about the tongue. And you're like, oh, okay, interesting. He's making some crazy thoughts about how powerful. a person's tongue is and how they use it. It has like six different illustrations. Oh, it's like stop the press. So we did our last podcast, we talked about the tongue.

But, you know, when he starts comparing it to the fires of hell and different things like that, all of a sudden you're like, man, what is happening here? He's bringing up wild animals. So I'm out here going on this frog hunt. I realized that me and Jay get there. And then there's cameramen everywhere. I'm like, oh, he just, he's trying to get me to film something for Duck Commander. So he didn't tell me that's what we were doing.

So we had to put up with all that. Haven't said that, that was, that was probably quality TV. But somewhere in the catching of the frogs, I thought I got bit. I just, I caught a frog in a thicket and my thumb just started pulsate. But, you know, you're feeding off adrenaline. because, I mean, frog hunting, I've said many times, I think, is one of the greatest enjoyments of life. It's exhilarating.

You're adrenaline, it's pumping. You're thinking about eating these things. And I told you, I cooked some for Kay last week, and, boy, it just, I mean, it just lit her up. So I'm thinking I'm going to get her some frog, all of that. But I'm telling you that thing, my thumb. It basically swole up and popped,

which I looked for fang marks. And then, you know, you start, Your mind plays tricks on you because you're like, am I, you know, am I dying here? You know, you're looking at what happened. What are the effects of being bitten by a poisonous snake? Because we saw poison snake. And look, there was, there were alligators every few feet.

And some of them so big that when they would take off from the boat, you felt like the boat was going to turn over. I mean, it was, no humans had been there. And they were all scared of us to a degree that was somewhat crazy. Did you dive in to get the frogs? I did dive in on multiple occasions. All these frogs, but two or three, were floating, though. It was a very strange phenomenon.

And look, I miss more frogs in the first four or five attempts than I've missed in 10 years. It was really difficult because they're just floating. And as soon as they see you, they sink. Yeah, they sink. And I would just get, I caught two by their toenails, literally. And I'm trying to pin them on my neck. And once I injured my thumb or got bit, I'm not sure what happened, but this thing is, it is throbbing still.

My fingernail, thumbnail, like, separated. It swole up and then it, like, burst, but it burst open. my thumbnail going down the down the wall. Sounds like you got a thorn under your cuticle. Well, it could be. You know, it's so, looks so awful. You know, those thorns, especially out in the area like that,

they're like poisonous. Yeah, yeah, it's bad. Yeah, I mean, I know poison was involved, so it made me think about that text, you know. It's in the text. The tongue is a deadly poison. Let me tell you, you don't want a fool deadly poison. But I think I'm going to live.

Now, it destroyed my golf game, because I try to play golf. In the first wing, I just cried out in pain. I hit it right down the middle, and everybody was looking at me. Like, what's wrong? I was like, thumb injury, thumb injury. But anyway, I don't know how to address this study. I mean, we got Gordon here.

He's a famous ghost writer. What did you like? Collaborator. Collaborative writer. If you say collaborative, it sounds collaborative. Yeah, if I said you were a collaborator, a collaborator, that sound like you're a communist or something, right? Well, exactly.

If I thought you were a collaborative writer. If I were a collaborator, I've been planning something, you know, nefarious, but no, the collaborative writer. Call the FBI. Well, I was trying to do a joke there. You're a famous ghost writer because ghost writers, they're in the back, you know. They're not famous, but. But Gordon's out front.

Yeah, he's known. So Gordon, if you don't get my jokes, it's okay. No, it's very funny. Oh, yeah, I see that. Hey, at least you... I will say, I mean, that's... There's a disconnect that's like an unexpected irony. A guy hunting frogs then immediately goes out and plays golf at a country club.

Yeah. I just wouldn't expect that. Well, look at my wife. That's what's causing all the mayhem there. Your life or your wife? My wife. Oh. Yeah.

She hunts... No, but he's saying, how does that work? Or has he married to Missy? Oh, I don't understand. understand that. So, Zach, you are the one who first told me about our friends at PhD weight loss. And so I just want to thank you because it really changed my life. Al, it was an intervention, and I was happy to do it. And you're a new man. You know what's funny? I was at church this Sunday. And a guy walked in and said, I'm a huge, huge fan of the

Unashamed podcast. He said, I got on the Ph.D. Weight Loss. I mean, I'm a new person now. So it's not just, you're not the only one. We're finding out a lot of folks in Unashamed Nation have gotten healthy with Ph.D. Weight Loss. And we love it when you tell us your story. stories like that. What happens is you know as you get a little bit older, you get stressed, your body, you know, your metabolism slows down. That's what I learned at PhD. Here's a picture of me at the beginning of the process. Here I am 80 pounds later. Feeling much better, better health, of course, off my CPAP machine, off all meds, which has been a true blessing in my life. So we want you to make that leap right now when you call and you mention Al Robertson,

yours truly, you'll get two free weeks and they'll pay for the cost. of your food. That's a $1,500 value. Call 864, 644-4-1900. That's 864-644-9, or go to my PhD weightloss.com. Because the goal isn't to lose the weight once, but to never have to start again. Again, that's 864-644-1900 or go to my PhD weight loss.com. I've known you both most of your life. And I think Jan told you, she fast. found your wife when you were in fourth grade? She did. She predicted.

She actually prophesied that I was going to marry this girl in the fourth grade. And if you look, of course, I just thought she's crazy like the rest of them. Dismissed. Two things could be true at the same time. Because I was only in sixth or seventh grade when she said that. She's like, there's a girl. And I think that's who you're going to marry. A few years later, I forgot about that conversation.

I started dating Missy, and then she reminded me of that conversation and that prophecy. I was like, are you sure that's the girl you were referring to? Oh, it was. Oh, yeah. So do with that as you will. She also prophesied that if dad were ever led to Christ, he would lead thousands to Christ, which happened again. And she also prophesied that I would be the Wonder Boy at W. FR because, you know, I've heard so much putting so much into me.

And she was right. I've been there for 50 years. So I think I think she was, she may have had some mental illness, Gordo, but she, she was right on a lot of prophecies, too. Yeah. So how do you, so how do you all want to do this? Do you want me to give you my take on this? We got to hear it.

And then y'all pick holes in it. I know we were going to read that parable, but we can read that later, Al. We left off with the cliffhanger and we're just. going to extend that cliffhanger. Well, yeah, you lad out there because the difference in with Zach not here, Gordon and I will both be listening intently to your hypothesis. And so then we'll weigh him. Well, you, you.

That doesn't listen, Gordon. He's like Willie. He puts the A and D and A D and A D. So I noticed he's on his phone when you guys are talking. Yeah, exactly. Well, he'll, he's not listening. I've given points before. And then it goes to him.

and then he gives the exact point because he wasn't listening. It's happened multiple times. He does. So it's funny. I hate to tell you, that is a Roberson trait. Yeah, because Jay is the same way, Gordo, you're exactly right. I feel it's the worst. I don't, when we got to James 1, where it said everybody should be quick to listen, slow to speak.

Slow to speak. Slow to become angry. I said that is the hub of my biggest struggles. He did. And now we're on to the tongue, which is kind of echoing that little bumper sticker statement by James. So it's difficult. I'm glad. Before you start, I got to be honest, though, whenever Al sent me this passage, I thought this was some kind of backhanded way to deal with my mouth.

Like, I felt, I know, why did they pick me for this one? It was just random. I didn't think about it, Gore. I did think about when I sent you the notes. I thought that for a guy that sometimes has loose lips with the saying stuff. Well, you don't have to say loose lips. Well, it's like Ephesians for Gordon. You're like where it says there shouldn't be coarse joking.

And I thought, I know a guy. I don't know why I think of you, but you're right on the line of that. And you never thought of your dad. Oh, no, I thought of him too. But in a different way. I guess, because you're doing it to be funny. Feel serious. He's not kidding.

Well, it was funny. Well, right. It was funny to us. But what I'm saying is it's like any humor that's truly funny. There has to be a certain element of being uncomfortable with it. It's like you're taking, like comedians, they're famous for that. They're taking something that's obviously tragic. And then they're making a joke.

And you're like, I'm uncomfortable. laughing at this, but it's funny. I mean, I think there's something in there about how to be funny. I don't even know if this is a defense or not, but you're right, and I have prayed fervently for God to make me normal. So far, I mean, I keep going back to that passage in 1st Corinthians, or maybe a second, whatever, the thorn in the flesh one. My grace is sufficient for you. Yeah, say, Corinthians, 12. Now, it's, it's, it's, Gordon, you're 70 years, it's there. It's not going away.

74. But that's one of the things we love about you. Well, you seem calm and tranquil today. So, yeah. All right, here's what I came up with. On the overview of this, Al, you remember the cycle of death and the cycle of life that he brings up in James I?

Yep. And, you know, when he says, when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. verse 14 of chapter 1 each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he's dragged away then after desire is conceited gives birth to sin sin when it's full grown gives birth to death and then he goes into every good and perfect gift is from above so this is after kind of the death cycle which is depressing he then says he chose to give us birth through the word of truth

that we might be kind of a first fruit, which that first fruits is attached all over the place to the resurrection and life, living forever. So then he starts getting into your actions, listening, that this should come out in your life, and you get into the faith versus faith in actions, you know, the dead faith and the living faith. Remember when we went James, too?

we did a whole podcast about that. So we're seeing life and death in both cases, just as an overview. So then you get to the tongue and you're like, where are we going here? Well, I found that same theme in this chapter, and it's not in the way you think. And I don't know an easy way to do this.

I mean, part of me is, because I know in our world we want to make everything practical and how does this relate to me today. But that's a dangerous thing to do, especially from, you know, pulpits across American churches, because I think a lot of what he was trying to say may get lost in us just trying to force it to modern day culture.

And so my point for saying that is when I read this and started looking up some of these original words in the Greek language, I was shocked at where one of these words led me down a rabbit hole. And the reason I told you the story about being in the wall, because he brings up the animals here and compares it to the tongue. So maybe we should read a few of these verses out so we can kind of wrap her head around it. How many do we want to read? I'm just going to read through it one time because we've kind of been hopping around.

Let me just read the three, one. through 13. Yeah, let's read that. So James 3-1, not many of you, and we've talked about this, I think, in the last podcast, not many of you should be, should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, and that's that concept of complete, complete man, able to keep his whole body in check. So as well, saying is if you can't control your tongue, it's hard to control the mind or anything else. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obeys, we can turn the whole animal.

Or take ships, as an example, although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants them to go. Another illustration. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boast. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell, which is strong. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man. but no man can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's lightness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both freshwater and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives or grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh.

water. Okay. Let me give you a couple initial thoughts. I think the key verse is as far as where he was the motive behind James too is, remember, it was all about how you treat people. It's like your actions are not aligning with you living the image of God. Yeah, they weren't keeping the a law. They were showing favoritism to people. They were flattering rich people. All of it was dead faith. And here, same thing.

It's like you're using your tongue to curse and bless. And I love that verse now where it says, with the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father. But with it, we curse men who have been made in God's likeness.

So there's a There's a constant theme about basically Jesus summing up the law, loving God and loving people that is directly attached to your faith. You're surrendering to Jesus and becoming Jesus. And he's just being no nonsense about it. The rabbit hole or the bear cave that got into, this is so obscure. This is, it's fascinating.

Because he brings up these animals. And you're like, what is the connection that? Because it doesn't seem like, you're like, what is this analogy? Why do this analogy? And so I do want to say, when our English word says tame, when you go look that up, it's not what you think. Because we think modern day taming animals, we're like, oh, come here, little buddy, little you know, but you know, we're thinking like that. But that word is also used in military context.

It's like we, yes, we can tame animals as far as domesticate, but this is more subduing, conquering. His basic point when he says all kinds of animals, that word kind is what I'm going to zero in on. Some translations say species, but there's categories. And he got that from Genesis 9. And look, there is a Genesis 9 component to this.

Because Genesis 9 seems to be in contrast to what James says. So I had this three-day bear cave with AI. And the only way I could move forward is to tell AI without theological interpretation. or denominationalism, strictly based on grammar, context, and the entire Bible overview. And I'll ask a question. The reason I'm saying this is because AI has the same problem on where I'm headed, which is survival. I've noticed AI will tell you what you want to hear, because if you don't like you. what it's saying, guess what? You wouldn't use it, and it wouldn't survive. You'd say, well,

so it tries to tell you what you want to hear. So that's why you have to weed out all these things that it's using as its home base. But once you weed that out, it's pretty fascinating the conversation you can have with this. So that's what this was based on. And I want to do this Greek word on all kinds. This is fascinating. So when you see... This is from three verse seven all kinds of animals the kinds okay now look i've done this before i had a previous podcast when we did ephesians and uh and shockingly i'm going to give you this verse but i want to look them all up because you're going to see something so fascinating that i'm glad gordon's here because i want i think we should write a book on this this unlocked so many mysteries of the bible for me

that it was shocking. So let's look at this word. The Greek word, if you look up in a Greek lexicon, it's going to be number 5449, Phusis. Now it means nature or instincts. These are some of the ways that's translated. Natural race, species, or in this case, kinds. So I want to read some of these verses, but what I notice is when you look at all the,

and it's used, let's see how many times it's used? It's used 14 times, only 14. This is one of them. And look, when I did this when we were in Phoeas II, I just skipped over because I thought, well, he's talking about animals. What's the significance of that? Oh, we're going to get to Genesis 9 where you're like, wow. I'm wondering if I should do that first before I look.

at all the words. Let me do that first. So, because you say, well, how does this relate, before we look at everywhere that word is used, Fusus, how does that relate

to how you treat people? Well, something really significant happened in Genesis 9. And you say, well, what had just happened to, because for me, I go to Genesis 9 as the birth, place of hunting. And it is. You say, well, what did just happen? So think back. You had the fall in the

garden. Then you had these spiritual forces of evil that cohabitate with humans. And what was the result of that? The earth became so bad. And remember before the flood, it said violence was in every thought. And God was grieved that he made man. So look, you're going to miss this if you don't realize that that was so bad that we had to have a judgment and a flood to start over. So once that flood happens, and we have a purging and justice was done, and we start over with a family, there's an announcement here about the relationship with animals look and other humans are going to change from this day forward so this is the new beginning i never noticed this but i'm going to read it so genesis nine be fruitful and increase in number uh this is nine one and fill the earth Now here's the new way of

Because up until this time All animals were just happy companions Now I know some of them were being sacrificed And kill like Abel when he gave the sacrifices Remember the Adam and Eve when they sin God made us garments of skin So people say yep see there was sacrificed there And good point

But they were just happy little companions and you could just go kill them, which I believe, based on what I'm fixed to read, that part of this violence that was happening before the flood that got so bad, I think they were just ripping animals to shreds for whatever reason. Because why address this?

They were also killing each other as in humans. Because watch what he says. Now that we have a reset, he makes a reset, and he says, the fear and dread of you will fall upon the beast of the earth and all the birds of the air upon every creature that moves along the ground and upon the fish of the sea they are given it to your hands so so what is this animals are now going to fear humans and you say well why so they can survive I mean, the result of what just happened was everything died.

I had to get a few animals to get on a boat and save them. So you have to assume, okay, they're being slaughtered, and so are humans, and this is what's happening. We're going to have a reset and a justice because of this spiritual forces of evil using the fear of death as this weapon, because death has been introduced to the world. so you all with me at this point yeah so everything that lives and moves will be food for you just as i gave you the green plants i now give you everything so so he says you can hunt them and he lists the four kinds which i think is what james is getting at the nature of animals

are into four categories according to genesis nine so that's why this is not a contradiction when James says we've tamed all the animals because you look around and you say, well, we ain't tamed a great shark. That wasn't his point. We've subdued all the species of animals, which is the beast of the earth,

the crawlers of the ground, the fish in the sea, what's the other one, and the birds of the air. So it's like we've caught shark, we've subdued them. You see what I mean? He's not saying it's a corporate thing.

We haven't tamed or subdued every individual animal. His point was we basically are controlling the animal kinds. And there's four different kinds. A fish, a bird, some kind of beast on the ground, or a little crawler, insect. So then he moves on to this. Now he gets to the humans. Oh, first he gives a food law here. But you must not eat.

meat that has its lifeblood still in it. You're like, well, what's that all about? Well, that's going to set the tone for sacrificing animals, because you're starting to see that somehow God is going to bring life through death. Somehow God is going to bring life in the midst of death. That's what's happening here. and you're at the beginning stages in Genesis 9, he's actually going to allow the animals to be able to live

by giving them that fear and that wildness, even though we tame them and we subdue them. Because if they didn't have that, how many frogs would you have harvested? Well, exactly, at some point. And there's an accountability, too, when he starts talking about the lifeblood, which is the life sort. He's setting some parameters.

on this. I'm going to make them wild so they can survive. That have a survival instinct. And he's going to do the same thing for humans. Watch. But listen to this, verse 5. And for your lifeblood, I will surely demand an accounting. He's going to hold humans and animals accountable. I would demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. So he's putting parameters. on this because of death. And watch what he says. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man, shall his blood be shed.

Here we go. For he is the, for in the image of God has God made man. So you say, what's your point, Jay? So I know this is kind of deep. His point was, I got to hold people accountable because I just had to destroy every living thing. because it became so violent. So he put fear in animals and wild, made them wild.

And he's like, you can hunt them, but there's an accountability. And their blood is something I'm going to hold you accountable for. That's why you should be a responsible hunter. You say you were making a point about being a responsible hunter, and you're exactly right. It's why we take it seriously. You don't just go, they call it wanton waste. when you go out and hunt, you process and you consume those animals that you harvested. And on the humans, he's like, if you take a life, then he was introducing justice, the law that would come.

These are all the foundations for this. Because you're like, the only way we're going to have a functional society based on us just not having a functional society. and I had to destroy it with the flood and start over. There's got to be some accountability here. You take a life, there's going to be justice. So he sets these parameters for this. What I found fascinating is when you look at this on what God eventually is going to do through Jesus' death, bail, and resurrection,

he's going to defeat the powers that contributed to this fear of death because basically what happens is we all have this survival instinct. And I'm going to show you the verses. I'm just giving you the concept. So why do we attack other people? Because it's me against them. It's a survival instinct. So you lie, you cheat, you steal, you kill for you to survive, for you to get the stuff.

Why do you go get all the stuff? other people's stuff. There's tons of story in the Bible about this concept because it's basically you functioning with your survival instinct and the tongue is your main weapon to elevate yourself over others and survive. This is the world that we live in. I think the reason he brought this up in this context and uses that word, Fusis

is when you look at everywhere else it's used, it's always in the different categories and kinds, in this case, animals, of people. But I don't think we're going to have enough time to go through that. So why don't we do this? I'll save that for the next one, because there's 18 times that word is used.

But I'll just give you an overview. you. So in Romans 1, it's used talking about men and women. Now here it's different kinds of animals we had four. In Romans 1, remember when it says women exchange natural relations for unnatural? Same word. That's that nature. Same word. So you say, well, what happened? When people start functioning, in a different way than God made them, all of a sudden, what happens? You're doing something that you were not, your kind was doing something

that you were not made by God to do. You have a man, you have a woman. I mean, just look at this politically in our culture. We had a gender crisis. So that doesn't work. It's called rebellion of God. And he also uses the same way. word for male and female somewhere else in Corinthians. But he also uses this word in Ephesians 2.

Now this is going to be a key one, and I'll just introduce that. Ephesians 2, watch how this works. The whole point of this is him talking about Jews and Gentiles can be saved. He also does this in Romans 2 and 3. He does it in Galatians 3 and 4. But watch what's where it's used. So look at Ephesians chapter 2. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. And look, in Ephesians 1 and in Ephesians 2, he sets up that every time he says you, he's talking about Gentiles, and every time he says, we, he's talking about Jews. Now look, I know that sounds crazy just off the top of your head, but if you search that out,

you'll wind up to two in verse 11 where he says, therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision. So watch how this works. Let's just say I'm right. Just take my word for it for right now. So verse 1 of chapter 2 says, as for you, Gentiles, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world. And look, here he is the ruler of the kingdom of the air. So we got the evil one. What is his primary weapon? Death and the fear of death. Hebrews 2.14 is going to be the answer to this when it says Jesus became a human in the flesh to destroy the work of the devil who had the power over people and free.

those who all their lives were enslaved by their fear of death. That's Hebrews 2.14. But I just want to read this. So here's the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time. So now he's bringing in the Jews, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature. You see the sinful nature, the word for that, this is a terrible translation. I'm reading this in NIV.

It should be flesh right there. They put sinful nature, flesh. Terrible translation. And this is why this is so confusing. Now we have the vehicle, the flesh is the vehicle, but that's used like Jesus became flesh. When he was raised, he said, look at my flesh. Same word.

Romans 9-5 says, you can trace his ancestry. Same word for flesh. who is God overall. So for them to translate that is what caused all this confusion. The word that we're looking for that James used with the kinds of animals is in this next sentence in Ephesians 2, 3. Like the rest, here we go. We were by nature.

That's the same word. By kinds. kinds of people. Now, in this context, the two kinds are Jew and Gentile, which, that that is humans. You see what I mean? But it says, by nature, objects of wrath. And James is going to give you the opposite of that, which is harvesters of righteousness in James 3. Yeah.

So, so you see where I'm going with this? You had, when he used those kinds of animals, he went, Genesis 9, there was the four kinds of animals, and they all were, they experienced a new relationship to humans based on what had just happened as a result of the flood. But also humans were now held accountable by if you take a life, because God's basically just, just, saying, I'm trying to get you to survive. Well, the evil one is using that struggle of survival to just cause mayhem on the earth. Because it's like, forget everybody else. You just need to make it. Whether you have to lie, cheat, still.

And so you're basically forming an alliance with the evil one. Because look, so a lot of people, they'll come to this verse and they're like, see, by nature, your objects of wrath, they make that say that you're, oh, you're born into sin. they use that phrase. And I hate picking on people's certain doctrines, but that is a completely misuse of that word. He's not talking about being born. He's talking about the two kinds of people.

Because look at the, look back at the first three verses. They're trying to say you were born with that nature instead of using it the proper way. Just like the kinds of humans, what do we have that he uses in Romans one? Look, male and female. You have a certain characteristic that he's zeroing in on in the difference under the heading of being a human. So look at what led to this. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

Well, transgressions and sins is something you do, right? Yep. It's like even to translate this to James III about the tongue, is this weapon of poison and all. When a baby's born, it does not have the ability to articulate anything other than that there's no, it starts off good. That's why he said it's a cycle. It's a process where sin comes to the evil, once your evil desires come or just desires,

that kind of coincides with your tongue being able to understand. what your heart is thinking and then you start making words and this is how this process works because watch it starts off with transgression in which you used to live when you followed all these things are actions the ways of the world which is another phrase that's going to come up what is the way of the world survival at the expense of others you just you make it no matter what it takes uh followed the ruler of the kingdom there the spirit who is now work. Look, and those who are disobedient. All these are, this has nothing to do

with something you're born into. This is something that happens once you age and the process worked. But his whole point for using that word was a Jew-Gentile thing. So, and I'll look at all the verses at some point, because we're not going to have time to go through all this. So just, because it's used 18 times, I want to read every one of,

The positive one is used when he gets, when Peter uses it and says in 2nd Peter, is it 1-4, this is the one that's the game changer where it says, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him. He calls us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he's given us his great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine kind, the divine nature. It's the only time it's used in relation to God. But it said he's invited you to participate

and partner with his kind, which is pretty awesome. So everywhere it's used, it's a category thing. The different kinds of animals, the different kinds of humans, as in male or female, He did that or Jew or Gentile. That's the way it's used, 18 times. I don't think I'm leaving any out. Let me just quickly run through this.

Well, I will say this. I like where you're going with the, because my first thought as you were describing it, that idea being made in the image of God, which is going to come up in this text, but also came up back in Genesis 9, and also here in Ephesians. The idea, that's the difference in,

And in the idea of evolution, which is survival of the fittest, that's it. It came out of, we're like the beast. I mean, we come from the beast, therefore we're beast. You know, we're just a higher evolved beast. And the whole concept that he comes in the biblical notion is, no, no, no, you're not beast. You're made in my image. And there's something uniquely special about you. But what's happened is, of course, the evil one has come in and tries to get you to go for,

I guess in where you're headed, the other kind of being that's out there, that's not us, to go away from being made in the image of God. My early, that's where my brain is going as you're kind of introducing this thought. Well, I was just thinking about how you weren't striving to be practical maybe, but you said that we go on the attack. It's a survival skill. And ironically, I've been praying for God to give me a, vision for other people to see them in the way that he sees them. And I've got to be honest,

I've been kind of bragging about it. Like, you know, I just see, I'm just really trying to see people as God sees them. And I thought I've made a lot of progress. But, um, and I'm doing a celebrate recovery group on Monday night with a bunch of guys. And we talk about this kind of thing. But last Monday, I went to get some new glasses. And while I'm talking to Elaine, who's the lady at the eyeglass place, there's this other guy sitting off to the side. And I'm just, the side by himself missing teeth. He's got broken glasses. And he keeps interrupting us.

And he's like, yeah, I had a detached retina. He's like just throwing out this like interrupting this and telling me all about his. And I'm like, under my breath, I said, I don't care. And I mean, I was, I just looked at her and rolled my eyes. And I got back in the car, man. as soon as I did, I thought, you know, it is some kind of weird survival skill that I hate about myself that I want to just, you know, to rip other people to shreds. I don't think I do that a lot, but when I do it, it hits me right between the eyes because

I thought to myself, that guy and that exact thought occurred to me, that man who was so obnoxious and interrupted us was created the image of God, and I treated him like he wasn't. Yeah. And I just think this is so, like I'm dealing with these, you know, issues. I'm doing this step study and you're going back and you're asking, okay, who wounded you? And I've got a list of people that wounded me. The church was one of them. Had other relationships where I was wounded.

And then the question is, after that, who have you hurt by your words? And there was a long list of people that I have wounded by the things that I've said. It's far more insidious than the other things you mentioned about my personality. Like this is something that, it's a, because when you, when I destroy people, when I destroy them verbally, or I talk about them, I gossip about them, it is an act of murder. I've murdered their character. I've murdered their reputation. Oh, that's where we're going with this study.

Yeah. And I have, I have, I have failed to take into account that they bear the image of God in the same way that I do, and that God loves them as much as he loves me, at least as much, and that the blood of Jesus was shed for them as much as it was shed for me. Yeah. So when we ignore this passage, like, it's one of the worst things that I, I think of all the bad things I've ever done, and there's a bunch of them, this is the worst. I hate it.

Yeah. And this is more than praying to be normal. Yeah. I want to be righteous. want to be right on this. Well, this was just the introduction to that because it was three days in a barricade, but you're right. I think we got, we set it, we set the tone.

This is his point. It's about people. Ephesians 2.13, it was talking about us and them. We're all together at the foot of the cross here and the hope of the resurrection. So how dare you treat anybody? That's right. With that kind of survival skill, which, well, All right.

We'll pick it up there next time. We got size going to join us. Gordon's going to stay with us as long as he can. He's got an errand to run, but we'll see it next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.