Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1392 | Jase Accidentally Breaks Up a Couple, Then Doubles Down on His Advice

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Jase learns that his advice may have been the final straw for a young couple, but he stands by his guidance. Zach’s confiscation of a lost and found pair of sunglasses sparks a funny lesson about why parenting doesn’t end when children grow up, move away, or get married. The guys turn to James 3 to examine how selfish ambition, hidden motives, and the need to win can quietly destroy marriages and other relationships. The guys also consider the “irony of Jesus,” a carpenter who showed little interest in buildings because he came to build his church and bring God’s family back together. In this episode: Matthew 8, verses 19–20; Philippians 4, verses 11–13; 1 John 5, verse 19; James 3, verses 16–18; 1 John 3, verses 11–15; Hebrews 12, verses 11–17; Matthew 5, verses 8–9; James 1, verse 19 Want to watch the Lost Episodes of Unashamed, only on EKKL? Get 20% off with code UNASHAMED (all caps), and watch faith- and family-friendly movies, podcasts, and more: https://ekkl.com/ “Unashamed” Episode 1392 is sponsored by: https://preborn.com/unashamed — Visit the PreBorn! website or dial #250 and use keyword BABY to donate today. https://ponchooutdoors.com/unashamed — Get $10 off your first order and free shipping when you enter your email! Get 10% Off your entire order & take advantage of Ridge’s Annual Sweepstakes by going to https://www.Ridge.com/UNASHAMED #Ridgepod NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the promotion territory, who have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence. Void elsewhere & where prohibited by law. Enter by 9:00 a.m. USPT on 8 September 2026. 2 winners, prizes total ARV: up to approx. $539,165 CAD / £284,170. Skill-testing question required in CA. See Official Rules at http://ridge.com/pages/rules for complete eligibility, entry instructions, how to enter without a purchase, entry limits, prize details, odds, and restrictions. Sponsor: The Ridge Wallet LLC. http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College 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://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Jase’s Dating Advice Ends in Disaster 07:01 Jase Writes “The Irony of Jesus” 15:43 Stop Letting “Stuff” Damage Your Relationships 20:39 Gen Alpha Faces Temptation on a Huge Scale 26:00 A Better Way to Read Your Bible 31:31 Selfish Ambition Is Destroying Us 36:00 Jase Puts Artificial Intelligence in a Biblical Box 45:06 The First Requirement for Resolving Conflict 50:41 Winning the Argument Can Still Destroy the Relationship — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to Unashame. We were laughing during our interim period here. We, you know, for those of you who've been with us, you know, we record two podcasts. So we were asking Jase if he could go into any more details about the couple situation that he brought up about the trash from a previous podcast. And Jase, you actually split the couple of. Last I heard, that ended in a disaster, and they told me not to talk about it anymore on the podcast, but look. And here we are. It was my house.

I was trying to, you know, save you some time. I mean, I know dating is difficult, but it's been almost 40 years since I've dated. But all I'm saying, here's my point, because I'm just, I'm drawing a line in the sand here. If your relationship depends on how I respond to you taking out the garbage, that thing wasn't very solid. It's all I'm going to say. It's really not your fault. I agree with that. I've offended more people in the last week than I can recall.

It's just, and I'm, you know, I'm just trying to share Jesus and survive. Who else have you offended? I don't know about a femme, but Jason and I are doing a, we're part of a men's group. It's like a 10-week thing. It's a group of guys. We meet on Zoom, which is kind of interesting because we had our first meeting. And our buddy Trent Langhofer put this whole thing together. And it's kind of private.

I won't share everything, but I did think it was funny. He was set at the end of it, he said, does he make anything you want to pray about? And one of our mutual friends was like, yeah, like I'm trying to, I want to be a good dad. And he has younger kids. he was just talking about like the insecurity that comes with being a dad and really just a moment of vulnerability. And Jace goes, well, I got some news for you, buddy. He said, you never get out of that. Hey, he's like the way you feel right now, hey, it never goes away.

Basically like, I mean, it was like a 10 minute. It was good what you said, Jayce. So now you're saying I offended somebody. I didn't even realize I offended. I don't think he offended anybody. I think he was thinking, I need to get past this, you know, because he had teenage sons. And I was thinking, that's never going away, even when they leave out the house. I think he made a comment like that, you know, I'm getting ready for them to be on their own.

And I thought, no, you're going to be dealing with that the rest of your life. It's just conflict within family and people. That never goes away. Now, how you handle it is kind of what I was zeroing in on. You better figure out how you're going to handle that because that's not going away. They never leave just because they move to another state or whatever. You're going to have, it's just people are messy. Jason's like, he's got to lean into.

Actually, it was good advice because I was taking one of my sons at the airport while we were on the Zoom. And then when I got back to the house, we were checking out of our house, our beach house. And I got my whole family there, all my kids and, you know, Max has grown and married. They've got two married kids, right? Two married kids. Like me. And they're off the payroll.

They're doing their own thing. They're kind of at the early stages of their life. You know, they're trying to build a career. They're doing the music thing. And they're working hard. They're touring with Larry Fleet. They're doing a bunch of shows. They're doing that.

But it is a grind. And I'm trying to speak what I can into them. I do. I worry about them a lot. And I look out there. and I'm loading everything up. And I'm like, I paid for the whole trip. And here I am loading up all the luggage.

I'm doing like, I'm like, so I had a moment where I just like felt like, you know, like I was getting mad with that. I looked on the counter. And they had packed all their stuff up, but they left everything else up there for me today. Me and Jill, I looked on that counter and I saw a pair of Costa Delmar sunglasses that they had left. And they had actually found them.

But they're like $200, $300 pair of sunglasses that. washed up on the beach and one of, I won't say who, but one of my sons or son-in-laws found them and said, well, I found a pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses. I looked at them out of $300 of glasses.

And they're sitting there just right there on the, right there by the sink. I'm like, if I have a $300 pair of sunglasses, let me tell you what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to leave them by the sink. I'm going to put them in there. Well, they left,

they're down there. So I'm cleaning up. So you know what I did with their sunglasses? I put them in my bag. and so we get to the airport we all fly our different ways they go back to Nashville and then the family text thread that did anybody pick up my

Costa Del Marse limousses which now they're mine even though they weren't theirs originally now they're mine right I even told me yeah and so Jill I said did you see that? Did you see them?

I said I looked up my bag on the airplane I said they're right there and she started to detect up Zach Scott and I said no no no no what you tell them is you tell them that you saw them by the sink. That's all you say. I said, did you see them by the sink? She said, I didn't see him. I said, all you say is I saw them by the sink. Somebody left them by the sink. And so she puts

that on the, I haven't responded yet. So they don't know that I have them, but they're actually in my truck right now. And so yeah, I got a pair of coast to Del Marston. But to your point, Jace, you never quit raising them. You just never quit. They're good kids, but like, hey, you never quit raising them. Well, here's my point. I guess I offended so many people. And the corporates, you church setting within the, you know, the home setting. So I kind of had an epiphany. I wasn't going to read this.

This was a personal thing I wrote, but now you forced me to do it. Zach, you forced him to do it. Well, based on James three. You forced him into this rabiddle. Based on James three. Well, I wrote this. I very seldom do I sit down and write something like a journal? Like an artist.

This is like an article. A little better watch out. That's what got Fouchy. It has a. Were you going to share this with anybody? or was this for your own education? I shared it with my wife and her friend just because they brought up, her friend was talking about problems that was going on with, you know,

getting buildings, you know, they were buying pieces of property to do something very worthwhile venture that I support. But all the arguments were happening over stuff. And it's just like what you said. You're talking about sunglasses. What are we talking about sunglasses? Or we're talking about what happens at our house. Yeah, I mean, to go back to my garbage store,

what are we talking about, garbage cans and stuff? Just think if we never argued with our wife, our kids, or any other person, for that matter, over stuff, over what happens at a building or any stuff. If we just weed it out all that, what the whole world would just turn into a symphony of joy. It'd be like a Coca-Cola commercial, Jay's. We'd be holding hands and singing.

So based on that thought, I wrote this little article, and I titled it, The Irony of Jesus. He never said anything, because I looked it up, positive about a building or a structure. It's my first sentence. Jesus never said anything positive about a building or a structure, even though, number one, he had the opportunity to do so. I have two verses here, Matthew 24, 1, and 2 and Mark 13.

Remember when the disciples were, they were looking at the buildings, and they were like, look, look at all these wonderful, build. Wow. And remember what Jesus said? He didn't say, oh, yeah, the architecture, unbelievable. He said, not one stone will be left on another. I wouldn't consider that a positive thing about a building. It's going to be destroyed.

Can I add one caveat to that? When I was at the Museum of the Bible a few weeks ago, they have a, on display there, they have one area where they have about, I'll try to send you a picture of it. I take a picture of it. It's a pile of stones, like rubble. And it was from that exact temple. and they think it was the archway at the temple.

So when I saw that, I thought about what you just read. And I said, it's almost as if Jesus was saying, yeah, about these stones, well, they're going to be a pile of rubble. And a few of those are going to be in a place called Washington, D.C. that doesn't exist yet. It'll be an museum one day in a last casing for people to look at what used to be. So, J.S., there's a lot of things that we're passionate about. in terms of presenting the gospel, sharing Jesus with people.

But we're also very passionate about pro-life movement. It's really up to us to fight for someone that can't fight for themselves. Well, exactly. And I think when you hear pre-born, you think pre-life, but no, this is life. Yeah, that's good. Before they come out into the world and dream dreams and do things and contribute to society and be leaders. So today, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can order the abortion pill online, unfortunately, often before anyone has a chance to tell her that she's love, she's not alone, and that there's hope. At pre-born network clinics, mothers are welcome with compassion, practical support, and a free ultrasound.

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That's preborn.com slash unashamed. Look, we've been in the content business for a long time. My partner's Willie and Corey Robertson. And one of the things that we've noticed about the content space, the media space is there is a lot of filth out there. And so we really felt burden. We felt burdened to build a new platform for families to be able to come and watch movies and series and animation projects and listen to the podcast without having to worry about the filth entering under their home. And that's why we've partnered with one of the former founders of PureFlex to start a company called ECHL, EKK. ECHO is more than just a streaming service.

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All you got to do is go to echo.com. That's EKK.com to check it out. And you guys are going to get 20% off a one-year subscription with our code Unashamed. That's EKK.com code Unashamed. So irony of Jesus, you find the irony here. He never said anything positive about a building structure, even though he had the opportunity right there.

Number two, even though he had the skill set, he was a carpenter. Just think about that. He never discussed anything he built with the skills of a carpenter. And that verse is Matthew 18, I mean, Matthew 8, 19, and 20. And remember the conversation that he had with a scribe who was, you know, one of the more educational,

Educated scholars of the day when he said, I'll follow you wherever you go. Jesus said, even though being a carpenter said these words, the son of man has no place to lay his head. Do you know what the, I never really thought about this until I put this down as the irony of Jesus. Don't you know that this educated guy, scholar, I can almost read his mind. Don't you know he's probably thinking, well, aren't you a carpenter? Why don't you build you a house? Which would be a skeptic's view of that. So number three, even though he was very familiar with potential places to build.

Remember the conversation he had with a Samaritan woman about where you worship? He's like some people worship here. He was picking out spots. You know, you worship over there. So it wasn't like he was unaware that people. people build buildings. But remember what he said in response to her, the true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth.

It won't be on either mountain. It's not going to be in a building. Yeah. I mean, I think this is some real irony. Here's a carpenter. And he's like, he wasn't talking about what he does. That's why when we asked the question, and I'm kind of paraphrasing what I wrote here, when we asked the question, what do you do or what do you do for a living? What do we say? We talk about what we do

to make money. And Jesus never brought that his carpenter skills up in any context whatsoever. So he never acknowledged his carpenter skills or did he? What did Jesus actually build? And the verse should pop in your head on what he was going to build. Remember when he asked Peter, who do you say I am? He said, you're on this rock. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to build my church. And so the irony of Jesus is that's what he, that was the power and what he built. And so my practical application is he wasn't concerned about buildings or stuff.

He was about building people, building them up, building them together. And so I just had this one practical point. If you can't worship God in your yard, in the streets, in your car, or in the woods, fill in the blank, any other place on the planet, don't go to a building to worship. You go to a person, is my point. So that was my little article. The irony of Jesus by Jace. We could, this could be, I don't know if you're old enough to remember, there used to be a funny segment back when Saturday Night Live was funny,

and it was called Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. Yep, I remember that. Yeah, that's what I think, that's what I think about Jay's now. Well, this is all coming from the book of James, because, boy, it has wrecked me to realize that this is all about how you treat people in your relationship with God. And so now I told you about on the last podcast, my three discussions with people who were struggling with their wife, and it was at big things.

It was nothing that I hadn't experienced in the last week or two. I mean, this is part of being married to a person that, you know, we view as coming from another planet as far as communication and what they think. And I'm just, I just own it. I'm like, I have no idea what she's thinking at any time. But she loves Jesus and she loves her kids and she loves me. And so you have to put that in perspective. And one thing that I'm committed to is I'm not going to have an argument or be upset over anything that's a material thing.

Houses, cars, stuff. Let's just weed that. I'm trying to weed that out of the arguments. And you'd be surprised you don't really have anything to get upset about if you weed all those things out. It is kind of ironic. Jace, you were having those same conversations, and I had a very similar one here with some friends of mine, Lisa. They were having the same thing. It was just, it was a clash of, I call it the clash of contentment.

And it's so interesting when you see the Bible speak so clearly. And I thought about Philippians 4, you know, where Paul said, I've learned how to be content, whether I have a little or have a lot. It all comes from my relationship with Christ. And it doesn't matter about the stuff. Sometimes you've got stuff, sometimes you don't. I love the picture you painted a Jesus. And part of the reason why I hadn't thought about this to you brought that up in your deep thoughts irony deal, that he didn't build a house because he wasn't going to be here long.

He came here for a mission. He grew up as a human being. But when it came time for him to complete the mission, his building was going to happen for when he left. Well, exactly. But you think out, why do we build houses? You know what? the number one reason? I mean, what would you say?

Why do we build houses? To live in? Well, yeah, live in. They're comfortable. Yeah. I mean, you want to be comfortable. Jesus didn't come here to be comfortable, obviously. He's like, that's a waste of time.

I'll figure it out. And that's why we do it. And so, I mean, look, when the air goes out, what do you do? I mean. Got to get a guy. Look, I'll bring this up, because this buddy that listens through the podcast and I'm sorry I've offended everyone else so I'm going to go ahead and offend you. Look, we have a tea time and an hour before the tea time. The tea time was like 8 o'clock in

the morning. He sent me a text saying I'm not going to be able to make it today. And I thought, well, it's not because you overslept because you're sending me a text. And I said, it's got to be something major. So I was like, is there anything I can help with? Because I thought at the end of the day, this is my buddy. He loves to play golf. He's planned this. You know, maybe he doesn't want to talk about it. Well, I then realized when he responded on why he wasn't coming, why he was a little bit

keeping that a secret, because he said, well, my air went out. And I thought, your air went out. This has got to be the worst excuse I have ever heard. Because you're coming here. You're coming where it's 95 degrees. There's no air where you're going. Your wife's at work. You're not going to play golf because your air went out.

And I thought we're way too comfortable, I know. Sorry, bud. That's weak. That is a week. And so I started typing and then I started deleting and I didn't send because I thought that is the worst excuse I have ever heard. Turn in your man card. What you were thinking was four hours later that's still there and you could deal with it then. That's what you were thinking.

Yeah, well, I think he wanted to come home to an air conditioned house or he just, it's not worth him going and playing golf. And I was thinking you need to move, sell the house and move to another state where if that's, if that's, if that's, is going to get in the way. Oh, man. Come on. What are we doing here? That's so funny. I do want to mention one thing as we're transitioned back to James. Zach, you had, you were talking about parenting and your kids, and this time you were talking about your adult or married kids. But, you know, we had Bear on the podcast recently, and he and I were texting each other back and forth afterwards. You know, I was just telling him how good he did and how proud I was of him just, you know, all the stuff we talked about.

And I told him that from time to time now, I've got this idea. We'll see how it goes with what people think of his episode. But we need to have the, since we introduced the bear cave on that episode or the one right before Jays, which was a deeper rabbit hole, which is what you called it, I think we should have, from time to time, we should have bear on, and it should be reports from the bear cave. And what's gen alpha up to? and then respond to a biblica. Because what I loved about having a 18-year-old guy on our podcast is so many people,

they're facing and dealing things in their generation that, you know, let's face it, the three of us are really not facing on a daily basis. And yet we understand the biblical contest, kind of what Jason is talking about with marriage today. It's not like we got it all figured out, but we've lived enough life now. We've studied enough of the Word and have the Holy Spirit living in us. We can see the problems and how God deals with them.

But that doesn't mean the problem. don't continue to rise, because the idea is to link back to what we're talking about in James is that worldly wisdom, that world is still here. And, and, Jase, you brought this up from our study in First John, because it's all over the place there. In fact, it was amazing to me how often, you know, the idea, the concept of the world, how much John uses that in all of his writings. But this idea that this, the corrupted world is there. And the wisdom that flows out of that is a consistent force by which we face daily basis, whether it's in our marriage, whether it's with our kids, whether it's with our own daily walk. So it's there. And even though we're now a world

within a world, we still have to face that on a consistent basis and a recognition of it. Well, you know, you've got those certain shirts that you keep reaching for, whether you're going out fishing, working in the yard, maybe you're heading out to dinner. I just got back from the beach. And so I'm telling you, this is real. I know exactly what shirt I'm going to reach. for us, which is my poncho shirt because it's a shirt that you can wear out when you're doing stuff. It actually looks nice. Jace, you got one on right now. Having a quality shirt is essential. And Poncho hit it out of the part with this. Oh, yeah. So here's the deal with Poncho. It's a men's outdoor performance shirt that doesn't look like one. So you can wear whether you're fishing,

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Head there, drop in your email, get $10 off and free shipping. And once you try one, you'll get why they, you'll get, and once you try one, trust me, you're going to get why I've got an entire closet full. What we're trying to get to, and I think this generation, obviously the same issues, we had just manifested in maybe a more pronounced way, particularly with like pornography. I think that's a big, big difference. We had access to porn, but, you know, you found, you found a magazine in the woods. They have access to porn in a way that we can, I mean, it's just right on that every tablet,

every, it's every device, every TV, every computer at school, it's everywhere. And so it's just, it's a different thing they're dealing with, but it's the same like sin was before. And I think the temptation is it's like to draw, draw us out of reality into an unreasonable. reality. And I've been thinking about a lot, like how we have gone through the Bible on this podcast. And James is such a key book for this because James is, as we've mentioned before, it is bringing that concept of faith and work together into, in a cohesive kind of how this manifests itself in reality. And I think one of the biggest issues that we have when reading the scriptures is we typically either view it through the lens of,

of, well, I'm reading a book right now on dispensationalism. And the author, it's for dispensationalism, which I don't hold to that eschatology. But he's making the point that the covenant theology guys, they only read the Bible through the lens of what's called salvation or satirology. God's saving us. And he's making the point, no, you've got to read the Bible through the lens of God gets the glory in the end. And I'm like, well, the truth is, like, what do you mean by that? Like, what does it mean God gets the glory? We use this language, but what does it really mean?

And I think a better way to read your scripture and interpret the Bible is you read it through the, like, what is God ultimately trying to accomplish here? What is he not trying? What is he accomplishing? And what he is accomplishing, Jason says it all the time. The Bible is a book about how God gets his family back. I mean, that is what the book is. What is God's glory? It's his inner life.

It's who he is. It's 1st John 4-8, 1st John 4-10. God is love. So as we read the scripture, what we're actually, what I'm looking for is, is what is the cohesive thing that holds the whole thing together? And it's got to be that God makes his home with people. Going back to the whole thing you wrote, Jace. The reason why Jesus wasn't worried about building a house here,

because God did build a house here, it was called the tabernacle, and he tells us why he built it, Exodus 25, hey, why did he build it? So that I may live with my people, so that I may dwell with my people. And then he built the permanent structure in First King 6 so that he could dwell with his people. And so the reason why Jesus wasn't concerned

about building an earthly place was because he said his body would be the temple, John 2. Why give his life, why give his body as the cornerstone of the new temple? because God wants to live with his people. Well, how is he going to do that? Through the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit would now live in the bodies of the living stones built upon the cornerstone. That's the lens through which we honestly should read the scriptures is through the lens of how God makes his presence known to the creation that he has made, to the creatures that he's made to us. That to me is the primary lens. I think it's why we get off on a lot of this stuff when we divert outside of that framework. as our primary emphasis. I wanted to zero in on these eight qualities based on all these conversations, which this is really difficult when you look at these things

in verse 17 and 18. So he has the one world, Al, which you made a good point. And world is confusing in the Bible because it's used in various ways. There's three or four different words for world, and you can kind of look up the Greek lexicon and see those. But the one that's mainly used is the Greek word cosmos,

which makes sense on where that word came from. But it's used in different contexts. You know, sometimes it's talking about the planet. Sometimes it's talking about people on the planet, you know, for God's to love the world. But sometimes it's talking about the evil world. Like when we get to James 4, when it's talking about friendship with the world.

Yeah, and when I was looking ahead for that, Jay's John uses that the word, Cosmos. You're talking about 103 times between John, first, second John, and Revelation. So obviously is a big thing, yeah. So it's kind of hard to wrap your head. You have to look at the context. I mean, you know, remember when Jesus said go into all the world and preach the good news. I mean, so it's based on context, but, you know, based on, you know, based on what we read on last podcast, 2 Corinthians 5, this is a new world that he created,

a new atmosphere of new creations and new perspectives. And in contrast to the world of control by the evil one, which is another world, remember 1st John 5, the whole world is under the control of the evil one. Well, we know what drives that camp, bitter envy. I mean, just think about that statement again from, from 316. It's such a profound statement. It should give you confidence

when you're talking to people. Because most of the time, we're talking about relationships here. When they sit down on your couch, I'm thinking about whether I want to say this as a blanket statement, but almost every time both parties are completely innocent

and blaming the other person. And you have to somehow, get off that narrative because that's the problem. They both have selfish ambition. Because when you read 316, it says, for where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. So it's like you don't have to have a degree in counseling.

All you needs is the Holy Spirit. When somebody comes to you and says, I got all these problems and I don't know what the problem is. I'm like, well, I know. one problem. They're like, what? You. It's hard to say, but you say, well, why would you say that? Because I just read, where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. So it's a good question. Whose ambition are you looking at in this situation? And is there something that you don't have that you really want? Because that's,

envy and that's selfish ambition. So Jay's, before you move on, can I read two passages that totally buttress what you just said? Sure. The first one is from 1, 1 John 3, 11. This is the message you heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Do not be like Kane who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother, this idea about bitter envy. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous. do not be surprised my brother if the world hate you and so this concept of the differing and where it can lead you is he brings up the concept of canaan abe which is ancient from genesis four because this where i looked up this word for bitter envy there's a zealousness that's added to it this different than just envy i mean that's where

they combine the words together bitter envy in other words it's so bad and it's so strong that you can't live with it and so something else has to die in their case it was an actual person, but it could be the death of a relationship, a marriage, all the things you described. And then I want to read one more, Hebrews 12, because here's the selfish ambition part of it. Make every effort, verse 14, to live in peace with all men and to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral or is godless like Esau. So now he brings up another Old Testament reference, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

This idea that, again, out of selfish ambition in a moment, you would do something that would destroy the rest of your life, which is exactly what he did, which is why he brought him up. And you look at both of those cases, the implications of that are so powerful, when these two things are your motivating force, you can see why it's earthly because it only has to destructive behavior. It will kill you. It will kill relationships. It will kill everything that matters in your life. So I've had a Ridge wallet. Here's my new one I got, but I've had this. I've had a version of this, probably since they came out. Now I've got this little puppy called the Power Bank. Did you guys get one of these? I sent them to you. Yeah, we got it right here. This thing right here goes with me everywhere I go. So if my phone ever loses charge, I've got this and it has multiple chargers on it. So no matter what kind of phone you got, you can charge your phone. Ridge is bringing back its legendary sweepstakes from July 24th through September 8th. Two lucky winners will get their pick of a Lamborghini, who are Constarato, a Hennessy Velociraptor, a fully customized Ford Bronco or $100,000 cash.

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A Lamborghini Huercon, Starado, or a Hennessy Velociraptor or a Ford Bronco or $100,000 in cash. No purchase is necessary to enter, but every dollar you spend get you more entries. That's ridge.com. Use code unashamed. After you purchased, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you over. Yeah. So I've tested out what I'm fixing to read to you with one of my buddies who, you know, had a little bit of a till with his wife. And I went through the book of James and things that were sad. And I concluded with what I'm going to share with you because this is the first book that we've studied. I don't know how many books we've studied over the last five or six years. Many.

This is the first one that has been, I've got an assist from AI. And before that scares you, I've learned something about AI, and I wanted to share this. If you will put AI in a box, it can be helpful. And you say, well, how do you put it in a box? And so I told my buddy to do this, and I'm going to read to you the results. but I start off everything I look up when I've studied this book, which, by the way, is why I've come up with a lot of things that I've never believed, thought, or even entertained before

about the book of James. It's been really invigorating. But in my study, here's the box that I put AI in. And so for these eight words, here's what I put. without theological denomination dogma, only using context, comma, grammar, comma, and a biblical, holistic theme, can you define the eight different Greek words used in relationships by James, under the heading of heavenly wisdom in James 317. But my point for reading this in detail is everything that you put in that is a question about

scripture, you must put without denominational, because all they're going to do is go look up on the internet, all these sermons or, you know, these standard religious beliefs based on the group. well you'll never you know they'll send you pages of you're more confused at the end than you were but when you eat all that out grammar context and the holistic biblical view that's all i want i don't want any denominational creed so i thought i found it fascinating the definitions of these Greek words. And I never noticed before, you can't do any of these words without another person. It's kind of like 1st Corinthians 13.

You know, we talk about love. Love is action. So he lists the words. And so I'll give you what it came up with based on grammar, context, and holistic biblical view. The first one is pure. So this is what it says. James uses the adverbial construction and it has the word there in Greek. Before this word, before this word, let's see, what does it say?

Oh, first of all, pure. It's kind of talking about the first of all. But anyway, this grammatical weight establishes, let's see, oh, the prerequisite foundation, which I think it's a good point. First of all, pure. Whatever these other qualities that's saying, you've got to come with a pure heart. Now, what does that word mean in Greek? Free from mixed or hidden motives.

In relationships, it represents complete transparency and integrity, an approach completely devoid of hidden agendas, manipulation, and selfish ambition, which it goes back, I didn't tell it to do that. It went back to that word because of context and said, it's got to be the opposite of bitter envy and selfish ambition

that James condemned in the immediate context of the verse. So that was the definition it came up with. And you know what? I think it's spectacular. So just think about going to your wife and being free from a hidden motive, being completely,

completely transparent, having integrity, and devoid of hidden agenda, manipulation, and selfish ambition. This is just the start of the conversation. James, I wrote down the word next to mine doing the study of the same thing. One is it relates back to Matthew 5-8. We talk about the sermon on the mouth. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Jesus brought it up himself.

But I wrote down the word innocent, which that would. word didn't come up in your AI search, but all the descriptions that you described, that's what it is. If you come into any setting with purity, with innocence, the idea that you're not, you're not, you don't have a motive, you're not trying to trick somebody, you're not trying to get to your own agenda, you're not trying to work this thing around to your favor, but you're coming at it from the idea of innocence. Like, if we got a conflict, let's figure out what's going on here. It's a completely different stance to begin anything, which is exactly how Jesus, approached everything because that's what he was.

Actually, yeah, that's very Trinitarian. I think that's the key. I said earlier that the presence of God, how he makes his presence known among his people, as like a primary lens through which we read the scripture. Another probably even more primary lens would be God's inner life, his trinitarian nature, which is innocence in this way. it's it's there is no they they don't have in their in the DNA of of who God is there's no like

there is no abuse or potential for any of that and so you think what what all of our anxiety and fear and insecurities like everything we deal with as humans that is painful you realize it comes from when we're acting outside of the nature of God all of it is all every if you look at any problem that you have in life, it is a direct result of somebody who is acting outside of reality.

They're not acting in line with the truth of who God is in his inner life. Abuse, pain, and turmoil enter into the world that way. Zad, do you remember that when you study on our Hillstale study when we were talking at Jesus being the exact substance of God? That's exactly what you're describing right there. In flesh, that's why he said, you look at me, you see the Father, because he is the substance of God. In innocence, nothing but pure love.

And it's so foreign to us because of what sin has done and because of what he, you know, this other world, this world within a world, because almost everything there is some motive, is something beyond innocence and to get over something on somebody. And when you see that in your own personal relationships and your family, that's why you see such destruction or in a culture or in a country. Well, it's one of the things we talked about when we did the movie The Blind. It was so funny. Like interview and Phil,

wasn't funny. It was just telling. There was a lot of moments where he talked about his, like privately in our conversations, he would talk about his own struggle with jealousy. And one of the things he's told me several times, he said that he said, I was judging Kay's motives based on what I was in my heart.

He said, I didn't trust me. So I certainly didn't trust her. So I was the standard of my own bearer of righteousness. And so he's looking at Kay. And there's that scene in the movie where he accuses her of infidelity, which was a real part of their story. When he was the one that was out there doing it.

And so this is what sin does. Like when you're doing that stuff, you do. You start looking at everybody with a more cynical view. And then with that cynical view comes barrier to intimacy and blocking of communion, pushing away, boundaries, walls, figlies, the whole thing. And then now all of a sudden, we're not living in communion. We're living in division, and we're in opposition to one another. And now we're at war with one another.

This is why countries war because of this very thing. You can't trust the other person because somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose. That is not of God. It's not Trinitarian. The Trinity is about communion. Who God is, is an inner life of him is what love. He is the actual embodiment of love itself. Which is why purity is so important.

Well, I think in practical terms, purity here, which is the foundation for this, I mean, Zach, I can speak for you. Me and you have a problem that what's not pure in a conversation is when somebody's talking, especially our wife. And the reason we're picking out our wives is because James' whole point is you've got to treat everybody like they're made in God's likeness. But we definitely should start with our wife. I mean, she's the person we're around the most.

But I'm confessing mine and Zach Sands together. When the other person is talking and we're thinking about what we're going to say, there's nothing pure about that. Because that's what I'm most guilty of because we already have had so many conversations and so much study, we're not going to upset our apple cart of what we have to say. on this issue. But that's not coming with a pure heart. You're not listening, is the whole point.

Which, by the way, takes you back to the James principle. Remember, Jay's quick to listen, slow to speak. That's where I was going with that. So I'm sorry, Zach, but it's just true. We have that tendency. No question. And I get convicted about sometimes. I was thinking, you ever get around these people,

and all they do is they ask you questions? you're like, man, I love this guy. But yeah, because he's always asking you, like, he's always asking questions. And I love people like that. I don't, when I get around people and I never get to say anything, and I'm like, but it is interesting when people take real genuine interest in you. And there's one particular guy I'm thinking of our church.

He's so good at like, like, we've been in like some kind of heated conversations with other people. And I've watched how this guy, and he's a newer Christian. So on paper, I've got better credentials than he does. On paper, I know the Bible better than he does, but when I watch him interact with people and they'll say something, and I've already got eight layers of answers, he goes, oh, interesting. Tell me why you think that.

He'll just start working these questions in and the rapport that he develops. And I think it really comes from a pure heart. I don't think he's been manipulative or any. I think he is genuine. he's genuinely interested in people and what they had to say. And I'm like, man, I wish, I do want more of that in my life. Jay's you said this before.

That's why Jesus asked the 300 questions. I mean, it's very pastoral. It's very shepherd by nature to want to go to the next level of people's lives as opposed to just giving them the four points to fix what your problem is. And my whole point of this is most people when they have problems or fights and relationships, they go pay a counselor a thousand dollars. And I'm telling you, if you understand what these eight things

are really saying, and you start, this is free. It's in the Bible. And this is true, and I'll just prove, I'll give you illustration that proves what I'm saying. This is embarrassing, but this is true. I meet people every day, and they'll introduce themselves.

Do you know how many people's names that I remember right after they introduced themselves. You know how many of those names? About 5%. No, I don't. Maybe. Zero.

So, fortunately, I have an assistant. Well, you're, you're, you're, that's why I didn't say me, you, and Zach, because you're pretty good at this. But so if my assistance with me, after I just met the guy, I then sit down and realize I've done this again for the 100,000th time, I lean over and whispered. I say, what did he say his name was? And she always knows. But it made me think that if Zach was with me, we'll never know.

We will never know what that guy's, there's no one to ask. Well, I blame mine on early onset dementia. I think I got something. No, it's not that. Where we have a problem, we don't understand what this word, pure mean. People usually think, oh, I've never seen. No, you don't have any hidden.

You're genuinely. interested in listening to what this God-given name that his parents gave him on who this is. And so listen to this, the guy 30 years ago, you know what helped me to be this way, is 30 years ago, a guy came to our church, I met him, and he and his family, and then the next week he came back, and I was back in the back after I preached, and I called him by his name. and he told me many months after that. He said, you know what?

I wanted to come here and I wanted to be a part of this church family. I said, why is that? He said, because you remembered my name. Oh, how, it's powerful. I mean, it made such a difference, you know. But in light, I think in light of the weight of what James is after, this is so small of a thing. This is just a symptom of a greater problem.

And so you're not like me every time I have a disagreement with my wife. I have no idea what her perspective is. But by reading this and without any kind of filters or denominational world, I realize I see the problem is I'm really not coming to the discussion in this posture. And I need to work on that. So I will. So there's a bunch of them here. And we're running out of time.

Well, don't try to rush them because we'll take it into the next pocket because you're tapping into such good stuff here. They're so powerful when you just kind of read what the practical Greek thought was about this word in relationships. I agree. I mean, the first one I think is the most important because, like you said, the sermon on the Mount reference, which is you've got to have a pure heart even coming to Christ. What are you going to have some hidden agenda when you come to Christ? This is all a reflection of your heart in coming to Christ. Now we'll do that because we get something out of it.

We still have that selfish ambition. And I think that's what's wrong with our interpretation of James. If you're reading the book of James, seeing what you're going to get at it at the end of the day, you're kind of coming to it with a wrong motive here. And that's why it's hard to put what he's saying practically in your life. Which, by the way, Jay's, as we're going through these, the rest of this podcast, the next one, five out of the eight, Jesus brings up in the sermon on the mountain. And probably if I look deeper, I could probably find the other three.

But for sure, I reference five. Go ahead. Yeah. And the next one now, I'm reading out of the NIV. Mine says peace-loving. So it started with pure. Most of them say pure. Then peace-loving, but there are other.

Is that what else is? And I got the NIV. Do you have the RSV? What verse? What the ESP says. This is James 4. I mean, James 317. Yeah.

After purity. After the way of peace. Yeah, after the way of peace. It's a little phrase. Yeah, and the way of peace. So I'll read without the, you know, after I put the constrictions on the A. Once pure motives have been established, a peaceable posture follows. Actively pursuing relational wholeness and dismantling hostility.

Just think about it. If you're pursuing a way of peace, the byproduct of that is we're going to, whatever is hostile, that is the enemy, the conflict and the hostility. And we're coming to this conversation in this posture. It does not mean passive avoidance of conflict. That's right. But the active cultivation of right harmonious relationships. You know, that is the goal here. Having a piece about when you, and you look at that practically,

you can have a discussion with somebody or an argument, however you want to depict it. And then immediately walk away and think, well, I think I won that argument. Well, you still have the conflict and the hostility. If that's your take on that, you weren't actively walking away just with a, you know, peace is hard to wrap your head around. Well, and it's so many different levels of it. So you, Jay, as you mentioned in the taming of the animal, in the taming of the tongue in the last section we were in,

Jesus has always been about bringing that peace in anything that's divided, whether it was Jewish Gentile, male and female, all the different kinds of ways he did. describe that, which is why, again, back to the sermon on the mouth, blessed, verse 9, chapter 5, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. And you talked about the idea of peace versus hostility. It's a direct going against what he had said earlier in verse 16, when you have envy and selfish ambition. He says there, instead of peace, what do you find? Disorder. Chaos. Just, I mean, overall, nothing is good. And that, and with, without peace, that's what you find. And every evil practice, then you're on a sled that takes you into worse situation. When you take peace out of the equation and you bring chaos into a relationship,

the only way it ends is worse and is with, and usually with division. And the worst iteration of that, Al, is war. And between nations. And so when you think about that, what Paul's point, he's making, which you kind of just referenced it in Ephesians, he erases the dividing wall of hostility between Greek and Jew. And so eschatology plays into this thing in a very profound way. I mean, well, where did the nations even come from? The divvying up of the nations. That came from hostility.

That came from pride. That came from selfish ambition. That came from a refusal to spread across the earth. Genesis chapter 11 Tower of Babel. That's when the nations were created. And so in God's economy and in God's prerogative and in God's scheme of redemption, the peace is bringing all of the nations back. And so when you see at Pentecost, you see them speaking in their own native tongue. But now they aren't confused in their language.

They can actually understand each other. And again, it's communion. It's back to the table again. We're coming back to the table, which is why I don't think it's lost on. it should be lost on us that Jesus, you know, before his crucifixion, he actually institutes the Lord's table, right? He institutes communion right before his crucifixion, because that's what we're invited back to. And we partake at that table every Sunday morning at our church. No, it's so good. And we're out of time. But the idea that you're so, such a good analogy with

war, what do you have at the end of the day? You have death and you have rubble. And that's not what we want in our relationships. Like, Dad used to say the most coveted thing, is peace of mind. And that only happens with the peace that comes from Christ. So let me say this because, you know, we can get through the second one. That exact phrase, which, you know, the NIV translated, peace loving, but Zach's is more close way of peace. It's only used one other time in the New Testament, that exact phrase. And of all places, it's in Hebrews 12, 11, in the context of God disciplining those he loves because God's discipline so that we may share in His holiness.

And verse 11 says, no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. But later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. I mean, yeah, there's a lot there. And I wanted to at least get that in so we can discuss it when we get back. Let's pick this up next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast.

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